PAPER The Drum Beat - 24 - Ohio University - Media Journalists in Advocacy
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| The Drum Beat - 24 - Ohio University - Media Journalists in Advocacy Additional Information and Commentary - Please contact the student identified for a full copy of their paper. By Karen Nava International Student of Ohio University July 1999 nava@oak.cats.ohiou.edu 18. Global Agenda-Setting On Women Issues: The Role Of Media Journalists In Advocacy Abstract Society is the witness of continuous unequal access to education opportunities of good quality, inequalities in health care and related services, violence against women and children and inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels. What about the coverage of these daily life problems in the Media? Journalists are the ones that obviously decide what is written or/and broadcast about the main areas of concern towards all kinds of human, environmental and economic development. Who includes development issues in the media agenda? Do they pay attention to main areas of concern? Does the nature of the source has an influence on what is to become news? Can we say that a public global agenda exists? Some actors of society got organized around specific areas of interest. Journalists, and specifically, women journalists have promoted interesting experiences to contribute to gender equity and equality advocacy in their particular and specific context. This paper intends to reflect in aspects agenda-setting in development issues from a global perspective. It also aims to connect with the media agenda-setting process referred to women issues, discussed, analyzed and projected from Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China 1995. I describes two interesting advocacy actions towards the agenda-setting of main themes related to gender equality and equity, addressed by two global informational active networks from electronic mass media: Red FemMed/WomMed (Ecuador) and CIMAC (Mexico). Research questions: What is the role of Media when advocating for development issues? What is happening with the global agenda setting? Is the source of information important? What is the role of women journalists in the promotion of better quality of life? How are women journalists contributing in the promotion of attitude change for a better life quality? Delimitation of Research This scholarly research will discuss the agenda-setting theory and relate it to the global handling of development issues. It's principal purpose is to find relationships between the media -women journalists- and their potential advocating role in the main areas of concern for the improvement of life quality, specially for women. This research will also reflect in UN's role in delivering information and providing with credible sources, specifically referred to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995). Going along with these reflections, I will present two active experiences of advocacy conformed by women/men journalist networks. Observe and classify a group of internet published news by the two mentioned informative services and see the correspondence with the main areas of concern stated in the Platform of Action and the Beijing Declaration. Conclusions and Recommendations: the big advocacy potentiality of Mass Media United Nations understood that the new decision-making elites needed to be sensitized about the importance of the issues discussed and agreed in the world conferences in a local (national oriented) point of view. Meaning that global matters had to be lowered to contextual situations, varying from different realities. Sensitizing individuals and societies about the global agenda with the help of the media decision-makers was, again, a task that depends upon a process over time. A time, event and issues combination are involved. But first, the media gatekeepers had and have to be constantly sensitized. As a news magnet, UN installed world-issues-day: international women's day, world food day, world population day, world environment day, etc. Following a whole news making apparatus originated in UN headquarters accompanied with "packaged news" (containing already "cooked" press releases, posters, stickers and world reports) with previous releases for the media with clear instructions not to be opened before the press conferences worldwide. This process is an evolving one, time (we can not say when or how it begins) starts making a difference influencing individuals, groups, communities and then, nations points of view. To begin with, there are some not so little steps taken by groups of networked committed journalists that advocate from their seats at the radio station, the computer in their newspaper or their internet sites. It is still in the gatekeeper's hands the daily and important information that pertains to empowering women, and consequently, improving their quality of life. The biggest challenge is still to satisfy basic information needs to that great majority of women that have not still reached high literacy levels, to prompt them to use it and to generate information from their communities, their cities and their countries. |