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Journalism as if the People Mattered: Addressing HIV/AIDS in East Africa
Jyotika Ramaprasad
School of Journalism
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
Voice: 618-536-3361
Email: [log in to unmask]
Abstract
Within the context of two relatively new concepts, public journalism
and social capital, this study assessed perceptions of Ugandan,
Kenyan, Tanzanian and Malawian journalists about their role in
addressing the HIV/AIDS problem in their respective countries. The
journalists perceived a large role for themselves in both the
information dissemination and the impact creation, including creating
social capital, aspects of public journalism. Country, demographic
variables, work-related variables and risk perception (perceived
seriousness of the disease and likelihood of being infected) did not
have a major influence on these role perceptions. The journalists
were consonant in their beliefs about their role in helping their
country address HIV/AIDS.
Paper submitted to the International Division of AEJMC for review for
presentation at the National Convention, San Antonio, TX, August 2005.
Journalism as if the People Mattered: Addressing HIV/AIDS in East Africa
Abstract
Within the context of two relatively new concepts, public journalism
and social capital, this study assessed perceptions of Ugandan,
Kenyan, Tanzanian and Malawian journalists about their role in
addressing the HIV/AIDS problem in their respective countries. The
journalists perceived a large role for themselves in both the
information dissemination and the impact creation, including creating
social capital, aspects of public journalism. Country, demographic
variables, work-related variables and risk perception (perceived
seriousness of the disease and likelihood of being infected) did not
have a major influence on these role perceptions. The journalists
were consonant in their beliefs about their role in helping their
country address HIV/AIDS.
Paper submitted to the International Division of AEJMC for review for
presentation at the National Convention, San Antonio, TX, August 2005.
Journalism as if the People Mattered:[1] Addressing HIV/AIDS in East Africa
Introduction and Purpose
The 1980s saw the advent of a new disease, HIV/AIDS, unlike any
known to humanity in the past several centuries. It origins are
reported to be in Africa also the continent most severely hurt by the
AIDS epidemic. AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is
caused by infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV),
which breaks down the body's ability to fight infections resulting in
opportunistic infections that can be painful, ravaging and fatal. To
date, no preventive vaccination or cure has been discovered for the
disease, though a cocktail of drugs can keep sufferers' immune
systems healthy for a length of time. Partly because of the lack of a
cure, the disease's debilitating nature, and its transmission, among
other routes, by sexual intercourse, the disease has caused
unprecedented fear, stigma, and victimization of sufferers.
The search for medical and social solutions is continuing. Among the
latter are education attempts for prevention and social treatment of
the disease and people living with HIV/AIDS. Strategies used in these
education efforts aim at cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral
modification, and individual- and societal-level change, employ
top-down and bottom-up approaches, and engage health and social
science professionals. One group of professionals whose role in
bringing about social change has been historically the subject of
worldwide discussion and, sometimes, debate is journalists. Two
concepts, one from journalism and the other from sociology, generated
towards the end of the 20th century, bring journalism and social
change together again. Public journalism[2] invests journalists with
a responsible role in social change by having them produce journalism
that reengages the audience in issues of social and political
importance. Social capital[3] refers to collective action for social
change based on cooperative relationships. Thus public journalism
could foster social change by building social capital..
Set within the context of these two concepts, as well as the immense
threat posed by HIV/AIDS in Africa, this paper reports the results of
a study on opinions of journalists, from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and
Malawi, about their public journalism/social capital building role in
helping their country address the problem of HIV/AIDS. Specifically,
its purpose is to describe journalists' public journalism role
perceptions and to examine whether these differ by risk perception,
country, demographic and work related variables.
HIV/AIDS in Africa
The seriousness of HIV/AIDS is evident in the fact that halting and
reversing the spread of the disease is one of eight United Nations
Millennium Development Goals to be reached by 2015. According to a
UNAIDS (2004a) report, "Today, 8,000 people will lose their lives to
HIV/AIDS and another 14,000—10 people every single minute—will become
newly infected. AIDS killed more than 3 million people in 2003 and an
estimated 5 million more became infected—bringing to some 40 million
the number currently living with the virus. More than 20 million have
already died since the first clinical evidence of the disease was
reported in 1981."
While the disease knows no geographical boundaries, Sub-Saharan
Africa seems to be specially overwhelmed by it; one in five adults is
infected with HIV in the region. An executive at a major media group
in Kenya told the author that if anyone in the region says they have
not been affected by AIDS, directly or indirectly, they are lying
(Emmanuel Juma, Head of News, KTN Baraza Ltd., Kenya, personal
communication, July 12, 2004). The region has just over 10% of the
world's population, but it has two-thirds of all people living with
HIV--an estimated 25.4 million adults and around two million children
under 15 (UNAIDS, 2004b). It also has more than twelve million
children orphaned by AIDS (Fredriksson and Kanabus, 2004). In 2004,
the region experienced approximately 3.1 million new infections and
an estimated 2.3 million AIDS related deaths.
The impact of the disease is painful in these human terms, but is not
limited to them. The disease's economic, societal, and psychological
effects are devastating. The most productive economic age group is
shrinking, grandparents are now caretakers of orphaned children,
people are gripped with fear, and society practices ostracism of
people living with HIV/AIDS (Hope, 1999). But the future appears even
more bleak. According to AVERT, an AIDS charity organization, "The
extent of the epidemic is only now becoming clear in many African
countries, as increasing numbers of people with HIV are now becoming
ill…. This means that the worst of the epidemic's impact on these
societies will be felt in the course of the next ten years and
beyond." (Fredriksson and Kanabus, 2004).
Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi, four sub-Saharan countries, are
gravely affected by this disease. Their governments have all
appointed commissions and made national policy on HIV/AIDS. Uganda
made the earliest start and has met with considerable success in
reducing prevalence rates for the disease. AIDS statistics as well as
descriptions of the political response to the epidemic in the four
countries follow.
Uganda: The overall HIV prevalence rate was 4.1% at the end of 2003
(UNAIDS, 2004c). AIDS is the leading cause of death for those aged 15
to 49 years, and half (one million) of Uganda's orphan population is
due to HIV/AIDS. Surviving mothers and grandmothers are the
predominant heads of households. By pursuing a policy of openness,
and through strong political support, Uganda has successfully
decreased its HIV infection rates and provides hope to the world in
fighting the disease. According to ADVERT, "Uganda's policies are
credited with having brought the prevalence rate down from higher
than 30% in the early 90s to 4.3% in 2001. At the end of 2003, the
government and the UN say that only 4.1% of adults had the virus"
(Fredriksson and Kanabus, 2004).
Kenya: The HIV prevalence rate was 6.7% in Kenya at the end of 2003
(UNAIDS, 2004d). AIDS deaths are still rising steeply and number
about 150, 000 per year. However, new infections, which occur mostly
among youth (women 15-24; men under 30), may be dropping to around 80
000 each year. President Kibaki declared "Total War on HIV/AIDS" in
2003, and established a Cabinet Committee on HIV/AIDS.
Tanzania: The HIV prevalence rate was 8.8% in Tanzania at the end of
2003; it is far higher on the mainland than on Zanzibar (UNAIDS,
2004e). In 2000, President MKapa declared HIV/AIDS a national
disaster, which led to the establishment of the National AIDS
Commission (TACAIDS) on the mainland and the Zanzibar AIDS Commission
(ZAC) in Zanzibar.
Malawi: The HIV prevalence rate was 14.2% in Malawi at the end of
2003 (UNAIDS, 2004f). Average life expectancy is 39 years. The
government launched a National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework
(2000–2004), established the National AIDS Commission (NAC) in 2001,
and appointed a new Minister of State Responsible for HIV/AIDS
Programmes. Since this appointment, HIV/AIDS has been given higher
priority and visibility on the national agenda.
AIDS and the Media
Gordon Brown, MP, Chancellor of The Exchequer, U, K., provides an
example of the power of the media in a speech on November 24, 2004,
during the BBC World Service Trust/DFID conference, "Towards 2005:
What role does the media have in the fight against global poverty?:"
"When Amartya Sen wrote some years ago of the difference between the
history of famines in China and India and exposed the difference
between the old China--where because there was no free press and no
multi-party democracy no one reported the deaths no one ever knew the
nameless, forgotten, unmentioned people who died--and the old
India--where because there was openness, the authorities were forced
to react he was describing in the case of India where the role and
responsibility of the media in development starts--through better
communications to promote better development. As US Supreme Court
Justice Louis Brandeis said, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant'"
(Brown, 2004). A key finding in a study conducted in India is that
governments are more responsive in areas where local language
newspaper circulation is higher (Besley and Burgess, 2002).
The potential power of the media in addressing the HIV/AIDS problem
is being increasingly recognized at all levels. In January 2004, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan invited twenty world media leaders to
attend a meeting on how the media can raise awareness about and
provide support for the global fight against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS,
2004g). The Global Media AIDS Initiative, an outcome of this meeting,
made several recommendations for the media (UNAIDS, 2004a). These
recommendations embrace the two major approaches (a distinction the
author, not the UN, is making) to media's role in development:
1. Use of media in interventions, for example in communication and
social marketing campaigns, targeted to bring about social change (UN
suggestions include production of special programming/materials such
as PSAs, documentaries, films, enter-education, etc.).
2. Use of media in its journalistic function to stimulate social
change (UN suggestions include disseminating accurate information
globally and locally ("talking about it"), prioritizing HIV/AIDS
coverage, integrating HIV/AIDS themes in story lines
("mainstreaming"), keeping the public and leaders informed,
challenging stigma, promoting services, creating an enabling and
supportive environment, and stimulating both government and public
activism).[4]
A non-profit agency, PANOS, meaning light, headquartered in London,
also gives priority to media in dealing with HIV/AIDS, but puts its
faith in the journalistic use of the media rather than its
information campaign use. PANOS' mission is to promote an "enabling
media and communications environment worldwide" ("Mission Statement,"
n.d.). Such a media environment would create inclusive debate, using
perspectives of the people who are most affected by a particular
issue, and result in informed action on part of people.
This is the theme of its HIV/AIDS report, Missing the Message
(Scalway, 2003) in which it suggests that the behavior change
strategies (Singhal and Rogers, 2003), used to date have not
effectively dealt with HIV/AIDS. The ultimate goal of the
journalistic strategies it suggests, in place of sole reliance on the
current approach, is to have journalism that would enable communities
to recognize the problem, take ownership, and find answers. Further,
it recommends that journalists hold policy makers accountable
("Participation, ownership and accountability," n.d.). In its words,
"Instead of focusing on the knowledge and behaviors of
individuals--the approach that currently typifies today's response to
the epidemic--we focus on the p in which those most affected find
themselves" ("Participation, ownership and accountability," n.d.).
