Expertise has no gender - Ringier Hungary begins to measure and improve the visibility of women in media appearances

Ringier Hungary joined the international EqualVoice initiative with its media portfolio in March 2023. The aim of the EqualVoice initiative, launched in 2019 by Swiss-based Ringier AG, is to increase the visibility and expert presence of women in media products. EqualVoice aims to reduce the qualitative and quantitative asymmetry that can be observed at the global level in terms of the expert voice of men and women in the media.

According to the Global Media Monitoring Project`s analysis in 2021 82% of media appearances worldwide are about men. The under-representation of women as representatives of a particular branch of science, profession, or field of expertise deprives public awareness, diversity, and the development of current and future generations of talents, opinions, and ultimately more female role models.

Recognizing the imbalance of women and men in media coverage, the Swiss-based Ringier Group launched its EqualVoice initiative in 2019. with the aim of increasing the voice and visibility of women in the media. In order to make the phenomenon measurable, thus analyzable and to monitor the development, Ringier developed a software solution based on a semantic algorithm in-house, which is able to analyse the quantitative and qualitative mentions of women and men in online and print media, in text, image and video content and which is able to learn more and more languages. This indicator is called the EqualVoice Factor. In 2022, the factor got validated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH).

“The objectivity of the EqualVoice factor forms the basis of fact-based discussions that lead to measurable change – this is the original idea behind EqualVoice”

Annabella Bassler, CFO of Ringier AG and founder of the EqualVoice program

The EqualVoice Factor has been analyzing Ringier`s Swiss media brands – including Blick, Beobachter, Bilanz, Cash, Handelszeitung, GaultMillau and Schweizer Illustrierte – and the Polish media products of Grupa Ringier Axel Springer Polska – including Forbes Women, Business Insider, Newsweek – since 2020.

From 2023, the Hungarian Ringier brands such as Blikk.hu, Kiskegyed.hu, Glamour.hu, EgészségKalauz.hu and Noizz.hu will now also be added. The analysis by EqualVoice Factor has already started at the beginning of this year. The analysis of the data for the first quarter of 2023 will be available to Ringier Hungary shortly. Based on this, the editorial teams prepare their strategies to improve gender balance, taking into account the specifics, readership and brand objectives of each publication.

“We are aware of the media`s responsibility in the field of any social or environmental phenomenon where the desired change starts with the change of attitude. Be it the promotion of social diversity and inclusion, the creation of equal opportunities, or the multifaceted challenges of sustainable development. As a media company, these are the areas where we can make the most impact with our journalistic tools. And as always, we first look around our own house and start making changes if necessary. I am proud that, thanks to the EqualVoice initiative and its EqualVoice Factor, we can play a pioneering role in the domestic media in terms of breaking down stereotypes about women’s roles. I hope that over time it will no longer make sense to distinguish between women’s and men’s roles at all,” 

Tibor Kovács, managing director of Ringier Hungary