[eccr] The Soul Beat - 14 - Women & Media

The Soul Beat - Issue 14 - Women & Media
April 7 2004

from the SOUL BEAT AFRICA partnership - Soul City and The Communication Initiative - Africa editorial and network partner SANGONeT

.
.African choices...critical voices...crossing borders...African Stories...



This issue of The Soul Beat focuses on information from our network about media for, about and by women.

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EXPERIENCES
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences.html


1. Maisha Yetu: Media Campaign for Our Lives - Southern Africa 
The African Women's Media Center (AWMC) aims to improve and increase the quantity of media coverage of public health issues in Africa. The campaign will focus on media coverage of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS, and particularly on how those diseases affect women in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi and Senegal. The Maisha Yetu campaign aims to: encourage the active support of media companies and organisations in Africa; produce long-term strategies for improving coverage of public health issues; and provide a platform for the leadership abilities of African women journalists.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/pds092003/sld-1293.html
Contact (info /at/ awmc.com) 


2. Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA) - Uganda
Formed in 1983, UMWA is a non-governmental organisation for female journalists from government and private media. UMWA is an NGO with the objectives of raising the status of women, especially those in rural communities, so that they are involved and participate in development programmes.  Activities include: Rural Outreach Program (ROP), a career guidance scheme aiming to encourage girls to take up journalism as a career, and documentation and publications related to women in the media. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/pds32003/sld-633.html
Contact (umwa /at/ swiftuganda.com)


3. Osu Young Women's Radio Project - Ghana
Community Media For Development worked with a group of young women to develop a series of HIV/AIDS radio messages focused on issues that young women face in preventing HIV/AIDS. The announcements focused on the issue of HIV/AIDS, from the perspective of young women, specifically: HIV/AIDS prevention; getting tested; buying condoms; negotiation skills and unfaithful boyfriends. An accompanying activity book for literacy groups was also distributed.
 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/pds092003/sld-1306.html
Contact Daniel Walter (dan /at/ cmfd.org)


4. Women's Rights Programmes - South Africa 
This project aimed to put women's issues on top of the broadcast agenda by translating existing women's rights radio programmes ("Fight Against the Fist" and "Talking man, Talking Woman") into various South African languages. The project made pre-existing material about women abuse and domestic violence more widely available by translation into many of South Africa's official languages. Fight against the Fist is a six part drama series about domestic violence, which covers issues such as what constitutes domestic violence, the effect of domestic violence on children, police involvement and getting an interim order. "Talking Man Talking Woman" is a series of dramatised plays about gender equality. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/Pds22004/sld-1459.html
Contact Lynn Taylor (lynn /at/ abculwazi.org.za)


5. Fem'Mediafrique - West Africa 
Fem'Mediafrique is a French language project for print and radio journalists, policymakers and influence leaders from Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal who meet for regular seminars on issues affecting women's health, legal status and economic position. Its aim is to strengthen, expand and sustain quality, data based reporting of women journalists and issues of gender within the media. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/pds32003/sld-650.html
Contact Victoria Ebin (famafrique /at/ enda.sn)


Evaluations
http://www.comminit.com/africa/evaluation.html


6. Learning to Link: An Evaluation of the Women Connect! Project Of the Pacific Institute for Women's Health 
The report presents the findings of an evaluation of Women Connect!, a project of the Pacific Institute for Women's Health (PIWH). The project aimed to bring empowerment of women through the use of communication strategies in media and technology to improve women's health and well-being. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/st2004/sld-1569.html


7. Impact Data - Morocco Family Planning/Maternal Child Health Phase V Project - Morocco
A series of questions was posed to 2,000 individuals in 25 villages following the viewing of the video Bent Ettajer. When asked why the young protagonist of the video died, viewers gave responses that indicated that they had acquired new information related to maternal mortality (for instance, "She wasn't taken to the hospital in time"). Following screenings of the video in the Agadir region in October, 1999, 150 women audience members were asked how they would advise a pregnant woman. Almost all of them stated that the woman should seek health care services; 53% said they would urge her to have her pregnancy monitored at a health facility; 28% said she should consult a doctor; and 20% would recommend that she give birth in a hospital or maternity center.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/id2003/sld-487.html


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Interested in edutainment? The "Entertainment-Education: Fourth International Conference" will be held in September 2004 in Cape Town, South Africa. Please visit the website http://www.ee4.org/ for more information and to register.  


