The FIAT/IFTA Media Studies Commission has selected two outstanding small-scale research projects for the 2025 edition of the Media Studies Grant. The grant aims to promote archive-based research and ensure the valorization of scientific knowledge for archival practice.

• Dr. Rabia Noor – Revisiting Archival Narratives: The Influence of Women News Anchors on Gender Discourse in the Genesis of Pakistani Television
• Dr. Peter Iorper Ugondo (PI) & Dr. Patience Ngunan Achakpa-Ikyo (Co-Researcher) – Echoes of Change: Unveiling the Climate Crisis through Historical Narratives in Television Archives of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)

Finds from the Archives

Echoes of Change: Unveiling the Climate Crisis through Historical Narratives in Television Archives of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)

By Dr. Peter Iorper Ugondo (PI) & Dr. Patience Ngunan Achakpa-Ikyo (Co-Researcher)

Unpacking how societies perceive and react to environmental issues over time is the focal point of the study by Peter Iorper Ugondo and Patience Nugnuan Achakpa-Ikyo in their Media Studies Grant 2025 project titled “Echoes of Change: Unveiling the Climate Crisis through Historical Narratives in Nigerian Television Archives of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)”. Premised on the fact that media archives, particularly those of television, offer a critical lens into the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Nigeria’s oldest and most influential state broadcaster cum largest television network in Africa, has documented decades of environmental reporting, public education campaigns, and climate-related events. This spans from the oil spills and cocoa dump sites in the 1980s to environmental degradation protests by the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta areas led by environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Rio Earth Summit in the early 1990s, to the Kyoto summit from the mid-1990s to early 2000s, down to the aftermath of the 2015 Paris agreement.

Four months down into the eight month study period, the researchers have received formal approval to access the archives. This arduous task of surpassing several snags of bureaucracy took more than three months. The reason for this cautious concern over access to the archives, we were told, was the misappropriation, fair use, theft, or loss of patent rights to individuals who hitherto were granted such permissions. The harvest of these archives began in August, but with a forced break of one week due to a sudden change of leadership at the headquarters of the nation’s television broadcaster. The Director-General, Mr Salihu Abdullahi Dembos, and the Executive Director of News, Mr Ayo Adewuyi, were relieved of their appointment for 17 days until September 2, 2025, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reversed their removal from office. It was after this that normancy smoothness returned to our search of the archives. Before the interregnum, however, substantial data was harvested.

Archival materials retrieved comprise climate events such as oil spills and pollution, floods, desertification, drought, gully erosion crises, waste management, climate change debates, environmental summits, human suffering, resilience/recovery, justice and activism, and National policy announcements. These were found in the stations’ programmes such as Network News, PSAs, Weather Report, Environment, Oil and Gas, and Interview. Much of the collection retrieved so far was stored mostly in old VHS and codec tapes, which required lengthy transfer into digital form before they could even be viewed. This process revealed both the fragility of the archive and the sheer labour needed to preserve Nigeria’s environmental memory. The relocation of the NTA from the country’s former capital territory, Lagos, to Abuja also resulted in the unavailability of some records at the current headquarters.

So far, we have observed a clear evolution in NTA’s framing of climate issues. In the 1980s, coverage was dominated by Images of eroded landscapes or oil spills, visuals of affected communities, lush forests, or clean energy projects, as well as drought, famine, and desertification, often treated as isolated natural disasters. The 1990s witnessed a gradual expansion of concerns about human suffering, resilience, and activism, as well as erosion, deforestation, and oil-related degradation. Climate discourse gained increased urgency in the 2000s and 2010s, with references to international climate negotiations, renewable energy, disaster risk management, 1992 – Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act, following Rio; 2006 – National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act; 2016 Revised National Policy on the Environment; 2021Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and 2021 Climate Change Act, among others.

A number of challenges and silences stood out. First, significant gaps exist in the 1980s and early 1990s collection, largely due to the relocation of NTA’s headquarters from Lagos to Abuja, during which many archival tapes were not found in the library. Second, community voices were almost completely absent in the 1980s coverage. It was only in the early 1990s, particularly during the activism of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni protests, that grassroots perspectives on environmental degradation began to filter into national broadcasts. This shift marked a turning point in the visibility of environmental justice struggles in the Nigerian media space.

We were also struck by how state-controlled broadcasting shaped what was remembered and what was forgotten. Oil spills, pollution, and rural flooding were often downplayed, while government narratives of progress and control dominated the airwaves. In this sense, the missing tapes and muted voices are themselves findings, indicating that archives are not neutral repositories but contested terrains of memory, politics, and power, particularly from a public broadcast station.

When the data is fully collated and analysed, more will likely be uncovered about the evolution of environmental discourse within Nigerian television history, illustrating the value of broadcast archives in addressing today’s climate crisis. The findings will also provide fuller insights into the potential of broadcast archives to influence current environmental policies and foster activism through media from the Global South, in defiance of a predominantly Eurocentric discourse on broadcast archives and climate change.

Revisiting Archival Narratives: The Influence of Women News Anchors on Gender Discourse in the Genesis of Pakistani Television

By Dr. Rabia Noor

Current Stage of Research

The research has advanced into the analysis stage. Archival footage from Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) has been collected, and most of the planned interviews with pioneering women news anchors have been completed and transcribed. At this point, thematic coding, semiotic, and discourse analysis are being applied to both the archival material and oral histories. This dual approach connects the narratives preserved in the archives with the lived experiences of the anchors, allowing a nuanced understanding of how women negotiated their place in a male-dominated media field.

Key Discoveries So Far

One of the clearest patterns to emerge is that the portrayal of women anchors in the early decades of PTV was far from modern. The archival footage from the 1970s through the 1990s shows them heavily bound by cultural and religious expectations. Anchors were required to strictly cover their heads with dupattas, and their clothing choices were closely monitored to ensure modesty. Bold or open-neck dresses were not permitted, flashy jewelry was discouraged, and colors were carefully regulated to avoid drawing undue attention. While some gradual changes did occur over time, the progression was slow and measured. In the earlier years (1970s–80s), anchors consistently wore dupattas covering their heads. In the later years (1980s–90s), dupattas were still required, though often styled more loosely with the dress. It was only much later, in rare cases, that female anchors appeared on-screen without dupattas. Even then, this was the exception rather than the norm. In contrast, contemporary anchors appear far more modern in style and presentation, with fewer restrictions on attire and personal expression.

Interviews also reinforced that the news anchoring profession was deeply male-dominated at the time, and, according to many, remains so today, despite women’s increased visibility in the field. Interestingly, while patriarchal structures were identified as barriers, many women reported that male colleagues were often more cooperative, whereas competition and jealousy were more commonly experienced among female colleagues. This unexpected observation adds a layered perspective to the realities of navigating gendered workplaces.

Surprising and Unexpected Findings

The absence of modernity in archival footage is perhaps the most striking discovery. Contrary to assumptions that women anchors might have symbolized modernity, the reality is that their appearance and conduct were tightly controlled, reflecting dominant cultural and religious norms. Their visibility was not about projecting progressiveness but about maintaining a carefully curated image of modesty and respectability.

The strict dress codes, head coverings, regulated clothing styles, limited jewelry, and muted colors highlight how women’s presence in media was carefully managed within cultural boundaries. This underscores how early television became a site where women’s bodies and attire were used to reinforce societal ideals of propriety.

Equally surprising were the perspectives from the interviews on workplace dynamics. Despite the male dominance of the industry, many women remembered male colleagues as cooperative, while rivalries and competitiveness among female peers often posed greater everyday challenges. These insights complicate the narrative of women’s experiences, revealing both the systemic and interpersonal obstacles they faced in establishing themselves within Pakistani media.