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EXPLORING PRINT MEDIA COVERAGE OF FEMALE POLITICIANS IN LESOTHO

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Abstract

Reading the mainstream print media publications in Lesotho leaves one with the impression that politics in the country is a preserve for males only. Most of the newspaper headlines are dominated by male politicians, week in and week out. Rarely do women or female politicians feature prominently on the front pages of these newspapers as news. This raises the question whether it is deliberate for the newspapers to prop up male politicians at the expense of their female counterparts. This takes place in an environment where, statistically, women are more than men in number. This study therefore sought to explore and establish the reasons why coverage of female politicians is less evident as compared to the prominence given to their male counterparts in print media in Lesotho. The study was qualitative in approach as it envisaged unraveling why there is this imbalance in gender when it comes to the coverage of politicians in the country. The methods used to gather the information were in-depth face to face and telephony interviews with newspaper editors and their journalists, female politicians as well as with male and female legislators, media stakeholders and ordinary citizens. The findings were presented, discussed and analysed thematically.
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EXPLORING PRINT MEDIA COVERAGE OF FEMALE
POLITICIANS IN LESOTHO
Senate Rapitse1, Tawanda Mukurunge2, Takura Bhila3
Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Lesotho Campus, +266 Africa, Lesotho
Abstract
Reading the mainstream print media publications in
Lesotho leaves one with the impression that politics
in the country is a preserve for males only. Most of
the newspaper headlines are dominated by male
politicians, week in and week out. Rarely do women
or female politicians feature prominently on the
front pages of these newspapers as news. This raises
the question whether it is deliberate for the
newspapers to prop up male politicians at the
expense of their female counterparts. This takes
place in an environment where, statistically, women
are more than men in number. This study therefore
sought to explore and establish the reasons why
coverage of female politicians is less evident as
compared to the prominence given to their male
counterparts in print media in Lesotho. The study
was qualitative in approach as it envisaged
unraveling why there is this imbalance in gender
when it comes to the coverage of politicians in the
country. The methods used to gather the information
were in-depth face to face and telephony interviews
with newspaper editors and their journalists, female
politicians as well as with male and female
legislators, media stakeholders and ordinary
citizens. The findings were presented, discussed and
analysed thematically.
Keyword: print media, gender balance, legislators,
prominence, politicians.
1.INTRODUCTION
Newspapers in Lesotho give prominence to the politics
beat as evidenced by the front page news that is usually
characterized by political news headlines. What also
becomes more apparent as you look into how this
political beat is covered is the absence of female
politicians in this front page news. It is in rare cases
where one reads stories written about women in politics,
therefore, the study sort to establish the reasons behind
the less prominence of news covering female politicians
in the newspapers as compared to their male
counterparts. The study also sort to find a panacea to
this anomaly.
The print media together with radio and television hold
a lot of traction in developing economies considering
that these traditional mainstream media have got the
widest coverage as compared to internet facilitated
platforms. In other words, ordinary citizens’ realities are
what is captured and published in newspapers or
broadcast on radio and television. That is why there
should be an effort by newspapers to ensure there is
gender balance in coverage especially of both male and
female politicians. If the coverage is tilted in the favour
of men predominantly, the end result might be
providing higher profiles for men over women and
ordinary readers will be persuaded to believe that in
politics, men are more important than women. This
study was therefore concerned with this imbalance and
sort to rectify this imbalance by sensitizing print media
stakeholders, policy makers, female politicians and
ordinary readers. By doing so, the issue will be debated
and attention will be given as much to female politicians
as it is given to their male counterparts.
2.BACKGROUND
In Lesotho, print media was established at Morija in
1904. The Lesotho press has contributed significantly to
the literacy development of other African countries.
Morija printing has in the past printed books in more
than 50 African languages, reaching as far as Cameroon
and Tanzania (Willet and Ambrose, 2005).
