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Zimbaweans use net, newspapers for information
The Daily Mirror (Zimbabwe)
June 08, 2006

http://www.dailymirror.co.zw/dailymirror/view_news.cfm?

ZIMBABWEANS, especially males, use newspapers and the internet as their primary source of news more than their counterparts in the sub-region, a survey by Gender Links on Gender and Media Audiences study revealed.

Gender Links is a regional non-governmental organisation specialising in media research and gender analysis on news in the media.

It carried out the survey across southern African countries, while in Zimbabwe its research covered Harare, Bulawayo and Rusape with 179 respondents – 92 women and 87 men.

Gender Links executive director, Colleen Lowe-Morna, presented the findings at a meeting in Harare on Tuesday.

According to the survey, men were the biggest consumers of newspapers in the region with 30 percent citing the print media as their chief source of news.

Said the report: "Higher readership of newspapers in Zimbabwe is as a result of high levels of literacy and political awareness in the country. However, as in the rest of the countries in the region, Zimbabwe had only 15 percent of women citing newspapers as their primary source of news."

Zimbabwe also took the lead in the use of internet as another reliable source of news.

"With three percent men and two percent women citing the internet as their main source of news it is slightly higher than the regional average of two percent men and one percent women," the report said.

It was, however, noted that challenges still lay ahead in increasing access to the Internet as well as closing the gender gap.

"Our survey shows the audiences prefer short news reports, in-depth features and news that ask for feedback. Audiences are tired of political news, violence and bad news in general," said Lowe-Morna.

It was observed that audiences were more interested in human-interest stories, community news and positive copy in general concerning the communities nearer to them in comparison to news on violence or disasters.

Television proved to be the most important news source among the respondents followed by radio, newspapers and Internet.

"Zimbabwe like Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Mozambique, deviates from the regional pattern of radio as the main source of news, with most women (46 percent) and men (34 percent) stating it as their main source of news," said the survey.

The research showed that audiences in the country (both males and females) had clear views on the portrayal of gender-based issues.

It highlighted that women were more likely to feature in news in roles such as victims, health workers, beauty contestants, homemakers and sex workers.

On the other hand, men are generally shown as politicians, businesspersons, government officials, criminals and members of the security forces.

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