GENDER REPRESENTATION IN NORTHERN NIGERIAN NEWS MEDIA A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL NEWS ON FREEDOM RADIO

AN UNPUBLISHED BA MASS COMMUNICATION PROJECT SUBMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS BAYERO UNIVERSITY KANO

BY MAUDE RABIU GWADABE 2008

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION Mass media are central elements of modern life and the media shapes most of what we know about others and ourselves, whilst gender and sexuality remain at the core of how we think about our identities. According to McQuail (1987) the mass media plays a mediating role between objective social reality and personal experience. Hence our perception of groups in society to which we do not belong or cannot observe is partly shaped by the medias mediating role as; A window on experience, which extends our vision, enables us to see what is going on for ourselves without interference or bias; An interpreter, which explains and makes sense of otherwise fragmentary or puzzling events; A platform or carrier of information and opinion; An interactive link, which relates senders to receivers by way of different kinds of feedback; A signpost which actively points the way, gives guidance or instruction; A filter, selecting out parts of experience for special attention and closing off other aspects of experience, whether deliberately and systematically or not; A mirror which reflects back an image of society to itself, usually with some distortion by accentuating what people want to see of their own society or sometimes what they want to punish or suppress; A screen or barrier that conceals truth in the service of propagandist purpose or escapism. This project therefore sets out to find out how the Nigerian media represents women, analyze the effect of such portrayal, and proffer some recommendations to improve the situation.

1.1

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The media according to the Gender and Media Handbook (2005) provide spaces

in which social, political and cultural issues are presented, debated and discussed. They play a significant role in determining which issues will be considered important and legitimate in a society and how they will be defined and discussed. The media do not simply disseminate particular messages to passive audiences. Instead, they produce and disseminate many of the resources information, ideas, ways of thinking, assumptions, frameworks, values, narratives which we actively and continuously use to understand and think about the world, others, our relationships and ourselves. Media resources shape our understandings, which guide our individual actions and activities, and also influence collective decision-making processes and policy formation in the public and political spheres. Thus, the media can play a role in bringing about social change. Although it is an issue that is often neglected, the media play a significant role in providing many of the resources which we use to think about gender and gender related issues: about what it means to be a woman or a man, about gender roles in the public and private spheres, sexuality, parenthood, and what we consider to be (or not to be), natural, normal, acceptable, desirable, and possible in reaction to these aspects of our lives. The media are also sites, or spaces, where gender and gender issues can be discussed and debated, both in news and fiction, and they can play a significant role in determining whether gender issues will widely be considered important and legitimate social, political and cultural issues in a particular society. However, in many places around the world, the media provides an extremely limited range of resources, which promote limited and biased conceptualizations of women. For example, women are portrayed almost exclusively as mothers; they are shown to be creatures of lesser intelligence with interests limited to the domestic sphere, they are valued largely for their ability to have children and for a specific type of idealized beauty which, for the overwhelming majority of women around the world is unattainable, and they are not represented as more complex human beings as men are. According to the Global Media Monitoring Project (2005): Women are dramatically under-represented in the news as only 21 percent of news subjects are women. Women points of view are rarely heard in the

topics that dominate the news agenda. Even in stories that affect women profoundly, such as gender-based violence, it is the male voice that prevails by 64 percent. When women do make the news, it is primarily as stars or ordinary people. As newsmakers, women are underrepresented in professional categories such as law, business and politics. Even in Rwanda where 49 percent of politicians are female, only 13 percent of politicians in the news are female. As authorities and experts, women barely feature in news stories where men are 83 percent of experts and 86 percent of spokespersons. Women are more than twice as likely as men to be portrayed as victims. Female news subjects are more than three times as likely as males to be identified in terms of their family status, and women are much more likely than men to appear in photographs.

This project therefore aims to study the representation of women by Nigerian electronic media using Freedom Radio Kano as a case study. 1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will contribute to the knowledge of the role of the Nigerian media in promoting gender equity and empowering women to participate in national development. It will also help media practitioners and organizations in discharging their social responsibility. 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of this research are to find out the percentage of women featured as news sources, and percentage of news sources that focus on women issues. The study also aims to find out how the broadcast media represents women and what percentage of news items are reported by women.

1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The scope of this project encompasses the content analysis of the Global News bulletin of Freedom Radio Kano.

However time, finance and the pressures of undergraduate studies, which are combined with the project work, are the limitations of the study.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study attempts to answer the following research questions that serve as a guide to the overall development of data collection and interpretation: 1. What percentage of news sources are women? 2. What percentage of news items focus on womens issues? 3. What percentage of news items do women report? 4. How are women represented in the news?