Willet and Ambrose continue to write that the
authorities in Lesotho established the government
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Printers in 1960, six years before Lesotho attained
independence from Britain. Prior to that, all government
printing business was handled by Morija, Mazenod or
South African printers. The government decided to
establish its own printing press due to meeting deadline
challenges with the local printers and security concerns
with the apartheid South Africa printing companies.
The Lesotho Information Service (LIS) was established in
1963 with the aim to provide news and information to
the Lesotho public. In its early days, the LIS was little
more than an extension of Central Offices of Information
in London. The LIS established the first government
owned newspaper called Basutoland Times which began
as a daily news sheet and after independence in 1966, it
was renamed Lesotho Times and was published as a
weekly newspaper by the news department of
information (Willet and Ambrose, 2005).
Since then, there have been many publications which are
independent with some owned by the government.
Currently, the newspapers publishing in Lesotho are
Lesotho Times, Informative, the post, Sunday Express,
The Nation, Public Eye and Metro, all privately owned
and the government’s Lesotho Today which is very
inconsistent in publishing.
3.PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem identified by the study is that female
politicians are not adequately showcased in Lesotho to
the extent that their capabilities and potential are
overshadowed by that of their male counterparts who
enjoy most of the limelight in the print media. Female
politicians are most of the time only given prominence
in the newspapers when misfortunes befall them such as
being dismissed from ministerial positions.
4.RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
This study is going to add to the body of knowledge
already in existence on gender balance in coverage by
the print media. It is going to benefit media scholars,
journalism students, female politicians, media owners
and policy makers in debate to do with proper
alignment to gender balance in political news coverage.
5.AIM OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study is to expose the imbalance in
gender coverage in the political beat in newspapers in
Lesotho. The target is to change how female politicians
are perceived by journalists, editors, the reading public
as well as by male politicians so that advantage is not
given to male politicians at the expense of female
politicians in the print media sphere in Lesotho.
6.QUESTIONS
Why is political news reporting in Lesotho
newspapers biased towards male politicians?
How much coverage is given to female
politicians by the print media in Lesotho?
Which newspapers cover female politicians in
Lesotho as much as their male counterparts?
7.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theory framing this study is the feminist media
theory by Jean Baker Miller who came about with this
concept in 1976. The theory was based on listening to
women’s stories. Instead of seeing women through the
lens of male psychology with its emphasis on separation
and autonomy, Jean suggested that relationships are
central to women’s experience of themselves and the
world (Judith, 2017). It relies on the feminist theory, that
is, it applies philosophies, concepts, and logics
articulating feminist principles and concepts to media
processes such as hiring, producing, and distribution; to
patterns of representation in news and entertainment
across platforms; and to reception (Linda, 2014).
Unlike approaches that hide their politics, feminist
theorizing is explicitly political. It addresses power.
Feminist media theory takes gender seriously as a factor
that structures identity and experiences without
assuming permanent or static gender differences. An
assumption that long dominated feminist media theory
was this: if women controlled media production, media
content would be different and better (Linda, 2014).
This theory is the most suitable to guide this study
because it is all about fighting for what is right, and in
this study what is right is for political women to be given
the same coverage as male politicians by the
newspapers. This theory addresses power, which means
it fights for everyone’s right to be recognized as worthy
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and important to society at large, and since women in
politics are not given equal coverage, this theory will
guide the study to bring those points to light.
The theory is going to help enlighten the social world in
a way that illuminates the forces that create and support
inequality, oppression, and injustice, and in doing so,
promotes the pursuit of equality and justice when it
comes to political women and how their issues are being
reported in the newspapers.
8.LITERATURE REVIEW
Study across the world reveals that media coverage has
struggled with balancing male and female issues when
it comes to political reporting. For instance, study from
Canada of 2 500 news stories over 37 years revealed
gender gap in nature of coverage (Geoff, 2017). That
study concluded that female politicians running for the
leadership of the federal party in Canada did not receive
equal press coverage as compared to their male
counterparts.
Ross (2010), states that early studies on how female
political leaders were covered in the media tapped into
the agenda setting, framing, and priming literature.
