The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, WSCIJ has called on media owners and managers in Nigeria to be more intentional in placing more female journalists in leadership positions.
This call was made at a public presentation on Thursday, February 15, 2024 organized by the WSCIJ, with the theme, Who Leads the Newsroom and News: a report on women’s representation in Newsroom and news leadership.
The event came on the heels of findings from research conducted by WSCIJ that revealed that women’s representation in media leadership is low across the four media genres of print, online, radio, and Television.
The report shows that women accounted for 25.7% of leadership positions, while men dominated with 74.3%. The Print and online platforms exhibited the lowest representation of women with 4.6% and 5.5%, while radio and television showed a representation of 9.2% and 6.5%, respectively. In television, there were 57 (64.8%) male managers and 31 (35.2%) female managers. Similarly, radio had 93 (70.5%) male managers and 39 (29.5%) female managers. The online media platform had 56 (68.3%) male managers and 26 (31.7%) female managers, while in the print media, there were 93 (86.9%) male managers and 14 (13.1%) female managers. When aggregating these figures, the overall composiঞon of management is 299 (73.1%) male managers and 110 (26.9%) female managers, resulting in 409 individuals.
In his keynote speech, the chief speaker and Director, of Daily Trust Foundation, Theophilus Abbah called for the implementation of gender parity policies, improved representation of women in news reporting, increase in female expert sources, promotion of gender-sensitive reporting, and further engagement of stakeholders in advocacy.
In his remark, the Director, FrontFoot Media, Emeka Izeze, stressed that the News Room should be made to reflect the ideal society, which is gender parity, at that it will gain its respect.
He urged the media industry to establish a multi-disciplinary newsroom to reflect different backgrounds, religions, race, gender parity, and other demographics.
He raised the concern that females who are in the newsroom should be encouraged and trained to grow and not to be left to unhealthy competition.
Executive Director, Media Career Development Network, Lekan Otunfodurin identified the non-availability of women and the stress associated with media jobs as stumbling blocks to gender disparity in Journalism. He therefore called on media practitioners to consider remote jobs for women in media based on the available resources.
He observed that many graduates of Mass Communication are not willing to go into the profession because some lecturers misinformed them of the commercial viability of Journalism, an impression which needs to be corrected.
In her remarks, the Deputy Director of Nigeria MacArthur Foundation Amina Salihu urged the media industry to desist from the use of the phrase ‘gentlemen of the press’ adding that the industry needs to utilize data to understand the world shift. Amina Salihu also stated that for equity to have its ground in the news room SOS has to be considered, which means Society, Organisation and Self.
She expatiated that media organizations need to consider the society, what it wants, and how best to implement it. Speaking further, she advocated that media organizations should develop policies and mandate that accommodate both male and female involvement. Finally, she stressed that women should also rise in self-conviction of their abilities.
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