Africa Region Gender and Media Advocacy Training Workshops

Over 60 participants in total representing women's and other civil society organisations from 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa attended the two workshops held in Nairobi and Dakar in December, 2007. The workshops were organized by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) as part of a series of training seminars on gender and media advocacy, a need expressed by media monitors participating in the global media monitoring project (GMMP) of 2005.

The intensive 3-day workshops provided space for participants to expose the status of gender in media in their respective countries. The workshops made it possible for participants to gain an intimate knowledge of the history, scope and results of GMMP 2005. The sessions built skills on reading the media through a gender lens and on strategies for engaging in evidence-based advocacy for gender equity in and through media.

Participants’ presentations on the status of gender and media in their countries reflected the

findings of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2005, two years on. During the past decade or so, the number of private media houses and media outlets has increased tremendously. In all the countries represented, state-owned media, though fewer, have a considerably wider reach than private media that are in almost all the cases confined to specific areas within the countries. In all the countries, there has been an increase in the number of women reporters and journalists however media content has hardly changed. Women barely make the news, they are seldom portrayed as ‘experts’ or in their professional capacities when they appear in media and few stories are told from their perspective.

The presentations of the history, scope and results of GMMP 2005 were eye-openers for many. For participants who collected data during the monitoring activities of 2005, not until did they listen to the presentations did they understand the enormous significance of their contributions.

The sex-disaggregated statistics on the voices in the news, news content, news-making context and journalistic practice not only evidenced serious gender-based biases but also marked the terrain for the tasks ahead for those committed in working towards gender-responsive media. The co-trainer for the Nairobi workshop Rosemary Okello-Orlale’s applied an article ‘If men could menstruate’ to illustrate how the world would be if this biological detail were reversed; the article cleverly demonstrates how the male-centered perspective of the world is normalized and indeed glorified as an ideal to be aspired.

Participants discussed their experiences of monitoring the media during GMMP 2005, what had worked, the challenges experienced, and the changes needed to tweak the methodology for the next GMMP. Previous monitoring experience, sufficient equipment, adequate human resources, pre-monitoring training and proximity of technical support had helped monitors accomplish the work they did. Absence of these however were part of the challenges experienced, in addition to language barriers and the social science research problem of ‘too many cases’ resulting from the shear number of media in each country.

Hands-on exercises equipped participants with skills for gender analysis of news articles. The exercises applied targeted questions intended to guide a ‘reading between the lines’ with attention to the gender dimensions of news content. The overwhelming conclusion after the report-back was that this was the kind of critical media literacy needed for readers. Such critical media literacy was also necessary for journalists and reporters to understand how they contribute to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes and biases. The nagging question however is how ideologies on the necessity of gender-stereotyped portrayals for securing the ‘bottom-line’ may be transformed, towards a moral, ethical, gender equity-focussed and human rights-based compass for media practice. As well, how cultural constraints and state control preventing the emergence of gender-fair media content may be addressed.

Both workshops resulted in the adoption of declarations on gender and media advocacy. In the Nairobi Declaration on Gender and Media Advocacy, actions listed include the compilation of a regional directory of women experts, the training of trainers and media literacy training. In the Dakar Declaration on Gender and Media Advocacy, the strategy includes promoting women's leadership in media and continued media monitoring for indicators of gender bias.

Common to both declarations are advocacy for gender sensitive media codes of conduct and concerted efforts towards building critical awareness about gender in media.

Participants constituted task groups to take the lead in project development for each action with a view to commence implementation immediately.

Further information may be obtained from SM@waccglobal.org, famedev@gmail.com and info@awcfs.org.