Sexual harassment goes unchecked in many sub-Saharan African newsrooms

As much as 58% of sexual harassment reports lead to no action in sub-Saharan African newsrooms, study finds.

2024-03-19

(Press-News.org) As much as 58% of sexual harassment reports lead to no action in sub-Saharan African newsrooms, study finds.

Sexual harassment often goes unchecked in sub-Saharan African newsrooms despite many employers having policies in place, according to a study conducted by City, University of London and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Researchers Dr Lindsey Blumell (City) and Dinfin Mulupi (Maryland) surveyed nearly 600 news professionals and analysed 17 anti-sexual harassment policies in newsrooms across eight sub-Saharan African countries between July and October 2020.

The study sampled data from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Key findings from the study include:

58% of reports of sexual harassment lead to no action, and frequently only a warning when it did 30% of victims report harassment to bosses Just 16.4% of respondents were aware of their organisation's anti-sexual harassment policies Women are 2.5 times more likely to be targeted. The study finds that societal and cultural norms lead to ineffective policies. Only when these policies are accompanied by workplace training on what is considered sexual harassment, the company policies that exist, and how the organisation would respond, does the research find an increase of newsrooms responding to these reports of abuse.

The research was carried out as a joint project with the Women in News World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRAN), which is aims to eliminate sexual harassment in the news business.

The analysis compares policies with best practice guidelines, which researchers define as a clear definition of sexual harassment, reliable reporting mechanisms, due process for disciplinary action, training, and a monitoring system.

Dr Lindsey Blumell said:

Our study shows that sexual harassment is common in the newsroom, across many sub-Saharan African countries and it disproportionately affects women.

We found that people don't report, and when they do report, organisations fail to act.

News organisations are paying lip service to a serious problem, but are not preventing sexual harassment from occurring, nor are they creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable to report when they are sexually harassed.

Dinfin Mulupi said:

There is a disconnect between employers and employees.

It is not enough to have an anti-harassment policy. While employers can point at the fact that they have a policy to tackle sexual harassment, more than 85 per cent of surveyed workers weren’t aware of it or trained on it.

To strengthen their policies, news organisations must not include language that deters victim-survivors from coming forward. They should include a timeline on when a complaint must be addressed, the disciplinary actions that will follow, clarity on what the victim-survivors can expect, and access to counselling.

Most of all, employers should be working to ensure that these abuses do not occur in the first place.

'The Impact of Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies on Sexual Harassment Prevention in the Workplace’ by Dr Lindsey Blumell and Dinfin Mulupi is published in Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Clemson astrophysicist’s research could provide a hint in the search for dark matter

2024-03-19

Dark matter is one of science’s greatest mysteries. It doesn’t absorb, reflect or emit light, so we can’t see it. But its presence is implied by the gravitational effects it appears to have on galaxies. Although dark matter makes up about 85 percent of the cosmos, scientists know very little about its fundamental nature. Theories abound, and research by Clemson University postdoctoral fellow Alex McDaniel provides some of the most stringent constraints on the nature of dark matter yet. His research also reveals a small hint of a signal that, if real, ...

A sneak-peak of the updated human salivary proteome wiki

2024-03-19

Alexandria, VA, USA – A Hands-on Workshop introducing the Updated Human Salivary Proteome (HSP) Wiki was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The information accumulated in the literature about salivary proteins, their expression, function, and role in health and disease has been made available by establishing the Human ...

Evaluating homelessness empathy through virtual reality among dental students

2024-03-19

Alexandria, VA, USA – A study aiming to determine experiential impact on student-empathy in relation to timing of when they experienced a VR-simulation of homelessness was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The abstract, “Evaluating Homelessness Empathy Through Virtual Reality Among Dental Students” was presented during the “Late Breaking Abstracts I” Poster Session ...

Smart connected oral health community (SMARTeeth)

2024-03-19

Alexandria, VA, USA – A study aiming to assess an innovative “SMARTeeth” program that provides a digital tool-enabled oral health screening for underserved pregnant women at an obstetric office facilitated by community health workers (CHWs). was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The abstract, “Smart Connected Oral ...

FGF-2 promotes periodontal healing in an osteoporosis model rat

2024-03-19

Alexandria, VA, USA – A study investigating the effects of local application of fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) on periodontal healing in osteoporosis model rats was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The abstract, “FGF-2 Promotes Periodontal Healing in an Osteoporosis Model Rat” was presented during the “Periodontal ...

Social bonding gets people on the same wavelength

2024-03-19

When small hierarchical groups bond, neural activity between leaders and followers aligns, promoting quicker and more frequent communication, according to a study published on March 19th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Jun Ni from Beijing Normal University, China, and colleagues. Social groups are often organized hierarchically, where status differences and bonds between members shape the group’s dynamic. To better understand how bonding influences communication within hierarchical groups and which brain regions are involved in these processes, the researchers recorded 176 three-person ...

Low social status increases risk of health problems from alcohol problems

2024-03-19

Men and women with lower income or education levels are more likely to develop medical conditions related to alcohol abuse compared to similar individuals with a higher socioeconomic status. Alexis Edwards of Virginia Commonwealth University, US, and colleagues report these findings in a new study published March 19th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that harmful alcohol use accounts for 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury worldwide, and results in three million deaths ...

ChatGPT to help dental students retain knowledge and enhance performance

2024-03-19

Alexandria, VA, USA – A study aiming to utilize current dental course materials, syllabi, and textbooks to investigate ChatGPT's potential benefits for dental students. was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The abstract, “ChatGPT to Help Dental Students Retain Knowledge and Enhance Performance” ...

Change in MYCN-driven cell state opens therapeutic window in high-risk neuroblastoma

2024-03-19

(Memphis, Tenn – March 19, 2024) MYCN is a gene associated with cell proliferation and growth, which is mutated in many types of cancer. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital studying high-risk neuroblastoma found that MYCN plays a role in modifying the cellular state, causing a positive feedback loop that leads to a faster progressing disease. Their work to understand this process revealed a potential therapeutic target in the protein KDM4. Inhibiting KDM4 demonstrated strong anticancer ...

Review of California's mental health crisis programs identified gaps and needs for consistent funding, community engagement

2024-03-19

Mental illness is a major public health issue. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 20% of U.S. adults live with a mental illness, like depression and anxiety. For perspective, this is more than all adults with coronary heart disease (5%) and diabetes (14.7%) combined. Yet, understanding and addressing mental illness remains very challenging. A team of UC Davis experts were tasked with evaluating the services of 15 mental health crisis programs in California. These programs designed for adult and transitional age youth (ages 16-25) were funded between 2018 and 2021 by ...