REFERENCE Asika, N. (1991) Research Methodology in the Behavioral Sciences. Ikeja; Longman. Campbell, R. et al (2004) Media and Culture: An Introduction To Mass Communication. Boston; Bedford/St. Martin. McQuail, D. (1987) Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. London; Sage Publications. MIGS (2005) The Gender and Media Handbook: Promoting Equality, Diversity and Empowerment. Nicosia; Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies. WACC (2005) Who Makes the News: Global Media Monitoring Project. New York; World Association for Christian Communication.

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 INTRODUCTION This study draws on diverse sources to examine the concepts of Gender and gender stereotyping. It also presents an ethnographic study of women in Nigeria with particular focus on Hausa women in Northern Nigeria to establish their roles and functions in the society. Theories of media representation and construction of social reality in the portrayal of gender and identity are also presented in this chapter to provide background information on how the media represents women. The literature review also highlights the role of radio as the most powerful medium of Mass Communication in developing countries including Northern Nigeria, which is the area under study. The chapter concludes with a brief profile of Freedom Radio to ascertain its area of coverage.

2.1

GENDER AND GENDER STEREOTYPING Gender refers to the different sets of social and cultural characteristics that are

widely, but falsely, thought to be inherent to each sex as a result of natural or biological reproductive difference. (Kafiris 2005). CIRDDOC (2001) defines gender as: a system of roles and relationships between women and men that are determined not biologically but by the social, political, and economic context. Gender can equally be seen as the process by which individuals who are born into biological categories of male and female become the social categories of men and women through the acquisition of locally defined attributes of masculinity and feminity beyond biological differences, all other differences between men and women are socially constructed and have no logical relationships with their biological compositions. Stereotyping on the other hand, is the process of assigning people to abstract groups, whose members are assumed to act as a single entity rather than as individuals

with distinct identities and to display shared characteristics, which often have negative connotations. (Campbell, et al 2004). Gender stereotyping therefore means identifying different genders with certain shared characteristics that define their unequal roles in society. Men are usually stereotyped as tough, herd, sweaty, authoritative, while women are often stereotyped as weak, sweet, caring and submissive. 2.2 GENDER RELATIONS IN NIGERIA According to Ohunna (2002), gender relations in Nigeria are characterized by a lot of imbalances, to the disadvantage of women. She explains, Tradition, culture, religion and other factors have continued to widen the disparity between Nigerian men and women, by keeping women in a subordinate position to men. She adds that: women more than men suffer from poverty, illiteracy, low self-esteem and harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, misappropriate emphasis on marriage as the only acceptable status for a women, child marriage, polygamy and domestic violence as well as dehumanship widowhood practices. (2002: 3) Okoye (2000) shows that Nigerian women are worst hit by poverty when compared to men, due to their low access to credit and income earning opportunities, as well as their marginalization from major economic activities. Women are also restricted in the ownership of means of production, such as land. Nwankwo (2001) says, Traditionally, women do not own land and therefore cannot inherit land either from their fathers or husbands. Stromquist (1990) attributes the very high rate of illiteracy among rural women in the developing world to the heavy domestic work, which they perform to ensure family subsistence. This is very true in the case of Nigeria. 2.2.1. HAUSA WOMEN OF NORTHERN NIGERIA Gender roles are culture-bound while Nigeria is a multicultural with more than 300 ethnic groups that assign different roles to different genders. The main focus of this research are the Hausa women of Northern Nigeria who are the main inhabitants of the area of operation of freedom Radio Kano, which is the medium selected for analysis.

Fagge (2004) describe the influence of Islam as a way of life that guides the socio-cultural and religious practices of society as a major characteristic of Hausa society. Accordingly, women are expected to marry as soon as they reach puberty, and once married, are expected to remain obedient to their husbands. Callaway and Creevey (1994) argued that in Hausa society a girl is expected to marry, to marry young and to marry a husband chosen for her, to be submissive to him, and to have no wives whether or not it is her wish. However even though this may be true in the rural areas, it is fast changing in the urban centers where girls are allowed to attend Western schools. An important aspect of Hausa marriage is seclusion, which Imam (1987) divides into two, kulle full seclusion and tsari partial seclusion. She explains that prepubertal, post menopausal, and non-married women are not generally secluded. However seclusion of married women is maintained by a number of inter-related factors such stigmatizing women who move around freely as prostitutes, the difficulty for women to maintain themselves independently due to occupational specialization, and lesser access for women to education and training that would enable them move into other occupations. Coles and Mack (1991) added that Islamic law tends to restrain the behavior and autonomy of women in Hausa society. This is absolutely true as the Hausa interpretation of Islamic law dictates that women can only get salvation through obedience to their husbands. However Yusuf (1991) who contends that Hausa women are under-represented, poorly educated and victims of superstitions, are often oppressed and subjected to discrimination in education in education, employment, and political participation asserts that this conditions have been in effect for ages, an slam rather than being the agent of oppression is being used to systematically challenge the situation with many women now reclaiming their rights under Islam. In another study Sule and Starrat (1991) cited in Fagge (2004) observe that Muslim women are not barred affairs, and that they have social options of behaviour, even in the public sphere justifiable within the context of Islam. In fact, Callaway and Creevey conceded that dramatic changes have occurred in the cultural prescription of women in Northern Nigeria. Two of the changes they mention are the emergence of a strong Muslim womens feminist organization and the changing expectations for girls

