-FeJAL media monitoring report unveils
A media monitoring survey conducted by the Female Journalists Association (FeJAL) has shown a huge gender disparity in news representation in Liberia, as out of 1689 stories documented, the analysis exposes a disparity in the production of stories, with a mere 17% attributed to female producers, while stories crafted by male producers account for 55%.
The remaining 28% represents stories produced by individuals of unidentified gender across various news outlets. Undoubtedly, this stark contrast underlines a significant gender gap prevalent in the newsroom. According to FeJAL, the data collection period spanned from March 1 to May 31, 2024.
The newspapers under scrutiny included Women Voices, Inquirer, FrontPage Africa, Daily Observer, and New Dawn, all pivotal players in shaping public discourse. On the airwaves, ELBC, Lux FM, Truth FM, Prime FM, and OK FM were monitored closely, reflecting the diverse media landscape in Liberia.
An examination of evaluated narratives unveiled a disparity in gender representation among prominent figures. Women constituted 19%, men 40%, and individuals of unidentified genders the remaining 41%. This data illustrates the under-representation of women as key figures in news stories, possibly due to societal perceptions that women lack expertise in pivotal subjects such as politics, economy, and development. Consequently, the likelihood of approaching them for interviews is diminished, resulting in a lack of female voices being heard.
From the data presented, LUX FM exhibits a notable predominance of female story producers, comprising 87% of the total. Following closely is OK FM with 65%. Conversely, FrontPage Africa and Daily Observer show significantly lower figures, with only 6%, 7%, and 0% of stories being produced by women respectively.
On the other hand, media platforms such as Women Voices, Inquirer, and Truth FM display a modest improvement, with women accounting for 23% of their story production. Additionally, a considerable percentage is attributed to the category of “Other,” indicating unidentified genders of story producers in certain outlets.
An additional analysis was undertaken to ascertain the proportion of women featured as news sources or subjects in the collective stories published by selected media outlets. Women Voices emerges as the front-runner with the highest representation of women, constituting 44% of their total stories as evaluated by the media monitoring team.
This is closely trailed by ELBC and LUX FM, which exhibit 40% and 33% representation of women, respectively. Daily Observer, Truth FM, and Prime FM, which encompass the smallest number of stories appraised during the monitoring period, demonstrate 12%, 11%, and 0% representation of women, correspondingly.
In the thematic area of Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), women are prominently represented, constituting a significant 80% of the subjects/sources. This is closely followed by the theme of Domestic Violence/Intimate Violence (DV/IPV), where women make up 70% of the participation. However, when shifting our focus to topics such as Sports, Economics, Development, Security, and Politics, the presence of women is notably diminished. This disparity necessitates immediate attention and enhancement.
The domain of Security, vital to peace and other developmental endeavors, demonstrates a particularly meager representation of women, standing at a mere 6%. This inadequate portrayal in critical spheres underscores the urgency for a more equitable gender representation in media coverage.
Findings Per Media Institution:
Lux FM demonstrates dominance as the institution with the highest number of female newscasters/reporters at 87%. However, FeJAL notes that the media house faced technical difficulties less than a month into the monitoring period, rendering it inactive until the end of the assessment. Following closely behind Lux FM is OK FM, boasting a 65% female newscaster/reporter ratio.
The report shows that Truth FM and Inquirer each featured 23% of female newscasters/reporters, while Women Voices and ELBC had 20% and 13% of female representation, respectively. On the other hand, New Dawn, FrontPage Africa, and Daily Observer reported the lowest percentages of stories produced and presented by women, with figures of 13%, 6%, 7%, and 0% respectively. Notably, the category of “Other,” representing unidentified genders of reporters, held a substantial percentage in print media outlets like Women Voices, Inquirer, New Dawn, Daily Observer, and FrontPage Africa.
In a separate analysis, the percentage of women featured as news sources or subjects in the total stories published by selected media outlets was examined. Women Voices led the pack with 44% representation of women in their stories, closely followed by ELBC at 40% and Lux FM at 33%. OK FM featured 29% of females as news sources, while FrontPage Africa, Inquirer, New Dawn, Truth FM, Daily Observer, and Prime FM reported figures of 18%, 17%, 16%, 12%, 11%, and 0% respectively. FrontPage Africa notably covered the highest number of SGBV stories.
The Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL) under the Internews-USAID Media Activity is continuing the monitoring of Media Institutions in Liberia to provide a comprehensive understanding of the portrayal of women and gender issues within news coverage. This report provides a content analysis of ten (10) Monrovia-based radio stations and newspapers that maintain an online presence.
FeJAL says that the core aim of this exercise is to analyze how women are portrayed and represented in the Liberian media, shedding light on the quantity and quality of their coverage. They believe that by delving into 9 key thematic areas, including Domestic Violence (DV)/Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Sexual-Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Human Rights, Politics, Health, Development, Economy, Sports, and Empowerment, a nuanced understanding of gender dynamics in media emerges.
