Abstract
Media plays a critical role in promoting inclusive societies by informing and influencing the national agenda through in-depth and incisive reportage. Studies examining media coverage of both gender and disability as intersectional issues in tourism are few. The chapter qualitatively analyses the role of the media in mainstreaming gender and disability in the tourism industry in Zimbabwe. Using qualitative data from secondary sources and in-depth interviews, the study found that the media indeed is key in making the tourism sector in Zimbabwe more inclusive. However, the coverage of gender and disability in the sector remains poor. To strengthen the media to play its role more effectively, the findings recommend interventions such as targeted funding, capacity building, increasing representation of persons with disabilities and gender diversity in newsrooms. There is also a need for collaboration and consistency to ensure gender and disability issues are kept visible in the media.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aichner, T., Grünfelder, M., Maurer, O., & Jegeni, D. (2021). Twenty-five years of social media: A review of social media applications and definitions from 1994 to 2019. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(4), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0134
Albrecht, G. L., Seelman, K. D., & Bury, M. (2001). Handbook of disability studies. SAGE Publications.
Anastasiou, D., & Kauffman, J. M. (2013). The social model of disability: Dichotomy between impairment and disability. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 38(4), 441–459. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jht026
Apuke, O. D. (2016). Social and traditional mainstream media of communication: Synergy and variance perspective. Journal of New Media and Mass Communication, 53(4), 83–86. https://doi.org/10.7176/NMMC.vol5383-86
Auer, M., Sutcliffe, J., & Lee, M. (2019). Framing the ‘White Widow’: Using intersectionality to uncover complex representations of female terrorism in news media. Media, War & Conflict, 12(3), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635218769931
Bachmann, P., Eisenegger, M., & Ingenhoff, D. (2022). Defining and measuring news media quality: Comparing the content perspective and the audience perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(1), 9–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161221999666
Barden, O. (2018). Disability media studies. Disability & Society, 33(10), 1672–1674. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1541611
Bitman, N. (2022). “Authentic” digital inclusion? Dis/ability performances on social media by users with concealable communicative disabilities. New Media & Society, 24(2), 401–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211063183
Chiluwa, I. (2021). Discourse and conflict: Analysing text and talk of conflict, hate and peace-building. Springer Nature.
Cote, J. (2022, February 3). What is new media? https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/liberal-arts/what-is-new-media
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1, 8.
Czvetkó, T., Honti, G., Sebestyén, V., & Abonyi, J. (2021). The intertwining of world news with Sustainable Development Goals: An effective monitoring tool. Heliyon, 7(2), e06174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06174
D’cruz, M., & Banerjee, D. (2020). ‘An invisible human rights crisis’: The marginalization of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic—An advocacy review. Psychiatry Research, 292, 113369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113369
Dinis, G., Eusébio, C., & Breda, Z. (2020). Assessing social media accessibility: The case of the Rock in Rio Lisboa music festival. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-02-2019-0012
Dobransky, K., & Hargittai, E. (2021). Piercing the pandemic social bubble: Disability and social media use about COVID-19. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(12), 1698–1720. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642211003146
Dragomir, M. (2017). Control the money, control the media: How government uses funding to keep media in line. Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 19, 146488491772462. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917724621
Epprecht, M., & Clark, B. (2020, July 9). The struggle for sexual minority rights in Zimbabwe in context. The Oxford Handbook of Zimbabwean Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198805472.013.13
Fisher, A. N., & Ryan, M. K. (2021). Gender inequalities during COVID-19. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(2), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220984248
Haraldsson, A. (2021). Media discrimination and gender differences in political ambition in a laboratory experiment. Political Research Quarterly, 10659129211046890. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211046890
Haraldsson, A., & Wängnerud, L. (2019). The effect of media sexism on women’s political ambition: Evidence from a worldwide study. Feminist media studies, 19(4), 525–541. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1468797
Hazel, K. L., & Kleyman, K. S. (2020). Gender and sex inequalities: Implications and resistance. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 48(4), 281–292.
Hentschel, T., Heilman, M. E., & Peus, C. V. (2019). The multiple dimensions of gender stereotypes: A current look at men’s and women’s characterizations of others and themselves. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00011
Hill, S. (2022). Locating disability within online body positivity discourses: An analysis of# DisabledAndCute. Feminist Media Studies, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2032254
Hunt, S., & Jaworska, S. (2019). Intersections of nationality, gender, race and crime in news reporting: the case of Oscar Pistorius–Olympian and murderer. Discourse, Context & Media, 30, 100299.
