SABC 1: News_Education, women empowerment

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Name of the monitor: Sakhile Dube
Name of Television station: SABC1
Name of programme: Xhosa News
Date of broadcast: 22/12/2018
Story number in the bulletin 5
Time: 19:00 – 19:30
Genre: Mixed
Theme: Education, women empowerment
Skills: Headline and Language
GBV focus explicit or implicit? Implicit
Gem Classification: Gender Aware
Provide a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzKkKsmv2r4

A brief description of the news story:
The story is about a young Muslim woman (Shamila Mpinga) who was awarded the Rhodes scholarship to study for an MSc in law and finance and an MBA at the University of Oxford in the UK.

This story has been classified as gender aware because it supports female empowerment within an underrepresented group of women who are rarely in the media.

Headline: Shamila Mpinga, the daughter of a domestic worker receives a scholarship to study at Oxford University.
Although the story is classified as gender aware, the headline includes “the daughter of the domestic worker” which is not necessary to the story, instead, the headline should have only focused on Mpinga’s achievements. The videographer might argue that there is a need to emphasise Mpinga’s background in the story so that other women may learn from her.

Analysis
Muslim women are one of the most underrepresented groups of people in South Africa especially when it comes to education, business and empowerment. The achievements of Muslim girls and women are often not told by the mainstream media. This story highlights the issues of women empowerment, equality and success within minority groups and people from impoverished backgrounds.

The story is not GBV focused but speaks to the issue of female empowerment through education. This is important as some Muslim girls and young women are denied access to education across Africa. There is a reasonable balance of women and men who speak in the story and Mpinga is given an opportunity to talk about her dreams, aspirations and career goals and her mother and extended family are given a chance to speak. The reporters use language that focuses mostly on Mpinga’s background such as “impoverished”, this could be used as a way of encouraging women from poor backgrounds that they can also achieve their goals.