Browsing by Author "Jjuuko, Margaret"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Confronting the Challenges of Journalism Education in Rwanda in the context of Educational Reforms
    (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2019) Jjuuko, Margaret; Njuguna, Joseph
    Policy reforms aimed at improving access to and equity in tertiary education have meant that university classes are not only larger, but more diverse in terms of students’ competencies and experiences. Despite the increase in the size and diversity of student populations in universities, the financial, technological and human resources have not expanded at a similar rate, leaving academic programs struggling to improve the quality of educational experience, whilst teaching more students with less resources. This is particularly difficult in practice-based disciplines such as medicine, nursing and journalism, where coaching models and small-class learning experiences are seen as being the most effective way of nurturing work-ready graduates. Teaching journalism under these conditions is particularly problematic because of the dynamic changes being experienced across the media industries as a result of technological change and the changing media ecosystem.
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    Environmental and Social Injustices in East Africa: A Critique of the Modernization Approach to Environmental Communication
    (Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities and Business, 2021) Jjuuko, Margaret
    The existing environmental injustices in the world have often been linked to industrialisation and modernisation of nations. In a bid to develop and modernise their nations, East African governments have adopted neoclassical developmentalist ideals of 'modernization' and 'capital investments‘, which largely involve exploitation of natural and human resources. The consequence is rampant and severe environmental degradation and related impacts in the region. While environmental degradation impacts affect all people residing in the region, the poor are hit hardest since they do not have ways to deal with disasters; hence, it becomes an environmental and a social justice issue. Although mass media are viewed as change agents and key players in the development agenda, and are often tasked to communicate information as widely as possible, these have adopted hierarchical and top down approaches to environmental and social justice issues and, in the process, helped to deepen the existing inequalities in society. From perspectives of Development Communication, this article critiques modernization discourses to development including: 'Top-down experts of development‘, 'Blaming the victim‘ and 'Social Darwinism‘. The purpose is to demonstrate how the East African media deploy this framework to (mis)represent environmental issues leading to aggravated environmental and social injustices in these societies. The article argues for a 'solution journalism approach‘ to environmental communication, whereby media as advocates of development, focus more on the contextual factors within which environmental issues and problems transpire.
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    How Three Communities on Lake Victoria Landing Sites in Uganda Perceive and Interpret the Radio Programmes on the Lake's Crises
    (African Journalism Studies, 2016) Jjuuko, Margaret
    Over the past four decades, Lake Victoria has come under pressure from a multiplicity of interlinked human activities including industrial pollution, eutrophication and sedimentation. These pressures have contributed to ecological changes in the lake, incorporating unprecedented loss of biodiversity and water quality deterioration. This is threatening the lake's capacity to provide for the communities, as well as its contribution to the local economy. In performing their social responsibilities, the news media (particularly radio) have endeavoured to highlight the environmental crises on Lake Victoria. The Victoria Voice radio programmes on Uganda's CBS radio are one of the endeavours targeting lakeside communities. The key question raised here is how these radio programmes are perceived and interpreted by the communities. While they attest to their relevance in providing information on the crises on the lake, it is also evident that audiences are not naïve and passive, but recognise the ‘power relations’ embedded in the programmes. The communities also argue that the programmes shifted their focus from the major causes of pollution, and pointed fingers at them in addition to excluding their views from the programmes. In the end, the audiences advocate for opportunities that will increase their participation in these programmes.
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    Plagiarism among Journalism Students as a Predictor of Unethical Professional Practices: An Exploratory Case Study of Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan
    (The Journal of Development Communication, 2017) Jjuuko, Margaret
    This article discusses the challenges of teaching journalism ethics in East Africa, both in journalism schools and on the job in newsrooms. It specifically explores academic plagiarism among journalism students and working journalists using Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan as case studies. The discussion mainly draws on the authors’ experiences as journalism and media studies educators in East Africa and elsewhere in the world. The authors perceive plagiarism among East African journalism students and, to some extent working journalists, as a possible gateway to unethical behaviours during professional practice. From this perspective, plagiarism as a relatively minor form of ‘corruption’ can degenerate into an ‘accepted normalised practice’ where journalists are willing to compromise traditional journalistic values of objectivity and social responsibility to media audiences and society as a whole. From the perspective of journalism as a tool for national development, it is evident that plagiarism among journalism students, when viewed as a low level form of corruption, could influence later unprofessional journalism practices such as “envelope journalism”.
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    The Discourse of Digital Inclusion of Women in Rwanda’s Media
    (Amsterdam University Press., 2019) Jjuuko, Margaret; Njuguna, Joseph
    Rwanda has positioned ICTs towards its vision for an all-inclusive society. These tools are critical for empowering women and the youth, the envis-aged key participants in the knowledge society. While Rwanda’s news media is replete with stories on the potential transformational effects of ICTs on women, how they represent the discourse on women’s digital inclusion in the Rwandan context has not been explored. Departing from the philosophy that news media routinely af f irm the reinforcing dominant public norms and values, this chapter explores how two Rwandan dailies represent the digital inclusion by examining the themes and news sources in ICT stories on women. Findings reveal that the media depict Rwandan women’s digital inclusion as attainable through capacity building, literacy, participation, speed in embracing ICTs, and mindset change.
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    The representation of the environmental crises on Lake Victoria in Uganda’s media: A critical analysis of the Victoria Voice radio documentaries
    (Journal of African Media Studies, 2014) Jjuuko, Margaret; Prinsloo, Jeanne
    This article is concerned with how the environmental crises on Lake Victoria is addressed by the media in Uganda, while confining its focus on a single radio case study, and presents a critical textual analysis of the discourses and discursive practices of the Victoria Voice environmental radio documentaries aired on Uganda’s Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio in 2005. The analysis focuses on two representative episodes of the Victoria Voice radio series relating to the situation on Lake Victoria. It argues that the framing and construction of the situation on Lake Victoria tend to privilege the wealthy or powerful elite rather than address the root causes of environmental degradation. The marginalization of the powerless (or ordinary people) recurs in these episodes, and while their voices are included in the programmes, they are framed by the more socially powerful.