IN LIGHT OF the recent media monitoring survey conducted by the Female Journalists Association (FeJAL) in Liberia, it has become abundantly clear that there exists a significant gender disparity in news representation across various media outlets in the country. The data collected from March 1 to May 31, 2024, highlights the under-representation of women in news production, with only 17% of stories attributed to female producers compared to 55% by male producers.
THIS GENDER GAP extends beyond just the production of stories, as women are also significantly under-represented as key figures in news narratives. The data reveals that women constitute only 19% of prominent figures in news stories, further perpetuating the lack of female voices being heard in public discourse. This disparity is particularly evident in crucial thematic areas such as politics, economics, development, and security, where women’s presence is notably diminished.
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. We celebrate these institutions that have been committed to featuring women and ensuring that their voices are heard. Meanwhile, 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. However, the disparity continues but we believe it can be curbed.
MEDIA OUTLETS IN Liberia must take immediate action to address this gender disparity and strive towards achieving gender equality and equity in news representation. Women journalists must be given equal opportunities to excel in their field, including the freedom to select beats to cover and access to essential tools necessary for their work.
CONSIDERING THE FINDINGS, we encourage that 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.
LIKE FeJAL, WE admonish the print media to minimize the use of anonymous sources and reporters to facilitate the seamless compilation of data and encourage reporters to delve into follow-up stories concerning women in various thematic areas, mirroring the approach taken with SGBV, DV, and IPV.
