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On the other hand, the only man interviewed was described as a high-ranking police officerwho did not approve of what his son was accused of having done. Herein lie the stereotypes ofthe strong resilient man and the weak emotional woman. The women might also have giventheir opinion on the crime if it had been put to them, but they were written off as ‘emotional’.It is common for women to appear in the news in stereotypical situations that differ from thoseof male newsmakers. Women are least likely to be found in stories about politics, government,economics and business. The survey found that only 14 per cent of news subjects in politicalstories and 20 per cent in economic stories were women.Gender of News Subjects in Local,National & International Stories 1995 - 20051995 2000 2005% of % of % of % of % of % ofwomen men women men women men22 78 23 77 27 73 Local14 86 17 83 19 81 National17 83 15 85 18 82 International17 83 14 86 20 80 Foreign17 83 18 82 21 79 TotalThe invisible sexGlobal Media Monitoring Project, 2005In the world reflected by news stories around the globe, women remain largely invisible. On aglobal scale, the GMMP 2005 survey found that women make the news, not as figures ofauthority, but as celebrities (42 per cent), royalty (33 per cent) or as ordinary people. Femalenewsmakers outnumber males only as homemakers and students.As authorities and experts, women barely feature. They are depicted as eyewitnesses (30 percent), giving personal views (31 per cent) or as representatives of popular opinion (34 percent). In contrast, men comprise 83 per cent of experts and 86 per cent of spokespersons. Thefact that there were some percentages of gender views expressed in a balanced manner provesthat it is not impossible to produce news stories that are gender sensitive.The analysis report recommended that concerted action is needed in the following areas overthe next five years to increase gender awareness in the media: advocacy and lobbying; mediapolicies and accountability; organisational targets and in-house monitoring; sensitisation andtraining of journalists; media analysis skills; and development of monitoring mechanisms.“Without strategies for change in these areas, most news will continue to be at best genderblind, at worst gender biased,” notes Margaret Gallagher, author of the GMMP report, WhoMakes the News?So This Is Democracy? 2005-22-Media Institute of Southern Africa