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circulation mainstream dailies (The Star, Financial Times to name a
few) and magazines are white-owned and run by white men. The
scenario in Namibia is the same: the largest circulation Afrikaans
daily is owned and run by white men. However, much to her credit,
the largest circulation daily in the country — The Namibia — was
founded by Gwen Lister, a woman and she still runs it today. But
what we are seeing there is that even where women are the owners,
they tend to be white.
Within the print media in South Africa, white women dominate in
the newsroom, but their status still remains largely inferior. As for
black women, they still have very little impact on these media
organisations. However, the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s
News Division has 314 reporters of whom 219 are black.
The editorial team is also predominantly African. This influences the
type of stories carried by SABC and the way issues such as affirmative
action and economic empowerment are handled. (Rhodes
Journalism Review, 2000)
Economies of scale have forced some of these white-owned media
conglomerates to create magazines and other publications specifically
targeted at a black readership and dealing mainly with issues
that are perceived to be of interest to black communities. Although
some of them have black women editors, such as DRUM’S
Liz Khumalo, black women journalists are often relegated to covering
“women’s issues” and other related beats.
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Lack of role models and mentors have made it especially difficult
for black women in the media to progress to positions of authority.
More importantly, there is a singular absence of networking among
women in the media – black and white – where pressure or lobby
groups could be formed to sensitize both the audiences/readers
and the editors and owners.
This can partly be attributed to the highly competitive maledominated
environment in which journalists, and women in particular,
operate.
The relatively high illiteracy rate among black women, exacerbated
by a lack of scholarships/funds for study in this field posed further
challenges.