within Islam itself. (1994:70). These changing expectations relate to aspirations for higher education and later marriage among girls. In the economic field where according to Ashford (1995) women appear to hold lower status and salary levels than man, and are poorly represented in decision-making and the formal workforce all over the world, Hausa women have the undisputed right to keep and dispose of income and resources which they generate from any income generating activity (Yusuf 1991). Added to this is the right to inherit from both sides (mother and father), and be inherited (Fagge 2004). Hausa women also conduct trading, food processing, and craft related activities even in the seclusion (Hill 1969, Imam, 1987: Coles, 1991).

2.3

MEDIA REPRESENTATION Alvarado et al (1987) define representation as the construction in any medium

(especially the mass media) of aspects of reality such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. Hall (1990) notes, The media are part of the dominant means of ideological production. What they produce is precisely representations of the social world, images, descriptions, explanations, and frames for understanding how the world is and why it works as it is said and shown to work. Williams (2003) explains two main approaches to the stud of media representation. These are objectivism and constructivism. The objectivists contend that there is an objective truth that the media misrepresents through bias and stereotyping. However Whitaker (1981) provides a simple example to demonstrate the weakness of the objectivist approach. He takes an every day occurrence; an egg lying broken on the floor, with a man-who is called Joe- standing next to it. He shows how several witnesses can described what happened in a number of different ways: The egg is broken Joe broke the egg The felt Joe dropped the egg

Joe dropped the egg and broke it. The egg felt and broke. The egg rolled from Joes hand and broke. The egg hit the floor and broke.

Whitakers points out that all the accounts are objective in that they contain only facts not openly expressed opinion. But, he states, they are not pure description in that they are all interpretations. On the other hand, the constructivist approach views media representation through the prism of social constructions of reality. Berger and Luckman cited in William (2003) state that. Reality is socially defined. But the definitions are always embodied, that is, concrete individuals and groups of individuals serve as defines of reality. To understand the state of the social constructed universe (of meaning) at any given time, or its change over time, one must understand the social organization that permits the definers to do the defining. Put a little crudely, it is essential to keep pushing questions about the historically available conceptualizations of reality from the abstract what? to the sociologically concrete says who? Watson (2005) identifies the process of social construction of reality with the medias selective process of gate keeping. Citing Galtung and Ruge (1965) he posits that news is selected through the gate keeping process according to rules that arise out of news values. However, once the selection has taken place, two further processes occurdistortion and replication. That is, those characteristics of an event perceived to be newsworthy are accentuated, and inevitably distorted to a greater or lesser degree; and it is the distortion that is replicated. This version of reality is what the audience receives. Westerstahl and Johansson (1994) provide four factors that determine what gets included in the news. These are: whether an event is dramatic, whether it is considered important, whether it is accessible to reporters, photographers or films makers who wish to turn that event into news, and proximity in terns of geography, culture and or economic and political interdependence.

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2.4

REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN THE MEDIA According to Bello (2003) more than ever before, media appraises women based

on how they look and not on their abilities. The ideal women is not only beautiful but also a perfect mother who looks the perfect meal for he family and whitens her husbands dirtiest whit t-shirt at the same time women bodies are continually used to sell cigarettes, liquors, ears, and other male-identified products. A report by the American-based project for excellence in journalism titled, the Gender Gap (2005) notes that in the US, despite rising numbers of women in the workforce and journalism schools, the news of the day still largely comes from male perspective. The study which examines American news media over the course of nine months, finds that more than three quarters of all stories contain male sources, while only a third of stories contain even a single female source. Similarly, the report of the Asia media summit pre-workshop on Gender, May 2005 titled Gender, Women and the Media: An Overview, holds that, women are consistently portrayed in the media as victims, subservient, nurturing, sacrificing, and objectified sexualized beings. Thus, according to the report represents an inaccurate portrayal of the diverse and complex roles women play in Asia and also neglects their contributions to the socio-political and economic development of the society. 2.4.1 REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA MEDIA Omenugha (2005) notes that news values as currently applied in Nigeria thrive on prominence (who is involved). This marginalizes women and the poor as women who make news do so as appendages of the men in power. She adds that women are negatively portrayed in the news as victims or criminals. For example the coverage of human trafficking by the Nigerian media: Trafficking in women and children is a transitional organized crime, which seems to have defied the police, immigration authority and the Nigerian government. Women Rights Watch, a Nigerian non-government organization report the various tortures the victims (especially girls) go through from forced sex slavery, insanity to murder. The traffickers further harass the families in Nigeria, conspiracy of fear and silence heightening the difficulty, in checking the crime.

