MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS MEASUREMENT ACROSS PLATFORMS Issue 02

ANALYSIS REPORT OF A STUDY ON:

Media Coverage and Communication of Refugee Issues in Uganda

BY

November 2018

Edited by Gerald Businge

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS	3

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS	4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY	5

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH	9

1.0 Introduction to the Study	9

1.1 Overview of Refugees in Uganda in Uganda	10

1.2 Theoretical foundation of the study	11

1.3 Background to the study	12

1.4 Justification for Studies	12

1.5 Expected outcomes of the researches	13

1.6 Specific objectives	13

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY	14

2.0 Study Methodological Focus	14

2.2 Study Design	15

2.3 Particular methods for specific issues	16

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS	18

3.0 Overall media coverage and communication across platforms	18

3.1 Media coverage registered	18

3.1.1 Coverage by newspapers	18

3.1.2 Coverage by online publications	26

3.2 Communication and engagement of refugees issues in social media	31

3.2.1 How Refugee issues in Uganda were posted about on Facebook	32

3.1.2 How refugee issues were posted about on YouTube	35

3.1.3 Coverage of refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter	38

3.2 Organisations most mentioned in media coverage and communication	41

CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION & RECOMMENDATIONS	44

4.0 Findings Vs general focus of study on reporting frames	44

4.1 Findings Vs Research issues	44

4.2 Other Lessons from the study	45

4.4 Recommendations on better framing and reporting refugee issues	46

References	47

LIST OF ACRONYMS

ABC:	Audit Bureau of Circulations

AMA:	Average minute audience

IRRI:	International Refugee Rights Initiative

MCI:	Media Challenge Initiative

ORG:	Organizations

OPM:	Office of the Prime Minister

TV:	Television

UCC:	Uganda Communications Commission

UMC:	Ultimate Multimedia Consult

UNAIDS:	United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

UNDP:	United Nations Development Programme

UNFPA:	United Nations Population Fund

UNHCR:	United Nations High Commission for Refugees

UNICEF:	United Nations International Children’s Fund

UNOPS:	United Nations Office for Project Services

UN Women:	United Nations Women

USAID:	United States Agency for International Development

UWESO:	Uganda Women's Efforts to Save Orphans

WFP:	World Food Programme

WHO:	World Health Organisation

Cover photo: Refugees listen at a transit center for South Sudanese in the remote northwestern district of Adjumani, near the border with South Sudan, in Uganda. AP/Stephen Wandera

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Philimon Badagawa participated in data collection for newspapers and headed the data analysis especially with the visuals/graphics. Derrick Senyonga coordinated the entire research actively participating in data collection and data analysis process. Undertaking this research in 10days wasn’t easy. I would like to thank the research team coordinators and the research assistants, as well as the data entry and analysis team for their diligent work in producing this research possible.

Edward Tumwine greatly participated in data collection from Facebook and Twitter

Enid Nabumati led the collection of data from online websites as well as in data analysis of social media.

Agnes Tumuheire also participated in collecting data from online sites and newspapers as well as data analysis and sorting

Zziwa Geoffrey collected data from the Twitter mentions of refugee issues in Uganda

Herman Nnyanzi collected data from the Twitter mentioning refugee issues in Uganda, as well as data sorting.

Brian Kisembo assisted in the collection of data from the Facebook mentioning refugee issues in Uganda

Jane Ndibarekera Bukenya provided the necessary logistics needed to execute the project	Although I have tried to break down particular roles of what the different team members did, we worked as a team from conceptualization to the final stages. I appreciate all their efforts and resilience towards the completion of this research project. In a special way I thank our Team Leader who made sure we remained focused and for editing the report. Senyonga Derrick, Research and Training Manager

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study found considerable media coverage of stories on refugee issues in Uganda within newspapers, online publications as well as communications in social media as follows:

Category	Total of posts/tweets
Online	441
Facebook	606
Twitter	2,976
YouTube	66
Newspapers	377

Source category

Online publications used more humanitarian agencies followed by refugee sources while government agencies came in third. In newspapers the trend was that majority of the sources were from government agencies followed by humanitarian agencies and refugees.

Source gender

Data analyzed from newspapers showed that journalists used more sources from the males. Further analysis revealed that across all platforms (newspapers and online sites), refugee sources were equally balanced between male and female.

Prominence and size

This was applied to newspapers. We found the majority (90.72%) of stories were in non-prominent pages of newspapers. Story size: We noted that majority (40.58%) of the stories published by newspapers covered a quota of a newspaper page and below while 35.81% covered half of the newspaper pages. Only 23.87% of the total stories covered more than half a newspaper page.

Type of Coverage:

The majority of stories published by newspapers were news stories followed by advertorials, news analysis, editorial and features.

Publication	Press release	Advertorial	Editorial	News	News analysis	Opinon	Feature	Letter
The New Vision	5	52	52	130	6	21	22	14
Daily Monitor	12	12	3	11	22	0	7	4
The Observer	0	0	0	0	4	2	0	0
Bukedde	1	35	3	2	33	4	2	1
Total	18	99	58	143	65	27	31	19

Sentiment: Across all the platforms, positive sentiment was the highest. However, newspapers had more stories with a negative sentiment than online publications although newspapers had more neutral stories than online sites.

Gender of authors

Both online and newspapers, there were many stories by male authors than female authors. We also noted that across the two platforms, those who did not specify stories were the majority.

From newspapers specifically, 45.62% did not specify authors of stories, 40.05% were written by male and 16.58% were by females.

Online, those who did not specify were 48.98%, males 34.69% and females 16.33%.

Issues

Resettlement was the widely covered online followed by health and funding while stories on newspapers focused more on funding followed by protection and human rights.

Most of the YouTube videos analyzed were about funding followed by education.

On Facebook and Twitter, funding and education had the most conversations in regards to issues affecting refugees in Uganda.

Community affected

In regards to refugee issue coverage, it was observed that across all platforms analyzed, children issues were widely covered followed by women and men the least covered.

Refugee resettlement area

Bidi Bidi was the most covered online and social media whereas Kiryandongo was the most covered refugee resettlement area in newspapers.

Country of origin

Issues about South Sudan refugees led the narrative across all platforms analyzed during the period of study. These were followed DRC.

Organizations mentioned most across all platforms

The organizations mentioned most were UNHCR, OPM, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, USAID, World Vision, FAO, Save the Children and Care.

Social Media positing and engagement

The study found that a total of 608 posts on issues related to refugees in Uganda were made on Facebook. These generated 1,436,534 views as of November 14, 2018. We also noted that the posts generated more shares than comments. There were 14,552 shares compared to 6,151 comments.

