The structure of news in Community Audio Towers

Abstract

This article draws attention to the current sensational modernist conceptualization of news as conflict and prominence to argue that news among the poor be understood as activities happening in a village. Findings obtained through observation at two Community Audio Towers (CATs), plus ten key informant interviews with Uganda’s CAT stakeholders at community and national levels, suggest that the global media logic, supported by massive media structures that dictate what news is, finds no relevance in critical local news methodologies. Using the Critical theory, this article concludes that the counter-ideological events redefine the concept of news from conflict and prominence obtained through professional news making cultures to whatever information the village members take to the towers.