Acrobat PDF - Kubatana

All major newspapers, magazines and other media were owned
and run by white men. The media in Southern Africa was thus firmly
established as the exclusive domain of white men. The negative
portrayal of women in the media also helped to entrench this
culture.
Even with the advent of the rural exodus of blacks to urban
centres and the increasing demand for access to the media, magazines
aimed at a black readership, such as the famous “DRUM”
magazine (published in South Africa but distributed to many
countries in the region), were owned by white males and newsrooms
were run by them. Black male reporters were ostensibly
used, but white owners and editors carefully vetted the coverage
of stories.
“Successful” black women were portrayed as “pin-up” or “calendar”
girls or as “song-birds” to which young black girls should
aspire.
The effects were a negation of African culture and the embracing of
European culture.
The demand for cheap labour for white-owned industries - provided
by both black men and women – the oppressive colonial
system and its iniquities and increased access to education led to
the political awareness of the blacks.
This new political consciousness, together with urbanisation and
grinding poverty, brought about a need amongst the blacks to be
better educated.
Urban black women, who were largely in menial employ, increasingly
turned to professions previously reserved for whites.
Even then, the only professions open to them were nursing, social
work and teaching. Journalism, even for their white counterparts,
was still a white male domain. Black women, therefore, were never
encouraged to choose journalism as a career - firstly, because it
was a daunting career fraught with seeming difficulties, secondly
because racial and gender stereotyping effectively blocked access
to this career.
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Today, the situation still largely remains the same.
This is particularly true in South Africa, where the majority of large