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“..promote women’s full and equal participation in the media, in
particular in management, programming review and dissemination
of programmes and information”.
A National Gender Plan of Action sets out the steps and the time
frameworks of how to achieve these goals.
Generally however, it is clear that governments in the region still
do not recognize the important role that black women in the media
can play. The media, particularly media women, is not high on their
priority list of development issues.
Portrayal of Women in the media
There is need for research to be done into representation of
black women in the media. Because of the historical position of
black women at the bottom of the social strata, the media in
South Africa struggles to portray them any differently. This poor
media status of black women is further reinforced by the
gendered character of news.
There is near invisibility of black women in the news, and where
they do appear, it is still mostly in the following stories: underdevelopment,
oppressive traditions, high illiteracy, rural
and urban poverty, religious fanaticism, overpopulation,
disasters (burning of shacks) and violence against
women. In these items they mainly appear as victims
and people who have absolutely no control over
their destinies.
Phula Mthala, Media Monitoring Project in Rhodes
Journalism Review August 2000.
Nora Appolus is the Head of Training at
Namibia Broadcasting Corporation.
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