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Kristin Palitza of Agenda Magazine was the chair of a discussion panel on gender and the media today, September 11 2007, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Unlike most of the other panels at Highway Africa, this one lined up three women and no man. Certainly a colourful and rather critical one in an event where only 15 out of 55 speakers are women.
Kristin Palitza of Agenda Magazine was the chair of a discussion panel on gender and the media today, September 11 2007, in Grahamstown, South Africa.
Unlike most of the other panels at Highway Africa, this one lined up three women and no man. A mistake, by some participants’ standards but certainly a colourful and rather critical one in an event where only 15 out of 55 speakers are women.
Kubi Rama from the Gender and Media Centre of South Africa (GEMSA) – a seasoned lecturer as could be appreciated by the 200 attendees – took off her gloves as soon as she was asked to give an overview of where women fit in South Africa’s media landscape.
“A glass ceiling it is,” she said in clear reference to the way media integrate women, but also represent them to their audiences. As Palitza asked, Rama wandered through the questions of “who gets a promotion?”, “who earns more?”, “who speaks?” and “who are the newsmakers?” The answer, one can imagine, always ended up fitting into three letters: M-E-N.
“It’s a glass ceiling in two ways. First it’s about the disadvantage women face in the work environment and second, in the content of the media.” For the first one, she underlined the frequent differences in income at a time where in South Africa way more young women engage in the study of journalism than men. A “Gender and media baseline” study reveals that in South Africa, 18% of news sources are women. “If you flip this the other way round,” Rama said “it means that 82% of sources are men!”
Rama also insisted on the fact that many media environments are rarely family-friendly. When a women gets pregnant for instance, is the sensitivity of the media managers high enough to ensure women continue working after a parental leave?
The media as an old boys club
From Nigeria, Rosemary Okelo Orale followed suit on Rama’s position, saying that “The way people are promoted in the media is through the “old boys club”. Women are never brought into the traditional themes of reporting,” she said, in reference to the economy section of newspapers for instance, or policy reporting for that matter.
“The way we put the stories out there, the way we analyse the stories, would definitely be different with more women in the media,” the second panellist mentioned.
Independent ICT journalist Brenda Zulu, from Zambia, said that “Big people make big news”. The reality in great parts of Africa is that the big people are men. This, she argued, is reflected in the media.
When asked about her own experience, she replied that “as a journalist I feel I have the freedom to cover whatever I want. But we need to adopt a gender sensitive understanding. You have to work double so that you can get noticed,” Zulu said.
Policies on gender in the newsroom
Okelo Orale came back to add her grain of salt to the solutions that need to be envisaged in order to make space for gender-sensitive issues. “A proper policy on having stories with a gender dimension should be to promote the fact that gender issues are about us all, not just women.” There need to be policies on hiring, on story gathering (as in who you interview) and on who writes the stories, the Nigerian journalist insisted.
Rama agreed to that last intervention and added: “The only industry that doesn’t have a charter is the media industry. There should be measures in place. We demand this of the government, the mining industry, but we don’t demand this of us. Our goal is that by 2010, 80% of newsrooms in South Africa have HIV/Aids and gender policies,” Rama told the attendance.
The Q&A session that ensued in the red auditorium of one of the main buildings at Rhodes University, was nuanced and a robust contribution to the many points touched upon by Rama, Zulu and the Nigerian panellist.
Some insisted that male ownership and commercial pressures on mainstream media also create the glass ceiling, while other participants voiced their concerns with regards to the voyeurism that has invaded and is currently driving the media orientations. This again, slugs the ball back in the court of the audiences, who in the view of some, should be more critical.
To this last position, Rama fired back. “As we learn to read and write, people need to learn how to read the media and hold it accountable, this is what will advance journalism and media diversity.”
This presentation kicked some ideas around about the media glass ceiling. But the change needs to start right here, at Highway Africa. Although strongly criticised year after year, how can it still be that this media and journalism conference still under represents women?