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But it is the victims rather than the traffickers who are more often penalized by the media. When these girls are deported from their destination country, they are further traumatized through

sensationalisation of the issue in the media. They are displayed on national television and in the daily newspapers. The victims become the criminals. Apart from news coverage, other forms of mass media in Nigeria, such as films and music videos routinely portray women negatively. Okunna (2002) notes that in advertising, women are still portrayed in traditional roles that re-enforce gender stereotypes. Also she asserts that Nigerian home videos show women as wayward and of low morality, easily lured by material things, subservient to men, causes of family problems, fit for domestic rather than professional career roles, lazy and dependent on men. According to Fagge (2004) Hausa home videos consistently show women as mans subordinates in a patriarchal world. They are also depicted as irrational, unstable, completive and destructive. 2.5 RADIO IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Radio is the most ubiquitous mass media in the developing countries (Onabajo 1999). This is because radio signals can reach almost message while radio receivers are affordable, accessible and portable. 2.6 BRIEF ON FREEDOM RADIO Freedom radio Kano is an FM station which uses talk radio format. It has a 10kilowatt transmitter that extends its reception area to a radius of 200 kilometers from its base in Kano. It is therefore received in most of the eastern part of Hausa land.

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REFERENCES: Alvarado, M, et al (1987) Learning the Media London: Macmillan. AMS (2005) Gender, women and the Media: An Overview Kuala Lumpur: Asia Media Summit Pre-workshop on Gender. Ashford, L. S. (1995) New Perspectives on Population: Lessons from Cairo. Population Bulletin vol. 50, No. 1 Population Reference Bureau. Bello, C. R. (2003) Women and Media: Progress and Issues London: Macmillan. Calaway, B and Creevey L (1994) The Heritage of Islam Women, Religion and Politics in west Africa. Pounder and London Lynne Reinner. Campbell, et al (2004) Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication Boston: Bedford 1st Martins. CIRDDOC (2001) Gender and politics in Nigeria CIRDDOC Public education series N0. 5 Enugu: fourth dimension publishers. Coles, C and Mack B (1999) (eds) Hausa women in the twentieth century the university of Wisconsin press. Fagge, A.M (2002) Women religion and guilt in hausa home videos: an assessment in adamu et al (eds), hausa home videos: technology, economy, and society. Kano: center for hausa cultural studies. Galtung, J and Ruge, MC (1965) The structure of foreign news: the presentation of the congo, cuba, and Cyprus crisis in four foreign newspapers. Journal of international peace research. Hall, S (1990) The whites of their eyes: racist ideologies and the media. In alvarado, M and Thompson, J. O. (eds) The media readers UK: BFJ. Dafiris, K (2005) Gender and the media A hake-up call in the Gender and media handbook: promoting equality: diversity and empowerment. Nicosia:

mediteramen institute of Gender studies. Okoye, I.K (2000) Political leaders in African development: Imperative for the 21st century: in Orjiakor et al (eds), challenges of national development and growth in Nigeria enugu: john Jacobs classics.

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Okunna, C.S (2002) Gender and communications in Nigeria: is this the twenty first century Africa media review vol. 16 No. 2. Omenugha, K.A (2005) Poverty, media and Gender in Nigeria. In journal of communication 31/2005. Onabanjo, O (1999) Essentials of broadcast writing and production Lagos: Gabi concept limited. PEJ (2005) The Gender gap: women are skill missing as sources for journalists Washington D.C. Project for excellence in journalism. Stromquis, N (1990) Women and literacy promises and constraints media development 1/1990. WACC (2005) Who makes the news: global media monitoring project new york world association for Christian communication. Wattson, J. (2005) Representing realities: an overview of news framing paper presented at interntioal symposium on the dynamic of the civil society in multicultural world, keio university, Japan. Westerstalil, J and Folke J. (1994) Foreign news: news values and ideologies European journal of communications. Vol. 9, No. 1. Whitaker, B (1981) News limited: why you carit read all about it London: minority press group. Williams, K (2003) understanding media theory London Arnold. Yusuf, B (1991) Hausa Fulani women: the state o the struggle in e. coles and B. Mack (eds) Hausa women in the twentieth century. The university of hisconsin press.

