Session held at the Media Development Center/ Birzeit University to discusses a study on Palestinian female journalists.
2014-02-19
On Wednesday, February12/2014, the MDC at Birzeit University had organized a session in collaboration with the PJS to discuss the results of a study entitled: "Factors that affect the employment and performance of female journalists in media institutions in Palestine, from a social perspective" accomplished by Ms. Nahed Abu Taima under the supervision of Dr. Walid Sharfa
Mrs.Nibal Thawabteh, the director of the MDC opened the session saying "This study has aimed at identifying the actual job performance and most important factors that affect the employment of female Journalists from the gender perspective, as well as personal and organizational variables that affect the performance levels of Journalists working in media institutions in Palestine"
The coordinator of the Journalists Committee in the PJS Kholod Assaf said that the syndicate is seeking to expand the work of female journalists and help them find jobs and build their skills through training courses and has found that the study is important for the Journalists syndicate to study and take the findings into consideration.
Dr. Walid Shurafa professor in media at Birzeit University and the supervisor of the research was pleased for the completion of this work, pointing at the weak participation of female journalists in media profession in comparison with numbers of female students who study media at the University. Dr. Shurafa also talked about the approach for the study where the researcher relied on the descriptive approach, in addition to the focus groups, and designed a questionnaire as a primary data collection tool, where 135 employed female journalists responded to the questionnaire
Ms. Abu Taima shared the most important results of the study, which appeared that the majority of female journalists haven't worked in a decision-making positions , their salaries are low and the presence of favoritism within media organizations in addition to the low participation of women journalists in the journalists syndicate as they are convinced that the syndicate cannot be their advocate .
The most significant recommendations for Abu Taima was working at including a larger number of female Journalists in media institutions, also the adoption of standards for hiring professionals based on transparency, and commitment to the minimum wage in the non-governmental sector, in addition to expanding the circle of interaction among the institution of civil society, media institutions, Universities and Journalists' syndicate.