The representation of women in newspapers: A Namibian case study.

Abstract

Abstract Recent studies have shown that there are certain groups in society that are not represented well by the society such as women and children. The studies have focused mainly on how society infringes the rights of women and children. However this study looked at the representation of women in the media and the impact it has on them. The main objective of the study was to bring out how women are portrayed in the Namibian newspapers. Most of the literature related to the representation of women attests that women are misrepresented and underrepresented. The researcher used mixed methods research design to answer the objectives of the study. Content analysis and focus group discussions were used to collect the data and the population of the study was The Namibian Sun newspaper and The Villager newspapers for the period of two months and 10 participants who were 5 men and 5 women for the focus group discussions. The sampling technique used for both data collection methods was judgmental sampling technique. It was used to choose the newspapers because they are still upcoming in the market so they use sensationalism to get grounded and it ·was also used for picking participants in the focus group by selecting professionals and students who have an understanding of media jargon. The data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative content analysis to get both descriptive and statistical findings. The findings of the research vvere that women are represented in the media because of factors such as patriarchy, male media ownership and existing media language. The stories women, appear in are less serious than men so women are in most instances under represented.