By Catherine Ageno
The African Women in Media (AWiM) is advocating for media organisations to give women’s sports the equal access and coverage they deserve.
The call by AWiM Chief Executive Officer Dr Yemisi Akinbobola comes ahead of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2024 (WAFCON) set to commence in Morocco from 1 July 2024.
In a weekly newsletter, Dr Akinbobola, an academic, consultant and co-founder of AWiM expresses hope that various media brands and viewers give it as much attention as they did AFCON.
“This limited media attention directly impacts access to sponsorship, and this in turn impacts access to facilities and resources needed”, she said.
She notes that while two weeks ago, the continent and the world celebrated the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), with media, brands and fans celebrating the teams across all media formats, note much, if any, has been reported about the 2024 FIBA Women’s Basketball Olympic Qualifier game between Nigeria and Senegal, which also happened at around the same time.
“Whilst there has been a global rise in media coverage of women’s sports, studies have found that regardless of the country, media coverage of women’s sports falls between 5% and 10% of all sports coverage”, Dr Akinbobola added.
She emphasizes that sufficient and sustained quality media representation of women and women’s voices is important in achieving equality, diversity and inclusion in our newsrooms and in media content.
AWiM is an international NGO aiming to impact positively the way media functions for African Women.