Initially, these studies found that women tended to be
treated quite differently from men. Collectively, these
researchers found several problems with how women
were covered in the media. First, there was the problem
of visibility. Female politicians simply had less coverage
than their male counterparts. While some noted that this
may have been because many women candidates ran for
fringe parties, they also found that the coverage for
males in the same parties was still greater than for
female candidates (Goodyear- Grant, 2013).
Not only was the visibility of female politicians
problematic, but researchers also found that the way in
which women were covered was different than men
(Carly & Winfrey, 2009). For example, studies looking at
prominence found that when women candidates were
reported on, they tended to be positioned later in the
story or in parts of the newspaper or newscast that was
not as prominent as was given male candidates.
The ways in which women are disadvantaged are
numerous. First, when women candidates started to
emerge, they were treated as novelty candidates which
diminished the seriousness of their bid (Fridkin, et al.,
2013). Second, their personal attributes were covered at
the expense of their professional credentials. Third, their
viability was questioned either as being a candidate who
could only appeal to the “women’s vote” or as someone
whose electability was wanting (Falkn, 2008).
In the USA, when Elizabeth Dole sought the Republican
presidential nomination in 2002, the amount of
coverage she received failed to reflect her standings in
the polls, disproportionately focused on her lack of
funds, and treated her bid as a novelty (Kira, 2017). Dole
received less issue coverage than the male candidates,
and more attention was paid to her personality and
appearance than those of the other candidates.
Moreover, a qualitative analysis revealed that she was
characterized negatively as “scripted, rehearsed, robotic,
controlled” criticisms that seemed to reflect the gender
bias reports.
Study also revealed that Hillary Clinton received a similar
amount of coverage to Barack Obama in 2008, but her
coverage was more negative. Falk’s analysis showed that
Clinton received more equitable coverage than previous
female presidential candidates in some respects, but
also found inequalities in coverage and the persistence
of the traditional patterns of media coverage of female
presidential candidates (Kira, 2017). Even public opinion
polls showed that many Democrats believed Hillary
Clinton was not treated as well by the press as the other
candidates. The media also dwelled more on whether
Clinton would exit the Democratic race, and when she
would exit, than is typical of presidential nomination
coverage.
Zimbabwe is no exception. In post 2000 Zimbabwe,
while the contest pitting one political formation against
another has been given prominence in the media, an
important struggle that has attracted little attention
during this period has been that of the genders, in
particular the competition between men and women for
the right to power to govern the country (Parichi, 2016).
Media organizations have participated in this struggle
by developing and distributing images of the various
interest groups in the political fray, including men and
women.
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Parichi carried out an examination of newspaper
representation of female politicians in Zimbabwe during
the four general elections held between 2000 and 2008
and the newspapers under review were Kwayedza, The
Standard on Sunday and Financial Gazette. The study
found out that, beyond the inevitable trait of
polarization of media in Zimbabwe, all three newspapers
shared many tendencies in their coverage of female
politicians. For instance, across the three newspapers,
female politicians were downgraded through omission.
They were also underestimated by being portrayed as in
terms of frames irrelevant to politics (Parichi, 2016). Of
the three newspapers, only The Standard on Sunday did
not make use of the motherhood and wifehood frame
in its representation of female politicians. In all the three
newspapers, Zimbabwean female politicians are
portrayed as hamstrung candidates, neither fit for public
office nor eligible for marriage and motherhood (Parichi,
2016).
Lesotho is not different when it comes to media
coverage of female politicians. MISA Lesotho (2017)
states that, during the 2017 National Assembly
Elections, the media did not do well regarding granting
coverage to women candidates who contested in the
elections. There were no clearly articulated plans by the
media houses towards granting women a platform to
canvass their election campaigns vis-à-vis their male
counterparts, who, by virtue of being at the helm of their
political parties’ National Executive Committees, stood
at a vantage point. According to the MISA document,
generally, women political candidates in Lesotho suffer
little coverage by the media for various reasons,
including: political campaigns being led by male political
leaders who see no need to have women candidates’
specific campaigns, women candidates’ lack of
communication strategy for individual candidates as
opposed to political party general communication
strategy, lack of media houses’ policies on coverage of
women candidates coupled with absence of journalists
interested in the subject, and limited capacity on the use
of new media which is visible in the very low level use of
social media platforms by women candidates.
