Accra — A recent study on the Ghanaian media's coverage of gender issues has revealed that out of a total 6053 issues in news editorials, only 1.6% (96 editorial frequency) were given to women, compared to issues on children which rated 2% (126 editorial frequency) and the youth 1.9% (115 editorial frequency).

The study titled "Gender Equality Contesting Media Spaces: The Coverage of Gender in the Ghanaian Media" measured the overall editorial focus or attention to issues on women from the year 2005 to 2009.

A breakdown shows that in 2009, attention on gender coverage dropped to 4%, from a consistent representation of 7% recorded in 2006, 2007 and 2008 , indicating a 3% decline in projection of gender issues by news editors.

Out of 881 news editorials recorded in the year 2005, 0.3% focused on women, 0.2% on the youth while 0.4% was on children, constituting 1% of the total number of issues raised by news editors on gender.

According to researchers the purpose of this study was to examine how the Ghanaian media covered general gender issues and other non-gender news content based on newspaper editorials by selected media from 2005 - 2009.

It is hoped results would sharpen civic engagement processes towards gender - media representations and would help policy makers to specifically engage the media as a tool for promoting gender equality for effective good governance in Ghana.

Gender in the context of the study represented women, children, youth, men while news stories on politics, health, education, social, agriculture , ICT and telecommunication, banking, insurance, mining, oil and gas and tourism were grouped under the category 'other'.

News editorials were selected as the appropriate unit since they constitute media houses in - house editorial team observations and policies that have the potential to set political, cultural and social agenda for the country.

Lead Researcher, Dr. Messan Mawugbe of the Department of Mass of Communication Studies at the Central University College in Accra, noted that the media sometimes falls short of its plural role by under representing women, the elderly, and the young.

Presenting the findings at a National Gender Forum in Accra organised by the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-rap), Mr. Mawugbe said the findings confirm that news editors would marginalize and under represent gender issues in their editorial coverage and give more prominence to other issues (non - gender) than gender issues.

The G-RAP forum was under the theme, "Civic Engagement for Gender Equality and Good Governance in Ghana, Sharing experiences, Contesting Spaces, Renewing Commitments".

He elaborated, "The results also confirm the assertion that news is not the inevitable product of chance events- rather it has been the result of decision made within news organizations (Epstein, 1981). Hence it calls for critical evaluation of editor's attention and commitment to women / gender issues in editorial coverage".

According to Dr. Mawugbe, the consistent trend of editorial focus on gender; 7% in 2006, 2007 and 2008 which dropped to 4% in 2009 indicates dwindling interest and commitment of editors in gender issues.

He acknowledged the low projection of gender by news editors and called for a re-engagement of the media by gender activists and civic societies.

"The unequal representation of gender - women (1.6%) in relation to other issues (94%) from 2005 - 2009 suggest a critical marginalization of women in Ghana's democratic processes".

He said it also suggest the media in performing its agenda-setting role, did not adequately direct national attention towards women engagement in national development.

Further, he said the results indicate the inactive relationship between media institutions and civic societies in the area of gender equality promotions.

The study recommended that the media should be given a central role by policy makers, and civic societies in the promotion of women equalities in democratic engagement.

Also, civil societies should employ consistent and scientific media monitoring as part of their operations and to be able to measure the level of media engagements and commitments to women / gender equality parameters.

Despite the central role women continue to play in economic development, issues of their inadequate representation in governance processes, although a phenomenon which has existed for a long time , and steadily moving across the globe, continue to contest with other issues for equal media representation, (Lafky, 1993).

However "gender is never given but varies according to specific cultural and historical settings" as identified by Van Zoonen (Zoonen, 1991:45: McQuail, 2000:100).

From the media perspective, gender constitutes non sensational news value hence for a long time, gender remained "marginalized in all types of media", (Tuchman, 1978).

Speaking on the historical, political and contextual analysis of Gender, Civic Engagement and Good Governance, Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf noted that gender is not only a question of women but human rights development, progress and national development.

In her opinion, since Beijing conference gender implementation seem not to be making giant strides although there have been efforts to integrate it. "Much has not translated into practical terms. Local and national governance fall short of really getting women into governance position. It is time for us to change strategies and processes."