Gender Links: 'no longer a lone cry'.

Founded in March 2001 by gender and media activists, Gender Links has grown from strength to strength through its wide network of partnerships with media houses, advocacy and training institutions, all brought together at a landmark Gender and Media Summit in September 2004 in Johannesburg that led to the formation of the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA).

Among the first of these partnerships, Gender Links formed a strategic alliance with the Media Institute of Southern Africa, which it assisted in developing a gender policy and action plan. This led to the two organisations undertaking a Gender and Media Baseline Study with technical support from the Media Monitoring Project.

Gender Links follows a two-prong approach: training gender advocates 'to think media', and training media advocates and practitioners 'to think gender'. Following the Gender and Media Baseline Study, Gender Links has initiated new research on how audiences respond to the news from a gender perspective. This study shows that both male and female audiences would like to see women portrayed in more diverse roles in the media.

Training is critical to changing attitudes in the long term. Each year, Gender Links has taken a theme and worked with media training institutions in the region to improve reporting on the subject. Themes have included 'gender violence', 'gender, HIV/AIDS and the media' as well as 'gender, elections and the media'.

These tools have been intensively applied in pilot projects for mainstreaming gender in the work of two key media training institutions: the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism and the Polytechnic of Namibia. These pilot projects have produced study materials of their own and are being replicated through a GEMSA Trainers Network.

Work with gender activists has led to a training manual--'Getting Smart: Strategic Communications for Gender Activists', produced with Women's Media Watch, the lobby and advocacy unit of the Southern African Media and Gender Institute. Gender Links, in partnership with NGOs across the region, has applied these skills in major gender justice campaigns, most notably the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence from 25 November to 10 December each year.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The formation of the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA), an umbrella organisation consisting of institutional members such as Gender Links, the gender and media (GEM) networks that Gender Links has helped to establish in eight countries, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the Federation of Media Women in Southern Africa, the Southern African Editors Forum, the Media Monitoring Project as well as individual members, is a welcome sign that the clamour for gender equality in and through the media is no longer the lone cry of a few activists but a demand that is gaining momentum.

Among the significant first activities undertaken by GEMSA country chapters was participating, on a voluntary basis, in the global gender and media monitoring project coinciding with Beijing Plus Ten. The results of this one-day global monitoring of the media from a gender perspective on 16 February this year will help to benchmark Southern Africa against the globe, as well as against the findings of the Gender and Media Baseline Study two and a half years ago.

Ad hoc monitoring that has been undertaken by the networks suggests considerable improvement in both the quantity and quality of reporting on gender issues and reporting from a gender perspective, for example in elections coverage. The many eyes around Southern Africa now 'watching the watchdogs' in the media will help to make sure that there is no turning back.

Colleen Lowe Morna is Executive Director of Gender Links www.genderlinks.org.za