[ecrea] Journal of African Media Studies 10.2 published

Intellect is thrilled to announce that the Journal of African Media
Studies 10.2 is now available! For more information about the issue,
click here >> https://bit.ly/2DDZFys

Content

Media coverage of child rights issues in Uganda: The case of The New Vision

Authors: Ivan Ashaba And Marlon Agaba
Page Start: 149

Despite having a robust child protection framework and a burgeoning
media, child rights abuse still occurs in Uganda. This takes the form
of child neglect, defilement, torture, trafficking. The researchers
set out to investigate media coverage of child rights issues in
Uganda. A triangulation of methods was used, and as will be shown
later, reporting on child rights abuses is not systematic due to
fragmentation of actors. The researchers found out that 185 child
abuse stories were published in The New Vision in 2015. Most of the
published stories were from the country’s capital – Kampala. The other
obstacles to effective child rights reporting identified are as
follows: concentration of reporters in urban areas, lack of special
training in child rights reporting and commercial interests of media
houses. The researchers recommend recruiting and training journalists
to specifically report on issues of child rights and empowering
upcountry reporters where many cases are committed.

When the subaltern speaks: Re-examining indigenous-language media as
alternative public sphere during colonial South Africa

Authors: Gilbert Motsaathebe
Page Start: 169

This article attempts to examine the efficacy of indigenous-language
newspapers published in South Africa during the colonial era. In doing
so, the article is particularly interested to see how the success
achieved by those publications could be replicated to boost
post-apartheid indigenous-language media in their encounter with the
hegemonic onslaught of the mainstream media whose scope and hegemony
continue to expand at an alarming rate. The article embraces the
notion of the public sphere and the theory of hegemony to make sense
of how indigenous media permeated the language and political discourse
and emerged as a strong voice for the oppressed, reinforcing at once
what Herman and Chomsky (2002) refer to as ‘class consciousness’. The
notion of the public sphere is found to be particularly profitable in
highlighting the exclusion/inclusion of wide-ranging voices in the
public affairs while the robustness of the theory of hegemony lies in
its strengths to unravel the political imperatives and the ideological
contest that characterized the colonial era. The article argues that
indigenous publications succeeded in becoming viable platforms for the
indigenous communities who had been pushed beyond the margins of
citizenship. The article concludes that indigenous-language media were
particularly important for their political mobilization and
contribution to media diversity through the range of voices that they
orchestrated.

Social networking and mobile phone usage of East African students in 
Malaysia

Authors: Judith Flora Etabale Wanda And Govindan Velaithan Nair And
Thinavan Periayya And Sharon Wilson

Page Start: 185

With the current development in technology, mobile phones have become
progressively more popular as they are one of the frequently used
means of communication that people rely on because of their features.
While people find mobile phones convenient and useful, international
students in foreign countries tend to appreciate them more and are
more dependent on them in order to maintain their social networks. The
literature states that students from East Africa carry along their own
culture with them, making it difficult for them to accept and adapt to
the new culture easily. This includes meeting face to face in small
areas and groups where friendships are formed through frequent
interaction. Based on a survey conducted in various private
universities in the Klang Valley where foreign students of East
African origin are studying, students’ mobile phone use for social
networking was examined. The results showed that there was a positive
significant relationship between variables such as interaction,
interpersonal communication and social networking for maintenance of
social network; however, there was no significant difference in mobile
phone dependency for social networking among university students of
East African origin and the duration of stay in Malaysia. Although
they may be unable to interact in person, social networking proved
useful to strengthen relationships that already exist and enhanced the
feelings of closeness to others. As technology has advanced, there
have been adjustments in the users’ attitudes towards particular
technologies, hence this has generated new social and cultural
phenomena. This phenomenon has in a way changed the way mobile phones
evolve as they represent social construction of technology. This
social construction of the mobile phone is seen in the symbiotic
relationship between the users of the technology. Users such as these
students respond to the advancement of technologies such as mobile
phones, which in turn has seen them develop social and cultural
changes.

The plight of the private press during the Zimbabwe crisis (2010–18)

Authors: Pedzisai Ruhanya
Page Start: 201

This study critically examines how the private press in Zimbabwe
survived during periods of economic and political crises. In year
2010, the Zimbabwe media fraternity saw the re-opening of Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) after closure in 2003 and the emergence
of the NewsDay, published by the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH). The study
examines how these publishers survive the economic challenges in
Zimbabwe, especially during the prolonged period of the Zimbabwe
Crisis from 2010 to 2018. It critically investigates how these two
publications have remained operational despite the limited advertising
revenue – owing to company closures – and the adversarial relations
with the government – a critical source of huge advertising revenue.
Given that copy sales of newspapers hardly sustain business entities,
this article explores the alternative sources of income and the impact
of vested interests on alternative revenue for privately owned
newspapers. It is a qualitative research based on findings from
thirteen semi-structured in-depth interviews with a purposive sample
of ANZ and AMH officials and journalists. Publishers have relied on
two main survival strategies, namely, internal cost-cutting strategies
and building good business relations with the ruling political elites.
Internal cost-cutting strategies have included newsroom convergences,
retrenchments, salary reductions and freezes, reduction of newspaper
pages and shutting down national newspaper bureaus. External survival
methods, on the other hand, have been seeking donor funding,
attracting political investments and embracing the new political order
for government protection in the event of failure to pay statutory
obligations such as taxes and pensions.

Film Review

Authors: Valentina Signorelli
Page Start: 215

The making of Where is Europe? directed by Valentina Signorelli
(Italy, 2018): A reflective film review

Book Review

Authors: Alphonce Shiundu
Page Start: 221

Blaming the Victim: How Global Journalism Fails those in Poverty,
Jairo Lugo-Ocando (2015) London: Pluto Press ISBN 9780745334417, p/bk,
£26.99 (with free eBook) ISBN 9780745334424, h/bk, £85 ISBN
9781783712274, eBook, £26.99

Interview with Akin Omotoso, Nigerian film director, writer and actor

Authors: Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian
Page Start: 225

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