MEDIA’S
ROLE IN PROMOTING FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS
BY
Mrs.
Adeyinka Olarinmoye
Department
of Sociology,
Faculty of
Social Sciences,
Lagos State
University, Ojo.
INTRODUCTION
Putting this paper together involved putting
calls across to women party stalwarts and functionaries, and those contesting
for the coming elections under the platform of one of the prominent political
parties. I also had discussions with some academic colleagues in political
science for some novel insights into this topic. In the same vein, I spoke with
a key informant in a radio station and also took comments on a post I placed on
my FacebookR timeline. Therefore, the method used for gathering the
data for this paper was mainly qualitative. This paper as the title informs
covers two major areas the participation of women in elections and the role of
the media in promoting and documenting such participation.
What we aim to achieve is to investigate the
interphase between the participation of women in elections and how the media
can or had been able to assist them in achieving success.
The questions then arise,
-
What is the
media? The different types of media? How could the media enhance women’s
participation in politics, especially in the electioneering process? Lastly, could
increased media coverage for women politicians could help women achieve success
in elections?
The media can simply be described as the
medium set for dissemination of information. We have the traditional media,
comprising of the electronic media: television and radio, and the print media.
Participatory social media is the newest on stage and it reduces the exclusive
elusiveness of the other types of mass media usually administered through
agencies and third party media concerns and businesses. In the last category,
we have the social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blackberry
messenger (BBM), Whatsapp and several others.
THE MEDIA
AND WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN ELECTION
Participation in election means the total
articulation of the issues pertaining to elections not restricted to just the
act of voting, but also being put forward or presenting one’s self to be voted
for. The balanced participation of men and women in decision-making is a
precondition for the improved functioning of democracy and society and is part
of the overall sharing of responsibilities between women and men. Men’s
relative freedom of mobility and the freedom to socialize in public allow them
access to information through both formal and informal channels. Women, on the
other hand, relatively, lack access to media and information as functions of
familial obligations, obvious mobility deficits (culturally rooted) and the
inequalities of opportunities as recognized by the MDG’s.
The media enhances political endeavors
through the use of news articles, features, editorials and propaganda. The
proliferation of social media and its accessibility also can be used as a
veritable platform for political mobilization. From casual observation, the
print and electronic media have been very useful in the mobilization for
elections in Nigeria. As much as this has been helpful, especially in promoting
the men (as they had also dominated the political scene and the advertorial
sections of the media), it has been criticized to have directly or indirectly
prevented popular participation (Abubakar, 2011).
What this last statement implies is that, the
genderisation of the media (real or perceived) to foster the advancement of the
women seeking political offices at elections might have been inadequate to say
the least. This is so, because, women would form part of the population
excluded, either in paid political propagandizing or in the raising of
awareness for women based public issues.
A respondent argued that if women issues are
taken seriously in the media editorials, and issues pertaining to affirmative
actions and social campaigns are given adequate attention, then, it can help
improve women chances at the polls.
In another interview, a political scientist
asked a question that could also help answer the above question. He asked “could increased women representation in the
editorial cadre and the coverage of women related issues especially in a
political domain assists women in elections?” I thought it may not after
all. My immediate response to ensuring women supporting other women at
elections, was by founding an online NGO; Women4Women, after my experience at
the 2011 primary election. I got a hard knock when no single woman voted for me
at the primary elections. A similar scenario was with Sarah Jubril’s effort at
the same 2011 election on the platform of the PDP. My situation differed
because at least I had some votes, all from men. Yet, we cannot close the
possibility of women supporting themselves, if with the achievement the
Women4women group is now recording in Akoko Northwest of Ondo State after a
lot a sensitization and cooption is
anything to be reckoned with.
Two online commentators agreed that women
themselves should engage the media in the struggle to get the media to speak
more on their cases. That our women can’t sit back and think affirmative action
or the recognition and promotion of it is automatic, but they should make it a
media issue. I then checked with a radio presenter who said the media is
already deregularized, and women have not been coming to book for airtimes and
advertorial spaces (is this the women’s omission?).
Advertorial space is another problem for the
women trying to access the electronic media. The space is heavily
commercialized and outrightly politicized. The privately owned media is almost
out of reach to many aspiring woman politician, while the publicly owned state
electronic media is totally controlled by ruling parties of the states in
question, effectively barring the women from the electronic media.
Except for the paid for slots, sponsored by
the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) on the air spaces, promoting
the Goodluck Jonathan government’s achievement in women inclusion in his
government, there are no such individual women aspirants whose campaign has
gone on the air.
A woman aspirant to the House of
Representative in the 2011 election perceives a better representation through
the mainly unregulated and easily accessible social media. She is re-contesting
for the House of Assembly in her state in the next election, and she said she
had rolled out her campaign awareness on all social media available to her. A
visit to her facebook page showed some superlative participatory indices in the
number of posts, discourses, threads and responses to pertinent and
socio-politically trending issues. The
question then is can the social media network be enough in mobilizing the
needed support for women in elections?
A respondent thought it may help but in the
case of that particular woman aspirant, her constituency is still rural, her
electorate characteristically is not literate, consequently, they cannot be on
the social media and cannot understand the language of the social media. Based
on this, she needs to also engage the other media to reach out to her targeted
audience.
In corroboration to the above assertion, a
respondent said local radio, where indigenous languages are used should be
given such tasks as educating the people about the importance of supporting
women more in getting political positions. He ascertained that such localized
campaigns can help reshape the perception of people, especially the older
people in the villages about the image of women politicians, while assisting to
give early orientation to children especially the girl child about the roles
they can play as adult women politician in the furtherance of gender
equalization and societal participation.
In conclusion, we would agree that the media
have a crucial role to play in enhancing the participation of women in winning
elections.
Recommendations
-
Media
representation of women would help compensate for the heavy requisites of
politics.
-
Women should
be more assertive and struggle for the implementation of the affirmative action
by demanding for equal media representation.
-
The media
should also help canvass for the affirmative action.
-
Women
politicians should be equally represented in the hard core media.
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