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COMMUNITY MEDIA NARROWCASTING IN UGANDA: AN ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY AUDIO TOWERS ROBERT BRIAN SEMUJJU (214581303) SUPERVISOR: DR. LAUREN DYLL A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE CENTRE FOR COMMUNICATION, MEDIA AND SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL, IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2016 DECLARATION COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES DECLARATION - PLAGIARISM I, …………………………………………………declare that: 1. The research reported in this dissertation, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This dissertation has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This dissertation does not contain other persons‘ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This dissertation does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This dissertation does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the dissertation and Bibliography. Signature: Date: Place: Supervisor: Signature: Date: Place: ii READER Dr. Terje Skjerdal Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, NLA University College, Kristiansand, Norway. iii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my grandmother. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT There is a supreme being somewhere above my head, who gives me the strength to carry on. This is a gift that I needed most throughout this journey. My human nature always reached its limits. I felt my back literary splitting, mostly at 3am after sitting for several hours writing different chapters. I always wanted to take a break. This is when His voice told me: ―It‘s OK to continue. I‘ve got your back‖. Indeed I continued because I knew He wanted me to. My sincere appreciation goes to the Norwegian tax payers. Through the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED), I started and finished my PhD. Wherever you are tax payers, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. To coordinate affairs between the Norwegian Government and I, were two distinguished professors: Dr. Monica Chibita at the Mass Communication Department, Uganda Christian University, and Dr. Terje Skjerdal at NLA University College, Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Kristiansand, Norway. To those two, I can only say: this work is a result of your effort. Next in line, but equally important, is my supervisor Dr. Lauren Dyll, whose valuable counsel was very instrumental from the beginning to the end. She managed to shape the ideas in my head into something that has now become a thesis. Her encouraging personality and patience, the reading material she always pointed me to, were very instrumental in building me as a potential academic. Additionally, Dr Dyll‘s Development Communication class added to my level of appreciation of the subject and helped me to shape my own work. I also wish to acknowledge the support I got from the Mass Communication Department at Uganda Christian University, specifically from the Head of Department, Associate Professor Monica Chibita. She saw something in me that I did not see at all. She believed in my potential, even when I personally thought there was none. It is because of her encouragement that I undertook this journey with a resolve that was as solid as a rock. Other members at the Department, like Dorothy, the administrative assistant, who always advised on paperwork, Joseph, Evangeline, Daniel, Francis (for the technical support), and several other department v members, were supportive in more than one way. May God compensate you for your kindness. Various members at UCU prayed for me and my fellow candidates: Samuel Kazibwe, Sara Namusoga, Emilly Comfort Maractho, and Angella Napakol, and gave us a send-off. I will never forget your goodwill. The other group that I cannot forget to mention is the ―family‖ at the Glenmore Pastoral Centre, in Durban, South Africa. This family welcomed me on the very first day that I arrived in South Africa and gave me a comfortable place to live. Most importantly, the Glenmore Pastoral Centre (GPC) gave me access to a reading environment when they handed me keys to the Centre‘s well equipped reading room. It is in this room that I spent most of my stay in South Africa. This thesis is a result of those uninterrupted nights in that room. Thank you Leanne and Andrew. The support staff in the kitchen, especially my ―mother‖ Zoleka, my sister Wendy, and the whole team, was very useful to help me adjust to a new life. I will carry the Zulu name that you gave me, Zamo, throughout my next beginnings and ends. Fellow residents at the GPC like my best friend Jean-Paul Almaze from Seychelles, Bhuti Thulani Phewa, uMama Nombulelo Phewa, and others, made life easier for a stranger like me in Durban. Jean-Paul, in addition to his own academic journey, was an informant and a good foot soldier, whenever I was away from South Africa. To the Phewas, I was a lovely son. God bless them. The University of KwaZulu-Natal Taekwondo Team was another group that helped me every evening to empty all the stress from the previous night so that when I sat to read and write again, I was fresh. Specifically, my sparring partner Raja was kind enough to listen to some of the ideas in this thesis during training. Lastly, to the people who helped me during data collection, like my research assistants who took the pictures in the field, the field guides who ran around in circles when I was sending them for gatekeeping letters while still in Durban, the opinion leaders who introduced me to different people during data collection, thank you so much. And finally, to my mother Milly, God bless you. vi ACRONYMS AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome AMARC The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CAT Community Audio Towers CCMS Centre for Communication, Media and Society CDO Community Development Officer DDP District Development Plan FAO Food and Agricultural Organisation HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus ICT Information and Communication Technology GDP Gross Domestic Product KKCR Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio MDG Millennium Development Goal MDPP Masaka District Development Plan MSD Media System Dependency NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NRMO National Resistance Movement Organisation (Uganda) PCAARRD Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science (software programme) UBC Uganda Broadcasting Corporation UBOS Uganda Bureau of Statistics UCC Uganda Communications Commission UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction vii ABSTRACT This thesis is about Community Audio Towers (CATs). CATs are small media platforms that use horn speakers hoisted on a long dry pole, an amplifier and a microphone to communicate daily village events. This study shows that individuals depend more on CATs than other available mainstream channels. The thesis interrogates the level of individual (i.e. villager) dependency on CATs in Ugandan rural and semi-urban communities alongside the other three available platforms in Uganda: radio, television and newspapers. There is a gap in existing literature to explain dependencies in small (alternative) media like CATs. Therefore, the study uses the Media System Dependency (MSD) theory (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976), a relevant media theory that explains dependencies on a communication platform similar to this case study. However, since CATs are a community media, they are also theorised in this study within the framework of development communication, which helps the study to argue that CATs are small media platforms that provide local information. However, due to the need to investigate dependencies in CATs, the study‘s main research questions are raised using the MSD theory. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. To investigate the level of individual dependency on CATs, a survey was done among 100 respondents from two districts in Uganda (50 respondents from each district). Data was collected in the rural Masaka district and in the semi-urban Mukono district. Additionally, to understand how CATs are sustained, how they attract the community members, and their position in the national communication infrastructure, ten key informant interviews were conducted with various CATs stakeholders like: the State Minister for ICT, technical experts at Uganda Communications Commission, District information and Development officers, local council chairmen and CATs announcers. The study found that the level of individual dependency on CATs is higher than the individual dependency on any other mass communication platform accessed by the sample communities. CATs appear to attract the audience through localising the processes of information gathering, processing and dissemination. These processes are affordable and done by the locals themselves, something that increases attention whenever the community requires a channel to communicate an issue.

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