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Invisibility in the Media: a Comparative Analysis of the Coverage Given to Female Election Candidates in the 1999 and 2006 Elections by the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun

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Invisibility in the Media: a Comparative Analysis of the Coverage Given to Female Election Candidates in the 1999 and 2006 Elections by the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun INVISIBILITY IN THE MEDIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE COVERAGE GIVEN TO FEMALE ELECTION CANDIDATES IN THE 1999 AND 2006 ELECTIONS BY THE FIJI TIMES AND FIJI SUN by Shazia Shareen Bi Usman A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Copyright © 2012 by Shazia Shareen Bi Usman School of Language Arts and Media Faculty of Arts and Law The University of the South Pacific July, 2012 DECLARATION Statement by Author I, Shazia Shareen Bi Usman, declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published, or substantially overlapping with material submitted for the award of any other degree at any institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the text. Signature …………………………… Date………………………… Name ……………………………………………………………….. Student ID No. ……………………………………………………… Statement by Supervisor The research in this thesis was performed under my supervision and to my knowledge is the sole work of Ms. Shazia Shareen Bi Usman. Signature…………………………….. Date ……………………….. Name...……………………………………………………………… Designation ………………………………………………………… DEDICATION For Usman and Anisha, the best parents a feminist could have For Tabrez and Hamza, always keeping me grounded ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis is dedicated to my family for the unconditional love, support and understanding they have always given me. My father and mother, in particular, have been my driving force. No daughter is more blessed than one, whose parents put her education as their number one priority. I have never had a sister but the two I found in the USP journalism newsroom during my undergraduate years were surely meant to be mine. I will forever be in the debt of Katrina Ma’u and Tiri Naulivou for their enduring faith in me and for the many wonderful ‘M’ moments we continue to share. My deepest acknowledgement goes to my supervisors, Mr. Shailendra Singh and Dr. Rae Nicholl, for their guidance and the many hours they devoted to refining my work. I would also like to acknowledge the School of Language Arts and Media in the Faculty of Arts and Law at the University of the South Pacific for awarding me with a Graduate Assistant Scholarship that funded the first three years of my postgraduate studies. I also acknowledge with affection my chacha Abdul Khalil and his family for their love and support And lastly, to the wonderful feminists and my friends and colleagues at the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) – thank you for taking me on as an intern during the 2006 general elections. My experience with FWRM over the years has made a strong feminist out of me and inspired this research. I hope to see the day when women and men are equally represented in the media and work side by side in all areas of decision-making. ABSTRACT The main objective of the research was to determine the visibility of female election candidates and females in general in the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun during the 1999 and 2006 elections. The research also investigated whether the coverage that was accorded to women was stereotyped. After analysing the data collected quantitatively and qualitatively it can be concluded that female election candidates and females in general were virtually invisible in both newspapers and in both time periods. The few articles there were on women or quoted women were mostly clichéd, lacked critical analysis and stereotyped women. It can thus be said that by covering male and female candidates differently, Fiji’s two most prominent and widely read newspapers may have influenced the success or failure of female candidates in their bid to hold public office. An unexpected but equally important finding of the research sheds some light on why there may be a lack of visibility of female election candidate (as well as other development related issues) in the dailies during election times. The data shows the extensive prominence Fiji’s print media gives to race and coup-related issues as elections draw near, crowding out reportage of other major issues. For instance, the lack of women at the highest-level of decision-making is rarely ever covered in any in-depth and informed manner. The media have been so preoccupied with the supposed tension between the two major ethnicities (the indigenous Fijians, now known officially as i- Taukei, and the Indo-Fijians - Fijians of Indian origin) that they have overlooked the fact that in all elections since independence, women have only managed to secure less than 12 percent of the 71 seats in Parliament - yet women make-up nearly half of the total population of the country. The literature