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Analysis
of coverage of women politicians by the print media in Zimbabwe
Women in Politics
Support Unit (WiPSU)
January 2003
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Introduction
The
media plays a significant role in determining how women in politics
and decision- making are viewed and perceived by society in general.
The media not only plays an important role in shaping the values
of society but also reflects those values. Armstrong and Hlapo said,
"Many of the attitudes that constrain women in their domestic,
economic and social roles are firmly grounded in traditional society
and efforts to change the situation of women should imply changes
in society as a whole". The media is a chronicler of events,
an informer, an educator, a transformative space and a tool to change
society. It has the capacity to make a very positive contribution
towards social change. Women in politics play a vital role in ensuring
the democratic governance of this country and therefore their contribution
to this processes need to be analyzed in the appropriate context
by the media. Women’s issues as raised by the women politicians
show the democratic participation of the Zimbabwean woman. There
cannot be a real democracy if the voices and issues of 51% of the
country’s population are ignored or sidelined.
In order to
conduct a systematic analysis of how women are covered in the media,
Women in Politics Support Unit, WiPSU, initiated an internal data
capturing process where a daily monitoring of newspapers would be
conducted and any article on women Parliamentarians and councilors
would be collected. The articles are analyzed to give an overview
of how women are portrayed and the implications of that portrayal
on women and women’s issues in Zimbabwe.
This media analysis
will assist in determining whether or not women’s voices and issues
are articulated to the public as matters of importance. It can also
be used as a basis for assessing what could be done to ensure that
women’s voices and women’s issues are regarded as important.
Scope of
this Analysis
The
media monitoring initiative covered the local daily and weekly newspapers
from both the independent and state media. The newspapers are the
Herald, the Daily News, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mail, the Weekly
Standard, the Independent, the Financial Gazette, and the Weekly
Tribune. The variety of papers would make it possible to analyze
the coverage from a comprehensive perspective. Great care and effort
were taken such that the margin of error is really negligible. This
analysis covered the period September to December 2002.
In order for
a report to qualify it has to have reference to a particular woman
in elected public office. This means a woman Parliamentarian or
Councilor. It would not be adequate for an article to merely refer
to Parliamentarians or Councilors without linking it to a particular
woman or women specifically. An article covering a woman in her
capacity as Minister or Governor would qualify because in the current
Constitutional framework, Ministers and Governors are members of
Parliament. In some cases women Ministers are in fact elected parliamentarians.
These articles would also assist in determining if women get more
coverage as Ministers or Governor as compared to their capacity
as Members of Parliament or Council.
Conclusion
The analysis
of the media reports show that there is need for a lot of work to
be done for women politicians to be reported on more often and in
a positive manner that will bring out the fact that they are able
and effective leaders. The challenge lies with the media to begin
to recognize women politicians, their voices, their contributions
in decision-making, their highlighting of women’s issues and the
work they are doing in their capacities as representatives of communities.
There is need to highlight the women Councilors and the nature of
women’s political participation, which is greater at local government
level.
The media houses
should not use the current polarization in our society to divide
women but to accurately report on women politicians and women’s
issues. It is a great challenge to the media houses in this country.
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