Reactions: We captured how Facebook users reacted to the posts made on issues related to refugees in Uganda. Findings show that users reacted more through likes, followed by love, wow, cry, angry and laugh as shown below.

56,746	10,519	184	1,004	216	719

The analysis shows that a total of 66 videos were posted on YouTube channels by media houses, humanitarian agencies, organizations and individuals on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018. These posts had generated 24,602 video views as of 13th November 2018.

We noted that 18.18% of the videos on issues related to refugees in Uganda were posted by NTV Uganda. NBSTV Uganda followed with 15.15%.

The table below shows the number of tweets made during the different months under review.

Engagement on Twitter
MONTH	TOTAL	Reply	Retweet	Favorite
MAY	802	235	2,749	8,337
JUNE	984	331	4,225	8,414
JULY	461	148	1,424	3,527
AUGUST	484	127	1,296	2,553
SEPTEMBER	578	265	2,228	5,261
OCTOBER	667	306	2,628	6,893
TOTAL	3,976	1,412	14,550	34,985

Recommendations

More detailed reporting -features, and run good stories on front pages or as main stories

More stories on lives of refugees as people

Empower journalists to better understand and report on refugee issues

Expose and drive for more coverage of initiatives by refugees in going about their lives and initiatives for improving livelihoods of refugees and all people in host communities

Continue and support current good reporting and conversations on refugee issues in Uganda.

Award good reporting on refugee issues to drive more and better coverage.

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH

1.0 Introduction to the Study

Despite ongoing concerns about the media coverage of refugees and related issues in Uganda, there is limited research and analysis of media coverage as well as communication on the same. Many commentators believe there is dominant negative framing of refugee issues, negative and dehumanizing frames and limited sourcing of refugee issues within Uganda’s media.

This report presents findings of study on media coverage and communication of refugee issues by four leading Uganda newspapers, online publications as well as communication (and conversations) about refugee issues in social media platforms.

The study has been conducted by Ultimate Multimedia Consult as part of the Media Challenge Expo 2018 organized by the Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) under the theme: “Reframing Media Coverage of Refugee issues in Uganda” (November 16-18th 2018).

We analysed coverage and mention of refugee issues in The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers from May 1st 2018 to October 31st 2018. We did not track coverage from the broadcast stations on air but did capture those that publish or post online (their websites and social media). Other than resource considerations, we wanted to capture coverage and mentions from media of record (that can easily be referenced).

We also analyzed the mention and coverage of refugee issues in Uganda within online publications (tracked across the World Wide Web) as well as communication and conversations on refugee issues in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from May 1st –October 31st 2018.

This was based on the understanding (by UMC) that desirable media coverage of refugee issues should result from or inform communication and conversations on refugee issues.

The study specifically analysed:

The quantity and quality of media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online

The organisations mentioned in media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online

The number and type of posts made about refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The level and type of engagement of posts about refugees in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The study was aimed at understanding how refugee issues in Uganda are covered by and communicated in mainstream media in order to generate lessons on how to improve media coverage and communication practices on refugee issues in Uganda. We also hope good communication and media coverage of refugee issues can greatly improve service delivery and public appreciation of those that seek refuge in Uganda.

1.1 Overview of Refugees in Uganda in Uganda

Uganda is home to 1,505,323 refugees and asylum seekers as of July 2018. The country has 13 refugee settlements hosting people from South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and other nationalities in the region (see infographic on below). Uganda is now the largest refugee hosting country in Africa, and the third largest globally. Uganda has been hosting refugees and asylum seekers since achieving its independence in 1962.

According to UNHCR, the country has been praised for having one of the most progressive and generous refugee laws and policy regimes in the world. In fact, the 2016 United Nations Summit for Refugees declared Uganda’s refugee policy a model. The 2006 Refugee Act and 2010 Refugee Regulations allow for integration of refugees within host communities with refugees having access to the same public services as nationals.

Refugees in Uganda have freedom of movement and are free to pursue livelihood opportunities, including access to the labour market and to establish businesses.

Despite this good situation, there has been concern that media coverage on refugee issues is negative and rarely focuses on development issues including peace and reintegration. This is why we undertook this study to find out the realistic situation of media coverage and communication (conversations) of refugee issues in Uganda.

1.2 Theoretical foundation of the study

Reporting on refugee issues in Uganda has been debated as negative or mostly undesirable if looked at based on media framing theory. Frames have included ideas of ‘threats’ to employment, social cohesion, national and border security, and being favoured by donors, among others. More balanced coverage would be expected to include expert opinions and personal stories, and editorials on the global refugee context (McKay et al., 2011).

The general public tends to rely on news media for information about refugees and asylum seekers. The media’s framing of these issues, by selecting events, opinions, facts, images and information, shapes audience responses, encouraging ‘particular interpretations or understanding of issues’ and reflecting, increasing and influencing prejudicial attitudes (Hodgetts and Chamberlain, 2013; McHugh-Dillon, 2015; Rane and Hersi, 2011: 138).

Through shaping and amplifying public attitudes, the media has an impact on policy outcomes by influencing government considerations and communication of issues (Branton and Dunaway, 2008; Hericourt and Spielvogel, 2012).

In line with the propaganda model of media, where media reporting is heavily influenced by the state, government bodies are ‘highly and arguably disproportionately influential’ in public refugee debates with ‘habitual, privileged [media] access’ (Romano, 2004: 49).

Despite significant research into media and political framing of asylum seekers and refugees in other countries like UK and Australia (McKay et al., 2012; Pedersen and Hartley, 2015; Richards, 2014), the focus on Uganda media reporting of refugee issues in Uganda is scrubby.

1.3 Background to the study

Ultimate Multimedia Consult (UMC) started an initiative in 2018 to research and produce reports titled Media and Communications Measurement across the Platforms: We are researching on different brands and public issues like this on refugees with a focus on how organizations communicate and are covered in the media; and measuring engagement and impact or outcomes of messages in print media and online media (including social media).

UMC is a leading multimedia journalism and communications firm providing value added news, information and knowledge products and services, communications, research, media monitoring, evaluation, video recording and documentation, multimedia editorial services, website design and hosting as well as multimedia training and optimization services. UMC is designed and intends to provide efficient, effective and quality media communication & research services that best meet the need to communicate and achieve results in traditional & new media platforms.

