View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Portrait of a Resented Race Investigating how the Ugandan media covered the bitter sentiments against Asians expressed in April 2007 and what these sentiments say about the future of Asians in Uganda. Annet Kizza Rønningsbakk Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment for the Master of Journalism Institute of Media and Communication University of Oslo Spring 2011 i ii iii Table of Contents LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... xi 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ............................................................................ 1 1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Historical Background ...................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Statement of the problem ................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Research questions ........................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Justification of study ........................................................................................................ 6 1.5 From arrival to expulsion to arrival .................................................................................. 7 1.5.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7 1.5.1 How Asians came to East Africa (E.A) ..................................................................... 8 1.5.2 What Asians engaged in in E.A ................................................................................ 8 1.5.3 The relationship of Asians with British, indigenous Africans .................................. 9 1.5.4 Asians contribution to E.A ...................................................................................... 10 1.5.5 The roots of resentment ........................................................................................... 11 1.5.6 How Asians were treated during the expulsion ....................................................... 13 1.5.7 Rebuilding life as refugees ...................................................................................... 13 1.5.8 How Asians have behaved after returning to Uganda ............................................. 14 1.6 Structure of thesis ........................................................................................................... 14 2 THEORETICAL APPROACHES ........................................................................................ 17 2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 17 2.1 Minority groups defined ................................................................................................. 17 2.2 A privileged minority ..................................................................................................... 19 2.3 A vulnerable minority .................................................................................................... 21 2.4 Banal nationalism and banal journalism ........................................................................ 22 2.4.1 Banal nationalism .................................................................................................... 23 2.4.2 Banal journalism ..................................................................................................... 24 i 2.5 Identity construction ....................................................................................................... 25 2.6 The ―us‖ and ―them‖ binary ........................................................................................... 28 2.7 Marginalisation ............................................................................................................... 30 2.8 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................... 31 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 33 3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Media landscape in Uganda ........................................................................................... 34 3.2. Material for the study .................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 New Vision .............................................................................................................. 35 3.2.2 Monitor .................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.3 Why newspapers ..................................................................................................... 36 3.2.4 Some issues to note ................................................................................................. 37 3.3 The scope of newspaper articles ..................................................................................... 37 3.4 Gate keeping ................................................................................................................... 39 3.4.1 Hate speech ............................................................................................................. 40 3.5 Framing .......................................................................................................................... 41 3.5.1 Operationalising Framing ........................................................................................ 42 3.6 Challenges faced ............................................................................................................ 42 3.6.1 Experience with Asians ........................................................................................... 42 3.6.2 Accessing material .................................................................................................. 43 4 PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ......................................................... 45 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 45 4.1 Overview of articles ....................................................................................................... 45 4.1.1 Observations from Fig.1 .......................................................................................... 46 4.1.2 Overview of Letters ................................................................................................. 47 4.2 Analysis of Letters –Monitor ......................................................................................... 49 4.2.1 No soft beginning of the debate .............................................................................. 49 4.2.2 The debate heats up ................................................................................................. 51 4.2.3 Was anyone watching the gate? .............................................................................. 51 4.2.4 Post-riot Letters ....................................................................................................... 52 4.2.5 A nation in repentance? ........................................................................................... 54 4.3 New Vision Letters ......................................................................................................... 56 4.3.0 A smaller dose of racist sentiments ......................................................................... 56 ii 4.3.1 Reasoned Letters ..................................................................................................... 58 4.3.2 After riots ................................................................................................................ 60 4.4 Good gate keeping .......................................................................................................... 61 4.4.0 New Vision .............................................................................................................. 61 4.4.1 Monitor .................................................................................................................... 61 4.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 62 5 ANALYSIS USING FRAMING .......................................................................................... 65 5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 65 5.2 The riot and immediate aftermath .................................................................................. 66 5.2.1 Asians and their properties targeted .......................................................................