Pro Viewpoints
Media Business in Uganda: A Case Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rehemah Nabbuye
Mass media in Uganda includes print, television, radio and online sectors, and coverage is split between both state-run outlets and privately held outlets as well as English-language outlets and Luganda-language outlets. The Uganda communication commission launched access to digital TV, users purchase digital TV recoders from licenced firms. Radio has also dominated by the state owned Radio Uganda up until the early 1990s when the first independent radio stations got licenses to operate. Radio is now embracing new kind of media and integrating with other communication channels. Radio stations in Uganda integrate mobile technology in their programming to increase on audience engagement. Currently about 5 million television are used. There are several digital channels viewed in Uganda including international news, music and film channels. By covering news, politics, weather, sports, entertainment, and vital events, the daily media shape the dominant cultural. Beyond the media networks, independent news sources have evolved to report in events which escape attention or underline the major stories. The internet as a media platform in Uganda is still quite new. Internet penetration levels are still very low when compared to other African countries. The recent Indian ocean fiber optic cable project brought a lot of optimism and lead to an increased interest in the internet as a media platform. It has led to investment with a number of local telecommunication companies investing into broadband and GPRS subscription services. The Uganda communication commission put mobile internet subscriptions at 4,196,133 compared to 106,900 fixed internet subscription.
Selling Democracy by Phonograph: Early Communication Technology and the Rise of the Mass Media Presidency
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Susan Spellman, John Forren
Do corporate interests participate in American elections in pursuit of profits? Undoubtedly so – but the profit-driven selling of candidates and issue positions by “big business” is hardly a new thing in American politics. Indeed, as far back as 1900, “big media” firms – most notably, Thomas Edison’s National Phonograph Company, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and the Columbia Phonograph Company – were already leveraging technological advances in mass communication to derive profits from American political campaigning. Foreshadowing the rise of for-profit American political broadcasting by several decades, phonograph companies generated enormous profits by selling wax cylinders featuring presidential candidates’ speeches. Intended to “multiply the candidate,” as one Edison advertisement claimed, these ready-to-play “canned speeches” featuring the voices of William Jennings Bryan, William Howard Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt transformed campaign tactics by allowing contenders to “speak” directly to individual voters through a machine. Edison boasted of selling upwards of 600,000 of Bryan’s recordings alone, making clear both the democratic potential and financial profitability of broadcasting candidates’ messages through mass media. Drawing on letters, advertisements, newspaper articles, and other period sources, this paper explores the rise and development of phonographic mass political communication in early twentieth-century America and how it both shaped electoral politics and foreshadowed current political communications companies. More broadly, the paper examines the ethical dilemmas posed by these technological innovations, questioning whether American corporations should play a direct role in American elections or if candidates themselves should derive profits from their campaigning.
Journalistic Practices in Times of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Comparative Study between Chile and Colombia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Francisca Greene
The objective of this research is to study the transformations in the way of working and in the journalistic routines in the main digital media in Chile and Colombia. It investigates how journalistic routines were forcibly modified due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and what job challenges inherent to the profession journalists from these media had to face. The six most read news portals in each country were chosen according to the Alexa.com ranking. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with editors and directors of digital press media to make a comparative study. The main results show that journalistic routines were adapted to the contingency. Some changed notably, such as access to sources and the relationship with the interviewees, teleworking and the use of technologies to collect and produce news. Others were strengthened, such as the editorial meeting and the editor’s relationship with his work team. It is concluded that the media played a fundamental role during the pandemic by informing citizens about health measures and counteracting the fake news disseminated by social networks. In a way, journalism has once again grown in credibility and trust and the classic routines of journalism have been strengthened.