The Studies: We intend to study comparative communications efforts by different organizations, media coverage and engagement across all media platforms so as to better inform theory and practice of communications and media engagement (build on the body of knowledge). We also intend to study the media coverage and online conversations on public interest issues like health, education, agriculture, good governance, economic empowerment, refugees etc.

1.4 Justification for Studies

Many organisations are finding their feet undertaking communications online, in traditional media and especially engaging targets to achieve results (outcomes) or impact. Though there are many suggested tactics, strategies and practices for communication in both traditional and new media platforms, there is limited concrete research on how organizations are communicating today, what is working well today for whom and in what circumstances. Media houses on the other hand say they are committed to covering public interest issues and players fairly.

UMC has since 2010 developed and undertaken media monitoring and impact assessment of several projects and media campaigns. We have realized both the public and organizations lack comprehensive data and figures regarding how organizations communicate, key issues to attend to and how the media portrays or covers the different sectors/organizations in the country and especially how to engage on social media platforms as well as measure outcomes or impact.

1.5 Expected outcomes of the researches

This communications monitoring research effort is expected to lead to the availability of knowledge which will help in better decision making and formulation of policies relating to communications and influencing people. We plan to study and produce reports quarterly.

In addition to presenting the comparative metrics, the research reports will provide tips/recommendations on how organisations can improve on their media presence, engagement and communications impact or outcomes in line with current best practices. It will also help the industry access facts and information on how issues/organizations are being covered in the media. This analysis will also help media houses to understand which issues they cover and how they are covered and whether they are in-tune with ongoing conversations on the different issues.

1.6 Specific objectives

We believe it is crucial to carry out media monitoring and evaluation for comparative organizational communications efforts per sector/issue and media coverage in order to:

To help organisations understand the outcomes, impact, reach of their communications efforts as well as frequency of their media coverage and mentions.

To listen to and measure conversations people are having about particular organizations, brands, or issues of public interest e.g. education, agriculture, health, democracy, etc

Through analyzing these conversations, help companies/organizations identify issues, serve customers, handle crises, identify comparators and potential partnerships

Understand more about public/ consumer sentiments on specific messages and generally

Present the current best practices and tactics for communicating and engaging within tradition and new media platforms in order to generate better communication outcomes.

Generate a report to be discussed in a Communicating Effectively Today workshop

To inform UMC multimedia journalism and communication training and UMC services with current industry practices and gaps in media and communication.

Media coverage in this report is used to mean articles or brand mentioning appearing in newspapers, online publications about a particular organization or issue of study.

We are hoping that you as an organization, journalist, trainer or communications practitioner, you will find this report and others to come in future series useful guides and reality checks for you message development, planning, communication strategies and measurement/ assessment.

Note that while this study is intended to contribute to knowledge generation and sharing in the academic sense, we have taken deliberate efforts to vary research methodologies and presentation of findings in a reporting format we think best suited for your quick reading and comprehension. Your feedback and advice on how to improve future studies is most welcome.

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.0 Study Methodological Focus

In deciding the media monitoring and measurement methodologies, UMC usually considers the overall goals of the monitoring, the target audience for the results, what media are to be measured, which parts of the media output are to be monitored, what content will be monitored and for what purpose as well what detail of media output or content will be measured/ analysed.

For this particular study, we reviewed media coverage of refugee issues in the four newspapers and online publications, mention of orgnisations supporting refugee issues, posts conversations and engagement on refugee related issues within Twitter, Facebook and YouTube between May 1st to October 31st 2018.

The newspapers selected for media monitoring analysis of covering refugee issues (The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde) were picked based on industry considerations of the four leading journalistic newspapers in Uganda.

The online media coverage targeted the whole World Wide Web because it is easy to mine for stories or mentions. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were chosen as social media to analyse for conversations related to refugees in Uganda because they are the leading social media platforms.

We also captured the organisations most mentioned in refugee related stories and conversations.

The time period of six months was arrived at as adequate to measure performance in message communications by selected refugee support agencies and on refugee issues. Such a study needed to analyse content over a long period of time where adequate coverage has been generated but not too long given the enormity of publications online and offline as well as social media networks being considered for analysis.

The issues the study aimed to establish and the research questions are specified in this table.

No.	Issue studied	Key research questions/considerations
1	The quantity and quality of media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online	What is the amount of mentions and coverage of refugee related issues? Which newspaper or online publication published or mentioned refugees? How many times were refugees mentioned or covered in newspapers and online publications? What type of mention or coverage was it i.e. news story, feature story, opinion, letter to editor, advertisement/supplement? How much space did the refugee issues have in the coverage? How well did the stories meet basic journalistic standards/ principles? Gender of reporters, sources? Any refugee voices? Refugees from which country?
2	The organisations mentioned in media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online	What organisations were mentioned in newspaper and online articles about refugee issues? How many times were such organisations mentioned? In what type of articles were the mentioned it i.e. news story, feature story, opinion, letter to editor, advertisement/supplement?
3	The number and type of posts made about refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.	How many posts were made about refugee issues in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? What type of posts were they i.e text, photos (images), video, links, questions, quizzes?
4	The level and type of engagement of posts about refugees in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.	What was the level of engagement generated by posts on refugee issues within Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? What type of engagement was generated in each social media plaform i.e. likes, comments, shares, retweets?

Table 1: The issues that were measured and analysed by this study

These issues were handled using different quantitative and qualitative methods and based on different indicators as specified further below.

2.2 Study Design

This being a multi-faceted study, we utilized different methods to measure different aspects. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a theoretical framework to inform our methodology. CDA aims to understand and address social issues by critically examining what is included or excluded in texts, and what is ‘perspectivised’ through linguistic processes (KhosraviNik, 2010). To identify the issues and voices included and excluded in newspaper and online coverage of refugees and asylum seekers, we employed quantitative content analysis to generate standardised data on coverage across newspapers and online publications.

The study though employed quantitative and qualitative components. The quantitative component focused on the number of times and or space allocated to the refugee issues, the organizations mentioned in the coverage on refugees, the countries of origin and the tone of coverage or social media metricts. Components of the qualitative monitoring included message fidelity, sentiment, quoting, verification, completeness, among others as details below.

We deployed three teams, one to study newspaper coverage and mentions, another handled online coverage and mentions, while the third reviewed social media conversations (Twitter, YouTube and Facebook). All assistants who participated in this study are multimedia journalists and communication practitioners with additional training in research and media monitoring. The teams held several meetings to review and refine the tools and indicators.

We developed research tools (guides) for each of the issues with codes and measures for the different indicators. The team members discussed extensively the tools, indicators and cross referenced with each other and the study leader throughout the assignment period. The tools and indicators together with data captured are available on request.

