01 Dec 2021 WACC supports project to train Nigerian journalists on gender equality in news

At least 900 journalists from Nigeria will be trained  on the fundamentals of gender equality in news sources as part of a WACC-supported project this year.

The Media and Gender Enlightenment Initiative (MEGEIN), a local NGO established in 2008 “to build a gender-sensitive mass media” in the country, is implementing the project, Gender Implications of News Output: Reinforcing the Knowledge Base of Media Practitioners in Nigeria.

The project seeks to ensure that Nigerian news “reflects gender equality by making women equal sources of news as their male counterparts,” and that local media practitioners are versed in gender-balanced reporting.

“MEGEIN is at the forefront of the movement for gender justice in and through the media in Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest and most complex media market,” said Lorenzo Vargas, WACC program manager for Communication for Social Change. “WACC is proud to partner with MEGEIN on this new project to build on the insights derived from years of research and advocacy experience.”

The workshop will train 150 journalists from each state selected in the country’s various geopolitical zones.

“At the end of the project, journalists will know how to further encourage and persuade women to be the source of news stories,” said MEGEIN in its project summary. “The indirect beneficiaries will be women, who are grossly underrepresented as news sources.”

Data from the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)  showed that women represented only 21% of persons seen, heard or written about in Nigerian news media.

MEGEIN underscored the importance of news media in shaping the narrative and thinking patterns of media consumers and society at large.

Originally named Society and Media Initiative, MEGEIN was founded as a result of the Africa regional gender and media advocacy training seminar co-organized in 2007 by WACC and the Africa Women and Child Feature Service (AWC).

Above: Women represented only 21% of persons seen, heard or written about in Nigerian news media, according to data from the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)