Media
…call for increased focus on inclusive reporting
By Anthony Isibor
THE findings from an investigation carried out by the International Press Centre, IPC, has revealed that Women, Youth and Persons With Disabilities, PWD, were left out by the media in media report of democratic processes in the country.
The centre made this disclosure at a virtual workshop organized on Wednesday to help strengthen the media for fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive reporting of the electoral processes and elections.
The investigation, which was part of the EUSDGN project, the media monitoring unit of the IPC under an ongoing 18-month IPC/EUSDGN II media monitoring project had monitored the coverage of the 2023 off-cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo as reported in 20 print/online newspapers and the INEC website/Twitter.
IPC focused on professional coverage of political parties activities, conflict-sensitive reporting, inclusivity in the coverage of women, youth, PWDs, coverage of EMB, as well as prominence given to the stories and the sources that dominated the discourse.
All the speakers at the events, including Prof Jide Jimoh, a Prof of Journalism & Media Studies, Lagos State University, LASU, Vaneza Gregory, EU Project Coordinator, Nigeria Women Trust Fund, NWTF, Jake Epelle, Executive Director, TAF Africa, blamed the media for its lopsided reportage of electoral processes in the country and urged them to give greater priority in engendering inclusive reporting, especially on the coverage of women and PWDs.
They noted that the media must ensure that they are intentional in their drive towards ensuring inclusive reporting of electoral process.
The use of conflict-sensitive journalism was also recommended with such principles as:
· Sensitivity in language.
· Coverage of peace initiatives.
· Gender and other sensitivities, and
· Use of conflict analysis.
They also called on the media to stay abreast of processes, trends, patterns and developments as events don’t happen in vacuum.
Part of the findings also showed that there was no equitable access to the media as they focused on major political parties to the detriment of other political parties even as ruling parties dominate news stories.
Prof Jimoh, however, explained that the absence of equitable access to the media by these vulnerable groups may be attributed to the financial power of the major parties to be able to drive media coverage through press conferences, rallies, releases and other pecuniary advantages.
The media was also indicted for inequitable media access to political parties’ candidates given that out of 18 political parties’ five political parties’ accounted for 96.3% while other parties’ shared 3.7% of the reportage.
“Media tagged male candidates as ‘major contenders’, ‘front runners’ or ‘main candidates’.” This is even when the election had not been conducted to determine this superlative title.
“Only 8 of the parties made front pages with APC, the ruling party having 43.9%, PDP 30.7%, NNPP 10.6%.
“Of the 608 sources in the 860 relevant reports in the media, 19 sources, representing 3.5% of these sources were female politicians, while 9 sources, 2% were youths, and 5 sources, 0.5% were WDs.
“Meanwhile, out of the 442 relevant stories published online, with 283 sources, 8 sources, 4.5% were female politicians, 1 PWD source, 0.4% was used, and 3 sources, 1.1% were youths.
“No female candidates were used as sources in the off-cycle elections in both the print and online media.
“Women stories appeared in CSOs funded research and promoted reports in the media, but not necessarily products of concerted efforts by the media.
Finding on the off-cycle elections also showed that only 3 out of the 51 candidates are women reports, while 3.5%, representing 19 women politicians were sources in print media, 4.5%, representing 8 number of sources were women in the online.
The breakdown of the 860 stories monitored in the print media, inclusive issues on women, youths and PWDs featured in 13 stories representing 1.5% of total relevant stories showed that 2 stories, 0.5% of the overall total stories focused on the youths, 9 reports, 1% focused on women and 2 stories. 0.5% were on PWDs.
The IPC findings also showed that in terms of being used as sources, the PWs had a low voice representation in the print media with 5 stories, 0.5% and 1 story, 0.4% in the online.
However, inclusive issues received more coverage online at 7% than the print media, 1.5%, while issues affecting women received less coverage in print media, 1% and online media 3.2%.
Further findings on the trends in coverage of the Election Management Board, EMB- INEC showed that media reports on INEC were 388 in print, 45% and 182 reports in the online media, representing 64.9% of relevant stories.
It noted that the most report cases on INEC in the print focused on electoral disputes.
A.
-January 17, 2023 @ 15:48 GMT|
Tags: Anthony Isibor Election Management Board EU INEC International Press Centre IPC Jake Epelle LASU Nigeria Women Trust Fund NWTF Prof Jide Jimoh TAF Africa Vaneza Gregory
