Ministers launch our book reflecting on Windhoek +30

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Finally, our highly anticipated book has been launched! It was launched last night at a ceremony in Windhoek to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO. The book brings together 23 editors and academics who discuss all partinent past, present and future issues around the media on the African continent in vivid colours.

My chapter is on “The viability of media and their role in the production and sharing of Information in Africa” reflects on the turmoil the media industry is facing in the most recent times.

Thanks to UNESCO especially Professor Guy Berger; Elizabeth Mule and her colleagues at the Editor’s Forum of Namibia as well as the Namibian Government for brings these vital perspectives especially the Declarations (Windhoek +30) to light.

Have you experienced online hate?

Last week, our research project SOCYTI converged researchers and stakeholders from Norway and internationally to share experiences and discuss the topical issues of online hate speech in Kristiansand, Norway.

The researchers from Western Norway Research Institute, NLA University College, NTNU and George Mason University (USA) engaged with the invited stakeholders from the Police department, Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, ARKIVET Peace and Human Rights Centre, Nordic safe Cities (Arendal Municipality); Norwegian Media Authority, Norway’s Multicultural Center (NOMKUS) as well as Faith Associates UK.

As researchers with amased state-of-the-art literary insights, it was additionally enlightening to hear lived experiences from real life contexts as we together unpacked complexities, intersections, the dangers and possible solutions to online hate speech, radicalization and polarization.

Did you know that hatespeech is punishable by law in Norway?

Yes, read about the pioneer cases in Norwegian supreme court here, in Norwegian here or read this open access academic paper here.

Have you experienced hate speech? and you want to share your experiences?

We are interested in hearing from you: as individuals, social groups, institutions about your experiences of hate speech, what you did after recieving the hate and if/where you recieved help from. Do you have any suggestions for combating online hate speech? You can reach out to:

Research team: rak@vestforsk.no or cardra@nla.no

You can also tip the police on online hate crimes: https://www.politiet.no/tjenester/tips-politiet/

Nepal – How the ‘Samvad’ approach to grassroots emancipation swept me off my feet! Part 3 of 3

PART 3: SAMVAD – NEPAL’S MAGIC BULLET

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In part 1&2, I have shared what the challenges many development organizations, especially Western organizations face while doing development work and how SF’s appraoch, especially in Nepal is different and why it seems to be effective.

In all the our encounters with the grassroots groups, one word resonated over and over again and that was the term SAMVAD. SAMVAD we were told is a ‘participatory learning, reflection and action process that builds analytical capacity and confidence among the participants and helps them to be self-reliant’. It is the embodiment of people-centered, participatory process which prioritizes that the people identify, plan and solve their own problems with a ‘little’ support from SF. SF, does not tell people what and how to develo themselves – this they have to figure out other than having others tell them.

SAMVAD is equal to ‘people power’, or ‘girl power’ for women’s organisations, or ‘adolescent power’ depending on the group’s constitution, needs, capacities and competences. The point is to use the group as a collective force to brings about individual and collective social, economic and psychological change. The result has been engagement, ownership, agency and sustainability – as each organisation had clear objectives, good organization, operations were clear and they were accountable to each other. Moreover, the collective actions were very interactive, critical, analytical, transparent and transcendent. The level of engagememt that we witnessed made it clear to me that a critical mass was in the works. If, I am not wrong, I believe, SF already boasted of over 900 such SAMVAD groups.

Now, despite the successes on the ground, there was still a way to go and a few things stood out to me, suffice to mention 2:

Bringing the private sector contributions to local development: While the Public sector was an active actor in this People-centered partnership with SF, the Private sector role and participation were less pronounced. In otherwords, within the Public Private People-Centered Partnership (PPPP) notions for development, the Private was less pronounced. In development struggle, it is important to bring together all relevant actors to fill in gaps in the complex challenge called development. The private sector could contribute via its social responsibility with things such as funds, training, markets, etc.

“Community radios are the voices of the people”
Vice president Nanda Bahadur Pun pointed out at the inauguration of the two-day South-Asian Community Radio Conference 9th Aug 2016 in Kathmaandu. Pix:Internet.

Role of Community media/community radio not well tapped: As a development communication student myself, I was abit dissapointed by the limited exploitation of community media. Already the structural and infrastructural preconditions were not too bad. Nepal boosts of over 700 radio stations, over 300 of these are located in rural areas. I talk radio because it is the most viable medium against TV and newspapers because of its geographic reach. over 56% of rural households have a radio set. Given the mandate of community radio to serve informational needs of local communities often overlooked by mainstream media, community media can perform wonders in support of development programs.”

“Community radios are the voices of the people”

This is also becasue community media are supposed to be people-centered, generating local content and engagement from the local people. Since these are supposedly locally owned, organized, operated and sustained – they can trully suppliment development initiatives such as these that SF supports as they would expand reach, boost impact and give voice to the marginalized communities.

Resourses that may be of interest:

Dralega, C. A. (2009). ICTs, youths, and the politics of participation in rural Uganda. In African Media and the Digital Public Sphere (pp. 125-142). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Dralega, C. A. (2009) Open and Distance Learning for Peace through Community Radio in Northern Uganda: The Case of radio Apac. In Baksh R. And Munro T. (Eds.) Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding. P45-58. Commonwealth of Learning. Vancouver 

 Dralega, C. A. (2009) Participatory Ethos, Multimedia Experiments and Disjuncture in Community Media in Uganda, Equid Novi, African Journalism Studies. Vol. 30 (1) p24-41. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.

 Dralega, C. A. (2009). Exploring the Principles of the Community. The Power of Communication: Changes and Challenges in African Media, 287.

Dralega, C. A. (2009) ICT Based Development of Marginal Communities: Participatory approaches to Communication, Empowerment and Engagement in Rural Uganda. PhD thesis. UNIPUB. University of Oslo

Dralega, C. (2007). Rural women’s ICT use in Uganda: Collective action for development. Agenda, 21(71), 42-52.

Nepal – How the ‘Samvad’ approach to grassroots emancipation swept me off my feet! Part 2 of 3

PART 2: APPROACHING SF GRASSROOTS INITIATIVES WITH CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

I, along with a team of board members spent Week 38 traversing the ‘last mile’ of rural Nepal, where SF has, i came to learn, an impressive imprit. It was a week of immense learning, unlearning and relearning for me – starting with a new understanding that the SF approach was not only unique and popular, it was also copied by others. I gained a new appreciation of the tremendous calling (read work) engrained in its thousands of ambassadors – i.e. local teams and partners in development – whose passion in sharing their experiences simply blew me away.

From listening to very young people organizing and being very invloved in their realities, to youth and adolescents taking charge of identifying their issues collectively, finding solutions and holding leaders accountable, to women’s groups spearheading social change and disruption to hegemonic patriachal socio-economic and environmental practices, to rural commmunities mobilizing for social change. I never heard the word ‘I’ much, to be frank. It was always ‘we’. It was communities, together dialoguing, participating and making decisions together. The poor, reached out to the poorer. The vulnerable reached out to those worse than them and lifted them up. The youth talked to their parents’ generation who listened and acted and vis-versa (Just to mention, where I come from children, are to be seen not heard).

So, what is the trick and whats SF’s role in this trick? I wish to briefly summarise my impressions (which by all means are my interpretation and any misinterpretations are my own).

