Credit: IPS TerraViva
By Selina Rust
“We need more women in policy making in media houses,†says Rosemary Okello-Orlale, executive director of the Africa Woman And Child Feature Service (AWC), who has been watching trends in West African reporting since 1995 for the Global Media Monitoring Project of the World Association for Christian Communication.
TerraViva correspondent Selina Rust spoke to Okello-Orlale on the sidelines of the Beijing+15 review in New York.
TerraViva: How would you describe the current state of African media?
Rosemary Okello-Orlale: The African situation is bad in the sense that media has never been gender sensitised. It was introduced as a male tool, a tool for power, a tool that men can use to dominate women. Most African media owners are men, and they are using media for profit. There is a need to have women dedicated to media, so that we can focus on women’s issues as well. We argue that we need more women in the policy making in media houses.
TV: What trends have you observed in West Africa?
Rosemary Okello-Orlale: In Africa the news is not accepting women as experts, but women as victims. Women are sources normally in soft areas like entertainment and in fashion. So they are still absent in critical areas…their views are also needed in terms of politics, economics and social issues.
TV: What specifically has changed since 1995?
Rosemary Okello-Orlale: It looks like every five years the number of women being used as sources by the media rises only three percent. It is so predictable. I think the way we address the media needs to change dramatically. We should stop using media as a tool but start using media as a way of life.
TV: What do you recommend for African women working in the media?
Rosemary Okello-Orlale: I think that 15 years later we need to prioritise how women engage with the media. And it has to start with trying to translate social media platforms to be powerful tools with which women could start raising their voices as experts. Because women are experts on a day-to-day basis: in terms of giving birth, in developing the human resources of the world, in primary health care, in agriculture and also in social issues.
TV: Are there programmes in place to train journalists to see the gender angle?
Rosemary Okello-Orlale: We do have programmes but they are very limited. The problem is that professionals who come to train our journalists do not stay long, so they don’t change the internal policy of organisations. They only talk to the journalists in terms of how to mainstream gender within the media. But we must start with media owners and editors so that policy is created on how they are going to present women in day-to-day activity, in terms of resource allocation as well as in news content.
