Browsing by Author "Fred Kakooza"

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Coping into Self-censorship: Exploring Coping Strategies of Journalists Working in South Sudan
(Routledge, 2024) John Gai Alier; Samuel Kazibwe; Fred Kakooza
Local journalists in South Sudan have faced enormous threats from security groups, politicians and powerful individuals in the country. These threats have made the work of the press difficult. Despite the precarious security situation, some journalists have had the courage to continue working in South Sudan but in a manner that minimises risks. While studies have been carried out on war and conflict reporting around the world, little attention has been paid to coping strategies for local journalists in South Sudan. This study sought to investigate threats, coping strategies and motivational factors for local journalists working in the private media houses in the country. A qualitative approach with emphatic in-depth interviews was purposively used to obtain data from 21 respondents including reporters and editors from seven media houses in Juba. The findings show that journalists face threats including arbitrary arrests, intimidation and incarceration. Others have been beaten, tortured and in some cases murdered. To continue doing their professional jobs, journalists in private media institutions have applied well-planned coping strategies as a means of protection. These strategies include self-censorship, publishing of threats via mass media channels, use of institutional rules, self-consciousness and avoidance of sensitive stories, among others. The analysis of the data clearly demonstrated that motivational factors played a crucial role in the coping process at both institutional and individual levels because the journalists relied on journalistic principles as their basis to create context-relevant coping strategies.
Digital Safety: Perspectives from Women Journalists in Uganda
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025) Fred Kakooza; Samuel Kazibwe
The Internet has been recognised as a tool or space for universal access to information that fosters diversity and plurality of voices. Yet in this space, journalists have been a regular target of online attacks, intimidation, and bullying that threaten the diversity of voices and information. Women journalists face a double burden of risk based on their gender, such that the safety and security of women journalists require a paradigm shift from focusing on physical harm alone to considering digital and online security as well. This chapter explores Ugandan women journalists’ safety and security experiences in online environments and how women journalists negotiate their online media environments to deliver journalistic work. Discussed through the media affordance and objectification theoretical perspectives, the findings indicate that women journalists use digital spaces as an enabler to their profession but are challenged with threats, violations, and harassment online. We emphasise continuous training of women journalists on digital safety and security, including rallying media organisations to ensure online safety for women journalists.
Mobile Digital Apps and News Production at NTV Uganda
(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2023-03) Antonio Kisembo Elisha; Fred Kakooza
In the era of technological innovations, new media technologies continue to change the news production culture in media organizations. Specifically, mobile applications have created opportunities for fast delivery, packaging, and access to news on digital platforms. These have also provided ground for citizen journalism to thrive in the global south. Focusing on Uganda, this research investigates how mobile digital technologies have affected news production at NTV Uganda. The study examines how mobile apps that include NTV Go, Live U, and Octopus have affected the production of news at NTV Uganda. The study draws from the diffusion of innovations theoretical framework to interrogate the rate of adoption and use of mobile apps in the news production process to understand how technological innovations have been adopted and integrated at NTV Uganda. The study employed a case study design to assess the effect of new media technology on news production. The findings indicate that customized mobile apps at NTV Uganda have enhanced timely production and delivery of news. The findings further indicate that the public is also able to engage with the station to contribute and share their community stories through the NTV Go mobile apps. However, these changes have brought about unsettling problems of accuracy and credibility in the production of news at NTV Uganda. The study concludes that new media technologies have enabled quick and efficient production of news which is a major affordance of digital journalism.
Traditional Media and New Technologies: Facebook Radio Programming in Uganda
(Springer Nature, 2025-05) Fred Max Adii; Fred Kakooza
Digital technologies have transformed the media sector at the global level and influenced trends in Africa, particularly the broadcasting media sector in Uganda. The liberalisation of the broadcasting sector in Uganda and the rise in digital technologies, including mobile phones and the Internet, facilitates a convergence of the traditional radio medium and new media including social media. Traditional media including radio stations have adopted both digital and analogue broadcasting to remain accessible and relevant to their audience. To encourage this bond with their listeners, radio stations rely on traditional radio broadcasts, and many add-ons from other new media, including websites and Facebook live streams, as well as inviting listeners to call-in and answer quiz questions. Using the affordance perspective as the analytical framework, this chapter assesses how Facebook has been used in programming and how it has influenced programming. Through direct observation and in-depth interviews, this chapter explores the use of Facebook in radio programming in Uganda. The focus is on a commercial radio station––94.8XFM—where it was established that Facebook is critical to traditional radio programming in connecting with the audience, interact/engage with audience, identifying niche audiences, and interacting with the audience through multi-media content production. The audience now has a new user experience of producing and consuming radio content through a networked social media fan base; localised publishing of news and information on the radio station’s page. The Facebook platform is contributing to the station’s revenue base through advertising and promotion of products and services online.