WOMEN IN THE MEDIA

Frederico Links, a journalist in Namibia, southern Africa, has written about the role of women in journalism in that country. In a report for the Namibian newspaper, Links says that it is a fact ‘that while women make up the majority of applications and entries to journalism schools and departments, the female voice in general remains underrepresented and skewed towards stereotyping in media coverage’.

When I read Links’ article I was struck by how similar Swaziland is in regard to this matter. Everything Links says about Namibia applies to Swaziland.

See for yourself. The report was circulated by AllAfrica.Com and if you want to see the original article click here

Namibia: Women in the Media And the Gender Issue
7 March 2008

Frederico Links, Windhoek

"Women generally don't last long in this profession. They don't have the stomach for it," an editor friend once told me while discussing why female journalists tended to go for coverage of lighter issues.

The issue of women in the media, especially in journalism, has become something of a political issue and for years now media organisations have been bombarded with the messages of gender mainstreaming and gender sensitivity.

At issue is the fact that while women make up the majority of applications and entries to journalism schools and departments, the female voice in general remains underrepresented and skewed towards stereotyping in media coverage.

But while gender messages are commendable, and very necessary, they have largely lost meaning and effectiveness.

The issue has become little more than a fashionably profitable catchphrase for organisations selling themselves as diehard fighters in the cause for newsroom change and equality.

A large amount of mostly donor money is invested in this decidedly piecemeal approach to women's emancipation and empowerment in the media sector.

The thing that always strikes me about the messages of the gender-mainstreaming project is that some crucial element is always missing.

There is always a fundamentality that is not being addressed.

The question is where we are missing the mark - for we are missing the mark - on this issue.
Having been a journalism student in classrooms filled with female students and having worked with female journalists, I have come to realise that the issue is much more complex than the solutions put forward.

What the gender messages fail to fully appreciate is the extent of the denial of the voice of the girl-child.

Women in this part of the world, if not everywhere else as well, are the products of paternalistic societies.

In short, the male voice is always the dominant and authoritative voice and from birth the girl-child is schooled to unquestioningly respect this authority.

The little girl is never encouraged to have passionate opinions about issues, but rather to conform to apportioned gender roles in society.

She is not encouraged to speak or to make herself heard.

The pressure to conform to accepted gender roles and the censoring of her own voice, compounded by years of poor education, manifest themselves in low confidence levels in the young woman, especially the young black woman.

By the time she steps into the journalism classroom or newsroom, submissiveness has been internalised.

As a student and journalist she shies away from critically confronting the male-dominated structures of society and eventually leaves the profession to take up a much more 'safe' position in the corporate sector.

And thus her silencing is complete.

The odds are against her overcoming this situation in her lifetime.

Against this background workshopping for change in the newsroom will always only lead to cosmetic change.

That is not to say that campaigning for change should not be done, but rather that hoping for revolution at this late stage is something of a pipe-dream.

The fact is that change has to occur somewhere else.

With the theme of this year's Women's Day being 'Investing in women and girls', and in the media context 'Women and girls in the media', the question has to be asked: Where and what do we invest? The media sector, and journalism specifically, is supposed to play the role of agenda-setter and agent for change in society, but cannot realistically be expected to patiently nurture and unfurl the inherent potential of the female journalistic voice.

There are too many other pressures demanding prioritisation.

And this is something the gender and media campaigners do not seem to understand.
These campaigns always seem to have a suddenness to them that demands an immediate reaction, something that is virtually impossible.

And rather than speaking to the media organisation and journalist, they tend to speak at them, in an accusatory tone.

Most media organisations and journalists are probably aware of the gender dynamics at play in society and the newsroom and are probably receptive to the messages of campaigners.

However, most are probably also realistic enough to know that there is very little, aside from spreading the message that change is necessary, that they can do.

Most media organisations spend a lot in employing, nurturing and encouraging female talent.
A real case can also be made for the media doing more.

However, the investment is there, but there is only so much that can be done at any level.
Fighting the media organisation and journalism profession about this issue is the right fight at the wrong place.

Without negating media influence and responsibility on this issue, and with all due respect, the fact is that the real fight, or investment, has to take place somewhere else in order for us to produce confident and courageous female journalists, something which at present is the exception rather than the rule.

See also
SWAZI PRESS EXCLUDES MOST WOMEN
TOUGH FOR WOMEN JOURNALISTS