SF organizational set-up: SF is organized in such a way that a lean and mean staff in Kristiansand constitutes the head quarters. This team of highly sudious and efficient development practitioners – fundraise, organise, monivate and manage the overall organisation’s operations. The General secretary, an International coordinator and a team of hard workers constitute the HQ team. Regional coordinators are from and are located in the three regions. These have solid regional knowledge and practical expertise to assume the organisational, managerial and monitoring role for the respective local NGOs. It is, in my view the local, grassroots NGOs who are stars as these have the hands-on responsibilities and influence in reaching and promoting change in the last-mile – the Motto is: No one to be left behind. The board met and engaged with the folk at the bottom of the pyramid. We wanted to see their faces, hear their stories – gain insights beyond the beautiful statistics we had been accustomed to reading about. Unlike other international organizations whose ‘Western’ you can find officed at the grassroots giving instructions to social chage, SF did not do that – the local people were in charge of their own development. They were free to identify their pressing challenges, think of solutions and implement the solutions with the support of SF – which I thought was unique and cool!

Community mechanism: Another winning perspective for me was the fact that the family was heightened as a unit model where each family member was supported with respective interventions or self-help group – but ultimately family cohesion and individual and family well-being was important. This opposed to other experiences where, for instance, women were choosen for development aid – often leaving men bitter and vengeful – a reported cause for GBV and failure of development initiatives.

Family development plan (FDP): In line with the family unit model, every household was encouraged to capture family and individual expectations, capacities, challenges and wishes in order to plan inteventions. As such it was impressive to find each family/individual has a development plan – and they were accountable to each other and to themselves. As a matter of fact, every office or home has a plan on its walls – like a vision board.

Beautiful basket gift from the women in Kapilvastu.

Participation: The high levels of participation and dialogue were also an aspect of great impression. The members participated in idea conception, planning, implementation and evaluation – ensuring sustainability through ownership.

Technical and educational training: Based on needs assessment, targeted groups recieved relevant skills, while others were linked to appropriate service providers such as the government schemes, and others were linked to markets – an example being the fabulous women who make baskets for hotels across the country. This, along with the Livelihood promotion scheme empowering local people to take charge of their needs was impresive.

However, the SAMVAD program, for me was the most amazing. Read about my impressions in PART 3 and also what areas could be strengthed

Nepal – How the ‘Samvad’ approach to grassroots emancipation swept me off my feet! Part 1 of 3

PART 1 – What is the Issue?

As a member of the Board of Directors for Strømme Foundation, every 2-3 years, we get to take a field trip to encounter, learn and interrogate the organisation’s development interventions in their real-life context. In 2019, I had the privilege of travelling to Tanzania but the focus of this brief feature is our recent (September 2022) trip to Nepal.

As a rights-based development NGO that works towards a world free from poverty, Strømme Foundation (SF) operats in 11 countries in East Africa, West Africa and Asia. By 2021 it hadamong other initiatives, actively supported 540, 125 people including 243, 752 adolescents and children. The work involves: a) Creating livelihoods and job opportunities; b) Ensuring inclusive quality education and c) Building strong societies. The fourth thematic area underway is climate change and environmental protection. SF covers 5 of the UN Sustainable development goals (1- No poverty, 4- Quality Education, 5-Gender equality, 8-Decent work and economic growth and 17-Partnerships for the goals).

Okey, so what is the issue?

You see, for decades, (especially Western) development organizations have come under heavy critism for failing to bring about positive and tangible changes to their beneficiary communities despite billions of dollars allocated for this work. Development organisations are implicated in, among others for:

a) Creating jobs for themselves at the expense of beneficiary and local communities: The critique has been that most of the funds for development end up being used up by so-called development experts while beneficiaries recieve mere trickles of crumbs.

b) Adopting a top-down approach to development, communication and change – the criticism goes along the saying ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. Often, perspectives to development are dictated from exogenous content and contexts while indigenous, endogenous perspectives and local knowledge are relegated at best and ignored at worse.

c) Promoting non-participatory and non-dialogical approaches to development: Many of these organisations may include a few ‘local’ stakeholders but these have been criticised as elitist, condenscending and unequal partnerships often perpetuative of hegemonic continuities exclude the very marginal and excluded members of communites such as women, handicapped, youth, etc.

d) Working in their own bubbles unable to create synergies with other development partnerships: The result has often been duplicated services, lack of sustainability and accountability.

So, in my field trips, I am often curious about such elements to development. In Part 2, I will share my impressions from the field on how SF initiatives performed along these lines (i.e. Failings of International Western NGOs).

Project kick-off: Preparing media practitioners for a resilient media in Eastern Africa

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In December of 2020, we recieved the Christmas gift in the form of a 20 million Norwegian Kroners for a 6-year NORHED II project. Santa Claus was NORAD through its NORHED program. Our new project was to prepare media practitioners for a resilient media in Eastern Africa. The project’s main beneficiaries include establishing a new MA program in Rwanda (School of Journalism and Communciation, University of Rwanda) and consolidating the MA program but also starting a Phd program in Uganda (School of Journalism, Media and Communication, Uganda Christian University). NLA University Colege with its friends at University of Agder as well as University of KwazuluNatal in South Africa would continue to support the programs through (CO-) research, curriculum development and teaching.

Due to Covid-19 delays, we were unable to start properly until this week. From 7-9th June we recieved at NLA Gimlekollen Campus in Kristiansand, a delegation of 14 personnel from the respective countries including the Vice Chancellor of UCU, the Dean of the SJM, UR, several professors and uncoming scholars from all the respectives institutions. It has been a spendid deliberation around the 5 workpackages and we are good to go. Special thanks to Terje Skjerdal (Norway PI), Monica Chibita (Uganda PI), Margaret Jjuuko (Rwanda PI) and Ruth Teer Tomaselli (South Africa PI). Thank you for putting this together and spearheading this partnership and to each and everyone taking part in making possible.

Work package 1: ‘Improving the quality of Media and Communication education in Uganda and Rwanda and introducing new programmes’.

Work package 2: ‘Enhancing the competence of academic staff’

Work package 3: ‘Improving the gender balance and making the learning environments more inclusive’

Work package 4: ‘Upgrading infrastructure and equipment’  

Work package 5: ‘Strengthened research collaboration‘

In other related news:

UCU Vice Chancellor in Norway for NORHED project launch

Afromedia Network – Linking African Media Research Communities together. Register yourself.

New Open Access book on Health Crises and Media Discourses in Sub-Saharan Africa.

NLA recieves 40Million Kroners for NORHED II projects (in Norsk).

Reflections on our Norhed I project.

