Gender and media literacy in South Africa

Gender Links will run the gender and media literacy course from 3 February to 6 April 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The course is being extended to the staff of loveLife, an organisation that works with youth on HIV and AIDS.

Taking place before the Third Gender Justice and Local Government Summit (18-20 April 2012), the course involves ten three hour modules on Friday afternoons from 3 February and a day’s participation at the Summit where participants will be awarded certificates of competence. The training will culminate in special projects to be implemented in the loveLife work plan as well as their media products e.g. cartoon ideas, radio scripts, thought pieces (editorial guidelines) and billboards. Policy briefs will be developed from the debate topics.

The objective of this project is to develop a culture of critical media production and consumption at loveLife. The tool kit draws from research and training material developed over a number of years on gender and the Southern African media.
In addition, the course will equip participants with gender analysis and a range of communication skills including media monitoring; mainstreaming gender in various media products that the organisation produces; designing and costing campaigns, using new media to leverage these campaigns; and to design monitoring and evaluation tools to assess impact of these products. The course is open to twenty staff members of loveLife who work in the media hub and seek to produce gender sensitive knowledge in innovative ways.