Looking Beyond Social Media: Emerging Media Practices that Contribute to Women’s Empowerment
Posted 1:45 PM by Internal Voices in Labels: 12th Edition |
| UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras |
Alexandra Jacobs, UN Association of the National Capital Area, Washington DC
In the past two years, authoritarian regimes around the world have been challenged, if not toppled by swarms of citizens demanding change—many of them through Twitter feeds and Facebook posts. These communications media have contributed to the protests in Egypt and given birth to the Green Movement in Iran. However, after the organization of vast revolutionary networks and dramatic regime change, it is important to ask what happens next. Following a successful removal of an oppressive dictator and regime, can media still play a role in alleviating deeply embedded social conditions that prevent progress towards social equality?
Lasting social change seems to require more quiet revolutions. Recently, many successful community development projects have featured media productions in film and radio, giving communities the opportunity to educate themselves and contribute to their own civic advancement over a period of time. Most Twitter or Facebook posts demand immediate response, while these projects hope to bring lasting social change in the context of local communities. Revolutions brought on by the organizing power of social media are undoubtedly important aspects in movements for social change. But these successful community development projects show that more attention must be paid to a different brand of social media—media productions that address pressing social issues and provide a space for positive community involvement and self-expression.
In pursuit of the 3rd Millennium Development Goal, gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN agencies have recognized the importance of a local approach and have often partnered with grassroots organizations to attempt to reach this goal. Media outlets such as film and radio are useful tools in efforts to localize discussion of social equality. We can see the powerful effects of film and radio in Terrat, Tanzania, a rural community of Maasai, a pastoral ethnic group that lives throughout East Africa. Since 2004 a local grassroots organization has broadcast an FM radio station with a significant portion of their programming being in the local KiMaasai language, which is not officially recognized by the Tanzanian government.
With the help of the Swedish International Development Agency the radio station has become an integral part of the community. The staff members of the radio see themselves as activists for Maasai culture, a minority group in Tanzania. But they do not limit themselves solely to cultural cheerleading. The radio station has identified the advancement of the rights of women and
girls in their community as one of their primary goals. In 2006 the radio staff broadcast a program proposing an alternative rite of passage activity to combat the prevalence of female genital mutilation among the female population. The station became such an important contributor to community efforts to end the practice that girls who were fleeing their homes in order to avoid the procedure came to the radio station for protection and support.
Radio did more for this community than just transmit news and entertainment. It provided a space for civic discussions and activism, and put the development of women’s rights on its agenda. Other media projects throughout Africa have also targeted women’s empowerment in the face of violence as a necessary theme to explore in African communities.
Search for Common Ground, an international organization that uses media for conflict resolution, has partnered with two Dutch filmmakers who produced a documentary film about the widespread practice of rape in Democratic Republic of Congo. The film features victims of rape and their families, discussing how they have struggled to put their lives back together. With the help of funding from UNHCR and Amnesty International, the organization has used a mobile film screen to present the film in several communities where the use of rape as a weapon of war has been widespread. After screening the film, discussion facilitators invite the audience to discuss how they as a community have worked to overcome the social biases that surround rape victims and their families. Facilitators have been trained to lead discussions for groups of women, adolescents, married couples, and members of the military. Rural communities in Africa often have very little access to film. For one night, communities are able to come together and watch a film with critical social relevance. The film also works to stimulate conversation about topics that can be difficult to broach without an outside stimulus. The film itself becomes much more than social commentary, but a catalyst for dialogue and subsequent activism that inspires community member involvement and social progression.
As social media gains ground throughout the world, the international civic community should urge the UN with increasing intensity to support programs that focus on the emancipatory potential of these media forms with a local approach. Media forms such as radio and film require more time and more community involvement, but when pursuing long-term social goals such as gender equality, this kind of time investment can truly be a recipe for success.
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