Kabote, F., Mamimine, P. W., & Muranda, Z. (2019). A situational analysis of Zimbabwe’s domestic tourists’ travel trends. Cogent Social Sciences, 5(1), 1658350. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1658350
Karatsoli, M., & Nathanail, E. (2020). Examining gender differences of social media use for activity planning and travel choices. European Transport Research Review, 12(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-020-00436-4
Khan, I. M., Sahadev, S., Rashid, T., & Banerjee, S. (2022). Social media and empowerment in hospitality and tourism decision-making: A study among UK Muslim women. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 101, 103125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.103125
Kim, J. (Jamie), Fesenmaier, D. R., & Johnson, S. L. (2013). The effect of feedback within social media in tourism experiences. In A. Marcus (Ed.), Design, user experience, and usability. Web, mobile, and product design (pp. 212–220). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39253-5_23
Krijnen, T., & Bauwel, S. V. (2015). Gender and Media: Representing, Producing, Consuming. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694597
Lamprell, G., & Braithwaite, J. (2017). Mainstreaming gender and promoting intersectionality in Papua New Guinea’s health policy: A triangulated analysis applying data-mining and content analytic techniques. International Journal for Equity in Health, 16, 65. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-017-0555-5
Mach, K. J., Salas Reyes, R., Pentz, B., Taylor, J., Costa, C. A., Cruz, S. G., Thomas, K. E., Arnott, J. C., Donald, R., Jagannathan, K., Kirchhoff, C. J., Rosella, L. C., & Klenk, N. (2021). News media coverage of COVID-19 public health and policy information. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00900-z
Martínez-Navalón, J. G., Gelashvili, V., & Saura, J. R. (2020). The impact of environmental social media publications on user satisfaction with and trust in tourism businesses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 5417. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155417
McGillivray, D., O’Donnell, H., McPherson, G., & Misener, L. (2021). Repurposing the (super) crip: Media representations of disability at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Communication & Sport, 9(1), 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479519853496
McMullan, J. (2020). A new understanding of ‘New Media’: Online platforms as digital mediums. Convergence, 26(2), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517738159
Mhiripiri, N. A., & Midzi, R. (2021). Fighting for survival: Persons with disabilities’ activism for the mediatisation of COVID-19 information. Media International Australia, 178(1), 151–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X20967712
Moore, K. J., Xiong, S., Bhattacharya, M., Bustamante, G., & Calvert, C. (2020). Beyond diversity: Focusing on and enhancing inclusion in the society for epidemiologic research. American Journal of Epidemiology, 189(10), 1042–1046. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa111
Morgenroth, T., & Ryan, M. K. (2018). Gender trouble in social psychology: How can Butler’s work inform experimental social psychologists’ conceptualization of gender? Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01320
Morgenroth, T., & Ryan, M. K. (2021). The effects of gender trouble: An integrative theoretical framework of the perpetuation and disruption of the gender/sex binary. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(6), 1113–1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620902442
Morris, C., Hinton-Smith, T., Marvell, R., & Brayson, K. (2022). Gender back on the agenda in higher education: Perspectives of academic staff in a contemporary UK case study. Journal of Gender Studies, 31(1), 101–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1952064
Moutidis, I., & Williams, H. T. (2019, December). Utilizing complex networks for event detection in heterogeneous high-volume news streams. In International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications (pp. 659–672). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36687-2_55
Muderedzi, J., Eide, A. H., Braathen, S. H., & Stray-Pedersen, B. (2017). Perceptions and treatment of children with cerebral palsy among the Tonga of Binga in Zimbabwe. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1418144.
Munyi, C. W. (2012). Past and present perceptions towards disability: A historical perspective. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v32i2.3197
Nyarko, J., & Teer-Tomaselli, R. E. (2018). The interface between media funding and agenda setting: The conduit for media independence. Journal of Creative Communications, 13(1), 34–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258617743620
Oliver, M. (2013). The social model of disability: Thirty years on. Disability & Society, 28(7), 1024–1026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773
Peta, C. (2017). Disability and sexuality in Zimbabwe: Voices from the periphery. Routledge.
Pini, S., & Maguire-Rosier, K. (2021). Performing illness: A dialogue about an invisibly disabled dancing body. Frontiers in Psychology, 12.
Praveen Kumar, S. (2014). Role of media in the promotion of tourism industry in India. Global Review of Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Management (GRRTHLM), 1(3), 187–192.
Radu, W. W. S., & Chekera, Y. T. (2014). Power, patriarchy and gender discrimination in Zimbabwean newsrooms. 26.
