Media accused of gender stereotypes and bias

Project partners gathered for the Development Initiative Programme (DIP) gender and media consultations organised by the World Association of Christian Communicators (WACC) expressed growing concerns about increased stereotyping and degrading depictions of women in the media in their respective countries.

Participants who received funding from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) to implement projects in their countries and those who participated in the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in 2005, noted that close to ten years after the last GMMP there is little positive change in selected indicators of gender bias in news media.

Participants who spoke during the opening of the WACC congress 2008 said gender stereotypes, gender bias and negative stereotyping of women have continued unabated in the media despite numerous efforts by their organisations to improve coverage of women in the media.

Media and Gender justice has increasingly been recognised as among the most serious and urgent challenges of modern times, as it impedes gender equality, peace and development. It is also one of the MDG goals and it is a critical area of concern for the Beijing Platform for Action.

Rosemary Okello, Executive Director of African Women and Child Features Services (AWC) in Kenya, said media has become so commercialised, it sees women as a market. She said media has created women pages and programs in radio and TV in order to sell.

“The media needs to give access to women’s stories as sources other than victims” she said and added that there is a need to develop a women directory that is relevant and authoritative to give access to women’s stories

Executive Director of Gender Links, a South African Media NGO, Collen Lowe Morna said because of patriarchy in society, women issues are relegated to the periphery although women are the majority in society. “If women consist 15% of news how can we say we have freedom of expression?” she quipped. She further accused media of practicing censorship by sidelining disabled and rural people among others.

She said there is need to ground research in policy since research alone is not enough. Selina Linda Mudavanhu of the South African Media and Gender Institute said research should be translated into tangible action that would result in real change.