Portrayal Of Women In Business In Print Media: A Case Of Nation And Standard Newspapers In Kenya

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess how women in business are portrayed in print media by focusing on the daily nation and standard newspapers in Kenya. The main research questions in the study were; how are women in business portrayed in print media in Kenya? In what ways are women in business stories portrayed in print media in Kenya, what is the impact of portraying women in business in print media in Kenya? And to what extent does the gender of the reporter influence portrayal of women in business in Kenya? The study used a descriptive research design and explanatory studies to complement each other. The independent variables that were used in the study were the positive or negative portrayal of women in business in the print media while the dependent variable was the impact of the portrayal to the performance of women enterprises or SMEs. The study population for this research was news articles obtained from Daily Nation and the Standard Newspaper issues that appeared in the National News section from July 2021 and October 2021. 86 articles were sampled using a simple random sampling technique and a data collection tool was used to obtain information from the newspaper articles for content and thematic analysis. The findings of the study showed that print media portray women negatively as persons involved in criminal activities, corrupt, or victims of circumstance. The study findings concluded that a majority of themes are used to portray women in business negatively as persons involved in criminal activities. Secondly, the study showed that gender variations are a major theme in print media that leads to a huge disparity in how women are covered compared to men. Gender variations account for the disparity in the volume of coverage, sources used to obtain information, mentions, location of the article in the newspaper, and the gender of a journalist. Thirdly, the study has established that men are preferred in print media coverage compared to women and male journalists prefer using men as their dominant sources of information. The results of the study showed that there is a huge disparity in the manner in which women in business are covered in the front pages of the local dailies. Most of the articles written in the front pages are done by male writers and they covered a big space. On the basis of mentions, the study established that men are mentioned more times compared to women. The findings of the study implied that gender disparity in covering women issues in business are portrayed negatively and this affects how the overall public perceives them. Women are perceived as non-thriving, struggling and failures in business.