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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

3.0 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK: This research uses the genre theory of social construction as its theoretical framework. This is because it focuses on the practices adopted in the media production process as shaping the nature of representation (Williams 2003). According to Turrow (1997) The media encourage formulas or formats by which products with a good chance of success in the market place can be easily manufactured. He further defines formulas as widely recognized principles for selecting and organizing material. (Turrow 1997: 218). Also Tiffen (1989) argues that formulas actively shape content. Genre theory is associated with the study of moving images (Hansen et al, 1998) but has increasingly been applied to other media forms. News is seen as constructed around a particular formula, which is implicitly part of the working assumptions of all news producers (Bell, 1991, fowler; 1991). The conventions of the news story, its ordering and presentation, its narrative structure, have been shown to shape not only what becomes news but also how it is presented (Gans, 1979; Schudson, 1995). Feuer (1987) identifies three distinct approaches to genre study, which comprise of the aesthetic, the ritual, and the ideological. The aesthetic approach examinations genres in terms of the degree of artistic expression they allow and whether the work of individual authors or practitioners transcends its genre. The ritual approach sees genres as exchanges between industry and audience, which involves the negotiation of shared beliefs and values. Genres are analyzed as forms of cultural expression, how society speaks to itself through the negotiation of commercial and production needs of industry and the wants and desires of the audience. The ideological approach analyses genres as vehicles for the reproduction of dominant ideologies such as capitalism, nationalism, individualism, sexism, racism and class structure.

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3.1:

METHODOLOGY Mitchell (1968) defines methodology as a technique, which a particular discipline

uses to manipulate data and acquire knowledge. The methodology adopted for this research is content analysis. According to Williams (2005), content analysis is essentially a counting exercise. Usually certain conceptual categories are established and then quantitatively assessed against their presence or absence in the content of the media. 3.1.1 POPULATION OF STUDY:

Asika (1991) defines population of study as a census of all items or subjects that possess the characteristics, or that have the knowledge of the phenomenon, being studied. Therefore the population of this study is the entire global news editions of Freedom Radio, Kano. 3.1.2. SAMPLE: Wimmer and Dominick (2003) define sample as a sub-set of the population the entire population. The selected sample for this study is one-week production of the Global news of Freedom radio. Lynch and Peer (2002), in their work on newspaper content analysis, recommended studying a weeks worth of newspapers which allows a very thorough look at a newspaper in the most efficient way. 3.1.3 SELECTION: The selected sample for his study is the Global News bulletin of the first week of November 2008 3.1.4 JUSTIFICATION: The first week of November bulletin is selected for its recency, which implies accessibility to the researcher, and because no major event occurred that may disrupt the normal pattern of the news, thereby distorting the result.

3.1.5 UNITS OF ANALYSIS

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The unit analysis in this research is the news reports, weather forecasts, business, and history reports in the news bulletin. 3.1.6 INSTRUMENT OF DATA COLLECTION: The instrument of data collection in this research is the coding sheet, which gathers data on the subject of the news, its geographical focus, the people in the news, and the journalists that report and present the news.

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REFERENCE: Asika, N (1991) Research Methodology in the Behavioral Science. Ikeja: Longman. Bell, A. (1991) The Language of the News Media. Oxford: Blackwell. Fever, J. (1987) Genre Study and Television in Allen, R (ed) Channels of Discourse London: Methuen. Folwer, R (1979) Deciding Whats News. New York: Pantheon Books. Hansen, A et al (1998) Mass Communication Research Methods. London: Macmillan. Lynch S. , Peer, L (2002) Analyzing Newspaper Content. Evanston: Readership Institute. Schudson, M (1995) The power of News. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Tiffen, R (1989) News and Power. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Turrow, J. (1997) Media Systems in Society: Understanding Industries, Strategies and Power. London: Longman. Williams, K. (2003) Understanding Media Theory. London: Arnold. Wimmer, R. and Dominick, J. (2003) Mass Media Research: An Introduction. Belmont: Thompson Wordsworth Publishers.

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CHAPTER FOUR DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter analyses and interprets the data collected from the content analysis of the news bulletin of Freedom Radio Kano to find answers to the stated research questions. The data was generated from the thirteen aspects of news stories in the seven news bulletins of the first week of November 2008 on Freedom Radio Kano. 4.1 DATA PRESENTATION FIGURE 1: NUMBER OF STORIES

Number of Stories
20 15 10 5 0

The above data shows that a total of one hundred and sixteen news stories were analyzed in the seven news bulletins of the first week of November 2008 on Freedom Radio Kano. 19

