Media coverage of women and children’s issues has been the focus of a recent study and based on the findings there has been an expansion of negative stereotypical and harmful portrayal of women and children as victims and victimizers in the local press.
Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand said on Wednesday that while the media have been consistent in raising awareness of the issues and serving in the interest of the public, journalists have often failed to seek out the positive stories which are out there.
She cited several initiatives launched through her ministry saying that reporters not only turned out in poor numbers, but that they also showed a lack of interest in acquiring more information on the programmes. More specifically, Manickchand pointed to the launch of the Women of Worth (WOW) programme, arguing that media houses in the country did not endeavour to interview any of the women who are benefiting.
The report, ‘Media Trends: Representations of Women and Children in the Guyanese Media- 2008-2009’, was launched on Wednesday and it triggered a candid exchange on how the media have been treating the coverage of women and children in the country, in addition to how public officials have dealt with the press on the issues.
Dr Paloma Mohamed of the University of Guyana led a team of researchers in the study which also included staff from the Documentation Centre of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), among others.
President of the Guyana Press Association Gordon Moseley, spoke at the launch and he used the forum to call for greater collaboration between the press and public officials. Moseley decried the practice of journalists constantly being asked to “contact the minister” when seeking to source information from public officials working within various fields.
“…We have got to change that and if we are really serious about the media playing a leading role in the way society deals with women and children, then we have got to embrace the work of the media and just don’t see our importance when it’s time to conduct a specially funded study, or when its time to host a workshop,” Moseley said. He also spoke of journalists stumbling in their coverage of the issues.
But Minister Manickchand offered a different opinion. She said that media representatives both in broadcast and print have not “endeared” themselves to public officials and as a result, they are not likely to receive positive feedback. She said the media are sometimes guilty of calling officials and trying to trick them into a certain response. Manickchand called for this to change saying that the relationship needs to be elevated to a more matured, dignified and professional level.
Citing the report, Manickchand said that sensational news sells and according to her, the stories about single parents and how they are benefiting from the government was “not sensational enough”. She said no follow-ups are being pursued, noting that as a private citizen she has been “disappointed” in the coverage.
She said the report was not an attack on the press and or meant to criticize a particular sector, and she accused Moseley of using the podium “a bit vulgarly” to advance “whatever cause he thought he needed to advance”. She continued, “Please view this report as government’s invitation to give to the people of Guyana what they deserve, the service that they deserve…”
Further, she called on the press association to “get its act together” and to get a code of conduct published. She said the turnover in the media is very high and pointed out that persons ought to have a code to be guided by.
Media trends
In terms of methodology, the content of the daily newspapers were coded under the three main themes; general coverage of women and children in the media in Guyana, specific images of women and specific images of children.
The newspapers monitored were Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Guyana Times and the Guyana Chronicle while the electronic media included the television newscasts of Capitol News, VCT Evening News, Prime News and NCN.
The study said that stories of Guyanese women and children together accounted for only 2.9 per cent of all stories in the media in 2008 and 2009. Women’s issues were covered five times more than those of children and 3.5 times more on television newscasts.
Coverage of women’s issues was higher on television than in the press, according to the report; of the total number of news stories coded on four television stations over three months in 2009, 55.2% were stories which included women.
The study pointed to a rise in sensational news about women and the reporting of identifying information about women, but there was also a significant increase in the stories about women in leadership positions as well as placement of women’s stories on prominent pages of newspapers.
“The pervading portrayal of Guyanese children in the media over the last two years would have been that of victim or victimizer,” the report said. In terms of individual media coverage, the report said, Stabroek News and Guyana Times have been the most consistent and have cumulatively carried the highest coverage on all categories of children coded. However, it said that in 2008 Kaieteur News published many children-centred stories.
The report said the sensational nature of most of the reportage creates a separate and perhaps unintended second effect. The report referred to “too much detail” and “graphic images” of how crimes were perpetuated; victim’s pain and suffering being chronicled very publicly without consideration of their rights and “the lack of follow-up on apprehension and punishment” for perpetrators.
The report recommended that the media monitoring be expanded to include a survey of media operatives themselves as well as a representative sample of their subjects, in an attempt to see the entire picture.
UNICEF local representative, Dr Suleiman Braimoh commended the research team and spoke of the media strengthening its coverage of the issues. He also announced a UNICEF supported media awards for outstanding coverage of women and children issues in the local press based on the guidelines set by his organisation. Braimoh said they are looking forward to collaborate with all stakeholders to hammer out the framework and details of the awards.