Ross, T. (2019). Media and stereotypes. In S. Ratuva (Ed.), The Palgrave handbook of ethnicity (pp. 1–17). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_26-1
Rusike, V. (2012). Organising in the Zimbabwe hospitality sector. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jjDk5SJfQt4J:https://www.lrs.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Organising-in-the-Zimbabwe-hospitality-sector.pdf+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie
Rydzik, A., Agapito, D., & Lenton, C. (2021). Visibility, power and exclusion: The (un)shifting constructions of normativity in wedding tourism brochures. Annals of Tourism Research, 86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103090
Sanyal, S., Hisam, M., & Ahmad, M. (2016). A study of tourism using demographic and travel characteristics: The case of Salalah, Sultanate of Oman. IJABER, 14 (6), 4315–4329.
Scarcelli, C. M., Krijnen, T., & Nixon, P. (2021). Sexuality, gender, media. Identity articulations in the contemporary media landscape. Information, Communication & Society, 24(8), 1063–1072. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1804603
Scott, M., Bunce, M., & Wright, K. (2017). Donor power and the news: The influence of foundation funding on international public service journalism. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 22(2), 163–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161217693394
Shor, E., van de Rijt, A., Miltsov, A., Kulkarni, V., & Skiena, S. (2015). A paper ceiling: Explaining the persistent underrepresentation of women in printed news. American Sociological Review, 80(5), 960–984. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122415596999
Small, J. (2017). Women’s “beach body” in Australian women’s magazines. Annals of Tourism Research, 63, 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.12.006
Strömbäck, J., Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H., Damstra, A., Lindgren, E., Vliegenthart, R., & Lindholm, T. (2020). News media trust and its impact on media use: Toward a framework for future research. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(2), 139–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2020.1755338
Svensson, R., Johnson, B., & Olsson, A. (2022). Does gender matter? The association between different digital media activities and adolescent well-being. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 273. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12670-7
Tan, T. Q. (2019). Principles of inclusion, diversity, access, and equity. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 220(Suppl_2), S30–S32. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz198
Tas, G. (2022). The role of social media in tourism marketing. Digital Travel Summit APAC 2022. https://digitaltravelapac.wbresearch.com/blog/social-media-in-tourism-marketing
Tigere, B., & Moyo, T. (2022). Disability-inclusive community development: A case of a community garden in Limpopo province in South Africa. African Journal of Disability, 11, 850. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajod.v11i0.850
Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H. G., Strömbäck, J., Vliegenthart, R., Damstra, A., & Lindgren, E. (2020). Causes and consequences of mainstream media dissemination of fake news: Literature review and synthesis. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(2), 157–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2020.1759443
Tshuma, B. B., Tshuma, L. A., & Ndlovu, N. (2022). Media discourses on gender in the time of COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. In C. A. Dralega & A. Napakol (Eds.), Health crises and media discourses in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 267–283). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95100-9_16
UN DESA. (2016). Toolkit on disability for Africa | DISD. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2016/11/toolkit-on-disability-for-africa-2/
UN Women. (2020). Commission on the Status of Women. Fiftieth Session, 27.
UNESCO. (2020). Amplifying the voices of women and girls with disabilities in Zimbabwe: A comprehensive study—UNESCO Digital Library. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374388
Van der Pas, D. J., & Aaldering, L. (2020). Gender differences in political media coverage: A meta-analysis. Journal of Communication, 70(1), 114–143. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz046
Venganai, H. (2019). “These Things Might Be There in the Bible, But They Are Hidden”–Christian Appropriations of the Practice of Labia Elongation in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Gender and Religion, 25(1).
Waddington, L., & Priestley, M. (2021). A human rights approach to disability assessment. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 37(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2020.21
Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe. (2018). Bridging the gender inequality in media—WCOZ. https://www.wcoz.org/bridging-the-gender-inequality-in-media/
Woyo, E. (2018). An assessment of brand Zimbabwe’s competitiveness and attractiveness as a tourism destination (Doctoral dissertation). North-West University.
Woyo, E. (2020). Prospects and challenges of sustainable urban tourism in WindhoekPoverty, inequality and urban risks linkages. Sustainable urban tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa, 231–246.
Woyo, E. (2021). The sustainability of using domestic tourism as a post-COVID-19 recovery strategy in a distressed destination. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2021 (pp. 476–489). Springer.
Woyo, E., & Slabbert, E. (2020). Unpacking the motivations, satisfaction and loyalty of tourists travelling to a distressed destination. Anatolia, 31(4), 536–548.
Woyo, E., & Venganai, H. (2022). Gender and tourism. In Encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ye, W., & Zeldes, G. A. (2020). The representation of people with disabilities in an official newspaper in China: A longitudinal study of the People’s Daily from 2003 to 2013. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 31(1), 26–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044207319868783
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Muperi, W. (2022). Role of Media in Creating Inclusive Gender and Disability Spaces in Tourism. In: Woyo, E., Venganai, H. (eds) Gender, Disability, and Tourism in Africa. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12551-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12551-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12550-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12551-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)