Social Networking with African Journalists

Dick Scherpenzeel Stichting

Wednesday September 16^th
Location: De Balie, Amsterdam

In the smallest room in the Balie, the Dick Scherpenzeel stichting, in cooperation with a handful of donors, held a debate on the opportunities of new media to link local African reporters with western media. Can Twitter, Facebook, linkedin, Blogs and broadband connections change the face of international correspondence? This was the question that drew a healthy amount of people to the debate in the Balie in Amsterdam. Unfortunately the answers had no prominence in the debate. Only once Facebook was mentioned and the other new media opportunities were left untouched. Most of the time was spend discussing a wider debate on the ethics of journalism.

The necessary panel of speakers made their appearance and told us what we already knew. New media makes international communication easier. The discussion soon revolved around the question: are African reporters good enough to cover a story for Dutch media? Is anybody with a camera-phone a journalist? And, are the stories of African reporters relevant for a Dutch audience? In a battle of old vs. new media, Africa interactive chairman Pieter van Twisk defended his network of semi-professional African reporters against the more traditionally oriented Bart Luirink, editor in chief of ZAM magazine.

Trough a skype connection we were informed by Dutch Journalist Aernout Zevenbergen, who is based in South Africa, that his cooperation with local reporters did not add value to the stories he wrote. Most local African journalist are too detailed for the Dutch audience, furthermore, because of the inherent structures in most African nations, local journalist often hesitate to ask questions that could jeopardize their position. Brechtje van de Moosdijk of RTL added that, as an established media outlet, RTL uses only one Dutch correspondent in Africa who will be ‘the face to trust’ for the Dutch audience. Overall; the Dutch ‘professionals’ saw African reporters convenient as stringers or source of background information. However there seems to be no direct plans to outsource the job of ‘reporter’ to African journalists.

Another problem with local reporters is their credibility and the risk for Dutch media outlets to unintentionally support activists who have other aims than giving the whole story objectively and in a journalistically sound way. Stan van Engelen of VPRO’s Metropolis TV has a lot of contact with the local reporters he works with around the globe; however, to verify if a story is genuine and in accordance with basic rules of journalism proves to be difficult. In a video clip from Pakistan on ‘dating culture’ he exemplified this claim. The local reporter staged an encounter with the police harassing a young couple walking hand in hand. Metropolis almost fell for the trickery which proves the risk of using ‘others’ to tell a story on a respected platform.

In the last 20 minutes of the debate, somebody finally set the conversation back on the ground by remarking that the issues discussed had less to do with African reporters and web 2.0 than with ordinary journalism. The audience was left wondering what happened to more interesting new media developments in African such as Ushahidi, Frontline SMS, Twitter and the African blogosphere. There seemed to be too many established stakeholders in the panel to leave space for all the opportunities of the internet and newsgathering in Africa.

Radio stations closed following Riots (BBC)

Kampala hit by renewed violence, 4 radiostations closed down by government

Stone-throwing mobs were reported to be roaming the streets of Kampala Police and rioters clashed for a second day in the Ugandan capital Kampala in a dispute involving a tribal king. Three people are reported to have died in the latest clashes, bringing the death toll to at least 10. Violence erupted when the government banned the king of Buganda from travelling to Kayunga, an area which says it has seceded from his kingdom. A spokesman for the king said on Friday he had postponed Saturday’s planned visit, Reuters reported. The comments by Medard Lubega, deputy information minister of the Bugandan kingdom, contradicted an earlier statement by the king’s premier that the visit would go ahead. “He has postponed it. We don’t want to see an escalation of the violence,” said Mr Lubega, quoted by Reuters. Visit banned Police have said Saturday’s visit by Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II would not be allowed as it would be a “security risk”. Buganda is one of Uganda’s four ancient kingdoms and its tribal members are Uganda’s largest ethnic group. Witnesses said Kampala’s streets were mostly deserted on Friday, with plumes of black smoke from burning tyres rising over the city’s hills. The country’s traditional kingdoms were banned in 1966 but reinstated by President Yoweri Museveni in 1993. The Baganda have long called for the restoration of a federal administration that would give their king the formal political power he is currently denied. The king’s premier, John Baptist Walusimbi, earlier told the BBC that the government should ensure the king’s security. Ugandan police chief Maj Gen Kale Kayihura said the violence had been inflamed by “sectarian” radio broadcasts and four stations were taken off the air by the authorities. One station was the Baganda owned CBS, Uganda’s most popular station. Correspondents say the king of Buganda is hugely influential although he is constitutionally barred from taking part in politics. The king and President Museveni have been allies in the past, but their relationship has become strained in recent years. The government denied preventing the king from visiting Kayunga, but said it wanted to put some conditions on the visit to prevent violence.

Kampala hit by renewed violence,
4 radiostations closed down by government

Fieldwork in four remote districts of Uganda

Wouter Dijkstra (University of Amsterdam) &
Kinyiri Salim (Makerere University Business School)

Introduction
This fieldwork will focus on information distribution through electronic media and how it can stimulate public service delivery in 4 different districts of Uganda. It will find out how and if citizens get service delivery related information about their district through electronic media and find out how and if they are able to contribute to this information flow. Because of the limited communication infrastructure in rural areas of Uganda we will focus on the local radio stations. Furthermore, we will try to find out how the mobile phone is used in the process of response.

