Women in Journalism Scotland is proud to be partnering with STV News in order to offer free broadcast media training to expert women, in a bid to help improve gender equality in the news.

The pilot event will take place on Zoom from 7-8pm on Thursday April 1st. It is for those working in the fields of healthcare and science.

Applications for this workshop are now closed.

Producers and senior journalists from STV News will provide a virtual training session for women considering being expert voices in the media. A number of STV staff will guide participants through an hour-long session, which will look at interview techniques and confidence building.

A recent study for International Women’s Day 2021 by Talat Yaqoob of Pass the Mic, Professor Karen Boyle and Melody House showed that over a typical sample week, just 30% of experts on television news were women, and in the wider media sample, just 24% were women. Women of colour accounted for only two percent of experts in the wider media.

STV News is trying to achieve a 50/50 gender balance in its news programmes and is very close to hitting its target. This project is part of efforts to support expert women and empower them to say yes when asked to take part in broadcast news interviews.

The first training session is open to women involved in healthcare or science. That includes journalists specialising in these areas and women working at all levels of the many professions related to these broad fields.

It is hoped that other sectors will follow. These will be announced in due course.