9.METHODOLOGY
The study used qualitative research because, as Susan
(2011) writes, qualitative research is primarily
exploratory and is used to gain an understanding of the
underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It
provides insights into the problem and helps to develop
ideas or hypotheses for potential qualitative research.
Furthermore, qualitative research is also used to uncover
trends in the thought and opinions, and dive deeper into
the problem (Coyne and Leeson, 2009).
This study used one on one face to face interviews in
gleaning information from journalists and editors from
different newspapers, female politicians and ordinary
newspaper readers, both male and female.
The interviews were carried out in Maseru urban
because the newspapers chosen for the study are
headquartered in Maseru city together with the
population relevant for the study.
The population of the study, which is defined by
Robinson (2004) as a collection of individuals or objects
that is the main focus of a scientific query, consisted of
personnel from Public Eye, thepost, and Lesotho Times
newspapers, newspaper readers, members of
parliament, journalism students and their lecturers and
female politicians in Lesotho.
The study could not interview the whole nation so a
sample of the population was random sampling to
interview two journalists and an editor from each
newspaper, two female politicians, 10 newspaper
readers balanced in gender, 10 journalism students and
four lecturers.
10.FINDINGS
10.1 From newspaper readers
There were mixed reactions from male ordinary readers
of newspapers in Lesotho. There were some men who
said that when they read newspapers, they expect
impartiality in gender when it comes to reportage on
politicians. However, they see evidence of reporting that
is tilted in the favour of male politicians at the expense
of their female counterparts and they say as readers they
expect to be informed fairly on all politicians so that they
can make their choices wisely. On the other hand, some
male newspaper readers say they do not see anything
wrong with the way politics is covered in these
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newspapers saying the absence of women politicians in
the newspapers can be because there genuinely might
not be anything worthy to write about.
Female readers of newspapers said that when they read
newspapers, their expectations are to read about
women especially in leadership because they regard
such women as a source of inspiration. They therefore
expressed disappointment in the fact that locally,
women in politics are not given prominence at all.
Instead of finding their women flag bearers headlining
the news in print, they see men dominant on front pages
of these newspapers as if this is a world of men only.
Some of the female readers said they would like to
advise newspaper publishers to balance their coverage,
positioning women equally prominently as their male
counterparts. They said the only time women are written
about to some length is when some mishap has befallen
them, for example when Mrs. Matibatso Doti was fired
from cabinet by prime minister Thabane yet she is a
workhorse who stands up for the poor and
disadvantaged each time she is in cabinet.
10.2. Findings from female politicians
One female politician interviewee said that the absence
of news about female politicians in the print media is not
because journalists do not make an effort to cover them.
She said she receives calls from journalists all the time
asking her opinion on important issues. She said she
tries to avoid making comments on hot and
controversial issues because, as a woman, she fears it
might backfire on her and tarnish her image. She says,
as a woman, she has a reputation to protect so she
avoids controversy of any nature as much as possible.
She says when she is asked to comment, she refers the
journalists to her male political colleagues. Another
female politician said females in her political circles are
reluctant to associate with newspapers because
whatever they say ends up twisted and will come back
to haunt them in their personal lives. She went on to say
the print media prefers writing news that humiliates
female politicians, hence their reluctance to make any
public utterances. However, the female politicians advise
newspapers to write fairly about both male and female
politicians so that the political field is level in the media
rather than just putting the spotlight on their male
counterparts only.
