How Print Media in Uganda is Unbalanced on Political Coverage; A Case of the New Vision and Daily Monitor Newspapers

ABSTRACT

This study set out to examine Uganda Print Media, Un-Balanced Political Coverage; a Case of The Ne11· vision and Daily Monitor News papers. This study was conducted under the following specific objectives; to explore the causes of unbalanced political coverage of print media in Uganda, to find out and analyze the implication of unbalanced political coverage of print media in Uganda and to assess the role of unbalanced political coverage of print media on readers in Uganda. The study used a descriptive research design. Data was collected from a sample of 30 respondents and analyzed using the descriptive method and percentages for qualitative and quantitative data respectively. Findings revealed that the following were the major issues counting for causes of Unbalanced Political Coverage of Print Media in Uganda; Uganda's press freedom environment deteriorated in 2013, due in large part to the government's I 0-day closure of two major media houses in May. News outlets were regularly subjected to various forms of interference from government officials. Findings concluded that Unbalanced Political Coverage of Print Media in Uganda has impacted in the following ways. Government interference on print media has undermined the development and progress of some print companies. Violates the reader's rights since the main opposition print media has less autonomy in terms of what to print out and what to leave out. The profitability of some print media companies has been hindered by the rude and harsh authority by the Government such compromising with their license of operation. Findings also revealed that Unbalanced Political Coverage of Print Media on Readers in Uganda play the following roles, Reliance on Other Media or Competition, Political and economic power. Status or Rank of the Source, Editor's influence and Government interference. The study recommended that Editors and reporters should take a great deal more care in seeking and representing a plurality of citizens' experiences and points of view, and in providing a much broader forum- facilitating access to the media not only for experts, mainstream politicians, and professional journalists, but also for occasional proponents of positions that emerge through popular grassroots discussions of the issues. Therefore the researcher proposing that citizens be empowered to act not only as receivers of mass media messages, but also as senders.