The Rise and Fall of Uganda's Newspaper Industry, 1900–1976

Isoba, John C. G.

doi:10.1177/107769908005700204

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…In recent years, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported increased government restriction and violence against news workers leading up to the country’s February 2016 presidential election, when incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986, was re-elected to a five-year term. The country’s press tradition dates back to the late 1800s and the number of newspapers peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, dropping down to 14 in the 1970s (Isoba, 1980). The Ugandan media market is among the more competitive in sub-Saharan Africa, incentivizing reporters to pursue exclusive reporting and investigative stories (Lublinski et al, 2016).…”

Section: Content Production As Negotiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing to publish: How journalists negotiate content restrictions in semi-authoritarian states

Moon

2022

International Communication Gazette

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Journalists act strategically in response to their political environments, using practices like self-censorship to avoid negative repercussions from powerful actors. But what does self-censorship look like in practice? Grounded in theories of policy response and media sociology, this study uses journalistic narratives to examine three strategies journalists employ to publish news while safeguarding themselves in semi-authoritarian contexts with restricted media freedom. Journalists choose among these based on several factors, including the relative power available to them in a particular organizational context, story idea, or angle. The analysis shows that self-censorship is more negotiated and less one-directional than the current literature suggests. The negotiation lens also shows how power dynamics can change on a situational basis, even in contexts where one actor clearly has significantly more power than the other.

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Section: Content Production As Negotiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing to publish: How journalists negotiate content restrictions in semi-authoritarian states

Moon

2022

International Communication Gazette

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“…The religious institutions, namely the Anglican and Catholic missionaries, were instrumental in establishing print media. The news content focused on church issues; they (largely in the form of newsletters) were also used as a channel of communicating missionary work with those abroad (Isoba 1980). Although the newspaper industry in Uganda had been in existence for a long time, it experienced rapid expansion only in the 1950s and 1960s (Isoba 1980).…”

Section: Historical Overview Of Indigenous Newspaper Publishing In Ugmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The news content focused on church issues; they (largely in the form of newsletters) were also used as a channel of communicating missionary work with those abroad (Isoba 1980). Although the newspaper industry in Uganda had been in existence for a long time, it experienced rapid expansion only in the 1950s and 1960s (Isoba 1980). While there was a decline in the number of newspapers (in both local languages and English) during Amin and Obote's regimes, the media industry, especially the electronic media proliferated due to the liberalisation of airwaves and because of relative press freedom in the mid-1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s.…”

Section: Historical Overview Of Indigenous Newspaper Publishing In Ugmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The article did not attempt to generate an archetypal generic structure of editorial writing that characterises earlier newspapers because the genre appeared to have been in constant flux. Each newspaper maintained a unique generic structure of its editorial text because the news writers and reporters working in the indigenous newspaper industry had neither formal training nor practical experience in publishing in Runyankore-Rukiga; there were no available training institutions in Uganda (Isoba 1980). It appeared that either the construction of editorial texts was an imitation of the existing editorial genres in the English newspapers or a creation of the media outlet based on what it deemed appropriate rather than the conventions of journalistic practice.…”

Section: The Generic Structure Of a Runyankore-rukiga Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such rhetorical 'tactics' appear to have been invoked to eschew direct arguments and confrontations because of the dictatorial regime of Idi Amin at the time. The editorialist exercised caution to circumvent retribution from Amin's government, which controlled the media (see Isoba 1980).…”

Section: Rhetorical Strategies Invoked In Runyankore-rukiga Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The ‘rise and fall’ of a genre: The generic and rhetorical renditions of a Runyankore-Rukiga editorial

Mugumya

2019

SPILPLUS

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This article explores the discursive practice of editorial writing in Runyankore-Rukiga print media. It also explicates the generic structure of Runyankore-Rukiga editorial text and the rhetorical devices that the editorial writers have invoked to comment on issues that affect society across different times of history. Using genre analysis, the article analyses a diachronic corpus of editorial texts across Ugandan local newspapers from 1955 to 2010. The article demonstrates that while the construction of a Runyankore-Rukiga editorial appears to conform to the architectural structure of an English editorial (Ansary and Babaii 2005), it does not adhere to its rhetorical moves and the attendant argumentation principles that govern the construction of an editorial text. During the early years (1960s) and throughout the 1970s of Runyankore newspaper writing, the editorial text was a significant genre often appearing on the front page and largely characterized by rhetorical moves consisting in religious and biblical propositions. The editorialists have occasionally employed proverbs to premise or reinforce their arguments, but also to bring humour to the text. The contemporary editorial text also exemplifies use of conversational language, a discursive style that appears to identify with and endear it to putative readers. While the genre has been in constant flux, Runyankore-Rukiga print media outlets have discontinued editorial writing because of commercial reasons and apprehension concerning the consequences of articulating issues that disfavour policies and undertakings of a coercive government. The article reiterates the significance of editorial writing in newspaper discourse and advocates continued articulation of other non-political issues that do not necessarily endanger print media praxis.

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Archives of Idi Amin

Taylor

Abiti²,

Peterson

et al. 2021

Hist. Afr.

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This report describes the official photographic archives of Idi Amin’s government held by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). During his reign from 1971 to 1979, Idi Amin embraced visual media as a tool for archiving the achievements of populist military rule as his government sought to reorient Ugandans’ relationship with the state. Only a handful of the resulting images were ever printed or seen, reflecting the regime’s archival impulse undergirded by paranoia of unauthorized ways of seeing. The UBC’s newly opened collection of over 60,000 negatives from Amin’s photographers, alongside files at the Uganda National Archives, offers the first comprehensive opportunity to study the Ugandan state under Amin’s dictatorship through the lens of its own documentarians.

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The Rise and Fall of Uganda's Newspaper Industry, 1900–1976

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Preparing to publish: How journalists negotiate content restrictions in semi-authoritarian states

Preparing to publish: How journalists negotiate content restrictions in semi-authoritarian states

The ‘rise and fall’ of a genre: The generic and rhetorical renditions of a Runyankore-Rukiga editorial

Archives of Idi Amin

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