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STRATEGIC THINKING
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategic-thinking.html


8. Empowerment Through ICTS: With Special Reference to African Media Women
By Colleen Lowe Morna
"Net Gains" was commissioned by the Association of Progressive Communicators (APC)- Women-Africa and FEMNET - two organisations that have worked to ensure that the gender dimensions of ICTs on the continent are recognized. The research, which was launched in New York in June 2000 at the Beijing Plus Five Review, sought to establish the extent of usage, the gaps and the possibilities offered by ICTs for gender-related organisations in Africa.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/st2004/sld-1567.html


9. Gender Media Baseline Study 
Black women, who represent 45 percent of the South African population, account for only five percent of news sources, according to a study released on August 7 2003. The results of the South Africa Gender and Media Baseline Study (GMBS) showed that Black women account for only six percent of media practitioners in South Africa and that women constitute 19 percent of known news sources in South Africa, compared to 17 percent in the rest of the Southern Africa.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/st2003/sld-1143.html


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Journalists from Nigeria, Zambia Win First IWMF Fellowships for International Women Journalists

Two women journalists from Nigeria and Zambia will receive the first International Women's Media Foundation fellowships for international women journalists. The three-month-long fellowships will provide international journalists with the opportunity for hands-on experience in U.S. media houses so that they can build practical journalism skills to take back to their countries. For information about the winners, please visit http: //www.iwmf.org/press/bios.php .


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MATERIALS
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials.html


10. Women Meeting the Challenge: A Handbook for Media Leadership
This handbook contains practical solutions to the barriers that hold women back from reaching their leadership potential. It uses recent studies to demonstrate where African women stand as leaders in the media. "While this book is for women, about women and by women, it also is a tool that should be shared with everyone in the newsroom. It is a means by which to change the leadership roles of women in their media houses." 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/ma2004/sld-1579.html


11. Voices for Change: Rural Women & Communication
By Silvia Balit
This book discusses the fact that, since women and men play different roles in agricultural and rural development, communication media and strategies should reflect their diverse needs and priorities. For communication to give a voice to rural women and help them realise their potential, they must first have the means to be heard. In other words, they need access to communication channels and media as well as the knowledge and skills to use them.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/ma2004/sld-1438.html


12. Under One Roof: Gender, Media & Democracy
The manual discusses that the way media portrays men and women and constructs masculinities and femininities has negative impacts, especially on women's self-esteem, as well as on their chances of being taken seriously in society. "The media has the potential to play a meaningful role in this process by shifting the paradigm around who and what is newsworthy, and by reporting and entertaining in ways that recognise the diversity of the people of the country."
http://www.comminit.com/africa/ma2004/sld-1576.html

 
LINKS
http://www.comminit.com/africa/links.html


13. African Women & Child Feature Service (AWCFC) Work 
- striving to include the voices of women, men, young people and where possible, children in development.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/linksmedia/sld-624.html


14. Women's Media Watch, South Africa 
- challenges sexism, racism, classism and homophobia in the Southern African media. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/linksmedia/sld-530.html


15. African Women's Media Center 
- a continent-wide organisation working with and on behalf of African women in the media.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/linksmedia/sld-531.html

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The Soul Beat is a partnership between:

Soul City and its partners - The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Development Cooperation Ireland, European Union, DFID, and BP

and The Communication Initiative Partnership - BBC World Service Trust, CFSC Consortium, The CHANGE Project, CIDA, Exchange, FAO, Ford Foundation, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, OneWorld, The Panos Institute, PCI, The Rockefeller Foundation, Soul City, The Synergy Project, UNAIDS, UNICEF, USAID, WHO.


The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Deborah Walter (dwalter /at/ comminit.com)




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