SECTOR 2 Most media houses have introduced a women’s page or programme to profile women. Some panellists saw this as a positive development, while others felt that this practice of compartmentalising women continued to marginalise them. “We are all affected by politics and economics, so when covering these issues journalists should look at both perspectives.” “Unfortunately, the sensational news of a politician being caught in some scandal will always take precedence always over issues such as domestic violence, female genital mutilation, the marriage of young girls or maternal mortality.” However, the MCT’s media monitoring project, conducted in 2011, showed that while there was definite gender blindness in news coverage, particularly by the ‘yellow press’/tabloids, there was also a small amount of gender-transformative reporting. The MCT research showed that in Mwananchi, The Citizen and a tabloid, Uwazi, women represented only about 20% of all sources, while in two other tabloids, Ijumaa and Risasi, this percentage was over 30%. In 40% to 80% of the 1,066 articles analysed overall, only single sources were used. Interestingly, even in supplements published by Mwananchi and The Citizen, which were specifically aimed at women, men appeared as sources more often than women. The research showed that women were especially marginalised in the sports section (10%), business (20%) and politics (24%). Advertisers and potential sponsors of NGO broadcast programmes are also guilty of negatively stereotyping women by only wanting to be associated with ‘soft’ programmes like beauty pageants instead of those about issues such as maternal health. Panellists felt that because culturally men are more dominant in Tanzania than women, the media reflected this. In addition, about one-third of the population is Muslim: “Culturally, a Muslim woman cannot speak in front of men, so this inhibits women from having a higher profile.” The media in Tanzania is still not gender-sensitive and panellists noted that gender training for media staff was critical. On a positive note, women’s empowerment has created an emphasis on girls’ education to the degree that many more women than before are attending tertiary training institutions. “There are more women journalists now and most of the staff on community radio stations are also women. There is a definite shift.” Panellists noted, however, that on television talk shows, most of the presenters and those attending debates and being interviewed are men. Most top-level media positions are also held by men in Tanzania. “There are more women in the media in Tanzania but the ‘glass ceiling’ is still there. Women may become news or features editors but they rarely go beyond that.” 36 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Tanzania 2015