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Women: International
A Fulani woman in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Photo by Tony Raymond. 2001, Startcraft
Intl.©
The women of the rice pyramids, Abakiliki, Ebonyi State. Photo by Christine Anyanwu.
2001, Startcraft Intl.©
(IJC) in Lagos in conjunction with the
Panos Institute of Washington and the
Center for War, Peace and the News
Media of New York established that 80
percent of practicing journalists in Nigeria
are male. This circumstance impacts
coverage of news. The Lagosbased
Media Rights Monitor reports in
its January 2001 issue that “domination
of the news media by men and the
preponderance of male perspective in
the reporting of news have also brought
about a situation where there is little
focus on the participation of women in
the political and economic spheres of
the country. Women’s issues are also
not given adequate coverage in the
media. Where they are covered, they
are treated from the male perspective.”
Newsmaking itself also has been
gender-biased. That a woman made
news in the early years of media development
in the country was in itself
news. “Man bites dog.” “Woman strips
in protest against taxes.” It had to be
that unusual to attract news coverage.
And so, in the early 1960’s, women
resorted to doing shocking things in
order to grab the attention of society.
In Aba in southeastern Nigeria, it took
bands of angry women rioting and chasing
the colonial government officials
there into hiding before society could
listen to their issues. Then they made
banner headline news in the conservative
national dailies.
But those days are gone; that genre
of woman has all but disappeared. In
her place has come a new brand of
woman, doused, softened by education
and modernity. She no longer
employs the shocking tools of her forebears
to get noticed, but she has not
succeeded any better with her modern
methods. A woman is still largely
eclipsed in the news by the looming
image of her male counterpart.
The dominant attitude among Nigerian
journalists is that women’s issues
rarely make marketable news. Controversy
is what sells. As most women shy
away from controversial issues, they
remain out of the orbit of hot news. It
is that simple.
But there are occasional sparks. In
its October 13 edition, This Day newspaper
devoted two-thirds of the back
page to a flattering column on Justice
Rose Ukeje, the first female chief judge
of the Federal High Court and the highest
judicial appointment for a female in
Nigeria’s history. Some journalists point
to the column as indicative of the quality
coverage mainstream papers prefer
to give women, but it can also be argued
that it is reflective of the elitism
that rules news judgment in our newsrooms.
How many Justice Ukejes are
there in Nigeria? For every triumphal
story of an Ukeje, there are thousands
of her compatriots engaged in unending
struggles in a harsh economic and
social environment. Their struggles and
triumphs are part of the social landscape,
which ought to be reflected in
the national media.
Mainstream media is dominated by
politics. Very little attention is given to
real life issues that shape the quality of
living, things that dominate the minds
and hearts of the people. Professional
indoctrination and market realities rule
the treatment of information. Women’s
issues belong to a genre of information
considered lightweight news. Frivolous.
No serious editor wants his newspaper
trivialized. Therefore, such stories
are considered to properly belong
to the tabloids dealing in trivia and sex
and scandal. In the serious media, they
are buried or relegated to the society,
art, home and entertainment pages.
Only in sports, however, do women
speak loudly because of their overwhelming
presence and performance.
Branding by advertisers also is a
consideration in the treatment of this
genre of news. Publications that feature
women in large numbers are easily
branded women’s publications. That
has severe limitations on the kind of
advertisements they attract. No publication
wants to suffer such limitations
in revenue generation. Therefore, they
steer clear of such affairs. It is a major
nightmare for publications edited or
published by women.
Nieman Reports / Winter 2001 69