2.3 Particular methods for specific issues

The study was mainly based on content analysis to measure elements of media output that can be measured and counted. This helped us to bring out how issues on refugees were reported about or mentioned in selected newspapers, online publications, how they were posted on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, as well as the engagement they generated.

We came up with a media log -a primary tool to capture the media coverage and or mentions. It contains Date; Media Outlet; type of coverage; Headline; Quality of Coverage (low, medium, high) link(where applicable), among others. We deployed enough media monitors to be able to monitor and capture all aspects and fill results accordingly on the code sheets.

We qualified content analysis by assessing whether the coverage or mentions were/are favourable or unfavourable to refugees, space allocated and placement. Although these measures may also be quantified, they are essentially qualitative judgments.

Aware of limitations of this methodology to bring out important aspects of coverage like fulfillment of journalistic reporting standards, tone/sentiment among others, we applied the following other methods of media monitoring and communication measurement.

Using our many years of experience as a firm that aggregates information gathered by traditional and social media content providers, we used different software and tools to compile and analyze that information – and refine it by human analysts. The resulting media and communication intelligence was synthesized further to establish the following:

Prominence: The attention a story on refugee issues got in the media (newspaper or online). We measured using a number of factors that measure the quantity and quality of media coverage, including type of media, extent (of coverage), share of voice, story size or length, placement, story treatment, use of visuals, type of coverage, etc.

Media type – We had to specify which of the four newspapers or website has produced the story or carried a mention about refugee issues.

Share of voice –We analysed the share of media attention in the total coverage that refugee issues got. This information contributes to competitive intelligence analysis, and ultimately justification of the message packaging (for messages originating from organisations).

Use of visuals – We captured information on the content and placement of such visuals as photographs, images, graphics both in newspapers and online.

Type of coverage or Mention– We captured the context in which an item is presented in the media i.e. news, opinion/commentary, feature story, letter to the editor, advert, advertorial.

Tone or sentiment We measured how the refugee issues are portrayed in the media. Tone is normally categorized as positive, neutral or negative (filtered by human analysts for newspapers and online publications).

Message fidelity was used to derive information on how well the message conveyed by the newspapers or online publication matched the message or messages the source(s) wanted to communicate or support refugee issues.

Content and nature of quotes – an amalgamation of what was said/printed in the media, who was quoted in the story, including the quotes themselves as well as the source – media, refugee agency spokesperson, experts, refugees and/or third party, direct or paraphrase.

Outcomes/Impact We measured how prominence is amplified by tone and/or message fidelity. For example, a positive front page story – with an accompanying large flattering photo and multiple spokesperson and third-party quotes delivering the desired messages – in a daily newspaper reaching an audience that the refugee issue most targets could be judged to have a high impact. While impact evaluation processes for social media are ever-evolving, one such measurement revolves around engagement (how engaging the story is).

Engagement – We measured the nature and extent of audience engagement through two-way conversations, the sharing of information, and other interactions such as subscribership. Included in this measurement were such considerations as reach and tone delivered by online posts and comments, linkbacks, tweets, and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, likes etc.

We also additionally looked at:

Number of sources as an indicator of journalistic professionalism. We were looking for distribution and balance of sources to explore potential of bias.

Gender of sources to establish potential differences in reporting on a particular refugee issue based on gender.

Geographical distribution of stories to identify any significant variations especially in terms of the particular refugee camp or home country of refugees being reported about.

Some methods were applied together to reach at the particular findings and interpretations as presented and discussed in the findings.

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS

3.0 Overall media coverage and communication across platforms

The first section presents findings on how refugee issues in Uganda were covered in newspapers and online publications. In the second section we present how refugee issues in Uganda were communicated about in Facebook, Twitter and Facebook, the leading social media networks. The second section also shows the level of engagement of posts within respective social networks.

While we have commented on some of the findings on particular aspects, we expect that you can make your own interpretations about the statistics of media coverage, posts on social media as well as the level and type of engagement as we have presented them.

3.1 Media coverage registered

We noted a total of 778 stories on refugee related stories in newspapers and online publications. Of these, 377 were published in newspapers while 441 were published online. Below are the results of the analysis on the quality of reporting in both newspapers and online publications.

3.1.1 Coverage by newspapers

The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers published a total of 377 stories on issues about refugees in Uganda between the period 1st May to 31st October 2018.

We noted that majority (68.70%) of the stories were published by The New Vision newspaper. Daily Monitor was second with 18.83%, Bukedde had 10.88% while The Observer published the least number of stories (1.59%) as shown in the graph below.

Story placement: We studied the placement of stories reported on refuge issues in Uganda and the finding show that majority (90.72%) of the stories related to refugee in Uganda where published on the inside pages (from page 4 to the 2nd last page) of the newspapers. Only 3.18% were placed on prominent pages (pages 1, 2, 3 and back page). Stories placed on prominent pages are considered more important and also tend to attract the attention of readers more than those placed on the inside pages.

Below is a graph showing the placement of stories published by newspapers on issues related to refugees in Uganda.

Story size: We noted that majority (40.58%) of the stories published by newspapers covered a quota of a newspaper page and below while 35.81% covered half of the newspaper pages. Only 23.87% of the total stories covered full pages as the table below shows.

Publication	Full page	Half	Quota page & below
The New Vision	61	94	104
Daily Monitor	11	25	35
The Observer	3	3	0
Bukedde	15	12	14
Total	90	134	153

Sentiment: We also studied whether the stories published about refugees in Uganda were favorable to refugees and advocated for their wellbeing.

The analysis shows that majority (45.36%) of the stories had positive sentiment followed by those with negative at 31.30%. We found 23.34% had neutral sentiment.

We noted that majority (63.41%) of the stories published by Bukedde newspaper had negative sentiment.

Gender of author: The majority (44.5%) of the stories published by newspapers did not specify the authors. 40.01% were written by males while 19.8% were by females. There has been concern that we need to encourage more female journalist/ authors to report more stories just as men.

The table below shows the gender of author of the stories published by newspapers on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018.

Source Gender: We noted that majority of the stories published by newspapers about refugees in Uganda used male sources compared to female sources as seen below.

80 Female 189 Male 170 Others

The table below shows the source gender used in the stories published by newspapers on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018.

Gender of refugee source: The Majority (56.28%) of refugee sources did not specify the gender of refugee sources used. Unlike in the online publications where male sources were the majority, the trend in newspapers was different. Out of 215 refugee sources recorded, 48 were female sources while 46 were male sources. This is a good practice since women are given an equal chance to speak out on refugee issues.

