mediadev library

Richard Musabe, John Sören Pettersson (eds.)

Newcastle upon Tyne (UK): Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2024), xvi, 186 pp.

"Several studies have already depicted the development of M4D and of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D), and that will not be repeated here. However, as this collection of chapters have sprung out from one of the M4D conferences – the M4D 2022 in Kigali – some notes ... on what have been salient at different conferences can be made. If we start with the M4D in Senegal 2014, we can see that from that conference stems a book where the chapters “initiate evocative conversations on how mobile technologies can contribute to expanding mobile participation practices” (Wamala-Larsson, Hellström, and Scharff 2015, 12). In Mozambique, in 2016, there were some contributions connecting to radio and TV technology; the M4D 2018 conference in Uganda included some papers on how utilities can be backed by subscription schemes via mobile services, as well as by apps where citizens can report dysfunctions and illicit use. The M4D 2020 did not take place, as the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the possibility of running a conference on site and it was postponed to 2022, when Rwanda saw the first blended M4D conference. The Zoom presence for several dozen participants over three days went very well and, via two cameras and two large screens at the venue site, they blended in well at the conference. The IT maturing effect caused by the pandemic was thus noticeable. Among the presentations it was noticeable that the Internet of Things and drones, often blended with machine learning, are now imaginable as “mobile technology”. Of course, drones are always mobile, and IoT sensors often travel with cargo, but it was the realisation of the affordability of these technologies for food chain, livestock, and crop management, combined with their reliance on mobile phone networks to make use of farmers’ photos and senor data, that made such presentations appropriate at a conference that focuses on affordable communication technology. While technology is a prerequisite, in this volume, based on selected contributions to that conference, we will balance some imaginations with some assessments. The focus will not be on the “new” M4D, even though we acknowledge that it is time to set up demonstration farms with IoT and machine learning, as pointed out by Ronald Katamba from Uganda in an interview (Pettersson and Rehema 2022, 145), and books are now published on Applying Drone Technologies and Robotics for Agricultural Sustainability (Raj, Saini, and Pacheco 2023, with examples from India and Zimbabwe; see also FAO and ITU 2022). Instead, the chapters selected for this book adhere to the theme of knowledge dissemination and knowledge development, as mentioned already. One chapter was invited to report from the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things, hosted by the University of Rwanda in Kigali, to illustrate the efforts to build native technological competence on an advanced level. That chapter simultaneously demonstrates the growing pan-African collaboration in the academic infrastructuring project." (Foreword, pages x-xi) more

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Misinformation Literacy of COVID-19 Digital News in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda

Karen McIntyre, Meghan Sobel Cohen, Brian Semujju, Kioko Ireri, Emmanuel Munyarukumbuzi

African Journalism Studies, volume 44, issue 2 (2023), pp. 116-133

"Amid a rise of misinformation worldwide, this paper examines digital misinformation literacy as it relates to COVID-19 news in East Africa. The study is grounded in inoculation theory and contributes to the body of scholarship examining misinformation literacy beyond the Western world. Data came fr ... more

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Newsmaking Cultures in Africa: Normative Trends in the Dynamics of Socio-Political and Economic Struggles
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Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara (ed.)

London: Palgrave Macmillan (2018), xxv, 396 pp.

"The volume digs beneath the standardised and universalised veneer of professionalism to unpack routine practices and normative trends shaped by local factors, including the structural conditions of deprivation, entrenched political instability (and interference), pervasive neo-patrimonial governanc ... more

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Evaluation International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT)

Elisabeth Eide, Hanna Marie Knudsen, Goretti Nassanga, Brian Semujju

International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT);KUS Forum for Women and Development (2017), 51 pp.

"The organization has grown since the last evaluation in 2007, with the number of chapters expanding from seven to twelve. The membership comprises 45 other countries, some with the capacity to become chapters. Whether IAWRT is in a phase of expansion or consolidation is unclear, as there is no stra ... more

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Introducing Community Audio Towers as an Alternative to Community Radio in Uganda

Brian Semujju

Journal of Alternative and Community Media, volume 1 (2016), pp. 141-153

"This article presents two communities in Uganda that use Community Audio Towers (CATs) as an alternative to community radio, and examines why the communities prefer the use of CATs to ‘mainstream’ community radio. Using data collected through observation at two sites in Uganda and 10 key inform ... more

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Participatory Media for a Non-Participating Community: Western Media for Southern Communities

Brian Semujju

International Communication Gazette, volume 76, issue 2 (2014), pp. 197-208

"This paper draws on the contrast between community media and the nature of its communities in Africa that are not participatory but use participatory media. The general contention is that participatory media in Africa preside over non-participatory communities. The paper uses data collected at one ... more

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Climate Change in Ugandan Media: A ‘global Warming’ of Journalism Ethics

Brian Semujju

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 5, issue 3 (2013), pp. 337-352

"This article is an examination of the four major schools of thought on climate change and how two newspapers in Uganda are covering those divergent views. The article argues that in the coverage of global warming in particular the hitherto treasured notion of objectivity has been replaced by a form ... more

Imaging and Assessing Mobile Technology for Development

Misinformation Literacy of COVID-19 Digital News in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda

Newsmaking Cultures in Africa: Normative Trends in the Dynamics of Socio-Political and Economic Struggles Top Insights

Evaluation International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT)

Introducing Community Audio Towers as an Alternative to Community Radio in Uganda

Participatory Media for a Non-Participating Community: Western Media for Southern Communities

Climate Change in Ugandan Media: A ‘global Warming’ of Journalism Ethics

Newsmaking Cultures in Africa: Normative Trends in the Dynamics of Socio-Political and Economic Struggles
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