Media Viability, Covid-19 and the ‘Darwinian’ experience in Southern Africa

About the Chapter: Dralega, C.A. (2022). Media Viability, Covid-19 and the ‘Darwinian’ Experience in Southern Africa: Glimpses from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In: Dralega, C.A., Napakol, A. (eds) Health Crises and Media Discourses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95100-9_4

Picture credit: Unsplash

Political economy predicates suggest that media viability is about the influence and balance between politics and economics of media systems. It is about survival and control. This logic informs this study, which seeks to gain insights into the impact of Covid-19 on media viability in Southern Africa. For decades, the media industry in Southern Africa, and indeed globally, has been trapped in an existential struggle—experiencing, for instance, the steady demise of traditional business models amidst rapid technological developments and proliferation of digital communication, waning trust in legacy media, and an unconducive political and legislative environment. In this qualitative study, we learn from leading industry experts from eight countries about the wide-ranging impact and paradoxes of the pandemic on the media industry—a phenomenon some have referred to as ‘a Darwinian moment’ or ‘media extinction event’. In this study media-house size and ownership, trustworthiness and ability to fully switch to digital operations were key to survival, as was the need for newsroom and work-form restructuring. The study raises concerns over the Covid-19-exacerbated dangers regarding journalists’ welfare and cautions against the deepening threats to press freedom, the further marginalisation of minority groups and the relegation of the media’s public interest role.

Get access to the full chapter here.

About this book: Health Crises and Media Discourses in Sub-Saharan Africa

Springer Link. Picture credit: Unsplash.

Editors: Carol Azungi Dralega (PhD) and Angella Napakol (PhD)

This is an open-access book that brings together leading scholars and critical discourses on political, economic, legal, technological, socio-cultural, and systemic changes and continuities intersecting media and health crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. The volume extensively discusses COVID-19 but it also covers other epidemics, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS as well as “silent” health crises such as mental health—simmering across the subcontinent. The chapters fill knowledge gaps, highlight innovations, unpack the complexities surrounding the media ecosystem in times of health crises. They explore, among other issues, the politics of public health communication; infodemics; existential threats to media viability; draconian legislations; threats to journalists/journalism; COVID-related entrepreneurship, marginalization, and more. This is a timely resource for academics, advocacy groups, media practitioners, and policymakers working on crises and media reporting, not just in Africa but anywhere in the global South.

Find all 16 chapters, Open Access, here.

‘Pause and smell the roses’ – reflections at 50

Carol Azungi Dralega On Turning 50: “I’m Enough, So Are You!”

As She Turns 50, Carol Azungi Dralega Shares 8 Crucial Life Lessons

Happy World Press Freedom Day Celebrations 2021

Mental health as a safety issue afflicting many Journalists

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Picture credit: UNESCO.

MENTAL health is a serious safety issue afflicting journalists around the world especially in the South and yet it is: Less researched, less reported about and less addressed in many newsrooms.

In many societies, mental health is a taboo something not spoken about. Infact – many newsrooms do not have it on the agenda nor budget. In any case Journalism is percieved as a profession for the tough and Journalists must toughen up.

So, day after day, journalists go out there and must report on: complex, traumatic, difficult and distressing issues – like war, natural disasters, political violence, climate change and human suffering, the pandemic… Many times, they are exposed to the very dangers they are covering – death, disease infection, political persecution, jail, harrasmment and intimidation – the list is endless.

This was one of 12 Flash Talks (2 minutes) held on 28.04.21 and organised by UNESCO conference series on Journalism safety organised by UNESCO in collaboration with the Journalism Safety Research Network.

They do this while worrying about layoffs, low salaries and the looming demise of a troubled industry. They are often burnt out under the now unforgiving and insatiable demands of the 24/7 news cycle. Journalists are not safe from the physical and psycological impact of their work hazards. In fact according to a Reuters report (2020) many suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorders – like depressions, anxiety, fatigue, insomina.

Research is not sufficient and is needed on the: Nature and scope of Mental health in global newsrooms – especially local contexts from the South; Individual challenges and copying mechanisms; how newsrooms are addressing the challenge and perhaps on the impacts of structural and existential challenges and shifts the industry is experiencing.

Multi-stakeholder research, collaboration and dialog – Including but not limited to Industry, civil soceity, academia/Journalism education, and others is vitalto help us understand and more importantly address the mental health issue as it is a serious safety problem.

In the belly of the beast – editors of leading media establishments in Southern Africa discuss the devastation of Covid 19 on the media industry and the implication on it’s viability

On the 13th of April I got the priviledge of facilitating a seminar on the important topic of media viability. This webinar was one of three webinars organized by the Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) on behalf of UNESCO as precursors to the 2021 World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) celebrations in Windhoek on May 03. The webinar(s) were aimed to help SAEF to shape what is to go into another ground-breaking Windhoek +30 Declaration.

As industry experts with long experience in jopurnalism practice, the editors’ insights were timely and impactful.

The webinar on: “The viability of media (in times of covid 19 and dominance of oligopolies) and their role in the production and sharing of information”  was joined by a panel of 8 chapter chairpersons of SAEF and leading journalist associations from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As industry experts with long experience in journalism practice,  their insights around the topic were timely, valuable and insightful.

There was a general acknowledgement in the discussions of the perilous status of the core media ecology before the onset of Covid 19. Already, before the pandemic, the media industry in Southern Africa and indeed globally had been struggling with existential challenges including but not limited to: steadily dwindling income from advertising (as traditional economic models were increasingly becoming obsolete), declining buying audiences, listeners and viewers, dominance of media oligopolies and tech companies such as Facebook and Google that squeezed out many small, private, public interest media outlets and lack of trust and credibility in the traditional media. All this amidst rapid and consequential shifts in digital and online communication/platforms i.e. social media use, citizen journalism etc.

Within this context, the Covid 19 pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for the industry and profession – no wonder some commentators have referred to this moment as ‘a media extinction event’ or ‘ a Darwinian moment’ – reflecting the nature and scope of the devastating impact of Covid on the media and its viability. The webinar discussions helped unpack, with examples from the different countries, some of these existential discourses, highlighting not just the challenges but also opportunities. We wound up the discussion with a call to action and way forward.

SUMMARY OF CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

From the discussion, it was clear no country-media was left untouched by this devastation and the issue of media viability was a great concern.

Covid 19 heightened the already debilitating existential challenges faced by legacy media. From the discussion, it was clear no country-media was left untouched by this devastation and the issue of media viability was a great concern. From the discussions, the biggest challenge to media viability were of an economic nature. At a media outlet level – all panelists reported gross loss of income, closure of several newsrooms – some temporarily and others permanently and several media outlets had to adapt lean and mean structural changes to remain afloat. During the eye of the pandemic (i.e. lock down) several of the media houses assumed a survivalist mode. At a professional/individual level – panelists painted a troubling picture, including: massive laid offs, salary cuts (some up to 100%), canceled annual leaves and so on. Freelancers and photojournalists, often working without contracts and adhoc were the hardest hit and the dire consequences of these developments and their detriment to audiences/citizenship/democracy were aired out. The wellbeing of journalists and their mental health as fundamental to media viability was also discussed as well as the changing roles of journalism education institutions. Several of the panelists shared innovative ways in which the media in their countries (e.g. Southern Africa) and regionally (SAEF) responded to the devastation of Covid including for instance the establishment of relief funds to assist struggling journalists. This kind of help was however dependent on transparency and clear criteria for distribution.

Who were the winners and loosers?

Also, a clear picture emerged of winners and loosers. Print media i.e. Nnewspapers and magazines were clear losers as the print economic model of sustainability (i.e. advertisements and sales-heavy) became unsustainable especially during lock-down. Small, community and private media were also among the losers for same reasons.