According to Mark Wilson, Executive Director of Panos' London
office, "Our experience shows that development happens quickly and
more effectively where individuals and communities participate in
decisions affecting their well-being, feel some ownership of the
decisions being taken and can hold those responsible accountable for
their actions. The media can be a real force in helping to do this"
("Panos Receives £1.8m," 2005). Sarkar, a senior Indian journalist
and editor of Panos Features provides concrete means to do this:
"Almost always, there will be one notable absentee in these stories….
the voices of the poor and those living with AIDS. But no one seems
to mind. Pharmaceutical companies, donor agencies, governments, even
well-meaning NGOs appear to be quite content so long as their names
and agendas appear in print. What does all of this mean for those in
the media who want to break the mould? Just that we must try even
harder to 'own' our stories. A print media with deeper roots among
local communities, journalists who do not shy away from investigating
issues, and editors of national dailies who encourage better
reporting on AIDS can all help make a dent" (Sarkar, 2004). Such a
role for journalism, as different from mediated communication in the
form of information campaigns, is expressed often in the development
dialogue today.
The information campaign and journalistic use of media for social
change are not mutually exclusive. They are coming together
increasingly today. Many information campaigns train journalists for
content knowledge, sensitize them to their social responsibility
roles, and create interface between journalists and social change
organizations. For example, in Kenya and Nigeria, the Internews'
Local Voices project trains all staff levels from media managers to
reporters in HIV/AIDs content (Communication Initiative, 2003). In
Nigeria, Journalists Against AIDS hosts training workshops and
monthly roundtables where journalists meet with activists. The UN
Global Media AIDS Initiative also advocates the training of
journalists to cover HIV/AIDS.
Despite this coming together of the two approaches, some
differences remain. In an information campaign, the messages are
under the control of implementers and are therefore geared towards
bringing about positive social change. In journalism, even among
believers in public journalism, the messages may not be conducive to
social change. MediaTenor's content analysis of HIV/AIDS coverage in
South Africa shows little and negative coverage ("SA media's blind
spot," 2004).
Public Journalism
The ideas that the UN, PANOS, and others espouse for journalism are
also found in the concept of public journalism. Public journalism, as
a press philosophy, shares characteristics of the social
responsibility theory of the press developed in the United Staes
(Siebert, Peterson and Schramm, 1956) and the development journalism
theory formulated in the Third World (Aggarwala, 1977). Social
responsibility theory assigns, to the press, information, discussion
and debate tasks as well as the task of enlightening the public to
make it capable of governing itself. While development theory had
been interpreted variously (Fair, 1988), one of its definitions
equates it to community news (Aggarwala, 1977), and another describes
it as providing context and background and addressing people's needs
(Shah, 1987).
Social responsibility theory had its genesis in perceived media
irresponsibility, while development journalism was born out of the
tremendous development burdens of newly independent Third World
countries. Public journalism arose due to several reasons (Bare,
1998), including from the dissatisfaction with media coverage of the
1988 and 1992 elections which were more about political gamesmanship
and less about the sustenance of democracy (Blomquist and Zukin,
1997). All three press philosophies arose in response to prevailing
social conditions and saw journalism as a way to jumpstart public
life to address these conditions. All three have been dismissed by
critics as contrary to the principles of a truly libertarian press
(Merrill, 1996; Sussman, 1981).
In 1994, Rosen (1994) pointed out that the concept of public
journalism is still evolving, that it is not a settled doctrine but a
philosophy still unfolding about the place of the journalist in
public life. Attempts to further explicate the concept have continued
(Lambeth, Meyer and Thorson, 1998). Based on these definitions,
public journalism appears to have three dimensions: one refers to the
kind of coverage it should provide, the second to the practices and
techniques it should use to provide such coverage, and the third to
the impact this coverage should have.
First, public journalism should provide information, context,
analysis, synthesis, and common ground, particularly in terms of
problem definition and solutions. Second, to implement this,
journalists should restore good journalistic habits such as listening
to readers (Wiley, 1998) and building connections with them, change
some practices including the use of conflict as a narrative device,
accept that journalism frames stories, recognize that journalistic
objectivity is not the same as journalistic detachment and that
journalism's credibility does not stem from its detachment, and
distinguish between adversarialism and skepticism (Merritt, 2002).
Thus, some key traits of public journalism are mobilizing information
(events, dates, etc.), citizens' perspectives, explanatory rather
than conflict (two opposing viewpoints) story frames, and
problem-solving and solutions frames ("Community Impact," 2002).
Sometimes public journalism actually implements projects such as town
hall meetings, debates, etc. (Friedland, Sotirovic and Daily, 1998).
Third, such journalism would inform debate and stimulate dialogue,
build better citizens as well as community capacity so that
individuals and communities may locally define their problems and
find collective answers, mobilize people to volunteer and participate
in civic activities, and thus build their public life. It would, in
essence, hold citizens accountable for their jobs (Schaffer, 2004).
