Journalists Charged On Women -Friendly Reporting ,Unconscious Gender  Bias 

Sola POPOOLA
The Media,particularly Political Reporters have been charged to scale up positive reporting  about women in the political space and other sectors.
This was the focal point at  a two-day capacity building for Political Reporters and Media .The programme, organised by Women Radio 91.7 FM with support from UN women and Government of Canada  drawn the attention of journalists to some unconscious biases against female folks.
The event,which drawn  participants from Print,Electronic as well as new media was to promote gender inclusive reporting in business, politics, civil societies organizations and other sectors in Ekiti state.
The forum which also decried the low representation of women in politics and governance
It was revealed  that only one female Governorship  candidate would be on ballot with 18 Male  Presidential candidates in the 2023 elections .
At present, Nigeria has a Male dominated National Assembly with 18 women in the 360 members .The story is not different at the Red Chamber with only  8 women out of the 109 senators .
Similarly, three deputy governors in Lagos,Ekiti and Rivers ,while 368 women councillors out of 2,075 .
Advocating a change in the abysmal representation,the  communications officer of Women Radio , Elizabeth Aboh said the media has a greater role to play in promoting gender inclusion.
Aboh added that women have potentials and capacity to effect the needed change in the society like their men fold, saying the media should focus on portraying the strengths of women rather than amplying their weaknesses and drawbacks.
She said, “ We are here to equip reporters on the need to report and give visibility to women as they do to men for us to achieve our potentials and contribute to the development of the society.
“ Women are valuable and have the capacity to lead and be agent of change. Let us report women positively.”
Anither speaker, Omozele Umoren explained that the training became necessary to bridge the gap in reportage of women in various fields of human endeavor especially in politics.
The  former commissioner for Information in the state, Mrs Fola Richie-Adewusi urged media to be above board in their reportage and be inclusive so as not to portray the country as against the women.
While emphasizing the role of women in the any society, disclosed that over 52 percent of women participated and voted during the last July 21, 2022 governorship election in Osun state as against the 47 percent men representation.
She said ” there is need for the media to shun the act of stereotyping and giving voice to anti-women reports in their respective platforms, lamenting that these acts over the years have impeded the growth of women in the society.
Richie-Adewusi who reiterated the possibility of a 50-50 media reportage strategy, said that reporters in their news, interviews and documentaries should offer inclusive, balance and responsive reports to women in leadership like that of men.
On her part, the national vice president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (B-zone) Mrs Ronke Afebioye-Samo who delivered two papers highlighted the effective ways journalists could help in promoting the success and attainments of women and sustained the reportage until something positive happened.
She hinted that one of ways was to pay equal attention to women who are doing well in their chosen careers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *