Published work
Published reports and news articles authored by Luba Kassova
The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News
Commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this solutions-oriented report examines women’s severe under-representation and biased portrayal in COVID-19 news in six countries from across the global north and global south. The report includes 21 recommendations for news providers who seek both to amplify the missing voices of women in COVID news and to ensure their fair portrayal. It includes innovative content, framing and portrayal analyses produced or commissioned by AKAS. Luba crafted this report while in a lockdown herself, at the same time as home-schooling her children and sharing household responsibilities with her husband.
The Missing Perspectives of Women in News
Commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this solutions-oriented report explores women’s continuous marginalisation in news in the 21st century along the whole news value chain, including news leadership/newsrooms, newsgathering, news coverage and consumption. The report uniquely examines the biases, views and behaviours of three target audiences in six countries: the public, journalists and decision-makers. It explores the structural root-causes underpinning the persistent problem. The report offers multi-disciplinary innovative insights including some from behavioural science. It offers 50 solutions for improving women’s representation along the whole news value chain as well as a gender parity checklist for news providers who are committed to improving women’s visibility in the news. Luba wrote this report while looking after her children and sharing household responsibilities with her husband during the first extensive lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic.
Putting economics over ethics is a dismal vaccination strategy – Bulgaria shows why
This article, published in the Guardian, interweaves a deeply personal story of loss with previously unanalysed evidence to interrogate Bulgaria’s vaccination policy, juxtaposing it with that of the UK. Grieving for her father who had died of COVID-19 in April 2021, Luba wrote this article with the intention of exposing the injustice faced by the elderly in Bulgaria as a result of the discriminatory vaccination policy of the Bulgarian government at the time. The article was covered extensively in Bulgarian media and sparked a public debate at ministerial level.
Bulgarian Women Accept Their Place – That’s the Problem
This article - a data-driven investigative piece anchored in human stories - examines the impact of the pandemic on women in Bulgaria and juxtaposes their lives with those of women in Britain. Luba’s narrative is built on an analysis of economic, political, physical safety and reproductive health factors, as well as an analysis of women’s wellbeing and the dominant societal norms.
Engaging women in the news is vital for media outlets
In this article Luba explores young women's relationship with the news in terms of both consumption and news making. The evidence reveals that this relationship is under serious pressure globally - more so than for any other audience group. News outlets who want to grow their audiences and funds should grasp the opportunity to improve this faltering relationship. Propositions like Missing Perspectives offer solutions.
Why does Bulgaria not believe in vaccines?
In this interview for a leading Bulgarian online news aggregator, Luba explores the reasons why an extraordinary high proportion of Bulgarians remain hesitant or rejecting of COVID vaccines; the immense global marketing challenge that this presents; what we can learn from behavioural science about how to tackle vaccine hesitancy and rejection; and some of the key lessons Luba has learned from the pandemic.This article ended up the 3rd most read on Dir.bg on the day of publication.
Bulgaria is sacrificing its older generations - how to stop that?
This article, published on EUObserver, exposed the failures of the Bulgarian government, media and health system as a whole to protect the elderly from dying of COVID-19 during the pandemic. It seeks to validate through evidence some painful observations made through Luba’s personal story of loss.
"Как България жертва възрастното поколение"
A longer version of an article which first appeared on EUObserver, published on clubz.bg. This article won the 2021 Web Report award for exceptional journalism in the Society category, awarded by Dir.bg, Bulgaria’s biggest news aggregator. It attracted the largest number of journalists’ votes of all the articles entered in the competition.
