Abstract

In recent times, it has been noted that female mass communication attitude towards journalism is changing. Women are a powerful instruments that can build the profession. The main objective of this study is to examine the attitude of female mass communication towards choosing journalism as a career.

Specifically, the study sought to explore if working conditions scare female mass communication students from taking journalism as a career, find out if female mass communication students have a negative attitude towards choosing journalism as a career, and to determine if there is a wrong impression of female mass communication students in the media.

The survey design was used to gather the data for the study in which 100 questionnaires were administered among students of The University of Buea, using convenient simple random sampling techniques.

Findings showed that working conditions scare female mass communication students from taking journalism as a career, female mass communication students have a negative attitude towards taking journalism as a career and the media holds a wrong impression of female mass communication students.

Based on the findings, the following recommendations female sensitization of female mass communication students to get them open-minded and goal-oriented towards journalism, creating a safe and comfortable working environment for females and encouraging team-based culture in the media with their male counterparts.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Journalism is one of issues posed by the industry. Journalism was basically viewed as a profession dominated by men in the past, and as it grew women were restricted by customs traditions and religion from taking up the profession and for those who dared were faced with discrimination or were given positions with little or no importance.

However, women are not relenting efforts to occupy upper positions the professions held in high esteem in the career market. The profession is however is not without its own challenges as women journalists find it hard to enjoy their careers in the face of which are dominantly occupied by men. Some of these positions include journalists, reporters, sports analysts, etc.…

Although the profession is greatly characterized by gender segregation with women in the minority, they are still noticeable and found actively in the journalism profession (Gill 2011 and Frank 2013). Female journalism students are aspiring to improve their status and to resist the culture of stereotype which has been the bane of the industry by embracing areas that had been traditionally occupied by the male gender such as only hard news, crimes, and politics. Despite all these efforts only a few of them have risen to the peak of the profession in Cameroon.

The feminization of journalism, a process taking place in numerous countries worldwide has been advancing at a much higher rate in the world today. This trend is comprised of many global factors. The gradual migration of journalism from being a typical male profession to being a predominantly female one brings about a number of inner transformations and creates a certain inner psychological climate.  To fully understand these changes, researchers should set goals on their studies based on analysis of gender transformation in journalism and on investigations of possible problems and conflicts entailed in the process.

1.2 Background of the study

Looking closely at the historical background of this student, research shows that thousands of female journalism students end up not taking the profession but rather chose another profession rather than taking up journalism as a career. Journalism in the 20th century was marked by the growing

Byerly (2011)cited in Rauhala and Lindgren (2012) said that journalism has a unique point when it comes to center equality in the western world, and though some succeed to get into the profession, it still cannot be compared to the ratio of men in the profession, and comparing to this ratio in most parts of the world, there is still no sign of increase and this includes USA, Canada, Nigeria, and other African countries (Becker, Vlad, Kazragis, Toledo, and Desnoes 2011).

Scholars everywhere have tried to study why fewer women end up taking this profession and why some still try to get to top rank positions occupied by men. Some worked to know the gap between women in newsrooms and also a close investigation being carried out in the media Reinforcement and stereotypes, this research has been done through historical findings, interviews and extracting meanings from old clippings, coming out with results and a generalized conclusion. (Rauhala and Lindgren, 2012).

Ali (2010) says that “discrimination and condition of service make female journalists have a negative attitude towards journalism as a career as well as discrimination in the profession scare them away from taking up the profession, thereby having a negative mentality about Journalism as a career.

In Cameroon’s landscape of journalism schools, the percentage of female journalism students graduating has always been greater than the number of boys. A glaring example of this assertion is in The University of Buea, in the department of journalism and mass communication where the percentage of graduating students has always been 70% of girls over a 30% of boys but looking into the media houses, the number of men in the profession turns to take the percentage of 70% over a working population of 30% female.

In recent years, media houses lack trained female journalists in various communication activities. Those that are worried about this situation said that if there are more women seeking jobs in the field, there will be the ability to balance up the gap in the profession and therefore closing the gap between female and male journalists.

A well-studied example is referenced to a convocation booklet from a journalism school where silt was revealed that a good number of female Mass Communication students graduated from these communication schools. In 1997, about 150 students graduated from federal polytechnic Oko, the Ogun state polytechnic in that same year graduated a total number of 86 female mass communication students, about 180 female students from the institute of management Enugu,Bida polytechnic had about 26 females from the department of mass communication, but looking deep into the career a question as to why these number of females do not even consider taking up journalism as a career is really an up thought.

For example, in one of Cameroon’s most famous radio stations Mount Cameroon FM 98.6, the percentage of men over women is 70% over 30% respectively. “.As a backdrop, the study examines the attitude of female mass communication students towards taking Journalism as a career.

1.2 Statement of the problem:

It is a glaring fact that the media houses in Cameroon nearly have an absence of women as newsmakers. Although Cameroon is a developing country, the female journalists and the male journalist should be in competition in the various media houses.

The number of female journalists in the field is very little compared to the number of graduates from universities and journalism schools. This study is aimed at analyzing and evaluating the low participation of female journalists in the field, because it is observed that, a good number of women go into the journalism profession, but very few of them practice or take it as a career.

Therefore, the question the study seeks to find is ” The attitude of female mass communication students towards journalism as a career”.

1.3 Objectives of the study:

1.3.1 Main Objective

The aim of this study is to examine the attitude of female journalists towards the reason for choosing journalism as a career. It also contributes to the reason why female journalism students do not end up taking journalism as a career.

1.3.2 Specific objective:

Three specific objectives were filtered from this breakdown and they seek to;

To find out the if working conditions of journalism as a career scare women away from the profession.

1. To determine whether female mass communication students have a negative attitude towards journalism as a career.
2. To look into the image of women in the media.
3. To find out possible solutions to the low participation of female mass communication students in the field.