AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN JOURNALISTS IN NIGERIAN BROADCAST MEDIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: The media has an important part to play in the man for gender transition and in narrowing the social woman gap that exists between women and men. Communication studies, especially of the radical critical inclination, have for a long time seemed to be essentially gender blind (possibly more of a question of refusal to notice). However, one can now credibly talk of a cultural feminist media studies effort (UNDP 2016). The framework of the connection between the media and women puts the woman in the position of being an object. This is a problem.
The underrepresentation of women's problems and concerns in the media is a reflection of the role that women play in the decision-making process of the media. Through the years, and notably in the time after the liberalization of media, it has been possible to see a dramatic shift toward market orientation in the print media. On the one hand, the media market has increased the number of chances available to women. On the other hand, the sort of "beats" or "jobs" that are allocated to women journalists tend to limit them to "soft-beat" (Okunna, 2013) activities such as managing feature writing or shallow writings.
Within the framework of patriarchal discourse, issues relating to the reconstruction and depiction of gender are addressed in the media. The subject of gender is relevant to a significant degree in practically every facet of the connection between media and culture. According to Odunlami (2014), the definition of gender is never established and instead changes depending on the particular cultural and historical context of a given time and place...and is a topic of constant discursive struggle and negotiation.
An major problem that arises in this man is the woman pay gap, which is well ingrained in the media and is heavily predicated on the societal disparities that exist between men and women. The marginalization of women and the oppression they face at the hands of multinational businesses is reflected in media portrayal and job opportunities.
In order to find solutions to these problems, UNESCO commissioned a comprehensive evaluation of the research done all around the globe on women and the media (Odunlami, 2014). According to Gallagher (1981), which is referenced in Odunlami (2014), her assessment presents a picture that is exceptional simply for its overall uniformity when contrasted from one nation to another. The study provides a substantial amount of information to support the conclusion that may be stated as follows: the representation of women is best characterized as restricted.
In movies, media, and television shows, the activities and interests of women are almost never shown as extending beyond the boundaries of their own homes and families. characterized as being dependant to a significant extent. Women are numerically underrepresented as characters in fictional media material as well as newsmakers in the press and broadcasting, and their absence highlights their marginal and inferior status in many spheres of social, economic, and cultural lives. This is true whether the characters are fictional or real-life newsmakers. The values that are prevalent in the news industry define the majority of women and the majority of their problems as being unnewsworthy. This allows women to be covered in the news primarily as the wives, mothers, or daughters of men who are in the news. When women are covered in their own right, they typically only make headlines as fashion or entertainment figures.
In the meanwhile, considering that the average person is unable to be in many locations at the same public. According to O'Brien (2015), journalists and the media bring the globe closer together by reporting on politics, sports, and tragedies in faraway places such as China, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Russia in a matter of seconds.
Journalism is the public's nose, eye, mouth, and ear. Journalists assist the public observe what is going on, find out where it is going on, help the public ask questions about what they want to know from the persons involved, and feed them as rapidly as possible.
Consider what life would be like if there was no information, no news, and no mass media or journalists.
Journalism is the practice of gathering, preparing, and disseminating news in addition to associated commentary and feature materials via various media such as pamphlets, newsletters, magazines, radio, motion pictures, television, the internet, and books. Journalism also includes the dissemination of such materials.
In journalism, one is tasked with the responsibility of locating facts, composing news, editing news, and revising other editorial materials in order to present them in a manner that is worthy of public attention. Journalists may be found working in a variety of media outlets, including radio, television, newspapers, magazines, online news blogs and websites, and so on.
The ACTA DIURNA, an ancient Roman newspaper that began publication on a daily basis in the year 59 BC and was considered as one of the oldest examples of journalistic work, was hung in prominent locations and documented significant social and political events (Odunlami, 2014).
A greater emphasis on professionalism was a defining characteristic of journalism in the 20th century. Women journalists have made significant contributions to the development and success of journalism locally and internationally, especially in the broadcast media where they serve as newscasters, presenters, and reporters. Although it has been observed that there is a gender disparity in all quarters of our society today, the mass media is not an exception. Despite this, women journalists have made significant contributions.
