Abstract
Democracy has universal appeal in its respect for popular participation, accountability, equity and equality. The adoption of gender mainstreaming in Nigeria via the National Economic Empowerment Development strategy in 2003, and recently the 7-point agenda, vision 2020, among other development programmes support democratic values in the sense that the country’s ultimate goal is to achieve national development based on gender parity. This study sought to determine the Influence of Journalist Knowledge about Gender Mainstreaming Ideology on the Reporting of Gender Issues. The research which was anchored on the critical cultural theory was necessitated by the need to find out empirically how Nigerian journalists understood gender mainstreaming issues and its implications for their reportage of the issues. The survey research method using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was adopted in this study. Practicing journalists in Nigeria put at 10,000 made up the study population. The sample size was 500 based on Nwanna’s (2008: p. 71) expert recommendation of selecting 5% of elements or units for a population size of several thousands. Results from the study established that Nigerian journalists have significant knowledge of gender mainstreaming issues which in turn influence the reporting of the phenomenon. Also, the dominant form of reporting of gender mainstreaming issues by journalists’ influences their perception of the phenomenon. In view of these findings, the study recommended sensitization of journalists to ensure that journalists begin to appreciate their ethical responsibility towards the cause of gender mainstreaming. Again, there will be need to strengthen advocacy and also move beyond the media organizations to media associations, since they are the umbrella body that can take decisions worthy of influencing media and editorial policies which, can facilitate gender sensitive and balanced reporting.
Highlights
Most media and gender activities seem to agree that the mass media are not just mirroring society but are encouraging gender inequality through the promotion of stereotypes and the stigmatization of certain groups of people, women, the inclusion of the introductory statement to section J: “Everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women”
It was for this reason that the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) had in 1995 pioneered an international study known as the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) aimed at probing the extent and pattern of women’s and men’s representation in the news, having observed the serious lack of attention to women issues in almost every society
An appraisal of the results and inferences drawn from this study strongly support the following claims: - Nigerian journalists have significant knowledge of gender mainstreaming issues. - Nigerian journalists’ knowledge of gender mainstreaming influences the reporting of the phenomenon. - Nigerian journalists are not favourably disposed towards the ideology of gender mainstreaming reporting. - The dominant form of reporting of gender mainstreaming issues by journalists’ influences their perception of the phenomenon
Summary
Most media and gender activities seem to agree that the mass media are not just mirroring society but are encouraging gender inequality through the promotion of stereotypes and the stigmatization of certain groups of people, women, the inclusion of the introductory statement to section J: “Everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women” (cited in Gallagher, 2005: p. 4). The issue is that media and gender advocates perceive the media as a tool that can be used for women empowerment, without considering the fact that those who work in the mass media are still part and parcel of a cultural system that encourages unequal gender relations This can be attributed to many gender activists who hold limited instrumental view of the role of media in the context of women’s rights agenda, Gallagher (2005). It was for this reason that the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) had in 1995 pioneered an international study known as the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) aimed at probing the extent and pattern of women’s and men’s representation in the news, having observed the serious lack of attention to women issues in almost every society. Since WACC started this project, the results have been useful in illustrating global patterns in news content, highlighting the persistent poor presence of women in national news media, and initiating dialogue between media advocates and media practitioners, among other things
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