This handbook is a timely academic adaptation of information contained in the Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media, a study commissioned by the International Women's Media Foundation and published in 2011. The study was conducted by the book's editor, international feminist media scholar, Carolyn M. Byerly. The text draws together the most robust data from that study, presenting it in 29 chapters on individual nations and three additional chapters with historical background on women in journalism and a theoretical framework grounded in feminist political economy. The book is the most expansive effort to date to consider women's standing in the journalism profession across the world. The contributing authors, in most cases the original researchers for their respective nations in the Global Report study, seek to question the status of women in newsrooms, asking how far women have come and what their progress (or lack of progress) tells us about women's right to communicate.

For decades, scholars have repeatedly found the inequity of gender representations in informational and entertainment media. Beginning with the seminal work by Gaye Tuchman and colleagues, we have repeatedly seen a systemic underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in media. Examining the latest research in discourse and content analyses trending in both domestic and international circles, Media Disparity: A Gender Battleground highlights the progress-or lack thereof-in media regarding portrayals of women, across genres and cultures within the twenty-first century. Blending both original studies and descriptive overviews of current media platforms, top scholars evaluate the portrayals of women in contemporary venues, including advertisements, videogames, political stories, health communication, and reality television.

For decades, scholars have repeatedly found the inequity of gender representations in informational and entertainment media. Beginning with the seminal work by Gaye Tuchman and colleagues, we have repeatedly seen a systemic underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in media. Examining the latest research in discourse and content analyses trending in both domestic and international circles, Media Disparity: A Gender Battleground highlights the progress or lack thereof in media regarding portrayals of women, across genres and cultures within the twenty-first-century. Blending both original studies and descriptive overviews of current media platforms, top scholars evaluate the portrayals of women in contemporary venues, including advertisements, videogames, political stories, health communication, and reality television."