City Uni
Journalism academics at City University in London are planning to reopen an investigation into the number of women who appear as expert guests on television and radio news programmes.

City University's director of broadcast journalism, Lis Howell, said she hopes to start the research again this April, after a new rush of interest in the issue of broadcast sexism as a result of the Andy Gray and Richard Keys sexism furore.

Gray's contract with the satellite broadcaster was terminated last month and Keys resigned after the pair were caught on microphone making disparaging comments about a female assistant referee and football boss Karren Brady.

The initial City research found "institutional sexism" was still rife among editors when selecting expert guests to appear on programmes.

The study found that male experts outnumbered women by as much as five to one on some current affairs shows, with BBC Radio 4's Today programme one of the worst offenders.

Students watched and listened to five major TV and radio news programmes from beginning to end and logged the expert contributors who appeared.

Howell told the BBC's NewsWatch programme: "We found that when it came to women being interviewed, frequently they were what you might call victims or vox pops. They weren't there because of their expertise or their knowledge."

Image by Stephen McKay. Some rights reserved.


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