The African Women in Media (AWiM) founder Dr Yemisi Akinbobola. Inset: The AWiM 2019 conference poster. [Courtesy]
Female media practitioners and executives from various African countries will be gathering in Nairobi for a three-day global conference to address gender inequality in the media.
How often do you interact with female experts in the media? Invariably, television, radio, newspapers and online media is dominated by men.
This is the stereotypical representation that the African Women in Media (AWiM) conference 2019 will challenge as it hosts its annual conference in Nairobi from 25-27th July 2019.
The conferenced themed ‘Showcase’, will be held at the University of Nairobi Towers.
AWiM’s founder and organiser of the conference, Dr Yemisi Akinbobola says the conference intends to champion for gender rights within media content.
The conference will also showcase various works produced by African women working in various media industries such as journalism and film.
“Often, the experts that are used as news sources are mostly predominantly men …It’s all about whose voices have been heard and used to develop agendas,” Dr Akinbobola told KTN News’ Michelle Ngele during an interview at the Standard Group Plc studios.
“We have panels on media topics such as violence, police making, global innovations in the media, misinformation and fake news among others and they will present the women as experts on those topics,” Dr Akinbobola added.
Dr Akinbobola, herself an award-winning journalist and academic says 300 guests, 100 speakers and trainers have confirmed attending the AWiM conference.
Part of the programme also includes panel discussions, project presentations, training workshops, film screenings, exhibitions and networking opportunities.
Best story idea pitch to get Sh200,000
“We have the AWiM Pitch Zone where attendees will be able to pitch stories to organisations in order to win $2,000 (Sh203,000) to produce the stories,” Dr Akinbobola said, adding that international media outlets such as BBC and CNN will also commission stories that they like.
AWiM on its website, says the objectives of the conference are ‘in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 Aspirations three and six, and United Nations SDGs five and ten.
Organisations that are represented at the conference will set an agenda on how they will improve the working conditions for their female employees and bridge the inequality gap at the workplace.
“We have come a long way and achieved a lot like Standard Group supporting their Women Network. We are making headway and should not stop the conversation just because we have taken a few steps forward but to actually set agendas and action points that we can commit to and demonstrate the impact,” Dr Akinbobola said.
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Related Topics
Gender inequalityAfrican Women in MediaAWiM conference
