School of Journalism, Media and Communication

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11951/249

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Men and maternal health: The dilemma of shortlived male involvement strategies in Uganda
(Routledge (Taylor and Francis), 2018) Mwije, Solomon
This article has been written to call for further attention to the importance of involving males in efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Since the 1995 International Conference on Population and Development [ICPD], institutional and community arrangements have been implemented in developing countries to engage males in maternal and child health promotions. The government of Uganda – in partnership with other health promotion institutions such as the United Nations agencies – has in the past decade formulated and implemented national and local strategies for male involvement in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Nevertheless, strategies are such as Male Action Groups (MAGs) have been short-lived because the strategies within cannot by themselves work without ‘genuine’ acceptance at community levels where implementation takes place. Even acceptance alone is also not enough. Majority of males have more interest in economic than social endeavors. They have less interest to engage in maternal health promotion initiatives. Cultural based perceptions and behaviors associated with patriarchal tendencies remain the greatest challenge. Therefore, relevancy, functionality, adaptability, and sustainability in relation to the effectiveness of male involvement initiatives must be assessed before these interventions are initiated in such culturally diverse communities with different informal institutional arrangements. The individual, interpersonal and institutional contexts in which interventions operate matters. The article identifies relevant stakeholders and suggests, though not discussed in detail, strategies for improving stakeholders’ interests to respond to male involvement as a core issue in maternal health.
Frontline Farmers, Backline Sources: Women as a tertiary voice in climate change coverage
(Routledge (Taylor and Francis), 2015) Semujju, Brian
Gender meaning construction and interpretation, which suggest women’s inferiority to men, is deeply rooted in social-cultural signs and codes drawn from traditional contexts. In Uganda, girls start to face this reality at an early age. Among low income earning families, very few are enrolled in school, thus as they grow up they suffer from invisibility created by low education and income levels. This paper notes how such gender realities in the media have been investigated in other parts of the world and that the general thesis has been that the media have “marginalized women in the public sphere.” Turning to the position of women as both sources and reporters, in Uganda this area of inquiry has been given little scholarly attention. To fill that gap, this essay draws upon feminist media theory to help contextualize findings obtained through content analysis (N=671) data drawn from two Ugandan newspapers. Using climate change as a coverage issue, since 56percent of women in Uganda are farmers, the results of this study show that the gender gap in Uganda is highly pronounced, with women as sources ranked third in importance after men and anonymous sources.
Covering Migration—in Africa and Europe: Results from a Comparative Analysis of 11 Countries
(Routledge (Taylor and Francis), 2020-07-20) Fengler, Susanne; Bastian, Mariella; Brinkmann, Janis; Zappe, Anna Carina; Tatah, Veye; Andindilile, Michael; Assefa, Emrakeb; Chibita, Monica B.; Mbaine, Adolf; Obonyo, Levi; Quashigah, Timothy; Skleparis, Dimitris; Splendore, Sergio; Tadesse, Mathewos; Lengauer, Monika
While the issue of migration has heavily impacted on public debates in the Global North, much less is known about coverage of migration in the Global South. This pilot study sets out to dewesternize the discussion, by analyzing and comparing news coverage in migrants’ destination countries and countries of origin. The study’s focus is on media coverage of migration from Africa towards Europe. The paper builds upon prior studies on the coverage of migrants and refugees. A consortium of African and European researchers has conducted a comparative content analysis of migration coverage in 22 opinion-leading newspapers in six European and five sub-Sahara African countries. The study has retrieved 1,512 articles which have appeared in 2015/16. The topic was much less salient in African countries, with only 175 articles found in the African news outlets under study. Coveragein the European destination countries was dominated by domestic issues like border security and migration policy, but also paid attention to the actual migrants—who received much less coverage in the sending countries. Coverage of migration in African media was more negative and focused on disasters at sea. Both African and European media ignored the causes of migration
Local Governments and Primary Education in Uganda
(Institute of Development Studies, 2017-03) Maractho, Emilly Comfort
Decentralisation was one of the major reforms in the 1990s in Uganda, geared towards improving democratic governance and service delivery. However, districts have had variable performance, especially in providing primary education through public schools. In this article, I ask what explains the difference in local governments’ performance across two districts that were given similar powers and share a similar history. I explore this through in-depth interviews in the two districts and find that llocal governments are severely constrained in their performance by a lack of funds, which, along with development priorities, are controlled by the central government. Within this scenario, variable performance is explained to a great extent by the presence of donors and investments by the private sector, but that these funds are attracted to areas where greater capacity exists. While this improves education performance, it can contribute to growing inequality in educational attainment across districts.
(Re)producing cultural narratives on women in public affairs programmes in Uganda
(Journal of African Media Studies, 2019) Maractho, Emilly Comfort
Ugandan women have made tremendous strides in public life, and hold strategic positions in politics and policy-making. This increased participation in public life is attributed to Uganda’s focused pro-women constitution and affirmative action policy. In spite of this progress, women’s visibility and voice remain limited in public affairs programming in Uganda. The article examines how mass media reproduce cultural narratives that affect women in Uganda. It is part of a larger study on representation, interaction and engagement of women and broadcast media in Uganda. It is framed within critical theory, in particular feminist thought, cultural studies and public sphere theory. The research is conducted using a multi-method approach that encompasses case study design, content analysis and grounded theory. The findings suggest that the media reproduce cultural narratives through programming that mirror traditional society view of women and exclude women’s political and public narratives. The interactive and participatory public affairs programming is increasingly important for democratic participation. While men actively engage with such programming, women have failed to utilize it for the mobilization of women, reconstruction of gender stereotypes and producing new argumentation that challenge problematic cultural narratives that dominate media and society.

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