The table below shows the gender of refugee sources used in the stories published by newspapers on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018.

Source category: We also tallied the categories of people quoted in the stories published by newspapers during the period under review. We categorized them basing on politicians, government officials, religious leaders, humanitarian agencies, donors, host community, refugees, civil society and others.

Below is a graph showing the details of the categories of sources used.

Most stories quoted government officials, followed by humanitarian agencies, and then refugees.

The table below shows the category of sources used in the stories published by newspapers on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018.

Publication	Refugee	Politicians	Humanitarian agency	Gov’t	Host Community	Civil Society	Donors	Religious Leaders	Others
The New Vision	23	54	104	118	30	51	37	7	61
Daily Monitor	53	6	19	19	7	4	3	1	4
The Observer	0	0	3	4	4	0	0	0	1
Bukedde	1	6	3	28	1	1	2	1	4
Total	77	66	129	169	42	56	42	9	70

Community type affected: We noted children were the most mentioned in refugee related issues published by newspapers as seen below:

58 stories affected women 60 stories affected Children 19 Stories affected men

Issues covered: The majority of the stories were on resettlement followed by health, education, food and nutrition as shown in the table below:

Funding	Education	Health	Property	Protection & human rights	Food and nutrition	WASH	Resettlement	Peace building	Innovation	Other
New Vision	70	49	68	33	66	41	53	41	45	26	68
Daily Monitor	1	10	9	9	6	4	8	3	6	4	5
Observer	1	1	1	2	2
Bukedde	35	2	4	1	3	1	2
Total	107	62	77	43	78	46	64	45	51	32	75

Refugee Settlement area: We also studied the settlement area mentioned in the stories reported on issues related to refugees in Uganda. We noted that majority of the stories published by newspapers mentioned Kiryandogo refugee settlement followed by Kyaka and Rhino as the graph below shows;

Country of refugee origin: The majority of the stories talked about refugees from South Sudan followed by those from D.R. Congo as shown in the graph below:

Publication	South Sudan	D.R Congo	Rwanda	Burundi	Other
The New Vision	87	44	31	15	29
Daily Monitor	10	22	14	10	2
The Observer	1	1	2	0	0
Bukedde	37	7	4	22	2
Total	135	74	51	47	33

Share of voice: The majority (44.05%) of the stories published on issues related to refugees in Uganda had a high share of voice, 31.83% were low while 28.12% had medium.

The graph below shows the share of voice of the stories published on issues related to refugees in Uganda by newspapers from May to October 2018.

Message fidelity

Publication	High	Medium	Low
The New Vision	122	90	47
Daily Monitor	20	36	15
The Observer	1	5	0
Bukedde	16	20	5
Total	159	151	67

Type of Coverage: The majority of stories published by newspapers were news stories followed by advertorials, news analysis, editorial, features. Press releases were the least as shown in the table below

Publication	Press release	Advertorial	Editorial	News	News analysis	Opinion	Feature	Letter
The New Vision	5	52	52	130	6	21	22	14
Daily Monitor	12	12	3	11	22	0	7	4
The Observer	0	0	0	0	4	2	0	0
Bukedde	1	35	3	2	33	4	2	1
Total	18	99	58	143	65	27	31	19

Nature of quotes: The majority (176) of the stories published online about refugee issues in Uganda had direct quotes. Sixty seven stories had indirect quotes while 131 had no quotes. Proper quoting from a variety of sources indicates good journalism.

Use of visuals: We noted that majority (195) of the stories had photos. Sixty four had graphics. One hundred twenty nine stories were not accompanied by any visuals.

The graph below shows the use of visuals in the stories published by newspaper on issues related to refugees in Uganda.

3.1.2 Coverage by online publications

Using different industry standard tools, we studied how refugee issues in Uganda were reported about and the organizations mentioned in stories by online publications (all websites excluding social networks).

The results show that online publications published a total of 441 stories on refugees in Uganda and issues related to refugees in Uganda during the study period 1st May – 31st October 2018.

Sentiment: We studied whether the issues reported about were favorable to refugees in Uganda. The majority (46.03%) of the stories by online publications had positive sentiment as the following graph shows.

The high number of stories with positive sentiment shows that the humanitarian agencies and government departments handling refugees or people concerned advocate for a better life of refugees in Uganda.

Gender of author: We noted that 34.69% of the stories were reported by male authors/journalists while 16.33% were by female authors. The majority (48.98%) of the stories published by online publications did not specify sex of the authors.

Source Gender: The majority of the stories published online about refugees issues in Uganda had male sources (207) while 136 had female sources.

27.81% Female s 42.33%Male 29.87% Others

Sourcing from refugees: There were a total of 174 refugee sources in the stories published by online in the review period. We noted there were 64 male refugee sources and 61 female refugee sources that were quoted.

This shows there is a relatively balanced opportunity given to both female and male refugees to speak out or used as sources in the stories reported on issues related to refugees in Uganda by online publications as the graph below shows:

Source category: We studied the categories of sources used by authors/journalists in the stories published online. The majority (34.38%) of the sources used were from humanitarian agencies, refugee sources followed with 27.32%. We noted that 22.61% were government sources while politicians accounted for 3.77%.

Community type affected: Children were the most affected in the issues reported about on refugees in Uganda by online publications during the period under review.

We noted that issues covered in the stories reported by online publications were mostly on children related issues (68.93%), those concerning women accounted for 60.09% while men were the least at (58.28%).

265 stories affected women 304 stories affected Children 257 stories affected men

Issues covered: The majority of the stories were on resettlement followed by health, education, food and nutrition as shown in the table below:

Funding	Education	Health	Property	Protection & human rights	Food and nutrition	WASH	Resettlement	Peace building	innovation	Others
84	93	102	45	61	87	72	146	50	69	84

Refugee Settlement area: We studied the settlement area mentioned in the stories reported on issues related to refugees in Uganda. The findings show that Bidibidi was the highly mentioned refugee settlement followed by Kyangwali and Kyaka as the graph below shows.

Country of refugee origin: The majority of the stories talked about refugees from South Sudan followed by those from D.R. Congo as shown in the graph below:

Innovation: In a bid to find out how the refugees in Uganda are planning to sustain their livelihood, we studied the innovations they are engaged in as reported in the stories published online. We noted that entrepreneurship leads with 50 stories followed by music at 11 stories.