In the mass communication literature, there is a tradition of
studying practitioners to profile their characteristics including
their perceptions of their functions. Studies assessing journalistic
roles have revealed that journalists see themselves in various, but
not necessarily mutually exclusive, roles: neutral or participant
(Johnstone, Slawski, and Bowman, 1976), and interpreter, information
disseminator, adversarial, or populist mobilizer (Weaver and Wilhoit,
1996; Weaver, 1998). The neutral and information disseminator roles
are the more traditional roles of journalists, while the participant,
interpreter, and populist mobilizer roles are akin to the public
journalist roles. A study more directly related to assessing the
public journalism role found these four roles: civic journalist,
concerned traditionalist, neutral observer and responsible liberal
(Gade, et al., 1998).
Another study found that institutional public journalism is
practiced more in media institutions that have editors who are also
champions of public journalism, but personal public journalism roles
are also prevalent among journalists (Bare, 1998). A recent study
(2002) of the practice found that the "movement … has become fairly
widespread- it's been practiced in 220 cities in all but three
states" and has created community impact ("Community Impact," 2002).
The impact of public journalism stems from the fact that people
generally listen to information that empowers them to deal with
public issues (Harwood Group, 1991), but they remember little
specific information from news stories (Neuman, 1976).
Social Capital
The third dimension of public journalism, its impact, is very closely
aligned with the idea of social capital. The concept of social
capital too arose in response to prevailing social conditions,
including the decline, in the 1990s, in public participation in
civic activities. Stemming this unrestrained individualism, this
drifting apart, and connecting members of society to engage them in
civic participation so as to save democracy is what building social
capital is about. Ingleart (1997) argues that democracy does not grow
from "elite-arrangement," but from a "basic cultural orientation of citizens."
Social capital refers to the cohesion and networks among citizens
that enable collective resolution of societal problems (Putnam,
1995a, 1995b). However, the definition of cooperative relationships
and thus of social capital varies from simple involvement in society
in terms of having connections at the individual level to complex
action at the societal level (Ostrom and Ahn, 2001). Based on a
review of studies, Shah (1998) suggested that civic engagement and
interpersonal trust were the content and measures of social capital.
But recent studies (Scheufele and Shah, 2000; Shah, Kwak, and
Holbert, 2001) have added personal contentment.
According to Putnam (1995a), civic participation is the behavioral
dimension of social capital and refers to participating in community
projects, membership activities and volunteer work. Interpersonal
trust, on the other hand, is the attitudinal dimension because it
evaluates attitude toward others' trustworthiness. These attitudes
may lead to behavior so that interpersonal trust in small groups may
lead to participation in large-scale collective actions (Scholz and
Lubell, 1998). Personal contentment measures the quality of one's own
life, or subjective well-being, which may also lead to civic
volunteerism (Scheufele and Shah, 2000).
Thus public journalism's third dimension, its impact, may well be
the building of social capital; subjective well-being, interpersonal
trust, and participatory problem solving. Some (Friedland, Sotirovic
and Daily, 1998) believe that, building social capital is a long-term
process and thus public journalism's relationship with social capital
lies only in reconnecting groups of citizens with other groups of
citizens, i.e., in mapping or tracing, at the community level, the
already present social capital.
While not directly connecting public journalism with social capital,
some studies have found relationships between specific programming
and attitudinal and behavioral aspects of social capital. One study
found that viewers highly dependent on television, as compared with
those less dependent, gave more money, modified their fundamental
values more, and changed attitudinally to become more antiracist,
antisexist, and pro-environmental after seeing just one 30-minute
program designed to activate self-confrontation (Ball-Rokeach,
Rokeach and Grube, 1984). Similarly, Yang (2004) found that Internet
current affairs news, i.e., information related to public life, even
though it is not purposively programmed to make change, lead to the
development of social capital. Critical to Yang's finding was the
fact that it was the informational use of the Internet, not general
dependency on the media to meet various social and individual goals,
that resulted in social capital. Shah, Kwak and Holbert (2001) too
found that informational and communicative uses of the Internet
encouraged community involvement and fostered participation.
Thomas (2002) suggests that the concept of social capital is useful
to development practitioners. Increasingly, social capital is being
applied in the field of health too. While the relationship between
social capital and community health is still being explored, it is
suggested that bonds between people in a community lead to improved
health because of the mutually beneficial interactions that take
place. Social capital may also indirectly benefit health at the
societal level through better political participation and thus
representation of needs (Kawachi and Berkman, 2000).
Research Questions
While, among other things, public journalism has its roots in
election coverage and social capital arose from the decline in civic
participation, as these ideas evolved they have begun to focus on
specific social problems ("Community Impact," 2002) including health.
Thus, their application to HIV/AIDS is worthy of exploration. Such
exploration may take the form of practical exercises as well as
academic research. The research in turn may content analyze coverage
for type of information and techniques used, or survey communities
for impact and measure this impact, at least partially, in terms of
the development of social capital. This study however focuses on
assessing how journalists in some of the countries most stricken by
HIV/AIDS perceive their roles. Do they believe that they have a
public journalism role to play to build social capital, among other things?
Health communication studies that focus on behavior change campaigns
have generally found that attitude and behavior change variables are
related to perception of risk, i.e., in this case, recognizing the
seriousness of HIV/AIDS and the likelihood of becoming infected with
the disease. This study is not about behavior change but about the
journalistic use of media. Still, risk perception on part of
journalists may influence the roles they perceive for themselves in
addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS.
Specific research questions for this study were:
1. What is East African journalists perception of risk, in terms of
HIV/AIDS seriousness and likelihood of infection?