By analyzing the radio as an interactive medium, the research will try to isolate challenges within Ugandan society that may hinder the dialogue between citizens and their leaders. This dialogue is imperative for progress in development. Only through accountability, transparency and collaboration can there be an increase in service delivery to civilians. By analyzing district development reports in relation to actual progress made in the district the research will see if a higher level of interactive media will facilitate better services to the people.

By looking at the radio, the research will show how electronic media can be used as a tool to facilitate a platform for the dialogue between citizens and officials. Evaluating the advantages and shortcomings of the radio as a medium it will formulate requirements for the use of other technologies that may assist in maximizing the efficiency, transparency and reliability of the platform. The research intends to employ knowledge on New Media Technologies (E.g. Mobile phones and the Internet) in finding ways to overcome the distance between civilians and their leaders.

The analysis will focus on interactive media tools that can provide measurable and comprehensible outputs which can be of help both to central authorities and civilians. This aim is set to encourage further dialogue between the two parties.

Methods
From the 9th of may until the 9th of august Wouter Dijkstra from the University of Amsterdam will collaborate with the Makerere University Business School (MUBS) and go into rural parts of Uganda to visit radio stations in several newly created districts. Kinyiri Salim of MUBS will be conducting research on the effectiveness of decentralization of districts. He will test district development objectives as set up by central government to the actual materializations of these targets.

Wouter will analyze the level of dialogue between district officials and citizens through local radio stations and evaluate how these stations disseminate information about their region and its districts to their listeners. Furthermore, he will consider the level of interactivity these stations offer. We expect that a higher level of dialogue will facilitate more public service at district level.

Update on my Research Questions

 

Questions and Answers after 2 weeks.
Because my notes are too extensive to post I will give an update on my main research questions.

 

 

1.What kind of relationship exists between political power brokers and civilians?
2.Why do civilians fail to become politically aware members of their society?

1. To answer the first questions it is imperative to define the ‘power brokers’. This is a very complex story in Uganda for it is a system where many different groups, cultures, clans, families, tribes, parties etc. intertwine.

2. There is a huge gap between civilians and leaders. Uganda is still a class society and as a member of the upper class, you should not mingle with the lower class. Furthermore, a great part of the civilians population in Uganda (especially in rural areas) is ignorant of the role of government.

1. How can New Media Technologies help in a constructive way to tackle some of the major challenges created by the limited access society?
2. Can inverted panoptic surveillance be applied to Ugandan leadership?

1. Tools and applications related to New Media can be used in creating awareness among civilians and providing knowledge to the people ignorant of their political power. Accountability, transparency and accessibility to information are key in this process.
2. As I see it now, inverted surveillance is not an option as of yet. Civilians have no authority and means of power over their leaders. However, when a strong and responsible central government can be formed, civilians can be used to monitor on district level, making it easier for government to regulate and manage.

Communication at the MUBS Student guild

 

 

Today I had a meeting with Peter Natukunda, vice president of the student guild of MUBS. Peter is responsible for the activities organized within the guild. After an introduction I could begin with my questions. It was very difficult to understand what he was saying, not only because of his accent but because of the grammar and sentence construction I am not yet fully familiar with.

He explained me how information is distributed within the Guild. When a piece of information needs to be mediated within the guild it runs through a hierarchical oral structure. The board of ‘ministers’ (around 30 students), all with a different function, like entertainment, premises etc. discuss in a general meeting what needs to be done. This is then forwarded to the Guild Representatives to the Council (GRC’s). These GRC’s on their turn tell the elected class leaders who in their turn must tell the rest of the students. All active members of the guild (the board, the GRC’s and the class leaders) receive an allowance. For class leaders this is 5000 Ush (€1.30) per meeting, GRC’s get 10.000 Ush.

Feedback information takes the same route only then the other way around. In the event a board leader has made a serious mistake and should be evicted, a referendum should be held where 2/3 of the students should register their vote against this particular board member. This has never happened because it would be too expensive and disruptive. When information needs to get out of the Guild, it has to be approved by the dean of students. Only then can it reach the principal’s office. In very urgent cases the President or Vice President can directly address the principal.

In the comming three weeks, elections will be held at MUBS, a whole new board and president must be democratically elected. Currently, 27 of the 30 board members of the guild hold a Pro-NRM (Ruling party) political position. The others are independent (not sure what is meant by this). The student guild of Makerere main campus was pro-Museveni last year but has this year been changed into a Pro Democratic Party (DP) stronghold. Peter would not be surprised if this happened in MUBS this year. For the coming Guild elections there are 5 presidential candidates at MUBS, Peter will not speak out for any of them but will cast his vote. Uganda has 3 influential Political Parties.
 
