The importance of ethical gender reporting

By Rose Okeke

Trigger Warning: Rape, Sexual Violence

Truth be told, one of the worst things to have happened to journalism is sensationalism. Everyone wants to coin click-bait headlines that will drive traffic to their sites, not caring whether or not those headlines are even accurate.

In Nigeria, we tend to play to public sentiments by creating headlines that appeal to the general conservative way of life in order to create a scandalous response. We do this a lot, especially with stories that have to do with gender-based violence and sexual assault.

What most writers don’t care to factor in is how the survivors feel or what stigmatization they may face as a result of being misrepresented in a headline.

Sensationalism in news headlines does irreversible damage to survivors of sexual assault, no matter how accurate the story body might be.

I recently attended the Gender Reporting for Media Professionals Workshop hosted by TechHerNG, and it really shed more light on how we as the media are in the position to sway the general public’s view on a story just by the way we present it.

When I covered the Abuja Police Raids last year, I saw all kinds of headlines calling innocent women who had been abducted on the streets ‘convicted prostitutes.’ Keep in mind that these women had not been tried nor convicted of prostitution in a real court of law. Also, keep in mind that sex work or ‘prostitution’ isn’t even a criminal offence in Nigeria. But these headlines said otherwise.

When news outlets broke this story on social media, people were writing and tweeting that they deserved to be mistreated, sexually violated with plastic water sachets as makeshift condoms, and brutally assaulted, because, after all, they were convicted prostitutes. The headlines already painted a one-sided picture and released it to the conservative public without so much as an apology to the women it defamed.

Now imagine how those brave young women must feel, even after showing up in person to give accurate accounts of what they went through at the hands of the Nigerian police.

Little things matter.

Even in stories that have to do with women achieving goals and breaking barriers, these feats are more often than not downplayed by the type of wording and grammar we use to write the story.

When we spoke about this at the workshop, it dawned on me even more than the subtle things actually cause the most harm to gender-sensitive articles.

We tend to use modifiers when using already gender-neutral words to qualify a woman. For example and this is one I hate the most — woman leader.

Why do we have to differentiate between male and female leaders? In doing so, we indirectly pass the message that leaders are male by default; that a woman who has fought and strove to become a leader in her own right is, in fact, an anomaly. An exception to the rule. It means that women aren’t usually supposed to be capable of being leaders, but here is ONE woman who did, thus we branded her ‘Woman Leader.’

Another subtle way we downplay women’s achievements is by describing them as someone’s wife first. You can see the difference in two news headlines involving a man and a woman doing something notable.

When you say: “John Doe’s Wife Bags International Film Award,” you might as well just write: “John Doe Bags International Film Award,” because you’ve already drawn the attention away from the woman who actually received the award and dumped it on the man who had nothing to do with that achievement.

A lot of people won’t see the problem in that first headline. The problem is that everything women do seemingly get attributed to their husbands. For ages, women have been seen as a man’s property. First our fathers, and then our husbands. We may as well have been listed with the furniture.

“Light bulbs? Check. Sofa? Check. Mirror? Check. Bedstand? Check. Wife? Check. Alrighty, guys, move it all into the van.”

Do you see the problem now?

When a woman achieves something, no matter how prominent her husband is, his name should not pop up in that headline. If absolute need be, stick it in the body of the story AFTER her own name.

It takes a conscious and deliberate effort to make sure gender-sensitive stories do not further plunge women back into the Bronze Age. It is to our own advantage. Although it may not trigger the scandalous response we are used to, in the long run, these subtle changes are what actually transforms public consciousness for the better.

Using terminology that ‘others’ women, downplays their achievements, as well as victimizes and stigmatizes them, is misogyny and nothing less.

Everyone wants to make big changes, but the beauty is in the baby steps. As writers, reporters, journalists, and bloggers who shape societal views, I believe the onus is on us to make sure inclusivity and ethical reporting remains our foremost priority.

Thanks for reading!

This story is part of a series highlighting the work of journalists who participated in TechHer’s Gender Reporting for Media Professionals Workshop. Find out more about Rose Okeke.