2. Does this risk perception differ by
a) country?
b) demographic variables?
c) work related variables?
3. How large a role do East African journalists perceive for
themselves in addressing the HIV/AIDS issue?
4. Does this role perception differ by
a) risk perception?
b) country?
c) demographic variables?
d) work related variables?
Method
Using a paper questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey of
journalists from four East African countries—Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania,
and Malawi--was conducted during late June and the first twenty days
of July 2004. The author, with local assistance in the first three
countries and solely through a local contact in Malawi, distributed
copies of the questionnaire to all major media outlets in one or two
major media cities in each country (Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam,
and Blantyre/Lilongwe respectively) over two to three days, returning
to collect completed questionnaires either directly or through a
contact in each media outlet. At each location, she left the number
of questionnaires that the contact, usually an editor, in each outlet
requested, based on strength of journalists.
This generated a convenience sample of 354 journalists. After
careful examination of all returned questionnaires, those (n = 21)
that had a substantial number of missing values or exhibited response
set were eliminated, leaving a sample of 333. Together, these
represented a variety of media outlets (i.e., newspapers, radio and
television stations, news agencies, online media, media NGOs,
freelancers, etc.).
The questionnaire included demographic and work related questions,
two short scales measuring opinions about the seriousness of HIV/AIDS
and the likelihood that the respondents will contract the disease
respectively (the latter two using three-items each and five-point,
amount of agreement, scales), and a longer scale measuring opinions
about roles of journalists in addressing the AIDS problem (using
twenty-five items and a five-point, amount of role playing, scale).
The main demographic variables were gender, age, education, and
income. Several work related questions were used, including freedom
rating for journalism (one item using a ten-point, amount of freedom,
scale), satisfaction with job and importance of the journalistic
profession to respondents (the latter two using one item each and
five-point, amount of satisfaction and importance, scales).
Translation of the questionnaire was not necessary because as former
British colonies these countries have widespread use of English.
The work related and demographic questions were duplicated, for the
most part, from past journalist surveys (Ramaprasad, 2001; Ramaprasad
and Kelly, 2003). The HIV/AIDS seriousness and likelihood scales were
adopted from health communication research (Witte et al., 1995). The
scale measuring journalist roles in addressing AIDS was developed
from Missing the Message (Scalway, 2003), which provided various
recommendations for journalists. These recommendations were very
similar to those made in public journalism with one exception,
holding government accountable. This last category is not found in
the definition of public journalism in the United States, but is
relevant in many developing countries given the larger role of
government in social change and the larger control by government of media.
Using the distinction made earlier among the three dimensions of
public journalism (kind of coverage, practices/techniques to do this,
and impact of coverage), the twenty-five items in the scale were
grouped into six categories a priori. The second dimension of the
definition of public journalism, practices/techniques, was not used
because this study was not a content analytic study or a survey of
journalists' use of public journalism techniques. The first
dimension, coverage, was represented by four statements that dealt
with providing information and a variety of views as well as serious
and prioritized coverage. The third dimension, impact, was
represented by five categories: create public discussion and
dialogue, create public activism, change public attitudes and norms
about people living with HIV/AIDS and practices that lead to disease
transmission respectively, stimulate participatory problem definition
and solution finding, and mobilize and hold government accountable.
Findings and Discussion
Demographic Profile
Sixty-four percent of the respondents were male and 36% female (Table
1). This predominance of males appeared to be a pattern across the
four countries, though female journalists in Kenya and Uganda had
slightly better representation. Respondents' age ranged from 21 to 58
years, with 79% being less than 40 years old. Mean age was 33 years,
with Malawian journalists having the lowest mean age (29 years) and
Tanzanian journalists the highest (37 years). About half (47%) of the
respondents held a bachelor's degree and 32% had some college
education. Compared with journalists from the other two countries,
sample journalists from Kenya and Uganda had a better education.
Seventeen percent of the respondents studied print journalism in
college, 12% studied radio/television, and 46% studied general journalism.
Work Profile
Sixty-two percent of the respondents worked for newspapers, 18%
for radio, 12% for television stations and three percent for news
agencies (Table 2). Only one respondent, from Kenya, worked for
online media. Two-thirds of the respondents worked for private media.
Most of the respondents (56%)were reporters, writers, or
correspondents, and 29% held some kind of editorial responsibility.
The remaining held various jobs including news presenter, producer,
management, etc.
Eighty-four percent of the respondents worked full time, six
percent worked part time, and the rest worked as freelance
journalists. Number of years of work experience in media ranged from
less than one to thirty-five years, with a mean of eight years. Mean
number of years worked was largest (11 years) for Tanzanian
journalists and smallest (five years) for Malawian journalists.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents joined their current
organization after 2000. Sixteen percent of the respondents were with
their current organization for less than one year. On average,
respondents had worked for their respective organizations for five
years, with a range from less than one year to thirty-five years.
The mean monthly income of the respondents was $301.83, with
Kenyan respondents having the highest income ($443.49), followed by
Ugandan ($289.98), Tanzanian ($254.64), and Malawian ($216.13) respondents.
Respondents rated press freedom in their countries only slightly
above midpoint: 6 on a 10 point scale, with the Kenyan respondents
indicating the highest and Ugandan respondents indicating the lowest
press freedom. They rated satisfaction with their job above midpoint
(3.5) on a five-point scale, with Ugandan respondents being the most
satisfied and Malawian journalists the least satisfied. And, they
rated importance of the profession to them high (4. 6) on a
five-point scale, with Kenyan respondents indicating the highest and
Tanzanian respondents indicating the lowest importance.