10.3. Findings from media scholars
Some media scholars opined that the problem of little
coverage of female politicians in Lesotho emanates from
the problem of polarization in the politics of Lesotho
where media houses take positions for or against some
political establishments. They said this leads to
journalists being led by the nose by certain politicians or
political parties and this kind of arm twisting of the
media is characteristic of corrupt politicians who are
usually male. They went on to say that is the reason why
journalism in Lesotho is so poor because it usually
revolves around the same issues about the same
individuals. They said journalism should be executed
with fairness, covering diverse issues in order to fully
inform, educate and entertain society. News should
cover serious issues of importance to society in spite of
the major players being male or female, the scholars
went on to say. Their said patriarchy that is prevalent in
Lesotho society should not find a place in an important
field such as journalism. Some of the scholars said for as
long as the print media relies for livelihood on
government adverts, dominant politicians will continue
calling the shots in the print media and unfortunately,
the dominant politicians happen to be male as is the
nature of the politics of the country.
10.4. Findings from journalists
Journalists responded that they give coverage to women
in leadership and such news is always in the papers. They
said that it however is unfortunate that some females in
these positions of leadership do not respond when
called upon to contribute to debate on some issues
when called upon. They insisted that they cover female
politicians in their routine reporting. They said if it
happens that they go for periods without writing about
women in politics, it might be because nothing news
worthy involving the female politicians will have
occurred. One journalist said the reality of the matter is
that the political realm of Lesotho is dominated by men
despite the fact that the population of Lesotho has got
more women than men. He went on to say that it is the
majority of the women who actually create this situation
by voting males into power rather than fellow women.
Naturally, the news will be about the powerful men in
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power because women stay in the fringes, the journalist
continued to say.
10.5. Findings from newspaper editors
Editors said they report indiscriminately and they do not
champion certain courses because their primary
business is the production of news. They said they are
not activists who fight in certain corners for certain
people. The editors said publishing a lot on female
politicians in Lesotho is very difficult because female
political players in Lesotho are very few. They cited the
example that of all the political parties in Lesotho, only
one is led by a woman, which is the Reformed Congress
of Lesotho (RCL) led by Ms Keketso Rantsu. The editors
insisted they give fair coverage to female politicians as
much as they do for their male counterparts. They said
if there is news about the female politicians worthy
publishing, they will publish.
10.6. Findings from legislators
Legislators from across the gender divide said that
women have got the same rights as men and the
constitution of Lesotho Section 30 actually advocates for
affirmative action for women to be at par with men. They
said the print media should therefore not discriminate
against women if that is what is happening.
11.ANALYSIS
Newspapers should strive for fairness and balance in
their reportage without propping up one gender to the
disadvantage of others. Devlin (2006) emphasizes the
point that in order for journalism to be the champion of
development and equality in society, newspapers
should report fairly and impartially.
Journalists should not be at the beck and call of
politicians as this will compromise their practice. They
should not also be scared of those in power as this will
automatically infringe on their freedom of expression
which they should defend at all costs. Grady (2010)
writes that freedom of expression is part and parcel of
protection of journalists as it promotes initiatives to
increase transparency, fight crime and corruption and
encourages the spread of reliable information.
Reporting fairly with respect for coverage of genders is
therefore encouraged for the print media fraternity in
Lesotho.
The print media in Lesotho should make an effort to
report on female politicians so as to enlighten society to
the importance of the women’s contribution to the
democratic processes in the country. However, the print
media should not report on trivial issues simply because
the news has to do with female politicians. This will make
their news values and news content to look ridiculous
and self defeating. It is important that women in politics
be recognized and appreciated as politicians and be
seen to be playing a role in the politics of the day, either
in their constituencies or in their political parties. This
will be useful in assessing the kind of politics that
women are involved in and to determine the influence
they have in policy formulation and in their political
parties, writes Happy (2019).
Women in politics should not be afraid to come out to
lead and to speak out regardless of the bad publicity
they receive from the press. They should accept the
invitations they get from the press to say something.
Kondwani (2019) adds on to say that the other reason
that can help women to come out and do well in politics
is if they get support from their spouses and traditional
and religious leaders, plus exposure to development
projects, NGOs and local government institutions.
Society should also change the way they think about
women because the world is changing and now women
can do almost everything that can be done by men.