review shows that when racial and ethnic tensions and national security issues are at the forefront of discussions during election times, it is men who tend to dominate the news. Subsequently, studies have concluded that voters may vote a male into power (over a female) because they feel that a male might be able to handle a race-related issue or a national security issue better than a woman. i ABBREVIATIONS AV - Alternative Vote CEDAW - Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women FLP - Fiji Labour Party FWRM - Fiji Women’s Rights Movement GMMP - Global Media Monitoring Project IPU - Inter-Parliamentary Union MDG - Millennium Development Goal MMD - Multi-Member District MP - Member of Parliament NGO - Non-governmental Organisations PANU - Party of National Unity PER - Public Emergency Regulation PINA - Pacific Island News Association PNG - Papua New Guinea PR - Proportional Representation RFMF - Republic of the Fiji Military Forces SDL - Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewanivanua Party SMD - Single Members District SPC - Secretariat of the Pacific Community WAC - Women’s Action for Change WISDM - Women in Shared Decision Making ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .........i Abbreviations ........ii Introduction ........vi Chapter 1 .........1 What is the role of media in a democracy....1 The relationship between news media and politics ...1 Establishing if news media have an effect – the origins . 8 Media and Elections.......10 Ideological Bias.......14 The Media and the Democratic Process ....15 Summary........18 Chapter 2 .........19 Fiji: a historical background, racism, media & the Government . 19 Politics of race .......20 1999-2001 .......21 2003-2006 .......22 2008 ........23 2009 ........24 2010-2011 .......25 Summary........26 Chapter 3 .........28 Literature Review- Mass Communication Research on Politics . 28 Examining effects of Agenda-setting: historical back ground . 29 The Different Stages of Agenda-setting ....31 Traditional Agenda-setting and Attribute Agenda-setting . 31 Framing.......32 Priming .......34 Framing Gender Politics ......36 Some agenda-setting criticisms ....39 Gender and the News Media ......40 Symbolic Annihilation .....43 Stereotyping in newsrooms.....45 Stereotypes and leadership .....48 News sources.......51 Female Election Candidates and the Media ....51 Visibility of Female Election Candidates...52 How the news media portray female election candidates . 54 To be (feminine) or not to be.....55 Summary........58 Status of Women in Fiji......59 Electoral System......59 Candidate Selection ......66 State Obligations ......67 CEDAW.......67 iii Beijing Platform for Action ....68 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ...69 History of Women in Parliament....71 The Role of NGOs during the 1999 and 2006 General Elections 72 Possible Reasons for Lack of Women in Fiji Parliament . 73 Cultural environment.....73 Nature of political parties ....74 Invisibilityin the media....75 Summary........76 Chapter 4 ........77 Methodology ........77 Analysis Framework: The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 77 Medium analysed.......78 Time period........78 Quantitative analysis method ......79 Qualitative analysis method ......81 Chapter 5 .........86 Findings.. ......86 Quantitative analysis .......86 Qualitative analysis .......102 Chapter 6 .........139 Developmentof gender equality in Parliament....139 Visibility of women.......139 Professional women.......141 Stereotyped women.......142 Race, coup and development ......144 Conclusion........145 Suggestions for future research.....147 References ........167 iv Tables Table 1 - House of Representatives .................................................................................61 Table 2 - Percentage of Women MPs Across 24 National Legislatures, 1945–2004 Plurality/majority (SMD) Systems vs PR/Mixed, Multi-member District Systems........64 Table 3 - Regional Average .............................................................................................66 Figures Figure 1.0 – Four Worlds news values matrix....7 Figure 2.0 - Elements of Political Communication between Political Organisations and the Citizens via the Media ...13 Figure 3.0 - Media and the Public Sphere .....16 Graphs Graph 1 – Percentage of total items analysed..................................................................87 Graph 2 - Number of items analysed in different categories ...........................................88 Graph 3 - Percentage of different subjects.......................................................................89 Graph 4 - Female and male election candidates quoted in all 471 items.........................90 Graph 5 - Election candidates quoted in the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun ..............................91 Graph 6 – Males and females directly quoted..................................................................92 Graph 7 - Males and females directly quoted – breakdown ............................................93
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