Stakeholders in the gender sphere have kicked against bias media reportage of women in elective positions or women disengaged from such positions.
Research conducted by the development, Research And Project Centre (dRCP) found that the bias way of reporting women in public spaces compared to their male counterparts is affecting how other women want to gain entery into the system.
Senior gender adviser dRPC and lecturer at the University of Jos, Dr Plangsat Dayil said when reporting women in positions or those disengaged, some media organisations look at her personal life, beauty or looking at so many unconnected issues but when looking at men in the same position, they talk about technicalities and expertise.
She said this in Abuja at the dRPC in collaboration with National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and Align United Kingdom (UK), dissemination of research findings on ”Experiences of Gender Norms by Women in High-level appointive positions in Nigeria”
Read Also: How FG will remove 50m Nigerians from poverty, by Edu
She added that they did a textual analysis of media reportage around women in elective and appointive positions and saw more sensational reportage in media spaces for women compared to men.
Her words, “From the point of view of our research, we are trying to see how the media can be gender responsive when reporting women in positions or women who have been disengaged or women contesting
“The way they coin and report them affect how other women want to gain entery into the system. Imagine when reporting a woman in positions or those disengaged, you are looking at her personal life and beauty or looking at so many unconnected issues but when looking at men in the same position, you talk about technicalities and expertise, things that are not personal but professional.
“We did a textual analysis of media reportage around women in elective and appointive positions, not necessarily about why women were sacked from such positions and that is why our recommendations are based around how we can change the narratives. To ensure the narratives are same with that of men, issues that are personal like beauty, looks and others shouldn’t be brought up.
“For the women we saw more if sensational reportage more than their male counterparts.”
Part of the report stated, “Women also face character attacks, ranging from their leadership style to moral integrity. Stories about men, however, focus on the facts. While women are much more likely to be described as ‘scandalous’, ‘incompetent’, and ‘corrupt’ in media coverage, softer terminology is more likely to be used in stories about men, such as ‘mismanaged’, ‘misappropriated’ or ‘investigated’.”
“Men are also less likely to be described as incompetent. As well as differences in the lexicon, there are also biases in scope, leading to the over-representation of men’s voices. This biased media representation has significant consequences for women’s visibility and agency in Nigerian public office and underscores the need to address these imbalances.”