11 / /1

11 / /2 08

11 / /3 08

11 / /4 08

11 / /5 08

11 / /6 08

11 / /7 08 08

TABLE 1: SUBJECTS OF THE STORIES SUBJECT Domestic Politics Education Religion, Culture, and Tradition Economic indicators Non-violent Crimes Weather History Rural Economy and Agriculture Poverty and Social Welfare Labor issues Disasters and Accidents Economic Policies Epidemics and Diseases Science and Technology War and Terrorism Legal System and Legislation Human Rights Environment and Tourism Sports Media Riots and Demonstrations International Politics HIV/AIDS Womens Right and Gender Equality Consumer issues Medicine and Health Birth Control and Fertility Arts and Entertainment NUMBER 12 11 9 8 7 6 6 6 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 PERCENTAGE 10.34 9.48 7.75 6.90 6.03 5.17 5.17 5.17 3.45 3.45 3.45 3.45 2.59 2.59 2.59 2.59 2.59 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.72 1.72 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.86

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Family Relations Celebrity News TOTAL

1 1 116

0.86 0.86 100

Table One shows that only two news stories representing 1.72 percent of the total 116 focus on women movement and gender equality while domestic politics has the highest coverage with 12 news items representing 10.34 percent of the total 116.

FIGURE TWO: GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE STORIES

Geographic Scope of the Stories

10% 12% 40% Local National Regional International

38%

The data shows that local stories have the highest coverage with 46 news items or 40 percent of the total followed by National stories with 44 items representing 38 percent. Regional stories that involve Nigeria and neighboring countries consist of 14 items or 12 percent while International stories have the least number of 12 items accounting for 10 percent of the news.

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TABLE 2: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS ROLE Presenters Reporters Weather forecasters Sources 205 182 88.78 21 10.24 2 0.98 NUMBER 12 103 13 MALE % 6 65 5 50 63.10 38.46 FEMALE 6 10 8 % 50 9.72 61.54 NIL 28 % 27.18 -

The above data presents the gender ratio of people in the news. It shows that presenters have an equal female to male ratio of fifty percent each. However, out of the 103 news items, 65 representing 63.10 percent were reported by male reporters while female journalists reported only 10 news items representing 9.72 percent. The remaining 28 items accounting for 27.18 percent were reported by persons whose gender could not be ascertained. This is because Freedom Radio uses the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as one of its news sources and the agency does not supply the identity of its reporters. Therefore the researcher could not identify their gender. On the other hand, female reporters dominated weather forecasting by 61.54 percent representing 8 out of the 13 items while male reporters have only 38.46 percent or five of the 13 items. Moreover, it shows that news sources are overwhelmingly male with 182 of 205 representing 88.78 percent while female sources are 10.24 percent or 21 out of 205. The remaining two sources representing 0.98 percent are of unidentifiable gender as they are sourced from press releases that do not have personal names.

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TABLE 3: OCCUPATION OF NEWS SOURCES OCCUPATION/POSITION Government official/Politician Media Professional Business Person Academic Expert Royalty Not stated Social Activist Civil Servant Scientist/Technician Police/Military/Para-Military Legal Expert Resident Health Worker Artisan/Laborer Student Homemaker/Parent TOTAL NUMBER 103 16 15 8 8 8 7 6 6 5 5 4 3 3 3 3 205 PERCENT 50.24 07.80 07.32 03.90 03.90 03.90 03.41 02.93 02.93 02.45 02.45 01.95 01.46 01.46 01.46 01.46 100.00

The above table shows that more than half of news sources or 50.24 percent are government officials or politicians.

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FIGURE 3: FUNCTIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Functions of People in the News

n inio p rO ula or op P tat n me m s /Co rt ew 0 N pe Ex the of ct je ub S

20

40

60

80

100 120

The figure above shows that 55.61 percent of news sources function as subjects. That is, the news is about them but they are not the ones that speak on the issue. Also, 35.12 percent are spokespersons of communities or organizations while 5.37 percent serve as experts or commentators. Moreover, 1.46 percent express popular opinion and another 1.46 percent share their personal experience, while the remaining 0.98 percent function as eyewitnesses.

TABLE 4: CHARACTERISTICS OF NEWS SOURCES CHARACTERISTIC YES Family Relations Victims Survivors 5 10 5 % 2.44 4.88 2.44 NO 200 195 200 % 97.56 95.12 97.56 TOTAL 205 205 205 % 100 100 100

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The data above shows that 2.44 percent of the news sources are described in terms of their family relationships such as wife, husband, son, or daughter. Additionally, 4.88 percent are described as victims of accidents or natural disasters while 2.44 percent are characterized as survivors of accidents or natural disasters.

TABLE 5: GENDER ANALYSIS OF NEWS STORIES YES % NO % NIL % TOTAL %

Focus on Women

4.31 2.59 4.31

111 113 2

95.69 97.41 1.72 109

93.97

116 116 116

100 100 100

Highlights inequality 3 Challenges Stereotype 5

The above data shows that out of the total 116 news stories, only five have women issues as their central focus, three of which highlight gender inequality. Moreover, five of the stories challenge the usual stereotypes of women as weak and dependent, two stories reinforce the stereotypes while the remaining 109 neither challenge nor reinforce the existing stereotypes on women.

