Gender Media Awards

Launched on the August 23^rd, 2017, the Annual Gender Media Awards Uganda (AGMA-U) is a project initiated and inaugurated by Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA). This was in recognition of two major facts.

The first is that media content, in terms of both language and imagery, in Uganda is largely reflective of what happens worldwide. While a majority of Ugandans are women, their visibility in media content is as low as 20%; they are usually covered in traditional reproductive and care-giving roles, the reverse being true for their male counterparts. Moreover, the little coverage they attract is often stereotyped, showing them as irrational, dependant, emotional, brainless and incompetent, among others. There is also a strong evidence of gendered use of imagery in the media. These often sexualize and brutalize women; picture them as passive and domesticated; and portray them as dependant and subordinate to men. Female journalists, too, are domesticated in as much as they are not allocated challenging tasks.

The second is that be that the case, there are some few individual journalists and media houses that have once in a while produced gender sensitive stories.

Based upon the foregoing, UMWA initiated AGMA-U with the overall objective of promoting gender sensitive reporting as a standard journalistic practice, by publicly recognizing and awarding journalists and media houses that would have demonstrated gender awareness, sensitivity, and inclusiveness in their works. By doing so, it is hoped that gendered injustices, discrimination, unfairness, negative portrayal and prejudices against / about any gender will be things of the past in Uganda’s media.