By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) with support from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has discussed the roles of journalists in countering Gendered Disinformation in the newsroom.
The media training is part of efforts by SLAJ to raise understanding of gendered disinformation and proffer handy approaches among journalists in terms of addressing the issue.
In her presentation, Media Trainer, Martha Kargbo explained that gendered disinformation is wrong information about a particular group of people directed at their gender, be they men or women.
She said the fact that people have narrowly focused on gender to mean women and, according to her that thought is also gendered disinformation – because it is wrong information about a specific gender. She said due to the many challenges women face gave rise to the majority of people considering gender as female.
Kargbo pointed out that since the explosion of online media and the introduction of bloggers and citizen journalism, gendered disinformation has been used to bully public figures, especially the targeting of women in their workplace or community.
She commended the development of internal newsroom gender policy for the purposes of countering gendered disinformation in the newsroom.
She suggested the creation of gender measurements in all contents and more especially in the dispensation of duty in the newsroom but noted that people should not override quality.
Kargbo advised that media houses should ensure equal task is given to reporters, presenters and producers, irrespective of their sex.
“The process of filtering information to the public through traditional and online media may differ but the impact may not be. Media can perpetuate or contribute to gender disinformation by failing to verify information, recognizing tactics of gender disinformation, and unethical reporting and irresponsible journalism in the digital age may likely occur,’’ she said.
She went on to note that providing education on gendered disinformation and its effects on women and recognizing common tactics used in the same can be an effective strategy for addressing gendered disinformation, as well as emphasizing collaborative approaches involving media, civil society and government agencies.
In order to be on the right template on gendered disinformation, she said there are programmes that should be redirected so that the public space can redefine women's talk shows, saying such shows would require male and female experts, only for the purposes of lending their expertise to create impact.
She noted that female journalists who staged such talk shows and programmes should think out of the box in rolling out women's issues so as not to create a picture that would portray women as too weak a gender.
She said that the essence of journalism is to impact the lives of ordinary people but pointed out that the failure to involve women in showing their expertise in national discourse has negatively impacted the lives of women in the country.
“Inasmuch as the work of journalist focuses mainly on collecting and processing of information and disseminating it to the wider public, journalists should be equipped with the requisites knowledge and understanding in order to handle gendered disinformation issues with the utmost care,’’ Kargbo noted.
She added: ‘’Software verification, validation of documents, using fact-checking platforms and expert sources are tools for verifying the veracity of information. Checking your sources, asking critical questions and seeking feedback and inputs are also essential techniques for verifying information’’.
SLAJ has rolled out the programme in four districts- Kenema, Bo, Port Loko and Makeni in order to enhance the awareness of the people on countering disinformation and misinformation.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (18/10/23)
