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Gender and Media Audience Study (GMAS)
Gender Links
June 13, 2006

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=44

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The Gender and Media Audience Study (GMAS) was conducted by Gender Links (GL) in partnership with the Gender and Media Zimbabwe (GEMZi) chapter of the Gender and Media Southern African (GEMSA) network. While there have been demographic surveys in Zimbabwe on women’s and men’s access to media, this is the first study on audience news consumption patterns and preferences in the country generally.

The findings are based on the responses of 92 women and 87 men, a total sample of 179 from Harare, Bulawayo and Rusape. The theoretical framework for the research and the methodology are described in the overview to this report.

Key findings

Television is the most important source of news:
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%) and men (34%) stating that television is their main source of news. Radio is the second most important source of news for women (36%) and men (33%).

Zimbabwean men are the biggest consumers of newspapers in the whole study, but there is as big gender gap in readership:
With 30% men citing newspapers as their main source of news, Zimbabwean men are the highest consumers of newspapers in the study; a finding that reflects the high levels of literacy and political awareness in the country. However, as in most other countries in the region, there is a big gender gap in newspaper readership, with only half this proportion of women citing newspapers as their main source of news.

The Internet is still gaining ground:
With 3% men and 2% women citing the Internet as their main source of news Zimbabwe comes in slightly higher than the regional average of 2% men and 1% women. However, there are clearly still challenges ahead in increasing access to the Internet, and closing the gender gap.

Women and men prefer short news reports:
Consistent with the regional findings, women (53%) and men (51%) interviewed in Zimbabwe prefer short news reports to any other genre. This is followed by in-depth features and documentaries, because of the high literacy levels in the country.

Interactive news is popular in Zimbabwe, especially among women:
A relatively high proportion of women (21%) and men (17%) cited news that asks for feedback like letters to the editors and talk shows as among their favourite genre. These findings are higher than the regional figures of women (12%) and men (10%). This may be explained by the growing civic activism among women and men in Zimbabwe during the past five years as the country grapples with political and economic challenges.

Opinion and commentary still lag behind, but more women in Zimbabwe preferred this genre than men:
As in the rest of the region, women and men did not identify opinion and commentary as their most important news genre. However, slightly more women (7% compared to the region’s 5% women) than men (5%, same as the region) chose this genre. This is a positive indication of women engaging with this medium as they become more educated, both as readers and as writers of opinion and commentary pieces.

There are gender gaps in who decides on the news medium:
In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere in the region, the majority of women and men make their own choices about which medium to access the news from, although more men (56%) than women (46%) exercise this choice.

There are high levels of gender awareness among women media consumers in Zimbabwe: More women interviewed in Zimbabwe (59%) compared to the region (42%) stated that the news does not reflect the concerns of men and women equally. Only 26% of the women (compared to 42% men) said that the news reflects women and men equally. Some 53% of the Zimbabwean female respondents (compared to 42% in the region) said that the media’s sources are not diverse. The high level of gender and media awareness among women in Zimbabwe, as compared to many other countries in the region, reflects the advocacy work of organisations such as MISA and GEMZi. More work needs to be done, however, with men in the country.

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