Men still dominate the news

2006-03-03 08:46

Yes, the third gender and media audit, measuring the representation of women and men, titled "Who Makes the News"*, has been highlighted in this column two weeks ago.

But seeing that it was barely covered in other South African news media, I am obliged to refer to it again.

Maybe it's also for the benefit of that pitiful male chauvinist who hasn't yet realised it's a new world out there, with a new mindset according to which the rest of us are living. (Ag, and please, to said singular dysfunctional male who is doing his entire sex a disfavour: don't waste your time by sending another insulting - and anonymous - e-mail. Take my advice: relieve yourself in a more pleasant way.)

Not to waste precious words, time and space on a grunting and disgruntled, frustrated and frightened, ageing and lonely old caveman, let's focus on issues that are relevant.

"Shocking" and "shaming" were the words the readers' editor - a man, yes - of a British newspaper used to describe the findings in the latest Global Media Monitoring Project's (GMMP) survey on the status of women in the media. It makes for "depressing reading", he concluded. The ombud of another newspaper described it as "not pleasant reading material".

Not much has changed

Some of those "shocking" and "shaming" facts boil down to the fact that since the first GMMP survey in 1995, not a lot has changed.

As a matter of fact, it was pointed out that at this rate, it will take 160 years for women to reach a 50% representation. You can work it out yourself: in 1995 women represented 17% of news sources. In 2005 the figure is 21%.

But let's focus on some of those depressing findings regarding Southern Africa specifically.

According to Gender Links (GL), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) there was some progress in certain respects in the Southern African region, if compared to the groundbreaking regional Gender and Media Baseline Study (GMBS) conducted in 2002. But, bottom line still is: women are relatively speaking ignored when it comes to "who is making the news".

Women sources have increased from 17% in the GMBS survey to 19% in the 2005 GMMP study.

This however is still below the global GMMP average of (a low) 21%.

South Africa is just above this average, with 26% of news sources being women.

For the region, Rwanda tops the list with 31% of women sources, with Angola at the bottom with 13%.

Although still a much too low average, there have been some "improvement" in women's voices being heard in so-called "hard news": from a dismally low 8% of women sources in 2002 to 14% in 2005.

A concern is that stereotypes still abound. The likelihood of women to be identified according to family status has in fact doubled from the 2002 findings of 11% to 22% in 2005. This is higher than the global 17%.

And so it goes on, for example, for the global findings, men represent 83% of "experts", and 86% of spokespeople. Women on the other hand, are portrayed as helpless victims, presumably to "dramatise" and "decorate".

What to do?

It seems the media has not taken these findings seriously since the first survey.

It, unfortunately, is symptomatic of our still male-dominated world with its male standard as point of departure. Exactly the type of mindset which makes a pathetic male human being thinks he can insult a female human being. Even resorting to swearing. Because he cannot stand the fact that a woman can have an opinion?

As for this lonely creature, we have news for you, brother. Adapt. Or you'll do like the dodo.

The GMMP recommends that the advocacy for equality and equity be situated within the broader discourse of human rights, diversity, ethics and professionalism.

In the end, this is exactly what it boils down to: equal human rights, a diverse media, ethical reporting, professional journalism.

As for us in Southern Africa, we have another commandment. Ubuntu; the one that says I am because you are.

Only through others - female and male, on an equal basis - will we be able to get it right in the end.

We need one another.

And that also, and especially, goes for the brother who just might discover a whole new world when he allows himself to regard women as equal human beings.

Get the full report: www.whomakesthenews.org Click hereFor the highlights.

Lizette Rabe is head of the postgraduate Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, a Sanef council member and Sanef-convenor for the Western Cape. And she's addicted to news.

Send your comments to Lizette or discuss this column now in our debating forum.

Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

- News24