Women sold short in media

As the BBC moves to put more female journalists in front of the cameras in its election coverage, Stirling University experts have warned that women are rarely news subjects.

David Miller of Stirling's media research institute has called on journalists to feature women "as a matter of course".

The institute took part in a global monitoring of women in the world's news, which was held on February 1 last year.

The results reveal that little has changed since a similar project in 1995, with women accounting for 41 per cent of presenters and reporters, but only 18 per cent of news subjects.

In the United Kingdom, women appeared predominantly as victims in stories. Just 13 per cent of politicians and government spokespersons featured were women.