About the winners – the loss of paying customers among legacy media reflected in the high migration of audiences to broadcasting media and the proliferation of online media consumption especially of Print versions of legacy media and multinational tech-companies like google and Facebook – which became primary sources of information. On a positive note, the migration to online versions of legacy media meant that people still found these media credible and trustworthy especially at critical times such as during the pandemic. Despite that, our panelists pointed out that, the heavy migration to online channels did not bring with it revenues as people enjoyed free credible information. It is left to these organizations to harness these new audiences, listeners/readers into paying customers and also find innovative ways to sustain these users in the long term (Post-Covid). And as for the international tech-companies like Facebook and Google that consumes majority of adverts –  panelists called for multi-actor dialogue and concrete ways to balance the economic dividends-issue.

Other than the economic variable to media viability, the discussants highlighted other factors such as the political aspect calling attention to legislation and sometimes draconian bills aimed at impeding Freedom of expression and journalists’ fourth estate roles; We also discussed technological issues which include infrastructural-outreach and the digital divide. Media content and information as a public good is also another factor to consider for a viable media – importance of credible, transparent and trustworthy media cannot be underestimated. Lastly, community issues that affect participation of citizens’ engagement in media discourses play an equally important role in media viability.

WAY FORWARD

We wrapped up with a call to action for media viability on short and long term – targeting the broader media ecosystems: Governments, media houses, journalists, corporates, citizens, etc.The viability of the media would require combined efforts including: Economic: identifying creative and innovative models that build on the third revenue stream (as ads and sales are rather ineffective). Political dimensions – proper policies to guide the way forward and those that do not impede on freedom of expression. Technological – the digital migration also highlights challenges of infrastructure deficits and the digital divide that affects majority of rural African populations – these need to be sorted for long term media viability. Content-wise – a credible, trustworthy media that stands on the foundations of verifiable, transparent, public interest, independent and pluralistic principles will stand the test of viability and finally Societal co-creation of media content that incorporates principles of participation and engagement and media literacy were seen as important for media viability. NOTE: Research is needed to assess the true magnitude and nature of the covid pandemic devastation.

Ugandan Police brutality heightens as 2021 election draws closer – journalists as targets and what this means for democracy

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  Ronald Galiwango of NTV encounters Police. Photo credit – The Nile Explorer.

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  Plain clothed Police pepper spray AFP journalist Kasamani who was covering Opposition Candidate. Picture credit – Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda

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  Moses Waiswa reporter with Busoga 1 FM beaten into coma. Picture credit – Andrew Natumanya Twitter – @NinyeTabz.

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  Ashraf Kasirye of Ghetto Media, Opposition candidate Kyagulanyis media outlet was shot in the head. Photo credit. Nile Post.

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  Pat Larubi of BBS Terefayi TV beaten into coma. Photo credit – Northern Uganda Media Club.

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  James Akena of Reuters News Agency endures beatings. Photo credit – Reporters without Frontiers

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  James Akena pleads with Police. Photo credit – Reporters without Borders.

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  Freedom of information and expression under grave threat in Uganda. Photo credit. http://www.dw.com.

"We have been beating journalists to restrain them from going where there is danger. Police beat journalists to help them...for their safety. When a police officer tells you to stop, you must stop for your own safety. I will not apologize for police actions" - Martin Okoth Ochola, Inspector General of Ugandan Police.

This week, on the 14th of January 2021, Ugandans will go to the polls to elect a president and other leaders. As a media and polical observer, two things stand-out this election season. The first, the obvious is, we are experiencing an unprecedented global pandemic whose impact and influences on electoral politics and media coverage is worth noting. The second is the impunity and blatant escalation of abuse of journalists covering elections and especially those covering the opposition candidates.

Arguments that the incumbent President (35 years in power and counting) has weaponized covid-19 to curb dissent and the proliferation of opposition politics is evident for any critical followers of the campaign trails. Police brutal and heavy-handed implementation of Covid 19 standard operation procedures (SOPs) for elections has been unevenly targeted at mainly 2 of the most popular presidential candidates: Kyagulanyi and Amuriat, their followers and any journalists covering their events. The unbalanced harassment and torture of opposition – yes, journalists are percieved as opposition – is blatant when juxtaposed with the incumbents calm, jubilant and closely packed political rallies and journalist freedoms that openly go againsts SOPs.

This electoral season has also seen an escalation in the torture and harrassment of journalists. Several journalists covering opposition candidates rallies have either been murdered, beaten into coma, threatened, blocked from covering events, stalked, their equipment either confiscated or damaged, arrested and jailed, sued. The chilling effect of all this is its impact on democracy. For one, the fear of harrassment leads to the more dangerous information black-out exactly when the fragile nation needs timely, factual and relevant information for them to make vital and informed decisions. Secondly, this harrassment has resulted into an information draught on matters that matter. The resultant skewed media coverage heavily focusing on police violence and less on a differentiated policy coverage of key campagn issues is a de-service to democracy. As such we do not know much about ALL the candidates and what they stand for as the violence against citizens and journalists has overshadowed media coverage. Ponder on this – what recourse do citizens have when denied any avenues to express their grievances? The analaysis on the single female candidate is a matter of another post.

Exactly 1 month ago today the 10th of December 2020, The Media Council instituted a dubious regulation demanding that all journalists covering elections must be re-registerd, for accreditation – merely a few days to election day. The argument was to protect them and fight fake news. But why now? Shouldnt such a regulation go through due legal process first, and in good time? What happens to Citizen journalists? Shouldnt a Ugandan Journalist body or Union be the ones to do this job? Now that the Uganda Journalists Association is defunct, who gatekeeps on journalists behalf? In short, it was a very problematic move. I am glad that the media fraternity have contested this sneak-attack and as of today, I have learnt that, this regulation has been revoked and instead Registered journalists must present identification from their media houses to the Districts of municipalities they cover for approval. How problematic this decision is, is yet to be assessed.

Find related strories across Africa here.

2021Polls-Editors sue media council over accreditation

Committe to Protect Journalists – Police beat, detain journalists covering elections

Google rejects Uganda governments move to block Youtube channels

ACME – Report: Uganda media coverage of election 2021. Focus on October -November 2020 coverage.

Government revokes foreign press pass as elections close in.

Epistemic glimpses into diasporic digital migrant parents’ universe

This article originally appeared in the NORDMEDIA NETWORK as part of the Media Literacy webinar series on the 5.10.2020. It also appeared in the Newsletter on Media and Learning. My gratitute for allowing me to share our exciting research with the network. More details from this research can be obtained here in English, Norwegian, Dari, Arabic and Tigrinya.

Lockdown horrors – Act now to stop the violation of young girls

Edvard Munch’s expressionist painting The Scream (1893) trully captures the horrors metted at young people behind closed doors under LOCKDOWN2020. Picture from Wikimedia CommonsThe extent of the damages from the Covid pandemic on all spheres of society is yet to be ascertained and reckoned with. But some horrors already unravelling could have been prevented, if we had learned lessons from previous similar pandemics.

Even though experts had warned about the increased levels of human rights violations under lockdown, especially within households, it was nevertheless horrific to read in the Daily Monitor article that:

‘2,300 school girls conceive, 128 married off during lockdown’.

And these were just reports from 5 of the 134 districts of Uganda. Not only are the numbers mind boggling, given the short timeframes of the Covid-lockdown, it also seems like the lockdown signified and okayed the breakdown of both the legal and social fabric of our society – in this case with regards to the violation of the vulnerable, especially women and children.