National Resistance Movement (NRM)
The ruling Party, Headed for the past 23 years by President Museveni
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)
The Biggest Opposition Party
Democratic Party (DP)
A small Opposition party

New Media tools are used for campaigning during the election period. The main medium used is the mobile phone, in particular: SMS. Messages are sent in bulks, there are services in Kampala that let you send a huge amount of Text messages to a database of choice. These messages sometimes involve propaganda, where the one candidate will try to discredit the other candidate. One of the advantages of these ways of campaigning is that candidates can campaign ‘underground’, so that other candidates will not know the exact strategy of his rivals. Facebook and email are also used for campaigning. It also helps to use mobile phones to call influential students to get them on your side. An electronic online voting system was designed by some students at Makerere, unfortunately it was not exhaustive enough to rely on the results. Therefore ballots were used at Makerere.

By analyzing established communication structures and looking at Ugandan practices of information dissemination I want to get a better insight in the Ugandan information flow. Looking at ‘political’ and hierarchical organization among students, I can see into the roots of the broader political information structures. I will look into the campaigning process and to some of the ceremonies during the election. All these observations, how trivial they may seem, can eventually provide insights in where New Media technologies could help increase accountability, transparency and accessibility of information.

Ekimeeza, the Peoples Parliament on Radio One

I arrived around 2.30 at club Obligato, where the massively popular radio talkshow ‘Ekimeeza’ was about to start. I was welcomed by a series of middle aged men, who directed me to the man sitting at the head of a table. The table was about 12 meters long and seated around 16 people; an audience of about 150 people was surrounding this central structure. ‘Ekimeeza’ is the Ugandan word for ‘big table’;  it is the place where Ugandans can speak their mind about issues concerning social and political issues  and where they will be heard by the thousands of people tuned in at radio one. 

The man sitting at the head of the table is dressed in a casual polo with a bright orange and green stripe. He is the only one eating and is clearly the man in charge. He is James Wasula, founder and chairman of Ekimeeza.  After introducing myself to him I take a seat in the second row where people are discussing an article in the newspaper, others silently sit and wait. The man behind me hands me a printed paper where the topic of today’s discussion will be about. ‘The Constituency Development Fund: how effective can 10 million Shillings be in developing a constituency’? After half a page of information concerning the ‘CDF’ the letter notes: Remember Ekimeeza is a forum for intellectual discussion and not unqualified emotional outbursts, kindly observe this fact and debate accordingly.

After the microphone has been reconnected by Mr. Wasula, deafening all attendants with an extremely loud and high pitched beep, we hear the commercial break aired on radio one. This signals that the show is about to start and everybody gets quiet. Mr. Wasula starts by welcoming everyone and introducing the topic as written down on the paper, after this he asks the first speaker ‘Mrs Masala’ to come up to the microphone. A big woman, casually dressed in a Zain T-shirt, comes up to the microphone and starts a furious speech on the Constituency development fund and how MP’s are eating the money put in their bank account for constituency development. She seems to have carefully watched the way in which official members of parliament express themselves; constantly adding to her sentence, ‘So Mr. Speaker!’ referring to the chairman. It seems that the audience (90 % men) is not very happy with this woman and start murmuring and joking. After 3 minutes a man sitting next to Mr. Wasula holds up a note saying ‘TIME’. The woman rounds up her speech and goes back to her seat. Some speakers seem to have a reputation and get applause when they approach the microphone.

45 minutes into the Ekimeeza, a big man with a neat suit approaches the table; he is immediately offered a chair and a drink. He turns out to be an MP, and when he is given the stage he gets all the time he needs to make his argument. This seems to be fair given he has a different perspective and needs more time to counter some allegations and has more elaborate knowledge on the matter. The audience respects this and listens carefully to what he has to say. After his appearance he stays to listen to the other speakers and gets a second chance to give his opinion.

One thing that struck me was the absence of discussion and structuring of the topic as a whole. Mr. Wasula, who was equipped with the second microphone, refrained from summing up the argument, engaging in critical remarks or demanding clarification of what was said by the speakers. An occasional joke and a sporadic question was all he added to the forum. This resulted in repetition of arguments by some speakers. He did sum up some messages he received from listeners send to him by SMS or from the audience who could write their contributions on a piece of paper.

When I talked to Mr. Wasula after the show he explained me that the Ekimeeza structure is aiming at maximum openness. It originated from a group of intellectual people who discussed politics in their free time. Because everybody who wanted to join the conversation was allowed to speak their minds it grew bigger until they were discovered by a Radio One producer. People are accountable only for their individual argument; this is what keeps the show unbiased and thus acceptable for everyone, even for government officials who are often the subject of criticism. It is purely a platform for individuals who are interested in political topics, not an assembly of oppositionists. This is why Mr. Wasula will not direct the discussion and why there is no stratified organization behind the show. Within a society, at times associated with political disparity, the Ekimeeza seems to create a window of opportunity for free speech and political integration of the people’s perspective.

I will dig deeper into the structure, history and political value of the Ekimeeza and will interview speakers, listeners and key people involved. I hope to uncover elements within the Ekimeeza that could help create a way for people to get involved in politics and to hold their officials accountable in a decent and constructive way. My main focus will be how New Media technologies like the internet and mobile telephones can assist in this process.

I thank Mr. Wasula for his time and hope to interview him after next week’s Ekimeeza.