High	Medium	Low
227	116	98

Share of voice:	Message fidelity:

High	Medium	Low
193	60	188

Type of Coverage: The majority of stories online were news stories, press releases and features. Advertorials were the least as shown in the table below

Press release	Advertorial	News	Opinion	Feature
138	14	155	38	76

Nature of quotes: The majority (182) of the stories published online about refugee issues in Uganda had no quotes. Stories that had direct quotes were 174 while 39 had indirect quotes.

Use of visuals: The majority (237) of the stories had photos. Fifty nine had video while 99 had graphics. Fifty nine stories had no visuals. Stories with visuals are usually understood better understood than stories with no visuals.

3.2 Communication and engagement of refugees issues in social media

As many Ugandan media outlets and individuals are active in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it was important to track conversations in these social media networks so as to gauge the type of posts and the outcomes of such posts in order to further understand how Ugandans understand or appreciate refugee issues.

In addition to how refugee issues in Uganda were communicated on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we have captured the level engagement of the respective posts made on issues related to refugees in Uganda from 1st May to 31st October 2018.

Engagement measures the connections built by a brand or issue and its audience. A quick glance at an organization’s engagement rate gives an insight as to whether communication efforts are successful or not. A high engagement rate on an issue also indicates good successful communication about the issue.

There are different engagements received by posts and these carry different meaning. For example whereas a like is great, a retweet or comment shows a lot more commitment from audience members. While likes are a sign that the followers appreciate what you have to say, a retweet or share shows that your followers really value your input and willing to spread it.

3.2.1 How Refugee issues in Uganda were posted about on Facebook

The study found that a total of 608 posts on issues related to refugees in Uganda were made on Facebook over a period of six months (May 1st to October 31st 2018). These generated 1,436,534 views as of November 14, 2018.

We also noted that the posts generated more shares than comments. There were 14,552 shares compared to 6,151 comments.

Reactions: We captured how Facebook users reacted to the posts made on issues related to refugees in Uganda. Findings show that users reacted more through likes, followed by love, wow, cry, angry and laugh as shown below.

56,746	10,519	184	1,004	216	719

Post Type: We tallied the post type used while posting messages on issues related to refugees in Uganda. We categorized post type as text, photo, video, link, graphic, event or question.

It was found out that majority of the posts were text type followed by link, photo while question type was the least used as shown in the graph below.

Community type: We also studied the community type mentioned in the posts made on Facebook about issues related to refugees in Uganda. These were categorized as women, children and men. Study results indicate that children were mentioned most (56) followed by women (46). Men were the least mentioned (07). This is the same trend with coverage in newspapers and online media.

Issue posted about: Issues were categorised as funding, education, health protection and human rights, WASH, food and nutrition, resettlement, peace building innovation and others. The results are shown in the graph below.

Refugee Settlement: The study tracked the mention of the refugee settlement area posted about in the messages posted on Facebook on issues related to refugees in Uganda. Bidibidi refugee settlement was mentioned the most (43) on Facebook followed by Nakivale at 26 posts. The table below shows how the settlement camps were mentioned.

Kiryandongo	Kyaka	Kyangwali	Bidi bidi	Nakivale	Rhino	Rwanmwanja	Imvepi	Oruchinga	Pagirinya	Palorinya	Other
7	18	13	43	26	17	4	13	4	5	2	22

Country of refugee origin: South Sudan was mentioned the highest number of times in the posts made on Facebook about issues related to refugees in Uganda during the period under review as shown in the graph below.

Gender of refugee: We noted that majority of the posts on facebook focused more on females (80) than men (74).

3.1.2 How refugee issues were posted about on YouTube

We tracked refugee issues in Uganda as posted on the different YouTube channels. We captured the level of reach and engagement of the respective posts made within 1st May and 31st October 2018. We also captured the settlement camp and country of refugee origin mentioned in the videos.

The analysis shows that a total of 66 videos were posted on YouTube channels by media houses, humanitarian agencies, organizations and individuals on issues related to refugees in Uganda from May 1st to October 31st 2018. These posts had generated 24,602 video views as of 13th November 2018.

We noted the issues generated limited engagement. The posts generated more likes than comments and dislikes. This means there was minimal discussion about the issues highlighted but viewers showed interest in the videos thus the likes.

We noted that 18.18% of the videos on issues related to refugees in Uganda were posted by NTV Uganda. NBSTV Uganda followed with 15.15%.

The word cloud below shows how often the different YouTube channels posted about refugee issues in Uganda during the period May 1st – October 31st 2018. (The bigger the word, the more number of times the channel posted).

The majority (25.76%) of the issues covered on YouTube were on funding followed education at 15.15%. Resettlement and peace building stood at 12.12% each as the graph below shows.

Location of refugee settlement area mentioned: We also tracked the mention of settlement area from which the issues concerning refugees in Uganda were reported about in the videos on YouTube.

Our analysis shows that Kyangwali refugee settlement was mentioned the highest number of times on YouTube followed by Nakivale.

This was because a high number of videos talked about issues affecting refugees who came from DR Congo and settled in either Kyangwali or Nakivale settlement in Uganda.

Settlement	Kyaka	Kyangwali	Bidi bidi	Nakivale	Rhino	Rwanmwanja	Imvepi	Palorinya	Others
No. of mentions	5	10	4	8	1	1	3	1	33

Country of origin: We further looked at the country the refugees talked about in the videos come from. Findings show that majority (54.41%) of the videos on issues concerning refugees in Uganda did not mention the country of origin or come from countries other than South Sudan, D.R. Congo, Burundi or Rwanda.

3.1.3 Coverage of refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter

We searched Twitter to get the conversations, level of discussions and mentions of refugee issues during the period 1st May 2018 – 31st October 2018. The table below shows the number of tweets made during the different months under review.

Engagement
MONTH	TOTAL	Reply	Retweet	Favorite
MAY	802	235	2,749	8,337
JUNE	984	331	4,225	8,414
JULY	461	148	1,424	3,527
AUGUST	484	127	1,296	2,553
SEPTEMBER	578	265	2,228	5,261
OCTOBER	667	306	2,628	6,893
TOTAL	3,976	1,412	14,550	34,985

It was observed that the month of May and June had the highest number of posts/mentions about refugees in Uganda. This could be attributed to the numerous activities and awareness that both precedes and supersede the World Refugee day which takes place every 20th date of June.

June still witnessed the highest of engagements with 8,414 closely followed by May 8,337. This shows the more you post the higher the likely engagement.

The chart below illustrates how the different months performed in relation to engagement from the period 1st May 2018 – 31st October 2018.

Post type: The table below shows type of media used by different users who posted about refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter during the period 1st May 2018 – 31st October 2018.

