Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 9, Issue 2)

Received: 7 March 2021 Accepted: 22 March 2021 Published: 30 March 2021

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Abstract

Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 9, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
Page(s)	39-47
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Discursive Strategies, Challenging Ideologies, Women’s Numerical Increase

References

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[31]	Le Messager N° 3777 of 15/02/13 “Les femmes doivent s’inscrire pour peser de leur voix” p. 4.
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[40]	The Post N° 01475 of 1/11/13 “Female MPs to promote gender, education, agriculture” p. 2.
[41]	The Post N° 01484 of 18/11/13 “Female Councillors schooled on gender mainstreaming” p. 11.

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Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. (2021). Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 9(2), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2021, 9(2), 39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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AMA Style

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. Int J Lang Linguist. 2021;9(2):39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12,
  author = {Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack},
  title = {Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {9},
  number = {2},
  pages = {39-47},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20210902.12},
  abstract = {Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers
AU  - Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack
Y1  - 2021/03/30
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 39
EP  - 47
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
AB  - Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.
VL  - 9
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack

Department of English Modern Letters, the University of Ngaoundere, Ngaoundere, Cameroon

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APA Style

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. (2021). Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 9(2), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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ACS Style

Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2021, 9(2), 39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack. Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers. Int J Lang Linguist. 2021;9(2):39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12,
  author = {Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack},
  title = {Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {9},
  number = {2},
  pages = {39-47},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20210902.12},
  abstract = {Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Media, Gender, Politics and Evolving Mentalities: A Discursive Construction of Female Emergence in Cameroonian Newspapers
AU  - Caroline Stephanie Jiogo Ngaufack
Y1  - 2021/03/30
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 39
EP  - 47
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210902.12
AB  - Many feminist media studies tend to show that media’s contribution to the relegation of women to second position. Some even present the media play role in silencing women in the society. Contrary those publications, this paper demonstrates that, despite the patriarchal pressure, Cameroonian newspapers have enhanced female gender visibility in 2013. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as theory helps us to examine how speakers use language to represent, construct and/or negotiate meanings and values on gender. As method of data analysis, we have used the Socio cognitive Approach of Critical Discourse Analysis; it posits that our discourses reflect mental constructs to analyse discursive strategies used on articles. Essentially qualitative, the analysis centres on three main arguments supporting the idea of discursive progressive feminist visibility in politics in Cameroonian media. Firstly the reproduction of international discourses imposing women in politics; secondly, the necessity of women to fight for equity in political context is presented using linguistic strategies; and thirdly, the construction of female participation in public life as a source of hope for change. We concluded that these discursive strategies have contributed to the numerical increase of women in the political sphere during the 2013 senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections. Although these changes are not yet strong enough, what has been achieved is a step forward to implement gender sensitivity in news reported to citizens. Women are discursively better constructed in media, and the visible effect of the said construction is that more opportunities are given to them as decision-makers.
VL  - 9
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download