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 | Ms Shazia Usman with one of her thesis supervisors, Mr Shailendra Singh during her graduation. |
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A University of the South Pacific Masters graduate in Journalism will present her thesis findings at a major international education conference in Australia next week.
Ms Shazia Usman, who graduated in September earlier this year, is USP journalism’s first Masters graduate. She won an award to present at the Journalism Education Association of Australia (JEAA) conference in Melbourne from 2 – 5 December 2012.
“I'm very excited with this opportunity to present my findings to academics, scholars, and journalism practitioners, especially at an international level,” she says.
Ms Usman’s thesis was entitled: Invisibility in the Media: A comparative analysis of the coverage given to female election candidates in the 1999 and 2006 elections by The Fiji Times and Fiji Sun. Her thesis supervisors were Mr Shailendra Singh and Dr Rae Nicholl.
Mr Singh, the substantive Head of USP Journalism who is on PhD study in Australia, said Shazia's research had international significance in terms of contributing to the scarce knowledge about media coverage of women in the region. He said it was good to see USP students being invited to international conferences to share their research findings.
A Communications Officer with the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Ms Usman came upon her thesis topic while on an internship with the FWRM during the 2006 elections. She witnessed the limited news coverage given to female election candidates in comparison to male counterparts.
Her research looked at both the quantitative and qualitative of coverage accorded to women, including media stereotyping of women.
“My aim is to show that there is an urgent need to change the practice of journalism in Fiji, especially when it comes to political issues, gender and human rights.”
Ms Usman is a former editor of Wansolwara, USP journalism’s award-winning student training newspaper.
“It’s important to acknowledge that journalism practice is dictated by deadline pressures, the number of stories produced in a day, and availability of sources,” said Ms Usman.
“So while we conduct research to show how journalism should ideally work and what’s lacking, the reality on the ground is different. But this should not stop us from advocating for better journalism,” she continued.
The JEAA consists of journalism educators, working professionals and students from Australia and the South Pacific committed to the improvement of journalism education across the region. The annual conference provides a platform to discuss the realities and challenges of both the practice and the teaching of journalism in the 21st century.
This year’s conference which will be held at the Monash University is on the theme, ‘Critical Times? Changing journalism in a changing world’.
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