4.2

ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In Chapter one of this work, four research questions were raised with the aim of answering them with the data gathered from content analysis of the selected news bulletin. The questions are answered as follows: Q1: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF NEWS SOURCES ARE WOMEN? Data from Table 2 shows that out of the 205 news sources, 21 are women, 182 are men while the gender of the remaining two could not be ascertained. Hence women make up 10.24 percent of all news sources while men outnumber them with 88.78 percent.

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Q2: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF NEWS ITEMS FOCUS ON WOMEN ISSUES? Data from Table 5 shows that only five of the 116 news items representing 4.31 percent focus on womens issues. Q3: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF NEWS ITEMS DO WOMEN REPORT? Data from Table 2 shows that women reported 18 of the 116 news items representing 15.52 percent. Men, however, reported 70 items representing 60.34 percent of the total 116 stories. Q4: HOW ARE WOMEN REPRESENTED IN THE NEWS? FIGURE 4: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN BY OCCUPATION

Representation of Women by Occupation

6 5 4 3 2 1 0
G em ov ak er er nm /P a Bu en re si t O nt ne f ss ficia Pe l rs o Ac n tiv R ist oy M ed a ia Ce lty P le Ac rof bri ad es ty em sio ic n a Ex l M ilit p ar St ert y/ Pa ud ra e n m t ilit ar y
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om

The Figure above shows that women are equally represented as homemakers and government officials. However, it is instructive to note that not a single man is characterized as a homemaker. FIGURE 5: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN BY FUNCTION

Representation of Women by Function

10% 29% 61%

Subject of the News Spokesperson Personal Experience

The above Figure shows that most women in the news (61.91 percent) function as passive subjects without a voice of their own. 28.57 percent serve as spokespersons while 9.52 percent provide their personal experience. However, not a single woman is featured as an expert or commentator on any news event. YES Family relations 4 % 19.05 NO 17 % 80.95 TOTAL 21 % 100

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The data above show that 19.05 percent of women are defined according to their family relationships. However, only 0.5 percent of male sources were defined in terms of family relationships.

TABLE 7: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AS VICTIMS OR SURVIVORS. YES Victims Survivors 2 % 9.52 NO 19 21 % 90.48 100 TOTAL 21 21 % 100 100

The Table above shows that 9.52 percent of women in the news are described as victims while none are characterized as survivors. This reinforces the image of women as weaklings. The foregoing therefore shows that the broadcast media represents women as homemakers though allowance is given to other professions. Women are mostly presented as passive news subjects rather than active participants or expert commentators. Moreover, they are much more likely than men to be defined in terms of their family relationships, thereby emphasizing their dependency. Additionally, women are represented as victims rather than survivors.

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CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to examine how the broadcast media represent women and the percentage of women that present report and feature in the news. Based on the several literature reviewed the study finds that the media usually represents women in stereotypical manner that portrays them as weak or subordinate to men. The study was theoretically guided by the genre theory of social construction and the data for this research was gathered using the content analysis method. After analyzing the data, the following conclusion was reached. 5.2. CONCLUSION This study found that women are as likely to present the news as men. However, men are more likely to report the news than women. Therefore most of the news is reported from the male point of view. Also, men are much more likely than women to appear in the news. When women do appear in the news, they are most likely to be presented as passive subjects, characterized as home makers, defined in terms of their relationship with men, and more often than not portrayed as victims rather than survivors. 5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS In order to solve some of the problems discovered in the process of this study, the researcher suggest the following recommendations: 1. Media managers and editorial staff should develop policies to improve gender balance in their news reportage through consultations with experts and academics. 2. Some news values need to be changed to address the undue importance given to prominent persons and allow newsmakers to be more representative of the targeted population. 3. Training of journalists from universities and colleges to on-the-job training should include sensitization on the impact of gender on journalistic choices and decisions.

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4. Media corporations need to develop systematic monitoring and evaluation techniques to periodically assess their gender sensitivity and work towards a more balanced reportage.

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APPENDIX: THE CODING SHEET

Date: Number of Anchors: Story 1 2 3 4 5 6 People 7 8 9 10 11 Analsis 12 13

10

11

12

13

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CODING SYSTEM 1. 2. Item number: the serial number of the study within the newscast. Subject what the story is about 45 subjects have been developed to categories the stories within eight themes. They are: POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: 1. 2. Domestic politics/government elections, speeches, the political process. Foreign/international politics, relations with other countries, negotiations, treaties, United Nation peacekeeping. 3. 4. National defense, military spending, military training. Other stories on politics and government.