From a leadership point of view, it seems like we have learnt nothing from previous pandemics. It is a well documented fact that crises often provide a fertile ground for criminal activity to flourish, including within homes. Experiences from the 2014-16 Ebola health crisis in Western African countries are a good example. During that pandemic, local communities witnessed a drastic rise in the abuse of children and minors – crimes included: defilement, teenage pregnancies and early marriage. In Sierra Leone, for instance, teenage pregnancies are recorded to have doubled to 14,000 from prior to the outbreak. And this information is on our finger tips, just a click away.

Lessons from Ebola, HIV/Aids and other crises in Africa should have prepared us with the understanding that in times like these, women and girls especially from poor or rural communities are most vulnerable. We also know that several of the factors and cultural practices (for instance cultures that encourage child marriages) worsen during emergency situations like the kavuyo we are seeing during Covid. In such situations, families and community structures and infrastructures breakdown considerably while the focus is usually directed at the meta-level on the more existential issues of survival, again leaving criminals unimpeded.

During such times many factors contribute to the rise in such violations. Economic factors are first on the list of contributing factors. As we have learnt, during previous and current pandemics, a majority of families lose their main source of income –  forcing parents to marry off their young daughters (enabling cultural factors) with hopes to reduce mouths to feed and perhaps gain some resources.

Closure of schools due to the lockdown not only leaves the vulnerable young people in danger and in fear of violence, it takes away their escape spaces and access to counselling opportunities. As we know, in our mostly patriarchal societies, the weight of care disproportionately rests on women and girls, not only making them most susceptible to infection, but also makes them easily accessible targets of abuse.

The short term consequences manifest in the dropout from school, child-birth complications (Fistula) and others as mentioned in the Monitor article. Long term consequences may range from lifelong psychological trauma, difficulty in returning to school, a lost generation of female development partners, leaders and decision makers.

It is quite understandable that as the pandemic rages and governments, often strapped for funds and organisational skill, relegate grassroots, marginal communities and groups as well as their issues. But we have to remember that the consequence of such relegation not only promotes a breakdown of social networks and structures that may be difficult to repair, the long term consequences are something we should be concerned about and also act upon urgently.

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS ON PANDEMICS AND THE MEDIA IN AFRICA

BOOK TITLE: UNDERSTANDING HEALTH CRISES AND THEIR INPRINT ON JOURNALISM AND MEDIA DISCOURSES IN AFRICA

When the COVID-19 broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the close of 2019, no

Editor: Carol A. Dralega (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, NLA University, Norway where she teaches on the Global Journalism Program. Carol holds a PhD from the Media Studies Institute, University of Oslo. Email. carol.dralega@nla.no

oneimagined its rapid global spread and devastating impact – especially on the African media ecology. By the end of June, there were over 10 million confirmed global cases and over 500,000 confirmed deaths in 215 countries (WHO Situation Report July 2020). Declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020, countries around the world embarked on public health measures to curb the spread. Lock-downs of different proportions and motives have been instituted in most countries and with numerous consequences.

Media and public (health and crisis) communication has been at the core of the fight against COVID-19 underscoring its role in providing quick, accurate and preventive information to combat fear, restore calm and order and save lives by causing adherence to recommended behaviour change in critical times of crisis. But the implication goes far beyond the need for timely information. Reporters without Border (Tracker 19) and UNESCO recently highlighted the new dangers journalists and media face during COVID-19 including: misinformation, draconian bills/legislation, harassment/intimidation, arrests and jail, withheld advertising, murder of journalists, among others.

Editor: Dr. Angella Napakol (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Communication Department at Uganda Christian University. Angella holds a PhD from Center for Communication, Culture and Media Studies, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa. Email. anapakol@ucu.ac.ug

While, Media discourses around health crises may reflect a global scope, such discourses in Africa constitute unique features, struggles, histories and challenges and ultimately strategies specific to the continent and also country specific. This collection of empirical research explores not just the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic but also takes a broad approach to understanding discourses around health and crisis communication on the continent of Africa. The interest is to harness reflected continental media discourses surrounding political, social, economic, technological, religious, gendered and cultural and systemic developments around health crises including but not limited to HIV/AIDS communication, Malaria, Ebola virus pandemic, COVID-19.

Within this context, this book aims to offer novel insights into media discourses around health and crisis communication on the African continent through rigorous and critical empirical and theoretical engagement.  The chapters’ expected focus is on 4 interrelated themes: a) Impact on Journalism Professional Practice, b) Media content/discourse, c) Audience studies and d) Diasporic discourses, pandemic and health communication.

Themes include but are not limited to:

Was she pushed or did she jump? Understanding the leaking pipeline among female journalists

Why is it that journalism classrooms are beaming with female students but as they step out of the classroom and into the newsroom or boardrooms, their numbers begin to drastically dwindle? This dwindle usually correlates with age, longevity in the practice and vertical ascension onto the higher echelons of the profession. Do they leave of their own volition or are they pushed out?

This picture is from The Global Media Monitoring Project that offers a bounty of status quo and developments around the world. Find out how your country is doing in 2020.

As a former journalist (with a bounty of toxic experiences) and now, a journalism scholar I am ever curious to hear women and men’s understanding of this dillema. Are the mechanisms of disenfranchisement stable especially with the digital turn within the media ecology or are they changing? Are women making large strides towards equality, acceptance and respect or is it the same old story?

That Journalism has been considered a male profession is well documented. The point of departure here is the argument that the profession as well as the societies they serve are richer with an equal representation not only with content matters but also in the employment practices and patterns.

It is understood that journalism plays a crucial role in informing, representing and mirroring soceity. The role of media and journalism as the ‘fourth estate’ is heavily anchored in its mandate as a powerful social change agent, for its watch-dog functionality and being the voice for the voiceless. The argument followsthat, in any society, both women and men contribute to their societal development and by the same token, both should be equally represented in all mechanisms of its operation.  And here-in lies a nuance, women and men are often affected differently by any given discourse – making diveristy of voice both necesary and detrimental.

Thus, for pertinent societal issues to be articulated accurately, there is need for a balanced representation not just on matters of the content but also among the framers and agenda-setters.  For instance, the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) that audits, every 5 years, the gender situation in the media industry, has time and time again proven that stories covered by female journalists are more gender balanced and challenge unequal statusquo as they make sure to include female sources and perspectives as opposed to their male counterparts.

So, back to the leaking pipeline dilema. Both from experience and research: sexism, gender stereotyping, mysogyny, minority status, poor support structures, resistance to change, lack of safety, hegemony of patriarchy, sexual harrassment, hegemonic femininity, symbolic annihilation and the triple roles of women are just a few of the culprits that individually or collectively explain the leaking pipeline.

In other words, when PUSHED into a corner often due to the convergences of the above challenges – with no support structures, no visible or accessible role models or change in sight – many women then choose to JUMP – leaving in their wake, continuities and a vicious circle that is detrimental to the profession and humanity.

Related articles and resources

Breaking the silence – women journalists fight harassment in the worldplace.

The threats follow us home – Survey details risks for female journalists in Canada and US.

Safety kit for female journalists.

 

 

International Students share experiences from Covid-19 crisis

In better times before Covid-19. Students share a light moment. Picture by Ani.

