WOSPAG advocates media partnership to ensure paradigm shift

Accra, Sept. 19, GNA - Dr Deborah Cubagee, President of the Women in Sports Association of Ghana (WOSPAG) has proposed a partnership between the media and 'Women in Sports' in order to bring about the needed paradigm shift in the country.

The President said people who make the decisions in the media such as sports editors and Directors of sports are generally males who are much familiar with men issues than that of women, hence making it impossible for women in sports to have adequate and positive coverage. Speaking at a three day seminar on Olympic reportage organised by the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) at the Winneba Sports College at the week-end, Dr Cubagee said research has shown that women in sports receive inadequate and selective media coverage.

Dr Cubagee said this therefore calls for the need to organise more educational programmes for sports journalists especially for the females and women in sports so that they could acquaint themselves adequately with the technicalities on reporting women issues in sports. She said the outcome of such educational programmes would enable the journalists to get abreast with issues affecting and concerning women in sports and ensuring equal coverage for women.

Dr Cubagee suggested the enhancement of topics such as language terminology - knowing when to refer to female athletes as women, young women or girls and consistency in the use of first and last names in the coverage of men and women events during such educational programmes. She said emphasis should also be placed on the examples of good and bad practice in the coverage of women sports, guidelines on how to cover women's sports and avoidance of derogatory words and descriptions that place much emphasis on physical appearances or skills not related to athletic performance.