Journalists' Risk Perception
Cronbach's alphas for the two risk perception dimensions were as
follows—seriousness: .59 and likelihood: .76. The mean perceived
seriousness of HIV/AIDS was 4.4 (on a five-point scale) indicating
perception of the disease as very serious. The mean likelihood was at
midpoint, indicating that the journalists believed they had some
likelihood of contracting the disease.
Risk perception differed by country (for seriousness, F = 5.275;
p. < .01; for likelihood, F = 5.988; p. < .01). While these
differences are worthy of note, they must be interpreted in the
context of the fact that all journalists in the sample rated
seriousness very high and likelihood at mid-point. Tanzanian (mean =
4.17) journalists considered the disease less serious than Kenyan
(4.47) (p. < .05) and Ugandan (4.56) (p. < .01) journalists, but they
rated (mean = 3.34) their likelihood of infection higher than did
Ugandan (2.9) (p. < .01) and Malawian (2.7) (p. < .01) journalists.
Uganda recognized the HIV/AIDS problem early and gave it a high
profile in public discussion. This led to a successful reversal of
the HIV/AIDS infection rate. This probably accounts for their higher
seriousness and lower likelihood rating. The Malawian response is
surprising given the high prevalence rate and lack of success in
combating the disease despite prioritizing of HIV/AIDS since 1994
(Scalway, 2003)
Risk perception did not differ by demographic variables. Age,
gender and education were not related to the two risk perception
variables. Major in college was not used in this analysis because not
all respondents went to college and most of those who did attend
college majored in some journalism related course.
Risk perception did not differ by work related variables either.
Media ownership, media type, amount of work, years in the profession,
freedom rating, job satisfaction, and importance of the profession
were all not related to the two risk perception variables. While
income was converted to U.S. dollars for comparison across countries,
it was not used in this analysis because it had several missing
values and its real purchasing value differs across the countries.
Mean years in journalism, but not mean years in current organization,
was used in the analysis.
The high perception of the seriousness of the disease coupled
with the consonance in that finding indicates that all the
respondents are well aware of the disease. Their likelihood rating
too, while lower than their perceived seriousness of disease, was at
midpoint and together with the consonance of this finding indicates a
somewhat realistic appraisal of their situation.
Roles in HIV/AIDS
Cronbach's alphas for the six dimensions were as follows--coverage:
.83, create public discussion and dialogue: .79, create public
activism: .85, change public attitudes and norms about people living
with HIV/AIDS and practices that lead to disease transmission
respectively: .86, stimulate participatory problem definition and
solution finding: .86, and mobilize and hold government accountable: .56.
The six a priori public journalism roles categories for
journalists in addressing the HIV/AIDS issue were all rated high,
i.e., journalists believed that they should play these roles in large
measure. All six means were above four on a five-point scale. While
the differences were small, the role to change attitudes and norms
received the highest mean in the sample and the role to mobilize and
hold government accountable received the lowest mean. The high
positioning of changing attitudes and norms indicates the awareness
among these journalists of societal ostracism of people living with
HIV/AIDS and the cultural practices such as genital mutilation and
conjugal arrangements that contribute to spreading the disease. Such
progressive attitudes, i.e., their willingness to use journalism to
change these practices and behaviors, are imperative to the success
of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The somewhat lower positioning of government mobilization
possibly references the (varying degrees of) government control of
media in all four of the East African countries (Wanyeki et al.,
2000; IPI World Press Freedom Review, 2004). After independence from
European colonial control, many African countries had adopted
authoritarian political systems and socialist economic policies. But
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of these countries began to
experiment with democratic political systems and economic
liberalization (Morna, 1995). One of the objectives of this reform
movement was freedom of the press. But this freedom is still
incomplete in many countries. Among the countries of interest to this
study, Tanzania appears to have the most freedom of press. The
government mobilization scale was the only one of the public
journalism dimensions to receive a Cronbach's alpha that was less
than .70, the standard cutoff. An item-by-item analysis revealed that
it was the statement that referred to holding government accountable
that was responsible largely for the lower alpha. Thus holding
government accountable might be something these journalists, given
limited press freedom, might have a difficult time considering.
Few differences by country were present (F = 3.93; p < .01).
Mobilizing and holding government accountable differed between Kenya
(4.3) and Uganda (3.8) (p. < .01), with Uganda considering this a
lesser role. Ugandan journalists had rated their press freedom the
lowest, and due to this perception they may not think that holding
government accountable is very feasible for them. A multiple
regression of each a priori role on the two risk perception variables
showed no significant relationships. Thus, journalists' rating of
disease seriousness and of their likelihood of being infected did not
have a bearing on how they rated each role. These roles were
important irrespective of their assessment of personal risk.