Two of my MA exchange students are guest bloggers in this post. (Tiko Georgia) and Ani (Armenia) share their experiences of Covid-19. Tiko’s blog takes us through her tumultuous journey when Covid-19 had just broken out. Hers illustrates among other things, the fear, uncertainty and disruptive nature of crises of global propotions – but ultimately reminding us that at the end of the day, all will be well. We will come out of the darkness.

Covid–19 Pandemic: My Unexpected Ticket Home

By Tiko Zurabishvili, Student, MA Global Journalism (Georgia)

Studying in Norway was an adventure from the beginning to the very abrupt end. After spending 2 months in cozy and rainy Kristiansand, I flew to Riga –the capital of Latvia known for its architectural marvels, where workshops for budding journalists took place. It was supposed to be a short trip, and I packed rather lightly. Lidya, my dear friend and a groupmate from Ethiopia, accompanied me to the bus stop, from where I would ride to the airport. “I’ll see you in a week,” –I told her. None of us had the slightest idea that I wouldn’t be returning to Norway.The week I spent in Latvia was exhilarating: I was in a good company of young colleagues, the weather was sunny, and all bars and restaurants open.However, I was slightly distressed by the current news updating the worldwide cases of Covid–19 in a superspeed manner. “It can’t be too serious;peoplejustlove drama. We need to be slightly more careful than usual, that’s all,”–I naively said to myself. A day before my departure from Riga,I received an email from my Norwegian coordinator.

The situation was intense, and educational facilities were closing down. NLA University College, where I am enrolled this semester, was urging international students to go back to their home countries if possible. I wasin a dilemma that needed an immediate solution. Instinctively checking my flight online, I found out that Denmark had recently been closed. Guess what? I was supposed to return to Kristiansand through Copenhagen. All in all, I had to switch my tickets to Tbilisi, Georgia –the way home.Never before had I been so uncertain about my future. I was flying to a place where I was born and raised, where a loving family and a bunch of loyal friends awaited me. It had to give me some comfort, some sense of security… However, I was overwhelmed. “What if I contracted the virus at the airport or on a plane? Would I infect my loved ones? And what about my studies? How will I finish this semester?” –the questions in my mind seemed to have no end.Back home, I spent thefirst 2 weeks in self–isolation. People I missed were so close, yet I wasn’t able to see them for their own safety. It felt surreal.

Fortunately, I was able to continue my studies online, which greatly helped me draw my attention away from my anxieties.

Although I didn’t have much expectations regarding distance learning, it turned out to be surprisingly productive.Now,over a month since my return, I’m no longer isolated, but still spend most of my time home. Apart from studying, I take time to improve my writing and video editing skills. In addition, I started painting again –something I thought was left in my very early childhood. While still uncertain about what’s next, I feel less nervous. After all, we’re all in this together –the whole world. The current reality might not be convenient, but the pandemic cannot last forever. We need to adapt to temporary changes for the sake oftheeventual restoration of our normal, social, affable lives.

Picture by Ani with her classmates in Kristiansand.

In her blog “Life in Quarantime’,  Ani uses beautiful pictures to contemplate the good and the bad experiences of life under quarantine. Be careful about the dangers of wishful thinking – especially as a student. Her refreshing blog  does more – it is as uplifting as it is a reminder to all of us the importance of friendship, love, patience and the power of quite reflection especially during such crisis (lockdown) times as this one.

Thanks for sharing.

Carol

 

Reporting while female – What Bedoya’s World Press Freedom (Guillermo) Prize means for plurality of voices in the media

“Pay attention…We are sending a message to the press in Colombia.” The millitants while they raped her.

Ms Lima (center) with Michelle Obama (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) during the International Women of Courage Awards in 2012.

Jineth Bedoya Lima a female Colombian journalist is the 10th female and 24th laureate of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Day Prize for 2020 – and we dont take this lightly. Her resume epitomizes the constant struggle and threat lurking in (especially to female) journalists every-day work life.

You see, Ms Lima (1974) who covers armed conflict and sexual violence against women has first hand experience of this threat. She has been a victim of millitary abduction, torture and rape on two separate occassions while she worked with El Espectador and La Modelo newspapers respectively. The first was on one fateful day in 2000, while covering an arms trafficking case for the El Espectador daily newspaper, she was abducted, tortured and sexually assaulted… and dumped by the trash to be found by a taxi…

In court, this case was dragged along for over a decade and it was not until she appealed at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights that one commandor confessed to being one of her three abductors.

Ms Lima’s prize is timely, uplifting and significant in many ways – surfice to mention just two:

First, the safety of journalists especially female journalists off and online is increasingly worrisome. On a day to day basis, (female) journalists face death threats, sexual harassment, intimidation, jail and rape (the later, as in Ms Lima’s case is often used as a political tool). Many of such cases are not reported due to powerful cultural taboos,  professional stigmas and well as poor economic stature for many journalists.

Secondly, Impunity for Human Rights crimes against journalists due to non-existant or toothless legislation is also cause for worry. The UNESCO report below indicates not only is there a rise in the murder of journalists in the line of duty, 90% of attackers have not been convicted. The Reporters without Borders and UNESCO also warm of the rising threats to journalists during covid-19.

The psychological consequences of the threats to journalists coupled with impunity for perpetuators poses the danger a) for many (female) reporters – often, traumatized and without proper support structures resort to self-censorship and retreat from the public sphere and from their work thus b) effectively silencing their voices and diversity. Silencing journalists endangers plurality of voice, democracy and society.

Lima’s Prize is not just a celebration of journalists’ courage and tenacity. It also is a loud and clear reminder that women are strong, survivors and vital for the profession and for democracy but more importantly, their safety, along with all journalists must be protected especially during these ‘infodemic’ times.

Promote safety of (female) Journalists:

• Through supportive newsroom practices, cultures and support structures to promote acceptance, support, accurate information (not stereotypes)
• Provide digital safety to (female) journalists
• Helpline for (female) journalists caught up in line of duty and post-traumatic events
• Advocacy – to raise awareness, combat impunity, institution of legislations (with teeth)
• Research and expose abuse of human rights

Happy World Press Freedom Day (May 3) celebrations.

Sources

Violence against female Journalists

UNESCO survey on violence against female reporters

UNESCO Report on the Intensifiction of murder of Journalists

Also, Where does your country lie on the World Press Freedom Index?

Celebrating World Press Freedom day 2020 amidst covid-19 and new threats to journalists and the media

Today is World Press Freedom day. The day we celebrate “the fundamental principles of press freedom, evaluate press freedom around the world, defend the media from attacks on their independence, and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession”. Exactly one year ago I was at the African Union headquarters in Addis volunteering as a mentor and editor to the global Youth Newsroom that covered the events of the World Press Freedom day. Then, the media coverge lamented the poor state of Press freedom across the world. From arbitrary arrests of journalist, to press censorship, draconian laws, harrassment and intimidations of journalists to the murder of journalists in line of duty. At that time, Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were rotting away in prison only to be released after they won the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in Adiss. We disparsed on an optimistic note – with the hope that the situation would improve.

One of many ‘Cartoonist for Peace’ exhibits at the WPF celebrations 2019 in Addis.