The findings unearth a notable trend where women predominantly serve as news sources in SGBV and DV/IPV narratives, underlining the pressing issues of gender-based violence in society. Conversely, male voices dominate thematic areas like sports, politics, security, human rights, economy, and development, showcasing a gender disparity in news representation.
The survey:
The Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL) is one of Internews’ implementing partners under the USAID Media Activity. The five-year Media Activity aims to enhance the human and institutional capacity of the media sector while advocating for and maintaining current media freedoms to reliably carry out responsible journalism, drive reforms, and increase revenue.
In collaboration with seven media partners, Internews endeavors to bolster the capacity of the media to produce reliable, relevant, and accurate information; enhance the media’s ability to serve as a conduit for information between citizens and government; improve the organizational and financial sustainability of community radio stations; and strengthen the enabling environment for freer media.
As an integral part of the USAID Media Activity, FeJAL is tasked with conducting media monitoring. In the second year, FeJAL conducted a seven-month media monitoring of ten Monrovia-based print and broadcast institutions to evaluate women’s representation and portrayal in the Liberian media. The ten media outlets monitored were: ELBC, Prime FM, LUX FM, OK FM, Truth FM, Daily Observer, New Dawn, Women Voices, FrontPage, and Inquirer. The process aimed to evaluate the quantity and quality of women’s portrayal and representation in news coverage within the Liberian media.
Data amassed during this phase (2023) of the media monitoring initiative revealed that only 740 (24%) women were featured as news sources, while men accounted for 1923 (61%) of the news sources, and unspecified sources made up 466 (15%) of the total 3128 (100%) stories documented. In the category of reporters/presenters per gender, women constituted 787 (25%), while men comprised 1670 (53%) and unspecified gender 671 (22%) out of the 3128 (100%) presenters/reporters recorded. In 2023, Inquirer newspaper had the highest number of male reporters with 492, followed by New Dawn with 431 and OK FM with 422. In the same year, OK FM had the highest percentage of female reporters at 65%, followed by Truth FM and Inquirer at 23%. Whereas, the news sources per media outlet indicated that LUX FM had the highest representation of women at 90%, followed by OK FM at 66% and ELBC at 56%.
Due to the aforementioned discovery, which showed low women representation in media coverage, interventions were made by Internews at some media outlets to enhance the portrayal and representation of women in the media. As the project seeks to narrow the gender inequality in the Liberian media, media monitoring continued in year three at the same ten Monrovia-based media outlets between March 1 and May 31, 2024.
Methodology and Scope:
It was made known by FeJAL that Data informing this report were derived from five radio stations and five newspapers in both print and broadcast formats, all based in Monrovia. Among the selected media outlets, only three radio stations, namely Prime FM, LUX FM, and OK FM, are recognized as Media Activity partner media outlets. The monitoring process entailed a daily desk review of news content from both radio and newspapers.
For newspapers, it was noted that this process involved sourcing, reviewing, and coding relevant news materials, while for radio, it encompassed recording, editing, and coding news reports.
Challenges:
The Female Journalists Association disclosed that Key among the challenges observed during the quarter’s media monitoring were hitched on several issues; they are as follows:
“1. Difficulty in ascertaining the gender of reporters during radio news presentations: Most of the news coding during the media monitoring could not figure out the specific gender that produced the story, especially on radio stations based on the structure of the news presentations 2. Determining the gender of reporters in certain newspapers, particularly those with anonymous or staff writers: During the quarter reporting period, “others” as captured in the data represented a huge portion of the gender of reporters for story production. This made it difficult to identify which gender actually produced the content during the coding.”
The challenges also include: “Poor Reception and Frequency quality: Some monitored radio stations frequencies were poorly received during waves of storms and rainfall in Monrovia. Additionally, these poor receptions were a result of stations infiltration on frequencies in specific locations during the period of the monitoring. For example, in instances where a monitored radio station experiences technical difficulties, such as the recent case with Lux FM, the data collected becomes unreliable.
Recommendations:
Considering the findings, FeJAL recommends that Editors should encourage female journalists working at radio stations to produce more voice reports for broadcast during news presentations, and Newsroom leaders in broadcast media institutions should actively support FeJAL’s monitoring efforts by providing news scripts of major daily newscasts to facilitate proper documentation of reporters and presenters based on gender.
They stressed the need to achieve Gender Equality and Gender Equity in the newsroom, Media managers should deliberately and flexibly hire female staff and provide them with the necessary support to excel like their male counterparts. Others include: “Female journalists should be granted the same level of privilege as their male colleagues in selecting beats to cover. Female journalists should be equipped with essential tools (recorders, cameras, computers, etc.) to foster independence and be accorded due respect.
News directors and editors should give equal importance to stories involving women as they do to other issues. This can be accomplished by implementing a requirement for every news production to feature at least two stories exclusively focused on women.”
FeJAL rallied the print media to minimize the use of anonymous sources and reporters to facilitate the seamless compilation of data and encouraged reporters to delve into follow-up stories concerning women in various thematic areas, mirroring the approach taken with SGBV, DV, and IPV.
