Stories of many successful women have blinded female journalists not to think themselves as being part of the stories they tell, experts have warned.
They say that, for many, the hustle has always been telling the story and not paying attention to the content discussed, asking yourself what that means to you as a person, the opportunities it would hold for you and making it a habit to identify opportunities your colleagues cant.
“We all know that there is no money in the media, we have worked in the media, and for some of us who have been there for maybe thirty years and, maybe there was money but these days many be the money is not there, veteran journalist Margaret B Sentamu said.
Ms Sentamu says most of the female journalists are usually taken advantage of in fact 1/3 media women in the country were sexually abused by the bosses, male colleagues or from the sources they gather news.
“As a matter of fact in some workshops, when we talked of sexual abuse some people were like and then we benefit from it, we get assignments, we get promoted, and with money so what are you talking about…..But at the end of the day, this sexual abuse leaves an everlasting negative impact on you because you lose self-confidence and the one tomorrow there will be another victim. We are sexually abused and most of us are actually given because we do not have adequate income to sustain ourselves in the profession.”
Recent studies indicate a huge discrepancy in the levels of money journalists are paid contributing as one of the least paid profession in the country
Another study by the Uganda Media Women Association UMWA, shows that if given an opportunity to economically sustain themselves many female journalists wouldn’t fall prey of sexual abuse
Margrete notes that this thus calls for the need to come up with different streams of revenue to help sustain themselves, look beyond
the paycheck and be able to also tell their successful stories.
“I felt touched by the way veteran journalist Bbaale Fransis died, before that, someone had talked to me about employment, if it’s not your fathers company any time you are shown an exist, at what ever cost no matter how good you were anything could happen and it was an opener, successful media and business entrepreneur Hatmah Nalugwa,” Ssekaaya said
“Where do you spend your free time, how are you making that time useful? Why not polish your skill and earn from it. I have seen the prominent journalists that we look up to have their tiktok accounts but with useful information One thing you should do is identify where your passion is, look for the knowledge you will always find it,” she adds.
In a world of 9/5 jobs there is limited time for family therefore putting your priorities first, how are you using the connections you have to build on your personal growth and how you focus on collaboration and no competition is all that matters. Journalists should thus never be deceived with the pimps that come with the camera lights to market themselves.
