Harvesting Change: Enhancing Media Coverage of Agriculture and Women in Mali, Uganda, and Zambia

This 100-page evaluation report shares the experience and assessment of the Reporting on Women and Agriculture: Africa project, a 3-year initiative by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). Its purpose is to increase and improve coverage in the news media about agriculture and rural development and to incorporate the voices of women in agriculture reporting. The project’s goal was to provide the public with a more accurate (including an emphasis on scientific accuracy) and in-depth view of food production and the lives and needs of those who feed the population. Overall, the assessment found that the project had significantly increased the quantity, quality, and depth of reporting on women in agriculture.

The three-year training programme was divided into two parts: the first part focused on building writing skills and storytelling abilities, as well as increasing awareness of the agriculture industry and women's roles in food production. The second phase of the training concentrated on mentorship and independent fieldwork, with trainees proposing story ideas to their editors and trainers and venturing into the field alone or in small groups. The report includes information about the impact of the project, as well as detailed implementation notes and examples of stories.

Reporting Mali

According to the report, in addition to elevating the practice of agriculture reporting at the two partner media houses, project trainees in Mali gained stature among their colleagues and became mentors to younger reporters. They formed extended networks of contacts that reached beyond the agricultural sector and into non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and research facilities. Participants developed the ability to work in teams, which allowed them to expand story ideas and maximise resources when reporting in the field. The report notes that project trainees who already had an agriculture beat were able to expand the scope of their reports and began to include more women as stories and sources. As training progressed, the agriculture beats became multidimensional and expanded to include agriculture’s intersection with women, environment, rural issues, health, and politics. As part of the effort to mobilise women in the newsroom, the IWMF held annual Leadership Institutes for Women Journalists; in an anonymous final survey of project trainees, nearly three-quarters of all respondents said their levels of responsibility within the newsroom have improved because of the project.

Reporting Uganda

In Uganda, reporters worked together to institutionalise agriculture beats and convince their media organisations to create new programming and adjust content to fit project goals. The local trainer implemented strategies to encourage field reporting, and reporters became more innovative in the way they presented stories. The report states that the influence of these changes can be seen in other Ugandan media. Other news outlets expanded their coverage of agriculture to compete with amplified reporting at the Daily Monitor and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. Journalist trainees successfully drew attention to problems farmers face, including a lack of support for women farmers. In some cases, their efforts directly resulted in outreach and assistance to farmers from policymakers and NGOs. Ugandan trainees also formed an interface between journalism and development science that had previously been neglected. Through a network of science-based sources cultivated over time and conversations with rural farmers, trainees gained first-hand knowledge of the gap in understanding that existed between agriculture workers and the natural phenomena that affect their work, such as climate change.

Reporting Zambia

According to the evaluation, journalists in Zambia worked to incorporate rural voices into everyday news coverage in a traditionally urban-centric media landscape dominated by politics and national news. In some cases, newly formed agriculture programming established a dialogue between reporters and their audience. In other instances, trainee reporting exposed neglected constituencies among Zambia's food producers, leading to policy change and assistance from NGOs. Support from partners grew as editors and managers recognised the potential of appealing to a broader audience. Reporters became experts and diversified their skill sets, advising other journalists, and for some, being promoted into more senior positions. Working closely with their colleagues and journalists from other media allowed trainees to gain intrapersonal skills and experience with workplace interaction. Establishing programming that reaches out to farmers directly was considered one of the main accomplishments of the project in Zambia.

Afterword

At the end of year four, more than 3,000 stories about project topics had been produced. Results of a final media monitoring study conducted with partners in late 2011 showed a 1% overall increase in coverage of agriculture, which totalled 5 percent of all reporting. Agriculture news became more prominent at the partners media house between 2008 and 2011, with nearly three-quarters of agriculture stories appearing in the first 10 pages/bulletins in the final monitoring assessment. Sourcing also showed small gains in some areas. While government officials and ministers remained the dominant source group, subsistence farmers were the second most-used group in agriculture reporting, totalling 13% of all sources. Within the subsistence farmer genre, women outnumbered men nearly two to one. Study results also showed a 2% increase in "feature news/analysis" stories. Yet, the report states that there is still progress to be made before coverage of agriculture and women in the media is proportionate to their place in the societies and economies of Mali, Uganda, and Zambia. The average number of sources per story remains low; the majority of agriculture reporting is news instead of analysis; and few stories in the study sample clearly challenged gender stereotypes.