Post type
MONTH	Text	Photo	Graphic	video	Questions	Events	link
MAY	801	450	47	19	8	345
JUNE	951	501	62	43	451
JULY	342	238	17	17	1	318
AUGUST	482	236	6	15	6	10	356
SEPTEMBER	570	303	39	26	3	2	231
OCTOBER	681	342	1	21	9	8	574
TOTAL	3,827	2,070	125	169	37	29	2,275

Almost all tweets were accompanied with text (3,827). The least used post type were events (29) and questions (37).

Community type: Issues pertaining children refugees had the most conversations on Twitter 61.19% followed by Women 29.05 and lastly Men 9.85% as shown below.

233 stories affected women 490 stories affected Children 79 stories affected men

Issue posted about: Issues were categorized as funding, education, health protection and human rights, WASH, food and nutrition, resettlement, peace building innovation and others. Issues on funding just like it was on Facebook led with 429 as seen below.

Refugee Settlement: The study tracked conversations about refugee settlement area on Twitter on issues related to refugees in Uganda. We again noted that just like it was like on Facebook, Bidibidi refugee settlement was mentioned the highest number (167) of times on Twitter followed by Nakivale with (76) conversations. The table below shows how the settlement camps were mentioned;

Location / Camp / Community
Kiryandongo	Kyaka	Kyangwali	Bidi bidi	Nakivale	Rhino	Rwanmwanja	Imvepi	Nyumanzi	Oruchinga	Pagirinya	Palorinya	Other
TOTAL	47	45	50	167	76	58	19	28	11	8	10	14	1,109

Country of refugee origin: South Sudan was the most mentioned country in the conversations on Twitter within posts about issues related to refugees in Uganda during the period under review as shown in the graph below;

Gender of refugee: We noted that majority of the tweets focused more on females (82) than males (64).

We noted that there was a high rate of conversation on refugee issues in Uganda within Twitter. The level of engagement was averagely good.

3.2 Organisations most mentioned in media coverage and communication

We were interested to find out what organisations or agencies are mentioned most in media coverage on refugee issues within newspapers, online publications, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The most mentioned organisations were UNHCR, OPM, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, USAID, World Vision, FAO, Save the Children and Care.

We searched for mention of OPM as compared to other government agencies, UNHCR as compared to other humanitarian agencies as well as specific mentions of other organisations dealing in refugee issues in Uganda.

Since the government through the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) is directly involved in handling refugee issues in the country, we further anlysed how often the OPM and other government agencies are used as sources by journalists in their reporting on issues related to refugees in Uganda.

We noted that out of 144 sources from government, 60.42% were sources from the OPM while 39.58% were sources from other government agencies. This means that officials from the OPM are mostly consulted or interviewed while reporting about issues related to refugees in Uganda.

We also studied the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the humanitarian agency whose major aim is on handling refugee issues globally. We captured the number of times officials from UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies were used as sources in stories published on issues related to refugees in Uganda. One hundred eighty three (183) were UNHCR sources while 36 were sources from other humanitarian agencies as the chart below shows.

Most mentioned agencies in Newspapers	Most mentioned agencies in

Top ten mentioned Agencies in online	No. of mentions
UNHCR	183
WFP	33
UNICEF	21
Save the Children	10
FOA	8
World Vision	8
UNDP	7
UNFPA	6
World Bank	6
WHO	5
Norwegian Refugee Council	5

online publications

Top ten mentioned Agencies in Newspapers	No. of mentions
UNHCR	118
UNICEF	20
WFP	16
Save the Children	7
WHO	6
World Vision	6
NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council)	5
UN	5
ECHO	4
USAID	4
UNFPA	4

Most mentioned agencies on facebook	Most mentioned agencies on twitter

Top ten mentioned Agencies on facebook	Top ten mentioned Agencies on Twitter No. of mentions UNHCR 203 UN 70 WFP 60 UNICEF 33 World Vision 32 EU 29 FOA 20 LWF 20 Save the Children 16 UNDP 14 No. of mentions
UNHCR	40
World Vision	13
Red Cross	9
Vision Islam	7
Refugee Law Project	6
WFP	5
Save the Children	4
Norwegian Refugee Council	4
AVIS	4
UNICEF	4

As already noted, the government was highly mentioned in newspapers and online stories, with the Office of the Prime Minister as the most mentioned government entity.

CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

This research was aimed at studying the media coverage of and communication about refugee issues in Uganda across platforms (newspapers, online publications and social media). The underlying issues included finding out how often refugee issues are covered or reported about or mentioned in newspapers and online publications, how well they are reported about in journalistic content, how often refugee issues were posted or communications about in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as the level of engagement generated by posts on refugee issues in Uganda. The study also sought to find out the organisations most mentioned in media coverage and communications about refugee issues in Uganda across the platforms.

4.0 Findings Vs general focus of study on reporting frames

The findings show that there is commendable framing and attention to refugee issues in Uganda by newspapers and online publications. However, some newspapers especially Daily Monitor and Bukedde need to be helped to cover more and better on refugee issues in Uganda. Despite being the highest circulating newspaper in Uganda, Bukedde had 10.88% of the 377 stories published by newspapers on refugee issues in Uganda. The newspaper also had most of the stories with negative sentiment. Yet their sister newspaper The New Vision did extremely well in reporting on refugee issues both in quantity of stories and story treatment.

We noted good sourcing and quoting practices, considerably quoting government, humanitarian agencies and refugees themselves, including balancing men and women, especially in The New Vision. It should however be noted that the good coverage in The New Vision is partially attributed to advertorials which accounted for 99 of the 377 articles and mentions of refugee issues in Uganda.

It can be generally said that the framing of refugee narrative in Uganda is on a good level, as further supported by the high communication and engagement on Facebook and Twitter about refugee issues in Uganda.

4.1 Findings Vs Research issues

These are our observations from the analysis of the study findings.

The quantity and quality of media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online: The quantity has been well elaborated in the findings. We cannot say it is good or not without a benchmark parameter that would define good (quantity). What we clearly ascertained is that there are many stories done about refugee issues in Uganda in both newspapers and online publications. The quality of media coverage as has been presented in the different parameters is noted as being above average. Most of the stories both in newspapers and online were of good quality. The recommended practices like good diverse sourcing from even the affected, interviewing both men and women, use of visuals; high message fidelity, positive framing etc should be encouraged and improved for adoption by as many reporters and media houses.

