Networks and Power in Gender-oriented Communication Governance. Towards a systematic analytic framework

In this article we offer an overview of the analytic framework of an ongoing research project titled Networks and Power in Gender-oriented Communication Governance (GoC_Gov), focused on the nexus between gender and media in supra-national governing arrangements. The relevance of gender differences to the structuring of social inequalities and power relation is widely acknowledged and the international community has recognized since the mid ‘90s the nexus between women and media as one of the major challenges to equal opportunities for women in contemporary societies. Problematic issues have thus been identified and framed; including a focus on the roles and responsibilities of different societal agencies. In spite of the plurality of initiatives, campaigns and interventions in these diverse but interrelated areas trans-nationally, the governance of gender-related communication remains an insufficiently unexplored area in the context of women and communication scholarship. By empirically analyzing GoC_Gov in the global context, the project we outline here in its theoretical assumptions aims at shedding new light on the very case study - looking at how principles, norms and rules are articulated via and by trans-national networks - while, at the same time, contributing to a more general understanding of governance processes.