There remains a glaring gap in the coverage of women across newspapers, TV, and digital platforms in East Africa, according to a report by the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications.
The report, ‘The State of Women in the Media: Coverage and Framing of Women in East African Media’, reveals that the framing of women in newspaper articles is progressive, with 50% of the articles framing women in a very positive and progressive light.
The research delved into the intricate dynamics of media framing, coverage, and the representation of women in newsrooms.
The findings were from six newspapers, six TV stations, seven digital publishers in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and 54, 65 and 81 news media organisations from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, respectively, whose documents and programming were analysed.
The study reveals that in Kenya, women predominantly miss the headline stories of most newspapers in East Africa.
They are neither mentioned nor covered in most headline stories, with 23% of the sampled days having no mention or coverage of women in Kenyan newspapers.
In Uganda and Tanzania, the absence of women in the headline stories is even more alarming, at 55% and 39%, respectively.
“The findings reveal troubling disparities: while women constitute a significant portion of the media workforce, they are disproportionately underrepresented in key areas, particularly in creating and disseminating news stories. Even more concerning is that most of the stories covering women are authored by male journalists, highlighting a critical imbalance in perspectives and narratives,” noted Prof. Nancy Booker, Dean at the Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC).
Prof. Booker noted that women remain underrepresented in business and editorial positions within media houses throughout the region.
The research also reveals that newspapers, particularly in Uganda (55%) and Tanzania (39%), often have days with no mention or coverage of women in headline stories.
While having only 27% of such days, Kenya contributes to an East African average of 40% of headline stories with no women mentioned.
The absence of coverage of women in headline stories suggests a potential omission of women in stories deemed highly relevant and deliberately directed at readers for optimal attention.
“For far too long, women have been left out of the data which is used to create policies and programs. My office is keen to ensure that women are represented in politics, economy, data, engineering, and the media. I therefore commend this report, which is instrumental in providing that data, especially on both traditional and digital media,” said the Presidential Advisor on Women Rights, Hon. Harriette Chiggai.
However, the framing of women and their expertise in news stories that featured women in newspapers, TV and digital media media was generally positive. Most newspaper stories emphasize salient aspects of women that are progressive within the context of gender equity. Uganda had more stories with a positive frame for women than Kenya and Tanzania.
“We must confront these gender disparities and work collectively to effect meaningful change. By amplifying women’s voices, challenging existing narratives, and advocating for gender-inclusive media practices, we can have a more equitable and representative media landscape,” added Prof. Booker.
Despite the gap in the representation of women, the study reveals that the framing of women in newspaper articles is progressive, with 50% of the articles framing women in a very positive and progressive light.
Newspapers seem to have paid in-depth attention to stories that framed women as succeeding in what they do, women as heroines of success stories, and women as breaking the glass ceiling in a fashion that normalized women’s success, as most of the stories that framed women along these attributes were treated as feature stories.
TV, on the other hand, gave in-depth attention to stories that framed women as victims of circumstances, including victims of male-dominated world women as the cause of problems and failures in different circumstances and framed women as subservient/submissive to men.
The study emphasised the pivotal role of diversity in newsrooms in shaping media narratives on gender issues, highlighting the need for more women in decision-making roles within news organisations.
The research was done under the Advancing Gender Equality in Media and Civil Society in East Africa (AGEMC-EA) project, which is being implemented by GSMC in collaboration with the Aga Khan Foundation, with support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
This project identifies the media as vital to strengthening women’s empowerment and gender equality.
