Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

ing gender. This might help explain
why media or journalism departments
rarely mainstream gender into
<strong>the</strong>ir curricula.
Back in 2004, Gender Links commissioned
Professor Lizette Rabe, head
of <strong>the</strong> Journalism Department at <strong>the</strong>
University of Stellenbosch, to undertake
an audit on gender in journalism
education and training in seven
Sou<strong>the</strong>rn African countries. One of
her key recommendations was that
gender should be included as part of
<strong>the</strong> assessment criteria.
“The 2010 GIME
found that only a few
institutions (13%)
have structures
in place to ensure
gender is incorporated
into <strong>the</strong> journalism
curriculum.”
But <strong>the</strong> 2010 GIME found that
only a few institutions (13%) have
structures in place to ensure gender
is incorporated into <strong>the</strong> journalism
curriculum. It goes without saying,
<strong>the</strong>refore, that if gender hasn’t been
mainstreamed or integrated into
such curricula, it is also not going to
be part of student assessments.
The findings of GIME, however,
hold a measure of hope. For
example, respondents indicated a
willingness to integrate gender into
teaching and learning. They also
acknowledged a need to learn more
<strong>the</strong>mselves about how to do this.
While both male and female
students referred to <strong>the</strong> importance
of gender in media education
and journalism training, <strong>the</strong> men
indicated that <strong>the</strong>ir misconceptions
of gender had changed due to
courses where gender had been
incorporated.
Women students noted, too, that
dealing with gender issues in
<strong>the</strong>ir courses served to increase
<strong>the</strong>ir confidence to enter maledominated
newsrooms.
What’s to be done to build on this
basis?
It is because a curriculum stipulates
<strong>the</strong> objectives and learning outcomes
of a particular course that this is <strong>the</strong>
point at which to get started with
mainstreaming. Certainly, gender
should be incorporated at <strong>the</strong> time
when an existing curriculum has to
be reviewed.
Among o<strong>the</strong>r initiatives ahead are
building <strong>the</strong> capacity of lecturers to
undertake research on gender and
media issues, as well as providing
training-of-trainer programmes to
enhance <strong>the</strong>ir ability to teach on
gender.
Over <strong>the</strong> past few <strong>years</strong> many
have sketched a gloomy picture of
<strong>the</strong> future of mainstream media,
especially print media. Its demise
is predicted without much being
offered in terms of solutions to
turn around such an eventuality.
Ensuring that journalists are trained
to do gender-sensitive journalism
could turn out to be part of <strong>the</strong>
solution.
Section 3: Independence
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