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- Volume 10, Issue 2, 2018
Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2018
Volume 10, Issue 2, 2018
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Media coverage of child rights issues in Uganda: The case of The New Vision
Authors: Ivan Ashaba and Marlon AgabaAbstractDespite having a robust child protection framework and a burgeoning media, child rights abuse still occurs in Uganda. This takes the form of child neglect, defilement, torture, trafficking. The researchers set out to investigate media coverage of child rights issues in Uganda. A triangulation of methods was used, and as will be shown later, reporting on child rights abuses is not systematic due to fragmentation of actors. The researchers found out that 185 child abuse stories were published in The New Vision in 2015. Most of the published stories were from the country’s capital – Kampala. The other obstacles to effective child rights reporting identified are as follows: concentration of reporters in urban areas, lack of special training in child rights reporting and commercial interests of media houses. The researchers recommend recruiting and training journalists to specifically report on issues of child rights and empowering upcountry reporters where many cases are committed.
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When the subaltern speaks: Re-examining indigenous-language media as alternative public sphere during colonial South Africa
More LessAbstractThis article attempts to examine the efficacy of indigenous-language newspapers published in South Africa during the colonial era. In doing so, the article is particularly interested to see how the success achieved by those publications could be replicated to boost post-apartheid indigenous-language media in their encounter with the hegemonic onslaught of the mainstream media whose scope and hegemony continue to expand at an alarming rate. The article embraces the notion of the public sphere and the theory of hegemony to make sense of how indigenous media permeated the language and political discourse and emerged as a strong voice for the oppressed, reinforcing at once what Herman and Chomsky (2002) refer to as ‘class consciousness’. The notion of the public sphere is found to be particularly profitable in highlighting the exclusion/inclusion of wide-ranging voices in the public affairs while the robustness of the theory of hegemony lies in its strengths to unravel the political imperatives and the ideological contest that characterized the colonial era. The article argues that indigenous publications succeeded in becoming viable platforms for the indigenous communities who had been pushed beyond the margins of citizenship. The article concludes that indigenous-language media were particularly important for their political mobilization and contribution to media diversity through the range of voices that they orchestrated.
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Social networking and mobile phone usage of East African students in Malaysia
More LessAbstractWith the current development in technology, mobile phones have become progressively more popular as they are one of the frequently used means of communication that people rely on because of their features. While people find mobile phones convenient and useful, international students in foreign countries tend to appreciate them more and are more dependent on them in order to maintain their social networks. The literature states that students from East Africa carry along their own culture with them, making it difficult for them to accept and adapt to the new culture easily. This includes meeting face to face in small areas and groups where friendships are formed through frequent interaction. Based on a survey conducted in various private universities in the Klang Valley where foreign students of East African origin are studying, students’ mobile phone use for social networking was examined. The results showed that there was a positive significant relationship between variables such as interaction, interpersonal communication and social networking for maintenance of social network; however, there was no significant difference in mobile phone dependency for social networking among university students of East African origin and the duration of stay in Malaysia. Although they may be unable to interact in person, social networking proved useful to strengthen relationships that already exist and enhanced the feelings of closeness to others. As technology has advanced, there have been adjustments in the users’ attitudes towards particular technologies, hence this has generated new social and cultural phenomena. This phenomenon has in a way changed the way mobile phones evolve as they represent social construction of technology. This social construction of the mobile phone is seen in the symbiotic relationship between the users of the technology. Users such as these students respond to the advancement of technologies such as mobile phones, which in turn has seen them develop social and cultural changes.
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The plight of the private press during the Zimbabwe crisis (2010–18)
More LessAbstractThis study critically examines how the private press in Zimbabwe survived during periods of economic and political crises. In year 2010, the Zimbabwe media fraternity saw the re-opening of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) after closure in 2003 and the emergence of the NewsDay, published by the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH). The study examines how these publishers survive the economic challenges in Zimbabwe, especially during the prolonged period of the Zimbabwe Crisis from 2010 to 2018. It critically investigates how these two publications have remained operational despite the limited advertising revenue – owing to company closures – and the adversarial relations with the government – a critical source of huge advertising revenue. Given that copy sales of newspapers hardly sustain business entities, this article explores the alternative sources of income and the impact of vested interests on alternative revenue for privately owned newspapers. It is a qualitative research based on findings from thirteen semi-structured in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of ANZ and AMH officials and journalists. Publishers have relied on two main survival strategies, namely, internal cost-cutting strategies and building good business relations with the ruling political elites. Internal cost-cutting strategies have included newsroom convergences, retrenchments, salary reductions and freezes, reduction of newspaper pages and shutting down national newspaper bureaus. External survival methods, on the other hand, have been seeking donor funding, attracting political investments and embracing the new political order for government protection in the event of failure to pay statutory obligations such as taxes and pensions.
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Film Review
More LessAbstractThe making of Where is Europe? directed by Valentina Signorelli (Italy, 2018): A reflective film review
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Book Review
More LessAbstractBlaming the Victim: How Global Journalism Fails those in Poverty, Jairo Lugo-Ocando (2015) London: Pluto Press ISBN 9780745334417, p/bk, £26.99 (with free eBook) ISBN 9780745334424, h/bk, £85 ISBN 9781783712274, eBook, £26.99
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