Especially for female reporters who expose injustices in unfriendly, corrupt, and violent situations as well as in conflict zones, journalism may be a highly risky line of work to be in. In addition to the various forms of violence against journalists, both men and women, and the obstacles to their work, such as threats, assassination, confiscation of material, deportation, arrests, and intimidation, female journalists face certain gendered risks within this male-dominated profession. For example, they are more likely to be subjected to physical violence (Odunlami, 2014).
Despite the obstacles that women journalists must overcome in every region of the globe, they continue to make a significant contribution to the development of the media business as a whole and broadcast media in particular.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
This study was carried out to x-ray in a real sense the challenges, limitations, and contributions of female journalists in the Nigerian media industry, particularly in broadcast media, particularly as newscasters, reporters, and anchors of programs relating to women, children, fashion, entertainment, education, and so on, and to know why there is a low participation of the female graduate journalists towards practicing journalism as their career.
In spite of the fact that there are a sizable number of well-educated female journalists in Nigeria, relatively few of them are employed by the country's various media outlets (Nwabueze, 2013). The study, on the other hand, will investigate the effect that female journalists have had on the broadcast media in Nigeria by utilizing journalists from the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), both of which are located in Ibadan.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
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To examine whether women journalists are competing with male journalists in the field.
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To know if women responsibility as mother affect their journalism career.
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To examine if women journalists perform better in broadcast media more than in print media.
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To know the extent which culture of society affect the performance of women journalists.
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To understand whether religion influence the effectiveness of female journalists.
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To examine whether female journalists free from hardzard of journalism.
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To know how often do media houses send women journalists to cover crisis scenes.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following questions will be answered in this study:
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Can women journalists compete with male journalists in the field?
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Do women responsibility as mother affect their journalism career?
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Are women journalists perform better in broadcast media more than in print media?
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To what extent is culture of Nigeria society affect women journalists performance?
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Does religion influence the effectiveness of female journalists?
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Does female journalists free from hardzard of journalism?
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How often do media houses send women journalists to cover crisis scenes?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is very important because of its gender values as it examines the impact of women journalists on the development of broadcast media despite the harzard and other dangrous challenges facing them such as kidnapping, mulestation, arrest, beating, death and host of others yet lots of women are still vibrant journalists.
The researcher, therefore, has deemed it fit to find out the the contributions and the some of the reasons for low zeal among female mass communication students to the practice of journalism.
The researcher also observed that there are few female teachers of mass communication and journalism in all tertairy intitutions all over the world due to the limited numbers of female journalists in the industries.
According to Okunna (1990) “In most schools in Nigeria, women are not often seen as lecturers both at universities and polytechnics”
The work is very significant to the extent that female mass communication and journalism students will be more focus and choose journalism as a career.
Media owners will as well know that female journalists have significant roles to play in both print and broadcast industry.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research has been narrowed in scope to BCOS AND NTA Ibadan since it is very difficult if not impossible to study all mess media houses across the country due to time available for the study, money, materials and other logistics.
1.7 LIMITATION TO THE STUDY
Wide research of this nature cannot be carried out without some constrains, this constrains pose a lot of limitations to this work.
Time: Duration for the research work is relative1y short while stress emanated from other academic activities is also another constrain.
Material: Little materials are also available because the work is relatively new. Financial constrain poses another challenges as most of information are gathered through books rather than using various sources including internet.
Financial: Financial constrain poses another challenges as it is very difficult to travel to NTA and BCOS Ibadan as frequently as possible.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Impact: it means the role, contribution, achievement of women in the practice of broadcast media.
Women Journalist: This is a mature female choosing journalism as a career.
Broadcast Media: Broadcast media are means of transmission which enable audio, audio-visual of information, message, idea, to a wider number of people listening or viewing usally simoultanously examples are radio and televison
Journalism: This is the work of collecting writing and publishing of news stories and articles in newspapers and magazines or broadcasting them on radio and television to inform the general public on things happening in the world .
NTA: Nigeria Televsion Authority
BCOS: Broacasting Corporation of Oyo State