Female politicians from the North West and North Central geo-political zones of the country have been given strategic tips on how to enhance their visibility in the media and boost their electoral chances during elections. The female politicians participated at a two day workshop on “Effective Strategies and Methodologies in Engaging Media for Visibility during
Female politicians from the North West and North Central geo-political zones of the country have been given strategic tips on how to enhance their visibility in the media and boost their electoral chances during elections.
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Welcoming participants to the workshop, the Director, International Press Centre, said the series of workshops are meant to respond to the challenge of poor media visibility for female politicians during the electoral process over the years. He said similar workshops had earlier been organized for the other zones of north east, south south and south east as well as the south west.
“The workshop would avail the female politicians of the roles of the media in elections and democratic process; know the rudiments of engaging the media for partnership in political activity and electioneering campaigns
“The female politicians are also to know the roles of social media platforms and how to use them to their advantage in the electoral process” said Mr. Arogundade.
The workshop which excited the women because of the volume of information released by the resource persons, got underway with the first presentation by Mrs Jiritma Goyit, a social activist and politician who facilitated the session on “The Media and Women in Politics in Nigeria: Overcoming the challenges and the Imperative of Building Self Confidence”. She highlighted the importance of the mass media to the electoral process.
Mrs Goyit also enumerated the different legal means through which female politicians could reach their political goals using the media and gave them tips on how to build self confidence. “You must be determined to win; commit resources; be accessible and build enduring relationship with the journalists”, she said.
In his paper, ”Understanding the Media and Developing Strategies for Effective media Use”,the resource person, Mr, Theophillus Abba former Editor, now Programme Director, Daily Trust Foundation, Abuja, explored the working of the media to the participants by asking pertinent questions such as: How have you been relating with the media? What do media owners want? What is newsworthy?
In proffering answers to the questions, he was able to take the female politicians through a journey that would make it easy for them to make use of the media to achieve their political goals. He also advised the female politicians to explore their passion in other fields as veritable platforms to reach the media for their goals. “In your media activities you should be mindful of your target audience”, he concluded.
The third presentation was on:”The Social Media and Your Campaigns: Understanding the Usefulness and Knowing the Pitfalls to Avoid” was facilitated by Mr. Joshua Olufemi, Programme Director, Premium Times, Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCI) Abuja. The session enlightened participants on the workings of the different social media platforms and how they could be employed to further the political goals of the female politicians.
There were practical sessions which included teaching the female politicians how to write press releases as well as simulated interview sessions.
On the issue of gender imbalance in the media, it was agreed that the female were in the best position to reverse the trend, by being forthcoming, acquiring communication and media skills and understanding the rules of media engagement. Sometimes, it is about knowing the strategy and not just the bills.
The workshop urged the media to strive to attain a complete gender balance engagement and the women must also double their efforts to challenge the status quo by all legal means.