For demographic variables (major in college was not used in this
analysis), there was no significant relationship for any of the
roles. For work related variables (income and years in organization
were not used in this analysis), foster public activism (t = 2.617;
p. .01) was significantly related to whether journalists worked
full-time or part-time/freelanced. In a somewhat difficult to explain
finding, those who worked less perceived this as a larger role to
play than those who worked full-time. Work time as well as job
satisfaction and years worked in journalism explained public
discussion. Years worked in journalism (t = -2.873; p. .01) had a
negative relationship indicating that those who had worked fewer
years perceived a larger role in generating public discussion. On the
other hand, those more satisfied with their jobs (t = 2.104; p. .05)
and those with less work time ((t = 2.163; p. .05) perceived a larger
public discussion role. These few relationships are somewhat
difficult to explain in and of themselves as well as because of the
fact that they do not exhibit a pattern.
Summary and Conclusion
East African journalists are well aware of the seriousness of
HIV/AIDS, and realistic about the possibility that they could
contract the disease. They all subscribe in large measure to a public
journalism role in addressing the HIV/AIDS issue. Few differences
were found in all these variables by country. Also, risk perception
did not impact role perception, and only a very few demographic and
work-connected variables were related to role perception. Thus risk
perception results were consonant across country, demographics and
work related variables, and role perception results were more or less
consonant across these three variables as well as across risk perception.
The consonance in risk perception may be due to the large amount
of attention sub-Saharan Africa's HIV/AIDS problem has received from
global, regional and local non-government organizations, and from
each of the four countries' government. Also, the respondents of this
study are journalists, and journalists are information gatherers and
disseminators. It is therefore not surprising that they are aware of
the risks of HIV/AIDS.
The consonance in their role perception may be the result of the
myriad of global, regional and local efforts made by many funding
organizations, NGOs, and governments to train journalists in this
socially responsible, development oriented, public journalism type
role towards HIV/AIDS reporting. But East African journalists are not
new to the idea of using journalism for development. The concept has
been around since these countries became independent from British
rule in the 1960s. In fact, according to Akhahenda (1983), African
journalism from its inception has been used for collective goals.
Roser and Brown (1986) found that almost two-thirds of their sample
of African journalists believed that the media should assist in
national development. Grosswiler (1997) and Pauli (1999) too found
that Tanzanian and Kenyan journalists respectively leaned towards
collective goals. Ramaprasad (2001) found that Tanzanian journalists
subscribed to a national development role.
East African journalists subscribed to both dimensions of public
journalism: information provision and creation of impact. They
believed that they should include multiple viewpoints and provide
serious, prioritized coverage to HIV/AIDS, its causes and
consequences. In terms of impact, they subscribed to creating a
public sphere of open discussion, fostering public activism to combat
the disease, instilling progressive attitudes about and behaviors
towards people living with HIV/AIDS as well as changing cultural
practices that spread the disease, assisting communities to define
problems and find solutions taking a plurality of voices into
consideration including those of people living with the disease, and
mobilizing the government.
Among significant differences and relationships with regard to
roles, the one worthy of note was the finding with regard to the last
impact role; mobilizing and holding government accountable was not as
consonant as the other roles. This role held a lesser place in Uganda
and among younger journalists. Ugandan journalists rated their press
freedom lower than did other country journalists and for this reason
they may not consider tackling the government a viable option. It
must be noted that this government accountability role is not part of
the definition of public journalism, but it was included because of
it relevance in the African context.
Several of the impact roles, in particular public activism and
participatory problem definition and solution finding, dealt with the
building of social capital, albeit indirectly. The latter role would
connect people in their search for solutions and create interpersonal
trust in the process. The former role would engage people in public
life. The third measure of social capital—life contentment or quality
of life--however was not included in the impact roles, first because
it was not part of the original definition of social capital (Putnam,
1995a, 1995b), and second because Missing the Message (Scalway, 2003)
did not include this among its recommendations.
Contributions and Limitations
The paper focuses attention on a topic that is enormously important
in terms of its implications for global health, literally and
figuratively in terms of economic, social, cultural health, as well
as on a region that is given short shrift in mass communication
research. In an interdependent world, both HIV/AIDS and sub-Saharan
Africa take on added importance.
The paper's theoretical contribution lies in its classification
of the concept of public journalism into three dimensions as well as
in the connection the paper makes between public journalism and
development of social capital. Given the continuing evolution of the
public journalism concept and the controversy surrounding it, such a
synthesis and classification may be useful to practitioners and
academics alike. Practitioners might be able to use the
classification to select information and practices/techniques to
create the impact they want. Because the world is not neatly divided
into practitioners and non-practitioners of public journalism, this
scheme would enable journalists to assess how much of this role they
want to play and adjust their practice accordingly. Academics may use
the classification as a road map to undertake public journalism
related content analysis or survey research. They may also study the
link between public journalism and social capital development more
directly. A simultaneous content analysis and survey might enable
assessment of social capital impact within a community.
The paper's methodological contribution lies in its development
of a measure for public journalism (Appendix A). While the measure
refers to HIV/AIDS, it can be used for many social problems by
changing the reference to the disease, dropping statements specific
to conditions surrounding this disease (e.g., cultural practices),
and modifying some statements as appropriate to the social change
issue under study. This measure may be used by funding organizations
and trainers to plan and assess training programs for journalists. It
may be used by academics for future research in this area.
Future researchers may also refine this measure, using the
three-dimensional classification scheme, particularly for the social
capital impact items. This is also one of the paper's limitations.
The scale should have included social capital impact items more
directly. For example, it should have asked if journalists believed
that they needed to create cooperative relationships and life
contentment. In its civic engagement items, it should have asked more
directly about volunteering and attending meetings. A revised,
starter scale is provided in this paper based on the insights gained
as the data were being analyzed (Appendix A). It has modified
wording, collapsed items, and new items. Future researchers may also
assess whether public journalism only revives existing
interconnections and social capital or plays a role in creating them.