The organisations mentioned in media coverage of refugee issues in newspapers and online: There has been concern that the narratives on refugees may be dominated by a few organisations in government and international donor community. The research finds that many organisations are mentioned in coverage of refugee issues in Uganda. The majority of the top mentioned organisations are international agencies. The organizations mentioned most were UNHCR, OPM, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, USAID, World Vision, FAO, Save the Children and Care.

The number and type of posts made about refugee issues in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube: We found a high level of posting in Facebook and Twitter as shown in the results. The posts in these two platforms were also of varied post types, utilizing text, video, images (photo) or graphics, questions and events. We however noted limited video posts in both Twitter and Facebook. Also there were few posts in YouTube about refugee issues. Most of the posts were from NTV Uganda and NBS TV. There is need to encourage increased video posts in Facebook and Twitter as well as post more videos on YouTube by both online publications and organisations involved in refugee related issues.

The level and type of engagement of posts about refugees in Uganda on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube: We noted a high level of engagement in Twitter, followed by Facebook. It is not clear whether this was organic engagement (not resulting from paid promotions in Facebook and Twitter) but it does show that conversations on refugee issues were widely shared, commented on and attracted likes and favourites. We however didn’t see much engagement in Youtube, the most popular social network. Organisations dealing in refugee issues need to scrutinize this further and take advantage of the best practices that led to such high engagement especially Twitter and Facebook respectively.

4.2 Other Lessons from the study

The study found that the higher the number of Facebook posts or tweets, the higher the engagement. The main goal of any communication activity should be to drive engagement (interaction with your content beyond just viewing your content).

We also noticed that photos generated more engagement on Facebook while videos and links generated more engagement on Twitter.

Organisations need to publish more on their website-including engaging content that users can access or media houses can copy for publication, as well as link posts on their social media accounts back to relevant sections of their website(s).

Organisations need to undertake efforts to increase on amount of stories published about their brand to circumvent negative press and increase positive coverage.

Orgnaisations dealing in refugee issues in Uganda didn’t do much in utilizing YouTube to for example post explainer videos, case stories, running image or beneficiary profiles related to refugee issues etc.

We noted that journalism practices were slightly better exhibited in online publications than in newspapers be it in professional reporting or amount of public interest coverage.

There is need for better use of keywords by online publications to ensure all organisations, people, titles and issues involved in stories are included in titles, tags and within content. This will aid better search for such content when research and tracking on related issues, people or organisations is being undertaken.

4.4 Recommendations on better framing and reporting refugee issues

Given the main focus of the study on reframing the narrative and indeed encourage better reporting of refugee issues in Uganda we further recommend:

Media houses and journalists in general need to undertake more detailed reporting on refugee issues so we see more feature and detailed stories, as well as run good stories on prominent pages of newspapers.

There is need for coverage of stories on lives of refugees as people by highlighting those doing positive things in the communities they live in.

It is vital to empower journalists to better understand and report on refugee issues

Organizations dealing in refugee issues can expose and drive for more coverage of initiatives by refugees in going about their lives and going about their work or business.

Continue and support current good reporting and conversations on refugee issues

We also recommend for the introduction of Awards for good reporting on refugee issues to drive more and better coverage.

Conclusion

It is well acknowledged that the media has a ‘privileged’ social–cultural position, able to legitimise particular truths and shape public attitudes on issues like these of refugees. This study has confirmed commendable efforts by media houses in framing good narratives about refugee issues in Uganda. However, the media can improve in presenting broader opinions about refugeehood, asylum seeking, and national identity as these issues grow in significance.

We welcome your own observations and learning from this and related studies so we continue to build on knowledge necessary to improve journalism and communication practice. We also welcome those interested in partnering with us to jointly undertake similar studies. ###

Access to research tools with data for the respective issues in this research (and other researches) is available to subscribers and members of UMC. You can apply or get details at:

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Plot 189, Ggaba Road Kampala, Uganda	www.ultimatemultimediatraining.net/research

Tel. +256772627676/+256785438132/+256751627676 info@ultimatemultimediaconsult.com

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Media coverage as used in this study refers to the amount of attention that television, radio, newspapers and online publications give to something, or the way in which something is reported. Communication in this study is used to refer to the deliberate preparation, sharing (sending) of messages from organisations dealing with refugees and refugee related issues as well as the conversations about refugees online, including in social media platforms.

Newspapers, online publications and social media are all considered mainstream media today.

UNHCR, Uganda refugees and asylum seekers, a status report, July 2018

https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/64687

The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning. The concept of framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308092078_Media_coverage_of_refugees_and_asylum_seekers_in_regional_Australia_A_critical_discourse_analysis [accessed Nov 14 2018].

In establishing what communication impact is – and what it isn’t – it is important to distinguish between outcomes and impacts. From an assessment standpoint, outcomes are typically defined in terms of the shorter-term effects that a message or campaign can have (such as reaching, informing, engaging, and mobilizing target audiences), whereas impacts can be seen as the longer-term, more far-reaching changes (such as changes in individuals’ behaviors, acquisition of clients and continued use of service/product, or changes in public policy) (see Knight Foundation, 2011ii https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/Impact-a-guide-to-Evaluating_Community_Info_Projects.pdf ). Since behavior of people changes over a long period of time, it is feasible for most communication measurement efforts to capture outcomes than impact of messages, medium (media) and communication activities generally.

Meaning they engage in activities of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information following a set of principles that ensure public interest is being served. The principles or elements of journalism including truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fairness, balance, facts and verification among others are what separate journalism from other forms of communication and make journalism indispensable in democratic societies.

We made sure indicators fulfil the principles of reliability and validity. Reliability means that the indicators had to be consistently identified by any trained monitor. As such, assigning each code would always produce the same result regardless of who is doing the monitoring. This was achieved first by selecting indicators that are objectively verifiable with pre-determined lists of codes that identify issues and level of measurement. Validity means that the selected indicators actually show what they are intended to show. We made sure indicators are selected for a clear purpose and not interpreted to show more than they actually indicate. For example, counting the number of times a telecom company was reported about does not necessarily indicate the company sent out the most or best messages.

Content analysis also doesn’t capture target audience comprehension and application of messages. This particular aspect though was not a focus of this study given the scope and resource implications.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Bukedde newspaper has the highest estimated circulation of 33,113. The New Vision newspaper follows with 31,119. Daily Monitor newspaper is third with 19,083 while The Observer newspaper circulation is estimated at 12,000. It is estimated (as an industry standard) that each newspaper is read by at least 10 people.

Video is the most popular medium as it appeals to both sight, hearing and feeling senses with added power of motion.