Making Women’s Day work for women

Posted: 24 July 2007 | News - Newsletter | Categories:

Currently, the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) is supporting media freedom and best practice, in two different ways. One is through using media monitoring and feedback to media and the other is to ensure codes of conduct reflect human rights ideas. This newsletter reflects MMP’s challenge to media to make women’s day work for women and our submission to the ICASA code of conduct for broadcasters.

Women’s Day Media Challenge

Following the highly successful challenge issued by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) to the South African media in the previous years for the coverage of National Women’s Day, MMP has decided to issue a new challenge to media this year: To mainstream the achievements of ordinary South African women on National Women’s Day. Instead of the media merely concentrating on so called “women’s issues” and only on the celebrations that are set to take place on the 9th of August, MMP challenges the media to fill their papers, radio broadcasts, television schedules and news programmes with women making contributions to their communities and driving social change.

South African media clearly support the fight for gender equality, exerting an effort to raise awareness, and celebrate the importance of women. As a further demonstration of their commitment, MMP urges the media to take up the challenge and actively show their support for women this National Women’s Day. This year, MMP will not look into prominent women on business and government, rather, it will be focusing on “ordinary” women and their role in effecting social change.

How can media rise to the challenge? Some suggestions from the MMP:
• Allow women engaged in social change initiatives to tell their own stories;
• Fill entire news bulletins and newspaper editions with contributions from women;
• Make women editors for the day, (it worked with Madiba why not Graca?);
• Use women as sources in every story;
• Use the same news agenda, but apply a woman’s perspective to each item;
• Stories reflect the diversity of roles that women hold in all sectors of society, from business to academia to sports. Include women commentators, experts, workers, mothers, entertainers, nurses, social workers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, community leaders, among others;
• Encourage advertisers to participate. Advertisers can use
this opportunity to be creative and come up with different, positive portrayals of women;
• Diversify images and photographs of women;
• Use exclusively women photographers, designers, producers, talk show hosts, DJs and directors;
• Approach famous and so-called “ordinary” women to be guest writers for National Women’s Day;

Why the challenge?

Over the past eight years, MMP has conducted an annual monitoring exercise of media coverage during the period in and around National Women’s Day. Consistently, the results have been characterised by a marked increase in the coverage of women and ‘women’s issues’ for the short period preceding the commemoration of the day. While such coverage tends to give women some of the credit they deserve, much of it still fails to celebrate and represent the diversity of women in South Africa.

Media coverage monitored in the past often focused on the role that women have played – and continue to play - in the democratic transformation of South Africa, in sharp contrast to coverage of women during the rest of the year, where the role of women is often trivialised and marginalised. While such coverage may be considered positive, unfortunately, the attention on women and women’s issues is short-lived. The MMP’s research shows that the focus on women in the media declines almost immediately after the 9th of August.

The MMP looks forward to the South African media’s response to this challenge. The potential impact and positive spin-offs of meeting the challenge may be far reaching – including the creation of greater awareness and encouragement of more readers, listeners and viewers.

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Questions, suggestions or comments:
Contact: William Bird @ 082 887 1370 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

How media fared last year

The 50th year anniversary of the 1956 women’s pass march offered media an opportunity to educate and inform South African’s of the role played by women in the struggle against apartheid. Diverse women featured in coverage including:
* The stories of heroines, leaders and activists;
* gender-based violence covered
* Successful women; and
* The Magogos.

Good and bad Women’s Day advertising

Typically, Women’s Day offers corporate companies the opportunity to show their support of gender issues. It is great to see businesses wanting to contribute to Women’s Day in this manner.

MMP has a gallery of good and poor examples of adverts for Women’s Day 2006 from a human rights perspective.

Broadcasters Code of Conduct Submission

MMP made a submission to the Section 69 of the Electronic Communications Act to ensure that the Act draws on best practice and continues to be in line with a human rights. This submission is one of many that MMP has made, including on the original Code of Conduct for Broadcasters, as well as on the SABC’s editorial policies, where it is worth noting that some of MMP’s recommendations were included in the final editorial code currently in operation.

Reading the submission provides a useful review of both the stronger and weaker elements of the current draft Code and the existing Code that it is to replace.