https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf35GPZf6w0

Women are driving South African media, traditionally a male-dominated industry, according to an NTVKenya video interview.

South Africa is leading the way in terms of women exceeding men in the newsroom, with 79.5 percent of senior management jobs in news media held by women.

Anastacia Martin, the Mail & Guardian Africa managing director, rose through the ranks and now makes critical decisions about the news that consumers see in newspapers or on their mobile devices. She talks about how the role of women in media is evolving and how women can change the stories told about them.

“It’s about telling the African story without fear,” said Martin, who is a pioneer in her own right. Martin was the first black women newspaper publisher of the Mail & Guardian. “There is a recognition, acceptance and celebration that women play an important role in the media landscape,” she said.

But even so the media haven’t found a balance in narrating the African women’s story, Martin said. The narrative always seems hopeless, and “we tell the story without the successes from a business, science and technology standpoint. We tend to miss that.”

Martin said she hopes the narrative catches up to the evolving role of the African woman whose story is waiting to be told and heard.