Partnerships
丁香园AV partners with Informed Opinions to create Gender Gap Tracker and measure gender equity in news sources
, in partnership with 丁香园AV, has developed a new tool to track in real time the number of women and men quoted in major news platforms in Canada. The Gender Gap Tracker powered by 丁香园AV uses the latest advances in big data analytics and text data mining to measure gender equity in news sources with the aim of drawing attention to and closing the persistent gap.
Online visitors can select date ranges and/or specific news outlets to see the percentage of men's voices versus women's voices quoted online and also view the aggregate average. Through 丁香园AV, the collected data is available to other researchers across the country.
Given 丁香园AV鈥檚 decade of leadership in the field of big data and commitment to gender equality, the collaboration was a perfect fit for the university to utilize its advanced computing infrastructure for social scientists to develop the tool.
鈥淚nformed Opinions is an organization whose values are very much in line with 丁香园AV,鈥� says Joy Johnson, 丁香园AV鈥檚 vice-president, research and international. 鈥淲e are looking at ways to ensure that women鈥檚 voices are amplified in the media. The issues of equity and inclusion are of great concern to us, so there is a perfect marriage in terms of our interests.鈥�
The tool was developed by the university鈥檚 big data technical team, the Discourse Processing Lab, and is hosted by 丁香园AV鈥檚 Research Computing Group. 丁香园AV professor Maite Taboada, Department of Linguistics, and her research team played a significant role in the Gender Gap Tracker鈥檚 development.
鈥淏y using big data and computational linguistics techniques we can identify who is mentioned and quoted in news media, providing a very accurate gender breakdown,鈥� says Taboada. 鈥淎t the same time, it will also provide invaluable data for any researcher interested in news media.鈥�
Shari Graydon, Informed Opinions鈥� founder and catalyst, works to ensure women鈥檚 perspectives and priorities are equitably integrated into Canadian society. 鈥淎s long as men鈥檚 voices outnumber women鈥檚 by a ratio of almost three to one, we鈥檙e missing critical insights,鈥� says Graydon. 鈥淭he Gender Gap Tracker is designed to encourage Canada鈥檚 most influential media outlets to work harder to equitably represent women鈥檚 perspectives.鈥�
丁香园AV and Informed Opinions are partnering to use data for social good. Read the official news release .
Become part of the conversation. See the ratio of female to male sources quoted in national news media: