Algorithmic Representation and the African Press: How Digital News Distribution Reinforces Biased Portrayals of Women

Abstract

Digital news distribution across Africa is frequently treated as an objective, value-neutral technical process. This position paper rejects this assumption, arguing that algorithmic gatekeeping does not democratise public discourse but instead systematically reinforces regressive, patriarchal biases against women and shapes how they are portrayed in the media. Operating at the intersection of algorithmic gatekeeping theory and feminist media studies, the paper examines how multinational platform algorithms act as active cultural arbiters. Through an extensive qualitative desk review of digital news ecosystems across East, West, and Southern Africa, the study evaluates two direct operational dynamics. First, it investigates how automated content moderation tools systematically misclassify and suppress complex, rights-based, and empowering representations of African women by marking them as "sensitive content" or safety violations. Second, it analyses how recommendation systems structurally amplify sensationalised, misogynistic, and stereotypical portrayals of women, driven by corporate profit models that reward toxic engagement and outrage. The paper demonstrates that rather than remaining neutral, algorithms act as a structural multiplier for historic gender biases, coding inequality directly into the contemporary African public sphere. Finally, it outlines an actionable framework for algorithmic accountability to challenge these automated biases and protect pluralistic gender representation.