Another limitation of the study is its use of a convenience
sample. Given the lack of a large research tradition in the countries
as well as government control of the media, the researcher had to
make repeated personal contact with the participants, very often
through local contacts, to get an adequate number of responses.
Finally, additional questions about training received, management
support of these roles, frequency of performance of these roles,
perceived impact, and such would have been useful.
Table 1: Distribution of Respondents by Demographics
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Malawi
Total
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
Gender
Male
74
62.7
45
60
71
67.6
18
66.7
208
64.0
Female
44
37.3
30
40
34
32.4
9
33.3
117
36.0
Education
Some High School
1
0.8
0
0
2
1.9
1
3.7
4
1.2
High School
3
2.5
3
3.9
11
10.2
1
3.7
18
5.4
Some College
33
27.5
16
20.8
44
40.7
14
51.9
107
32.2
Bachelor's
69
57.5
44
57.1
32
29.6
10
37.0
155
46.7
Master's
5
4.2
6
7.8
10
9.3
0
0
21
6.3
Doctorate
1
0.8
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0.3
Vocational
1
0.8
3
3.9
2
1.9
0
0.0
6
1.8
Other
7
5.8
5
6.5
7
6.5
1
3.7
20
6.0
College Major
Print
15
13.2
16
23.5
14
16.5
5
20.8
50
17.2
Radio/TV
16
14.0
8
11.8
7
8.2
5
20.8
36
12.4
General Jsm
48
42.1
23
33.8
52
61.2
12
50.0
135
46.4
Other
35
30.7
21
30.9
12
14.1
2
8.3
70
24.1
Mean Age (yrs)
30.7
33.4
36.6
29.2
33.1
Table 2: Distribution of Respondents by Work Related Variables
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Malawi
Total
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
Media Type
Newspaper
58
47.9
54
71.1
75
70.1
18
66.7
205
61.9
Radio
42
34.7
4
5.3
10
9.3
3
11.1
59
17.8
Television
18
14.9
9
11.8
12
11.2
2
7.4
41
12.4
News Agency
0
0
4
5.3
2
1.9
4
14.8
10
3.0
Online
0
0
1
1.3
0
0.0
0
0
1
0.3
Other
3
2.5
4
5.3
8
7.5
0
0
15
4.5
Ownership
Government
37
30.6
10
13.3
27
25.7
7
28.0
81
24.8
Private
84
69.4
65
86.7
78
74.3
18
72.0
245
75.2
Work Time
Full Time
88
73.9
65
87.8
95
88.8
25
92.6
273
83.5
Part Time
7
5.9
3
4.1
9
8.4
2
7.4
21
6.4
Freelance
24
20.2
6
8.1
3
2.8
0
0
33
10.1
Mean Yrs in Jsm
6.3
8.7
11.4
5.1
8.4
Mean Yrs in Org
4.1
4.6
7.0
2.8
5.0
Freedom Rating
5.58
6.79
6.19
6.52
6.13
Job Satisfaction
3.25
3.47
3.58
3.74
3.45
Importance of Journalism
4.39
4.73
3.25
4.58
4.56
Mean Income
289.98
443.49
254.64
216.13
301.8
Table 3
Mean Risk Perception by Country
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Malawi
F value
p value
HIV/AIDS Seriousness
4.52
4.47
4.17
4.36
5.28
.001
HIV/AIDS Likelihood
2.94
3.02
3.34
2.68
5.99
.001
Note: Post-hoc Tukey tests revealed differences for seriousness
between Tanzanian (less serious), on the one hand, and Kenyan (more
serious) and Ugandan (most serious) journalists, on the other (all p
values < .05); as well as for likelihood between Malawian (least
likelihood) and Ugandan (greater likelihood) journalists, on the one
hand, and Tanzanian (highest likelihood) journalists, on the other
(all p values < .01).
Table 4
Mean Journalistic Functions by Country
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Malawi
F value
p value
Provide Information & Viewpoints
4.24
4.19
4.17
4.17
.13
.940
[1] The title is adapted from Kunda Dixit's Dateline Earth:
Journalism as if the Planet Mattered, which points out the lack of
attention, in media coverage of Nepal, to general environmental
neglect and instead a preoccupation with injured mountaineers,
particularly if they are American (Communication Initiative, 2004).
[2] Journalism professor Jay Rosen (1994) has been the main champion
of this concept. He explains public journalism in terms of
journalism's role in addressing citizens' concerns.
[3] Sociologist James Coleman (1988) is credited with the idea of
social capital though others before him have discussed it (Fine,
2001). Sociologist Robert Putnam (1995) popularized this term in his
article Bowling Alone. It denotes the fact that healthy societies
need much more than adequate financial resources to make them work.
[4] UNAIDS suggests "talking about it" as one of the means for the
media to assist. It provides the example of Uganda, where such
talking helped reverse the spread of the disease: "Ugandan experts
believe that the simple act of talking has made a profound difference
to the course of the country's epidemic. The fact that President
Yoweri Museveni has allowed a free discussion on HIV/AIDS in the
media, among organizations and in civil society is cited as a key
element of the country's success in reversing the epidemic…." (UNAIDS, 2004g).
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