Assessment of media portrayal of women in politics In Nigeria.

Abstract

This study examined how Nigerian media portray women in political leadership positions in the country. The study also ascertained whether Nigerian media promote gender stereotypes, which have been found to undermine women capability and experience in leadership positions. The study raised three research questions. A corpus of media and sociological theories were used to buttress the study. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods of research design, and content analysis was adopted as instrument of data collection for the study. The study population were all the editions of Guardian and Daily Trust newspapers from November 2018 to March 2019. The study used purposive sampling technique to generate a sample size of 262 editions of the two newspapers that were analyzed. Findings of the study revealed to a large extent that female politicians were portrayed as insignificant because their opinions were never reported on national and international issues. Rather, their social life was given much attention. The study also recommends that journalists should do away with gender bias and familial traits when reporting women in political leadership positions.