Sexuality in Media: Emerging Issues in Africa - Africa Regional ...

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Sexuality in the Media: Emerging Issues in Africa In concluding this section, we summarize coverage of sexuality issues by newspaper/magazine during the first six months of 2004. Overall, there were 1725 articles carried by the selected newspapers and magazines out of which 489 (28%) were on HIV/AIDS, 412 (24%) on sexuality and sexuality education, 359 (21%) on reproductive health and rights, sexual violence 311 (18%), sexual orientation and identity 103 (6%) while child marriage constituted 59 (3%) articles. Table 7 shows that generally, during the period under study HIV/AIDS was given the highest coverage with 489 (28%) articles, which translates to around 81 articles every month or 3 articles every day. On the other hand, child marriage trailed the rest of sexuality issues with 59 (3%) articles. The Daily/Sunday Nation led with a record 994 articles on sexuality over the sixmonth period. The East African Standard with 324, and Kenya Times and The People Daily almost tallying at 177 and 176 respectively. All except The Daily Nation seemed to have given more prominence to HIV/AIDS than other sexuality issues although The Daily Nation led in terms of number of articles placed in the newspapers pages over the study period. The Daily Nation reported more on sexuality education issues than other sexuality issues under investigation. From the foregoing, we observe that the media in Kenya is playing a key role in the campaign against HIV/AIDS. This is a step in the right direction given the toll the scourge is taking on the people of Kenya in particular and world in general. This is likely to pay dividends by way of highlighting the gravity of the scourge and leading to behavior change particularly among the most vulnerable groups including the poor and the youth. Current statistics indicate that HIV/AIDS prevalence had decreased from 13% in 1998 to around 6% in 2003 (GoK, 2003). We cannot, therefore, underemphasize the role played by the media in bringing down the prevalence rates. Positioning of Sexuality Issues in Newspapers/ Magazines The position of any article in newspaper pages is a critical factor in determining the importance of the article to the owners of the media in terms of the readership targeted. That is, the number of readers it will attract and consequently the amount of revenue it will attract. Over and above, it is important to note that media houses are about news and money (business). Therefore, positioning and space allocated for any articles is seen as a function of the value of the story. Articles placed as news or features in the front pages of the papers implies that the issue is of some value to the media house and will receive wide readership rather than short articles that are placed in the middle pages amidst a number of other articles. This makes it difficult to even find them and implies that they are not topmost on the agenda of the media. This section presents findings on the positioning of articles in the print media. Similar data for the Nation newspapers is not available. The East African Standard The East African Standard seemed to have treated a majority of the sexuality issues as news 153 (47%) articles and features 224 (69%) of all the 324 articles covered during the study period. HIV/AIDS received widest coverage with about 19% of all articles in the main news pages. Nonetheless, there were a few other articles in the letters and commentary sections as shown in the table below. Sexuality issues Sexuality and sexual education HIV/AIDS Reproductive health and rights Sexual orientation and identity Sexual violence Total Coverage Of Sexuality Issues in the Print Media in Kenya Table 8: Positioning of sexuality issues in the East African Standard, February-June 2004* News Feature Letter Advertisement Commentary 10 25 8 0 0 63 14 6 2 2 14 6 4 0 4 4 9 1 0 0 51 9 3 0 0 Child marriage 11 8 0 0 0 153 224 22 2 6 *January data not available This implies that only a few people were responding to sexuality issues in form of letters and commentaries.
Sexuality in the Media: Emerging Issues in Africa The People Daily Newspaper The newspaper largely treated sexuality as news rather than features, commentaries or letters to the editor. Sexuality issues reported as news by The People newspapers during the month of March-June 2004 accounted for 69%, with features, commentaries and letters to the editor sharing the remaining 31% as shown in Table 9. Table 9: Positioning of sexuality issues in the People Newspaper March-June 2004* Sexuality issues Sexuality and sexual education HIV/AIDS Reproductive health and rights Sexual orientation and identity Sexual violence Child marriage Total *January - February data not available News Feature Letter Advertisement Commentary 2 0 0 0 0 53 22 2 0 1 23 3 5 0 1 16 8 0 0 0 27 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 121 36 7 0 2 The People newspaper had eight of the articles in the front page; nine on page two and 4 others were published on page 3. Though the newspaper did not cover many sexuality issues as did The Daily Nation or Standard, it nevertheless, placed majority of the articles covered as news and features and by implication attracting more readership. The Kenya Times In The Kenya Times newspaper, sexuality issues as main news articles accounted for 48% (85 articles of the total 177 articles on sexuality reported by the newspaper). Sexual violence had the most (38) articles followed by HIV/AIDS with 32 articles in the main news pages as shown in Table 10. 0 0 Table 10: Reporting of Sexuality in the Kenya Times - February, March, May and June2004* Sexuality issues Sexuality and sexual education HIV/AIDS Reproductive health and rights Sexual orientation and identity Sexual violence Child marriage Total *January and February data not available News Feature Letter Advertisement Commentary 1 14 0 0 1 35 12 1 0 6 9 7 1 0 1 4 2 0 0 11 38 1 0 0 2 1 0 The Kenya Times newspaper had two articles on the front page, 5 on page two, five on page three and 25 others on page four. Similar to the other newspapers selected, The Kenya Times also had most of the articles in the news and features categories. This would suggest that more readers of the newspaper at least read the articles since readers are more interested in news and feature stories which are the main reasons why people buy newspapers. The Parents Magazine Sexuality issues in the Parents magazine were also largely carried as news and features. There was only one letter and no advertisement or commentary. In particular, news articles accounts for 50% while features accounted for over 44% of the total articles reported by the magazine on sexuality. Table 11: Reporting of Sexuality in the Parents Magazine, March-May 2004* Sexuality issues Sexuality And Sexual Education HIV/AIDS Reproductive Health And Rights Sexual Orientation And Identity Sexual Violence Child Marriage Total * Jan, Feb and June data not available Coverage Of Sexuality Issues in the Print Media in Kenya 0 85 34 2 0 22 News Feature Letter Advertisement Commentary 0 11 1 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
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