MEDIATED TOKENISM

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MEDIA PORTRAYAL AND COVERAGE OF WOMEN IN NIGERIAN POLITICS

Abstract

For decades, feminist scholars and activists have focused attention on the cultural dimension of power, the media’s role in reproducing particular patterns of gender inequality and women’s exclusion in the news media (GMMP, 2010). As a contribution to the discourse, it becomes necessary also to examine how news media in developing regions frame or construct gender in the news media and the possible effect of these constructions to women participation in politics. The study, a critical discourse analysis of existing literature, found similarities in literature from developed countries to what is tenable in Nigeria regarding media coverage of women in the news. From the study, it becomes very obvious that news in Nigeria seems to be undemocratic and non-inclusive. The study therefore, advocates for Nigerian journalists’ increase use of Gender Aware Reporting principles and the concept of reframing of news stories as possible approaches that will increase women’s visibility in the news media and their consequent participation in politics in Nigeria.