The GMF's first plenary session took up fundamental questions about the role of the media

The Global Media Forum started on Monday with plenary session 1: “Rating vs. Quality: Media caught between market pressure and the mission to educate.” It was a very engaging discussion, and there were representatives from the US, Germany, Russia and South Africa. Above all, participant Trevor Ncube made a particular impression on me. He is deputy chairman of M&G Media Ltd in South Africa and chairman of Alpha Media Holdings in Zimbabwe, and he started by saying that when the media neglects Africans, it is generating misinformation.
He was referring to a video that we had seen before the panel started called “Colours.” It consisted of several people of different nationalities saying what countries they come from. Even though the piece intended to be universal, there were no Africans there. When Travor asked the audience, “Has anyone noticed anything wrong with the video?” He then proceeded to highlight the lack of Africans, which represent one billion members of the world’s population. I thought to myself: “Yes, that is true, and there are no Latin Americans either on the video.”

The audiovisual piece was not the only thing he took contention with. He also questioned the media’s role in education. “It is presumptuous to say that media has an education role,” he stated: “I always have the premise that my audience is more educated than me.” And with today’s access to media, they are also more informed than in the past. In his view, media’s role is to engage and be relevant to its audience, providing good quality content, analysis and intelligent commentary. Given that there is only a fine line between education and propaganda, Travor finds ascribing an educational role to publishers and other media outlets is rather problematic.

His view struck a cord with me. Ever since I attended the Salzburg Global Seminar on Media and Global Change, I had been thinking how I could transfer the knowledge I got there to others. It was at that seminar that I got to know the subject of media literacy for the first time – as well as how to transfer such knowledge to others in a systematic way. I attended the Salzburg seminar while I was in my last year of journalism school. Since then, I have seen media literacy as a subject that should be taught to teenagers in high school; in my view, people need to be conscious of how media works from a young age. I actually thought of designing a workshop for a high school in my neighborhood.

Fellow blogger Hellgurd with Amrita Scheema, a DW news presenter, at the conference

Trevor’s questions brought up a lot of other questions. Are people who read newspapers and watch TV really more educated than journalists in Argentina? The truth is: It all depends on what fragment of reality you are watching. In my country, poverty-stricken communities are now going through their third generation of non-professional citizens, unemployment and school dropouts. There is a huge phenomenon of retelling history on behalf of the ruling party (we call it “reinventing history,” when people manipulate historical facts according to what suits them).

There are two main actors involved in this retelling process: political representatives (through public speeches) and the national media. I prefer to hear all sides of the story in order to make up my mind. And when I do so, I become very conscious of my experiences in higher education. But what about people who didn’t even finish secondary school? Can they tell when reports are far from the truth?

I do believe that by promoting consciousness of these issues, you are working to provide a better quality of life. Learning how to think independently empowers everyone. Maybe the answer is not leaving the subject of media literacy in the dark – for fear of who transfers this knowledge. Instead, maybe the answer is to always work with the other person’s interest in mind, and not your own.

Women can face particular hardship in getting an education in Kenya

Last week on one of the television stations there was a report about school children who have to travel 10 hours to attend one hour of school. Hard to believe in this day and age! It’s because there are no schools nearby, and the transport system in that remote part of the country is almost non-existent.

In reflecting on gender and education – I thought to myself: In some parts of this world access to education irrespective of gender is a distant dream. Also, if access irrespective of gender is already a problem, how much more hard is it for girls in societies where the expectations for girls and women do not include getting an education?

Having said that though, I must say that the situation has improved remarkably from what it used to be in my parents’ times. In my grandmother’s era, in the early 1900s, education was not as we know it now. My grandmother never saw the inside of a classroom.

Aunts and grandmothers were the teachers of that time. They taught the virtues and values of society, the roles of women and men in society and general knowledge on subjects like animal husbandry or planting and farming. In some communities, sex education was also incorporated into the “curriculum.” So if you asked whether my grandmother went to school: yes, she did!

When the colonial rulers of back then introduced formal education to Kenya, it was the boys who were given priority in attending school. Girls were being raised to take care of the home and bear children, and most parents didn’t see it as important to invest in their daughters’ education. As time went by and the socioeconomic dynamics changed, so did society. My parents had the chance to go to school. My father even went to school in the UK. Not to be left out, my mother graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2008 and enrolled for a master’s in 2009. She is currently writing her research thesis.

She is not alone. There are hundreds of older people who have gone back to get a bachelor’s degree many years after being out of school. Many of these students are women. This has a direct effect on their families and the societies they come from. It sets a precedent and a good example in every home or society to which these women belong. The girls stand a better chance of having quality education if their mothers have had a taste of the fruits of education.

Education can raise a woman's 'value' - sometimes to men's dismay

In my culture, where the tradition of bride prices – money paid by a groom family to his future wife’s family – still exists, and a girl who has been educated is highly ‘priced.’ I know that this sounds like women and girls are equated to commodities, but it is seen as a way of showing appreciation to the girls’ parents for not only taking care of their daughter but also for giving their precious daughter away. I do not entirely agree with the practice, but it still happens!

Young men looking for wives have to part with a hefty amount of money if the girl is well educated and even has a job. Many young men face this pressure. Additionally, most men will not easily accept a woman who has more education or earns more money than he does. This is usually seen as a recipe for disaster. But this is all from my perspective – as a woman. I asked some men in Kenya what they think:

Men in Kenya on women and education

Communities should be made to understand that girls getting an education is not only a human right but it will also benefit them and the generations to come.

What’s your personal view on the subject?