2020 however, has turned out to be a year of unprecedented crisis. Covid-19 has caused havoc of such propotions we are yet to properly make sense of. But one area of impact is journalism and journalist work. It is precisely because of the pandemic that today’s F2F WPF day celebrations have been postponed from May 3 to October 18-20 in the Hague. But the pandemic is to blame for unleashing a more sinister wave of human rights abuses against journalists across the globe.

From censorship (USA, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, India) to deliberate disinformation (China), to banning reporters (Tanzania), to arrests and imprisonment (Iran; Azerbaijan, IraqiKurdistan; Jordan; Zimbabwe ) to violence against reporters (Bangladesh, Ukraine); to imposition of new draconian and dubious bills/laws (like in Algeria), to suspension of printing (Liberia). The growing list goes on and on. And this is not to include the ecomonic repurcussions to an already finacially debilitated industry among other areas.

So today, as we celebrate the strides we have made, lets keep up pressure and vigilance to create conducive environements for journalists to report without ‘FEAR OR FAVOUR’ – a slogan highlighting this year’s UNESCO WPF theme.

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  Young people take pictures.

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  Working on a story with a Journalism student

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  Over 2000 delegates were in attendence.

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  Jonathan Munro, BBC

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  Some of the mentors/editors

This year’s WPF slogan and some pictures from last year’s WPF events in Addis.

 

Sources

Reporters without Boarders (Tracker 19)

UNESCO REPORT

 

Covid-19 and the ‘abrupt’ turn to online teaching and learning

A ZOOM screen-shot during one of the lectures.

The menacing dread and uncertainty surrounding the national enforcement of ‘lockdown’ and social distancing regulation due to Covid-19 is dwindling now. About six weeks ago, the mood was different – gloom, trepidation, concern enveloped our lives as we read and watched the unbelivable rise in Covid-19 casualties – first far away in China, then Italy, Spain and gradually closing in on us. Suddenly, it was no longer danger lurking far, far away. Norway, WE, were on the global danger list.

This reality was driven home when Universities, schools and kindergatens closed (as most institutions) – home not only became the arena for survival (including surviving each other over long time periods in close proximity, hehe!), work, school and child-care tasks shifted and were to be performed at home.

As a University teacher, the virtual turn to online teaching/learning was unsurprising. However, although we engaged in online pedagogies prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, this was only to a lesser extent as F2F pedagogies were still the norm. Quick action in prepping teachers and readying the technical logistics was vital for my case. Lucky for me I had undertaken online teaching courses earlier and am rejuvinating this knowledge through teaching/coordinating it.

So, it then came to pass. With some hiccups, disasters and many triumphs, mostly because of an abundance of patience from my brilliant and enthusiastic students, I have completed one round of online ‘MA Course’ teaching. ZOOM and Canvas has been our friend. I learnt to hold live lectures with various activities and tasks for student engagement – including chat-rooms, breakout rooms, screen shares and synchronous discussions during the lecture. I also learnt to record some lectures for flexibility and asynchronous consumption (but oh, how I loothe the sound of my voice!). Generating and moderating debate/discussion which were given sufficient time as well as quizzes and reflections were also a favourite for many of my students. All this, in a planned paced learning trajectory anchored in and towards the course’s learning outcomes.

With online pedagogies students take an even more central role in their own learning. Social constructivist approaches sustained by a combination of self-learning, experiential learning, peer-reviews, collaborative pedagogies and progressive self-reflection do actually foster active and life-long learning. But while desirable, online pedagogies do take time to construct, implement and sustain. Covid-19 is definately disruptive in the sense that our new normal – in a post-covid world – will include a further shift towards elearning/eteaching pedagogies. The time is rife for institutions of higher learning to put in order the multi-dimensional building blocks for implementing successfull virtual learning (and the role of technologies, multi-stakeholder dialog and research cannot be under-rated).

Using cartoons to maximize research impact on video game regulation in immigrant-family contexts

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  From the series: ‘Masters and Disasters in video game regulation’

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The parents, who are the main target group here, are non-western immigrants in Norway. Our research spanning 3 years had gained us insights into video game habits among the youth in these families highlighting complex issues intersecting Identity, Integration, Religious discourse, Gender, Location, Place and space, Ethnicity and more.

On the other hand, the study unravelled the challenges and tensions surrounding video game regulation. While a few managed to regulate this ‘new’ time and money consuming past-time activity, most felt stressed out not knowing how to go about it. As digital migrant parents raising digital native kids pertaking in this global gaming culture, these parents didn’t have the frame of reference to fall back to nor social networks to lean on.

The parents came from diverse backgrounds and had different capacities, needs and challenges: from illiteracy and semi-literacy, to lack of proficiency in Norwegian, to stressed-out and over worked parents who had no time to peruse ‘through complex texts’, to lack of interest and information on the basics ( like pros and cons) of video games and why these are so popular today.

With this understanding, we went to work, harvesting all these insights which have ended in various ‘user-friendly’ resources for parents in 5 Languages. English version:

Cartoons: ‘Navigating video game regulations in immigrant family contexts’

An infographic booklet: ‘When video games Challenge Family life!’

Video: ‘Video games – Youth speak out’

Brochures: ‘Setting age limits’ and ‘Tips and advice to parents’

For more information and other languages visit the Project website.

A big thank you to the Norwegian Media Authority and Competence Center for Gaming Research, University of Bergen for funding the Project, my fellow researchers; Håkon Repstad (MA), Hilde Corneliussen (PhD) and Gilda Seddighi (PhD) and our partners from the Civil Society Organisations MiR, VI, Spillavhengighet Norge and especially NOMKUS for the amazing work in developing, testing and translating into various Languages. And of course last but not least the parents and youth who took part. I am certainly not forgetting John Cei Douglas for the cool illustrations 🙂 It was a fun process developing these.

Do leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

Elections in Norway, the ‘crisis’ of public disengagement and micro-targeting of voters

Monday 9th September is local election day in Norway. In just one week leading to the D-day, I recieved two reminders to the fact. One of these was a text message and the other, a ‘micro-targeted’ letter posted to me as a voter with an ‘immigrant background’.
This letter, signed by the director of the Electoral directorate, partly states:

Excerps from the letter I recieved from the Electoral Directorate.

Loosely translated, the excerp interpretes as: “Participation among voters with immigrant background is increasing. Contribute to setting a new record. The elections in 2015 had an increase in voters with immigrant background – represented by 40% of the voters. Contribute to a larger participation by voting this year”

You see, research into this public (dis)engagement in formal politics tells us that over the last 50 years, voter turn out has steadily declined to ‘crisis’ levels. In fact, a recent book (2019) by Aeron Davis, on Public Communication – a new introduction on crisis times; two main explainations surfice for this citizen disengagement: a) It is the individual’s fault and Cultural factors that are to blame or/and b) public institutions to fault.

In the West, the argument goes, where material wealth is high, ‘individualistic’ citizens have lost the motivation and drive to bother with formal politics. They are either too lazy, too distracted and therefore unqualified to deal with the complexitities of governance and have to leave it to politicians and experts – the hope is that through periodic elections and perhaps Critical journalism, they will be kept in check and accountable. The Alternative argument is that disengagement is faulted on political institutions that have failed to configure participatory governance. Instead leaders are hiding behind the tall walls of ‘citizen-unfriendly’ governance, aloof and distanced from their electorate. So what is it?

