Gender and Media in Africa: An Idea for a Curriculum

Posted : Wed, 2009-09-23 15:43
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The course, Gender and Media in Africa takes an analytical and critical approach to the study of the media’s role in social constructions of gender with emphasis on the African experience. The first part of the course covers issues of the political-economy of the media and its relationship to gender representations in media texts. The second part is devoted to analyses, interpretations and evaluations of media content. It also looks at ways of challenging the images and messages regarding women and men that audiences receive on a daily basis from the media- this section concludes by looking at contemporary African gender and media activism and research.

Course Outline

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Introduction

The introduction is important in the general understanding of the issues raised in the course in the contemporary African context. Discussions can explore the processes of encoding/ decoding, construction of reality, stereotyping, socialisation, gendered mediation process.

Suggested Readings:

  • Gender Advocacy Programme (GAP), (1998), Taking the GAP Media Toolkit, GAP: Cape Town. Available: link
  • Southern African Media and Gender Institute (SAMGI), (2006), Monitoring HIV/AIDS Reporting Through a Gender Lens, SAMGI: Cape Town- Introduction and Executive Summary link
  • Okunna, C. S.(1996), ‘Gender and communication in Nigeria: is this the twenty-first century?’ Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka: Nigeria. Available: link
  • African Gender Institute (AGI) newsletter vol 11, December 2002, ‘Gender and the media,’ by Desiree Lewis and Barbara Boswell link
  • Introduction and Executive Summary: World Association of Christian Communication, (2005), Global Media Monitoring Project Report, WACC: London, Available: link
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Media Ownership In Africa And Implications For Gender Representations

In most of Anglophone Africa, public broadcasting has its origins in the colonial era where it was controlled by the colonial administrators to support the status quo. At independence, in the late 1950s, early 1960s countries like Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1980 inherited these same colonial broadcasting structures (which were neither democratic nor sensitive to gender). The private print media that evolved in the post colonial era was largely driven by profit making imperatives and gender sensitive reporting was considered as ‘unprofitable’ evidenced by the lack of gender policies in the media houses. Most of the privately owned newspapers thrive on sensational reporting that perpetuates stereotypes about women and men. In general, the institutions are owned by men who appoint fellow men to manage production processes in the news room.

Suggested Readings:

  • Jerry K. Domatob, ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’s Media and Neocolonialism,’ in Africa Media Review Vol. 3 No. 1. 1988, Available: link
  • Thami Mazwai in Rhodes Journalism Review 11, December 1995, ‘Ownership, control and affirmative action in black, white and grey’, Available: link
  • Claudia Constance in Rhodes Journalism Review 27, September 2007 (page 48), ‘Each Opinion is precious’, Available: link
  • Introduction: Kupe, T. (ed), (2003), Broadcasting Policy and Practice in Africa, Article 19: Johannesburg. Available: link
  • Ankomah, B. (2008), ‘Why should journalism curriculum be Africanised’, Global Media Journal, African Edition Vol 2 (2). - Available: link
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Media Management, Media Personnel And Gender

In The Glass Ceiling and beyond – the status of women and diversity in the South African news media by the South African National Editors’ Forum, the majority of decision makers overseeing production routines and processes in South African media houses are men, with women occupying less influential positions. In East Africa, a similar situation prevails; in a 2008 report on ‘Gender Equality in the Media in Eastern Africa’ by the East Africa Journalists Association (EAJA), only ‘3% of the total number of women journalists in nine East African countries sit at the decision making organs of their media institutions.’

Moving to the media personnel, most journalism training institutions on the continent do not cover gender sensitive reporting in their curricula. Organisations like Gender Links in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Namibia and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism have however started projects on mainstreaming gender in journalism training curricula.

In the newsroom, various studies (for example the Global Media Monitoring Project, Gender and Media Baseline Study, the Gender equality in the media in Eastern Africa) all conclude that female journalists are assigned to cover ‘soft’ news like ‘family, fashion, food and furnishings’ while the male journalists report on the ‘serious, hard’ news like business, financial markets.

Another observation is that although the number of female journalism students in universities and colleges is higher than that of male journalism students, the number of women that continue to work in media houses is low. Most female journalists move into fields such as Public Relations and Corporate Communications. This has been attributed to a myriad of reasons which include; working hours that are do not accommodate journalists who are also mothers, sexual harassment at the workplace and low salaries.

Discussion questions can be: to what extent does media management structures reflect the society in which the media institution is anchored? Does replacing the majority male managers with female managers make a difference in terms of mainstreaming gender in the content?

Suggested Readings:

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News Production And The Encoding Of Gender

Most media houses in Africa do not have policies on gender that ensure that women are not stereotypically portrayed. In addition, the daily routines and gate keeping processes in the news room consistently exclude women’s voices as well as recreate the stereotypes about women and men. These practices unfortunately, discriminatory as they are form the basis of what journalism ‘is.’ 1

Discussion can look at the different stages of news production and how women are systematically excluded. How gatekeepers (individual journalists, editors) all contribute to the status quo.

Suggested Readings:

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Media Texts And Gender: Case Studies

Different media monitoring reports can be used to discuss gender representations in media texts. Some of the points to highlight are the disparities in the women/ men ratio of news sources, the objectification, domestication and eroticisation of women in the media. (what are they and how are they reinforced?)

Suggested Readings:

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Gender And Media Activism: Successes And Challenges

Gender and media activism should be understood in the context of global as well as regional commitments regarding gender equality. Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action for example states that various organisations should monitor the media to ensure that reporting is gender sensitive. Articles 29-31of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development signed by heads of states in August 2008 requires the gender justice to be part of media reporting.

Gender and Media activism in Africa has largely been led by non-governmental organisations. A combination of strategies have been used by activists to push for gender equality in the media. These include forming regional advocacy networks, creating alternative media, media monitoring, media literacy courses for audiences, dialoguing with editors, audience researches and so on.

There have been small gains in the struggle for balanced representation of women in the media. According to the GMMP, between the three monitoring exercises (1995, 2000, 2005), the percentage of women news subjects has been on the increase (17%, 18% and 21%) respectively.

Some of the challenges have included duplication of efforts by NGOs, lack of adequate funding and staff turnover because of the dwindling resource base.

Suggested Readings:

Also see work done by the following NGOs:

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Approaches To Gender And Media Research

This section introduces students to basic approaches  in media research that gender and media activists have used.

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Content Analysis

Suggested readings:

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Interviews

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Media Policy Research

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Reception Research

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