ECONOMY: 5. 6. 7. 8. Economic polices, strategies, models. Economic indicators, statistics, business, trade, stock markets. Poverty, housing, social welfare, aid Labour issues, strikes, trade unions, negotiations, employment, and unemployment. 9. Rural economy, agriculture, farming practices, Agricultural policies, land rights. 10. 11. 12. Consumer issues, consumer protection, regulation, prices, consumer fraud. Transport, traffic, roads. Other stories on the economy.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH: 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Science, technology, research, funding, discoveries, Medicine, health hygiene, safety, disability HIV/AIDS Other epidemics, virus, contagions. Birth control, fertility sterilization. Environment, nature, pollution, global warning ecology, tourism. Other stories on science or health.

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SOCIAL AND LEGAL: 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Development issues, sustainability Education literacy, child cares. Family relates, inter generational conflicts Human rights. Religion, culture, tradition. Migration, refugees, asylum seekers, racism, xenophobia, ethnic conflict, integration. 26. 27. Womens movement, activism, gender equality. Changing gender relations, roles and relationships of men and women inside and outside the house. 28. 29. 30. Family law, inheritance law and rights. Legal system judicial system, legislation Other stories on social and legal issues.

CRIME AND VIOLENCE: 31. 32. 33. Non-violent crime, bribery, corruption, drug dealing. Violent crime, murder, abduction, kidnaps. Gender based violence, rape, trafficking, genital mutilation, and domestic violence. 34. 35. 36. 37. War, civil war, terrorism, state based violence. Riots, demonstrations, public disorder. Disaster, accident, famine, earthquake. Other stories on crime and violence.

CELEBRITY, ARTS AND MEDIA: 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. Celebrity news, births, marriage, death. Arts, entertainment, leisure, cinema, books. Media pornography, portrayal of women. Beauty contests, fashion, beauty aids. Sports Other stories on celebrities, arts, and media.

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WEATHER REPORT: 44. Weather forecast.

OTHER: 45. Other subject not inculcated in the prescribed categories.

3.

SCOPE OF THE STORY: The geographical focus of the story item.

0. Do not know 1. Local: Has importance within Kano only. 2. National: has nationwide importance.

3. Regional: involves Nigeria and other countries 4. Foreign, international: Involves other countries or the world in general.

4. JOURNALISTS AND PEOPLE IN THE NEWS 1. Role: 2. Anchor, presenter or newscaster. 3. Other journalists: weather forecaster analyst. 4. Person in the news: interviewee, commentator, analyst, and spokesperson, person whom the story is about. 5. GENDER 1. Female 2. Male 3. Do not know.

NOTE: The remaining codes are for people in the news only. They are not needed for casters reporters, and other journalists.

6. 0. 1. 2. 3.

OCCUPATIONS OR POSITION: Not stated Royalty Government official, political leaders, political party spokesperson. Government employee, public servant.

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4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 7. 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Military and Para-military personnel Academic expert. Health or social service professional Science or technology professional. Media professional. Lawyer, judge, legal professional. Business Person, executive, manager. Non-management office worker. Tradesperson, artisan, laborer, Agriculture, mining, fishing, forestry works Religious figure. Activist or worker in civil society organizations. Sex worker. Celebrity, artist, actor. Sports persons Student. Home maker, parent Child Resident Retired person Criminal suspect Unemployed Other. FUNCTION IN THE NEWS STORY: Do not know Subject Spokesperson Expert or commentator Personal experience Eye witness Popular opinion

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7. 8. 0. 1. 9.

Other FAMILY RELATIONSHIP Person not described in terms of fairly relationship Person described in terms of family relations VICTIM

Does the story clearly identify this person as a victim? 0. Not a victim 1. Victim of accident or natural disaster. 2. Victim of domestic violence. 3. Victim of non-domestic sexual violence. 4. Victim of other crime. 5. Victim of violation based on religion of culture 6. Victim of war, terrorism, state based violence 7. Victim of discrimination 8. Other victim 9. Do not know, cannot decide. 10. SURVIVOR: Does the story clearly identify this person as a survivor? 0. Not a survivor 1. Survivor of an accident or natural disaster 2. Survivor of domestic violence. 3. Survivor of non-domestic sexual violence. Survivor of other crime 4. Survivor of violation based on religion and culture. 5. Survivor of war, terrorism, State based violence. 6. Survivor of war, terrorism state based violence 7. Survivor of discrimination 8. Other survivor. 9. Too not know, cannot decide.

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C.

ANALYSIS: 11. Are women central to the news in this story? 2. 3. 4. Yes, women are central to the news No, women are not central to the news Do not know, cannot decide.

12. Does the story clearly highlight issues concerning equality or inequality between women and men? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Do not know, cannot decide 13. Does the story clearly challenge or clearly reinforce stereotypes about women and/or men? 1. 2. 3. 4. Clearly challenges stereotypes. Clearly reinforces stereotypes Neither challenges nor reinforces stereotypes. Do not know, cannot decide.

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