Ch7 dwells on the individual and Cultural factors  ‘Liberal’ and Institutional  ‘Republic’ arguments for Public disengagement.

There are emerging critcal voices that suggest that Citizens, especially young people, are actually interested in politics but choose not to engage in ‘traditional’ forms of formal politics like voting or joining political parties. This is because they have lost faith in these institutions. Instead, they are engaging through alternative channels mainly fostered through digital and online means – suggesting a need for new paradigms for understanding these shifts in civic engagement.

The lose of faith in formal politics is a matter also afflicting marginalised communities such as ethnic minorities like myself with immigrant background; the poor; less educated; women; religious minorities who according to research, unincentivised, feel that their voices do not matter.

So, this letter that I recieved, encouraging me to exercise my fundamental right to choose who I want as a representative and have a voice on matters that concern my community, was not only surpring but a welcome disruption to notions of civic disengagement and the hegemony of marginality in the politics of participation.

So come, Monday, I am gonna walk tall and bring this freedom to life!

Check out how your country is faring with civic (dis)engagement over the years in this voter turnout database.

Wheels in motion – with ambitious SDG17 proposition

Joining hands to achieve global equality. Internet Picture.

Last week, 55 senior researchers and actors from 20 countries from global North and South came together to deliver a most ambitious proposal to the EU COST ACTION Program. If awarded, the project will boost SDG17 through system thinking. It is an inter-disciplinary network initiative bringing together a multi-stakeholder partnership lead by Professor Arnaud Diemer from the University of Clermont Auvergner, France. Sustainable Development Goal 17 on partnerships for goals is arguably the thread that binds all the Goals and if well formed can lead to an amazing thrust in achieving the SDGs. Many thanks to Prof. Valeria Schwanitz from HVL for inviting me into this consortium. Looking forward to serve and learn – to give and to take 🙂

Mentoring young journalists covering the UNESCO WPFD 2019 events in Addis Ababa

The Youth Times team that covered the UNESCO WPFD 2019 events in Addis May 1-3 pose for a picture with Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering, BBC (Center with blue shirt) after a Q&A at UNECA. This feature originally appeared on http://www.youthtimes.info.

IT had been almost 2 decades since I worked in the busy newsroom of Uganda’s leading daily, the New Vision Corporation. That was way back in 2000, before I went for further studies in Norway and changed my professional life trajectory. So, when, this March, I was asked by my collegeue, also an academic, to join UNESCO organised World Press Freedom Day celebrtions in Addis Ababa as an academic mentor, I was justifiably nervous and apprehensive.

Memories of a heated, noisy and open newsroom, bustling with news producers:editors, reporters, photojournalists, freelancers, visitors and complainants came streaming. The long days and late nights often punctuated with urgent calls in the wee hours of the night to get back to the newsroom to cover breaking news, gave me the shivers.

It was a restless job, where one’s ears were always on the ground, where whatever you ate, drank, saw, felt or even dreamt had to have a journalistic interpretation. Nosy, was our middle name. As a journalist working for the leading daily, the ever-present understanding was that: It was easier to get to the top but very hard to stay there – as all the others worked knuckle-hard towards beating (and embarassing) us with: news scoops, interesting angles and better sales.

But that was not the worst of my fears. Back in 2000 when I was a sub-editor on the New Vision, Sports desk, we were at the dawn of the technological disruptions – Infact, on our desk lead by Louis Jadwong, were pioneers in the transition from analog to digital. Several intermediary jobs such as typesetters, proofreaders, etc were on their way out. Media convergence and multimedia platforms were budding to what today is a well established conglomerate (New Vision employs thousands in it’s roughly: 7 newspapers, 5 radio stations, 4 TV stations and several (e) magazines and other services).

Anyway, soon my apprehension to join the Addis Youth Newsroom, was slowly replaced with a strange sense of excitement and adventure – and a promise of a fast-paced, adrenalin pumped existence swept over me. But mostly, I looked forward to working in a multicultural newsroom, with different collaborators such as academics, young practicing journalists, students etc. I also looked forward to learning from and mentoring the young people in this era of technologically infused journalism.

From the offset, I understood from the UNESCO coordinators especially Soraide Rosario, that it was desirable to foster inclusive, transparent and effective processes around the Youth Newsroom. The aim was to open spaces and opportunities for young journalism students and practitioners to experience a ‘global newsroom’. as well as gain access, insights and practice in covering mainstream issues around press freedom while highlighting minority, thematic and national level  concerns, nuances and perspectives from around the world.

Participants included; govenrment representatives, journalists, academics, students, advocacy groups, legislators, judiciary members, religious organizations, civil soceity organisations and more. We were all here to celebrate and remind ourselves about the fundamental principles of Freedom of the Press; assess the status of Freedom of the Press around the world; defend press freedom and honour and pay tribute to Journalists who have been killed, arrested and abused for doing their work. Thanks to the Ethiopian government, UNESCO and African Union for the support, about 2000 particiants graced the conference whose theme was: Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections in Times of Disinformation”.

So, allocating and editing the young journalists’ stories offered me a broad range of insights: thematicall from: the role of cartoonists play in promoting peace and democracy, to understanding the pros and consequences of critical journalism – also manifested by the story of the jailed winners of the UNESCO Guilermo Award. I also gained insights into some of the dangers of disinformation as well as the double victimhood that female journalists face as well as the worrisom problem of impunity of several actors and governments who continue to abuse journalists’ fundamental human rights – rights ascribed by Article 19 of the universal declarations. Just as an example, on the very day of the WPFD, Ugandan regulator Uganda Communications Commission orderd the suspension of editors of broadcasters for their critical coverage of a budding opposition leader.

The lessons are inexhaustable.

Practically, i was humbled by the brave, pleasant, eager, driven and hard-working young journalists and the fact that I was honoured to work with them. Culturally, i witnessed the importance of being flexible to contextual influences and practices especially pertaining to culture – when working in multicultural contexts. Lucky for me, my colleages were some of the best people, one could work with: relaxed, friendly, professional and inclusive.

A few tips for prospective students and mentors:

For young journalists/students:

• Embrace and exploit the opportunity
• Put the theory into practice
• Be (pro)active and creative in your pursuit of fair, balanced and inclusive stories.
• Ask the tough and critical questions when newsgathering.
• Do your homework/reasearch to support your articles. Verify for accuracy, fairness and balance especially in this era of disinformation.
• Build networks (of friends and future sources).
• Prepare to adapt to and reflect multicultural influences, backgrounds and contexts.
• Enjoy the experience!

For the prospective mentors/editors:

• Prepare for multicultural influences and experiences: Prepare to adapt to and work with different cultures and for multicultural influences and backgrounds both from the teams and content.
• Start early: Endevour to work with the team to start early – especially orientations to the location, platform orientation and job specifications.
• Clear communication: It helps to have an overview, clarity in assigning duties and constant communication not just with teammates but also reporters.
• Enjoy the experience: this is not a knuckle-hard newsroom, so do your best, inspire the youth, help them produce their ‘best works’, pat them on the back with each delivery, attend some of the events, network, be you – but mostly, enjoy the event and contribute to a thriving atmosphere.

Many thanks to UNESCO, UAA and NLA Univerity College and all partners for this positive experience.