Female journalists should take legal action against
journalists who report wrongly or report false
information about them. Especially those who do face to
face interviews to get information then decide to publish
something else about the female politicians. Journalists
should account for their actions all the time if the
industry is to stay respectable. When journalists commit
errors, they must correct themselves and their
expression of regret must be sincere and not cynical.
12.RECOMMENDATIONS
The study recommends that society at large should
support female politicians and the media should give
fair and substantial coverage to female politicians. It
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does not matter that they are few than male politicians.
They deserve the spotlight as much as male politicians.
They study recommends that issues of bias towards
male politicians and against female politicians be
avoided by the media fraternity at all costs because
these politicians, male and female have got
constituencies they represent. Gender should never be
an issue but quality of delivery by a politician to the
constituency he or she serves.
The study also encourages female politicians to stand up
to the world, the print media fraternity included, where
unfairness is evident which hinders their progress in
their profession of choice.
13.CONCLUSION
The study established that female politicians in Lesotho
do not receive as much coverage in the print media as
compared to their male counterparts. The study also
established that female politicians in Lesotho are still
afraid to open up to the media and therefore journalists
end up with nothing news worthy to publish about
them. The study also established that ordinary readers
want to see more of news on their female politicians as
much as they currently see about male politicians. The
government is influential in newspaper content because
of the power of advertising revenue the print media
relies on from the government.
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... Literature emphasizes the importance of women's presence in media discussions, highlighting an ongoing tendency to categorize and stereotype genders. Researchers (Rapitse et al. 2019;Power et al. 2019;Van der Pas & Aaldering, 2020;Jonah and Nnanyelugo, 2020;Karolak & Guta 2020) have thoroughly investigated the issues of women's discrimination, representation, and stereotyping on different media platforms. An extensive examination of relevant literature reveals a strong academic emphasis on the theoretical and methodological approaches to women's concerns in newspapers. ...
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This study examines the portrayal of Arab women in both Arab and Western newspapers in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. It aims to uncover concealed ideologies, concepts, and beliefs held by Arab and Western societies regarding Arab women. Employing Fairclough's three-dimensional Approach to Discourse Analysis as a theoretical framework, the analysis considers the dimensions of discourse fragment (text), discursive practices, and the power dynamics inherent in discourse. Additionally, the study adopts a qualitative approach for collecting and analysing the selected data. Four prominent newspapers, namely the Washington Post, Daily Mail, Arab News, and Gulf Times, were chosen for the study. The findings reveal notable disparities in the depiction of Arab women in Arab and Western media. In Arab newspapers, Arab women are often portrayed as empowered, respected, skilled, educated, and capable contributors to economic and social life. They are occasionally depicted as businesswomen and leaders. Conversely, some Western media tend to portray Arab women as oppressed, subjugated, veiled, plagued by inequality, hidden from view, and restricted by religious rules concerning marriage and dress. They are even referred to as literal odalisques. The study concludes that these varied depictions stem from distinct ideologies prevalent in Arab and Western media. The insights derived from this research regarding the diverse portrayals of Arab women and the influence of different ideologies in Arab and Western media can be valuable for academics, government officials, and community organizations seeking innovative perspectives on women's media representation and active participation in society.
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This study investigates the ideologies and strategies used in the news discourse on Arab women. Initially, it aims to analyze the macro strategies and then highlights the micro strategies used to achieve the macro strategies proposed by van Dijk. It also identifies the ideologies of the selected newspapers regarding Arab women. Four newspapers were selected: the Washington Post, Daily Mail, Arab newspaper, and Gulf Times. The findings reveal that the selected newspapers employed four macro-strategies. It was also found that the selected newspapers employed ten micro strategies to achieve the four macro strategies. More importantly, the analysis showed that the selected newspapers had different ideologies. For instance, the ideologies of Arab newspapers include defending the stand of Arab regimes and Islam regarding women's rights. However, the ideologies embraced by Western newspapers encompass the promotion of Arab women's advocacy for enhanced rights, urging Western authorities to impose sanctions on Arab nations that do not uphold women's rights and advocate for their governments to sever diplomatic ties with countries that fail to ensure adequate rights for women.
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