Gender and Media in Nigeria
By Theresa Nkem Fab-Ukozor, Imo State University Oweni, Nigeria. Presentation at the Anglophone Africa training workshop on 'gender and media advocacy', Nairobi, December, 2007
An X-ray of media coverage of gender issues in Nigeria depicts an inglorious image of women's exclusion or marginalization.
Several non-governmental organizations have over the years joined efforts with the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) via the Global Monitoring Project (GMMP) to create awareness as it concerns the under representation of women in the news. However, women have continued to attract poor visibility to the point that they are most of the time excluded in coverage that affects their lives as individuals.
Undoubtedly, the marginalization and exclusion of women in the mass media is not unrelated to the patriarchal systems practiced in most societies.
Hence, the current emphasis on Gender and Development (GAD) approach as an outcome of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), no doubt, brings to bear the need for media practitioners to appreciate the plight of women by promoting gender balance in all media, including structures, policies and content.
In this vein it becomes pertinent to reason that gate-keepers of news themselves should begin to change their mindsets and attitudes in favour of women rights agenda before they can positively perform the task of shaping gender realities.
It was for this reason that the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Enugu State chapter, after having participated in the one-day seminar on "Media, Gender and National Development", held on February 23, 2006 as part of the activities to mark the "Who Makes the News Campaign in Nigeria" organized a week of activities in May 2006. The programme was targeted at sensitizing their members on the need to work harder and promote their image and credibility in order to attract more responsible positions in their work places and in the long run influence better media portrayal for women.
Nothing seems to have happened in terms of enhancing media images of women, although no one can say for sure until another empirical study is conducted. The point is that the awareness is already there and a few female journalists have since then attracted very important positions both at the state and national levels.
All studies conducted before now show that women are poorly represented in the mass media. For instance, a study I conducted "Women Political Empowerment and Mass Media: A critical content analytical study of selected Nigerian Newspapers" and published in the 2004 edition of the Nigerian Journal of Communications, supports the claim that the Nigerian press so far have not performed their role towards the struggle for women's political empowerment.
Results of the GMMP 2005 equally show that similar studies if conducted in other societies will give the same result. Rather than give fair and balanced reports of issues from women's and men's angles, the news media either exclude women's voices or portray them as objects that do not have an opinion, or worse still as objects that are only fir for advertising products. This trend does not only show symptoms of insensitivity, but poor media ethics.
