Investigative journalism: Challenges women face

It is generally acknowledged that women’s participation in media and communication continues to be marginal. There has been improvement over the years and more women trained in the field. Yet, they sizzle out in the newsroom. Specifically, investigative journalism is the space where perhaps the concept of ‘symbolic annihilation’ applies most. 

Gaye Tuchman in 1979, writing of the American society, explains that ‘the very under-representation of women, including their stereotypical portrayal, may symbolically capture the position of women – their real lack of power. It bespeaks their “symbolic annihilation” by the media.’ Investigative journalism, wittingly or otherwise, trivialises women’s participation. 

The absence, or more broadly, under representation of women in investigative journalism is what will occupy us at Uganda Christian University today, in collaboration with African Institute for Investigative Journalism and the Konrad Adenuer Foundation. We are discussing it as an ‘untapped opportunity for women’.

Framing it as ‘untapped opportunity’ means that the space is there and women have not utilised it. Just like we have heard severally in the talk show genre and hard news coverage or even media management, for the most part, the media has pushed back to say they are providing the opportunity, women are not interested, not available, and unable to measure up to these opportunities in some cases. I have been part of many conversations that make these claims.

It is okay to throw the challenge to women. And when I speak to women in media, I challenge them to not wait for these opportunities to be given to them on a silver platter, but to do their best and demonstrate competence and excellence. However, we should always start with the why. It is not realistic, to say, that women have the opportunities and are not interested. We need to understand the nature of these spaces, if they have institutional apparatus that support women’s participation, and how the framing of it alone push women away. Is it possible, that we share a collective failure to deal with the ‘why’, always focusing on the what?

My biggest frustration over the last many years has been our inability to appreciate women’s relationship to their newsroom and its complex connection with the broader relationship to all communications media and the larger society and polity. As such, we have done little to address the real issues and blamed women for not taking the space. 

The media, like politics, was for decades not perceived as space for women. While we were able to recognise from a political point of view, that women had been marginalised and maligned in politics, created institutions for redress, we have expected different results from the media without making any specific demands. 

We do know that since 1995 when the quotas for women became part of the tools to mobilise women’s participation in politics, if it were dropped tomorrow, few women would return to parliament. And, having women in Parliament has not changed very much, our perception of women in politics. We have to endure it because the constitution says so. Those who do well are often vilified or pushed out, there are many examples. In the same way women showing promise for investigative journalism have also suffered forms of intimidation.

What this tells us is that the systems and structures of marginalisation remain largely in place. It pushes women out of these spaces like investigative journalism, where the men who occupy it also frame it as no space for women, the road less travelled. 

As such, if you are a woman, you must be the best, better in more ways than possible, stand out in all ways, and there is no room for learning on the job. You must come ready-made. The biases are many and breaking them requires a combination of competence, courage, confidence and creativity. It is a special and sacred space for a select few. 

If we are serious about meaningful participation of women in news reporting and specifically investigative journalism, we should understand the why and lessen the burden of participation.  This is not to say there are no women who are not interested or incompetent. We cannot bulk women. There are often reasons embedded in the structure of the industry, the socio-legal and the political configurations of the day, and more specifically the communication context. Some of them beyond the media houses.

In breaking the barriers related to biases women encounter, we have to connect with our motivations for their participation and inclusion in particular spaces.  

As we motivate women to participate in professional spaces, we should equip and empower them to be effective. We should prepare them well to deal with fear and the competition in those spaces. We should ensure, there is room for learning and mentoring. 

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.     [email protected]