Abstract
Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.
Highlights
An observation of articles on political issues in newspapers in 2013 gives the opinion that women are better constructed in the media
This article answers the question: what are the discursive strategies put in place by journalists while writing their articles and how could these strategies have had a transforming effect on populations’ gendered constructions? The above question calls us to analyse elements that have favoured women’s entry in politics and examine how the analysis newspapers made of those elements reflects and /or contributes to a transformation of mentalities
The Committee encourages the State to examine the recourse to temporary special measures as provided by Paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the Convention as well as in its general recommendation N° 25, hoping that the measures taken to increase women’s representation in political life are accompanied by objectives and schedules or provide more important quotas. (My translation) If we look at the four verbs that introduce each sentence, reporting CEDAW’s recommendations, we can see that it moves from asking a favour to fostering the State to change its attitudes
Summary
An observation of articles on political issues in newspapers in 2013 gives the opinion that women are better constructed in the media. Thenjiwe Mtintso, speaking at the Southern Africa gender in Media workshop in 2001, said “The media is a product of society and it reflects the values, ideas, attitudes, culture and practices of any given society It shows that despite patriarchal ideologies that sustain female gender condescendence, newspapers use of language makes women more visible; this suggests an evolutionary trend in mental representations This argumentation is threefold: firstly, the presentation of international context discourses and their influence on Cameroonians; the discursive strategies displayed to construct women as those to fight for equity and lastly the construction of female participation in public life as source of hope for change. Gender, Media and Politics in Cameroon: Theoretical and Methodological Framework
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