BZ is the voice of Berlin. Since January 2022, the EqualVoice factor has been read out at bz-berlin.de so that this is even more equal in our digital presence in the future.
What we want to achieve with this: make the proportion of women in reporting transparent and increase their visibility.
► It works like this: An algorithm scans all texts, headlines and images on bz-berlin.de to count how often women and men appear in them. The result is the EqualVoice factor, a number that indicates what percentage of the reports are female.
Because the pure number does not change anything, we want to integrate the factor into everyday editorial work and thus raise awareness of the topic of gender-balanced reporting. In order to achieve this, concrete measures should increase the visibility of women.
BZ Editor-in-Chief Miriam Krekel: “The EqualVoice factor is read out for bz-berlin.de to create awareness among editors and reporters of the importance of depicting society as it is. Half of it is made up of women, so we should reflect that wherever possible. The departments set their own goals and have taken concrete measures beyond quantitative measurement, such as extended lists of women experts to give more women a say in reporting.”
This makes BZ the first news media brand at Axel Springer to use the Ringier Group’s EqualVoice technology. With the experiences from the pilot project at BZ, the factor should also be read out at BILD and WELT in the future, announced Matthias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer SE, on Monday at the EqualVoice Summit in Zurich.