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Media research can do more than document facts
Emilly C. Maractho (PhD)
What you need to know:
- Research needs to create opportunities for meaningful conversations around issues of importance
If you find yourself in a space where journalists are gathered, there is a good chance you will walk away a little discouraged. You will wonder if there is anything more that can be done to make things better for journalism and the media in Africa.
And so it happened, that I was at the home of African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) in Bunga last week where industry actors gathered to discuss the state of media landscape in Uganda and to agree on a useful research agenda. It was good to sit in and face the realities of our industry today.
I was reminded by how last month I sat with a friend at church. Impressed by the choir, I announced that I still had hope, I could start a singing career. My friend laughed out loud and said ‘listen, do us all a big favour and stick to your research and teaching’. Its advice I should be taking seriously.
This friend was telling me the truth. I couldn’t earn myself lunch if singing was the only means to do so. It would take a particularly gifted teacher to make me sing something sensible.Such is life, you win some and loose some. I rather enjoy those who are gifted. This friend reminded me that research is my natural habitat where I’m most at home. As I interacted with colleagues before the event kicked off, I couldn’t help but feel that our days are difficult and even more so these days.
The state of media landscape 2023 report did not make it easier either, painting a fairly grim picture in some areas like welfare of journalists. Add to the things 2025 has brought to the world of media development, it is hard not to feel some anxiety when there is so much work to do. What it means is that never before has the need for a focus on media landscape status been greater than now.
The only way to know what we need to do is to have our facts right. Many of the things we once took for granted like getting our journalism right and the rest will fall in place are now moving away from us quickly.Facing the facts are not enough. These times were best described years ago by singer Aretha Franklin, as the ‘ever changing times’ where ‘everything is going so much faster’.
If she saw it that way then, what would she say today? It’s worse now than then I believe. It seems like we are increasingly joining Aretha in just ‘watching our lives and everything we are doing’ with little within our control.
There are always things changing in ways that makes it difficult to understand what we are dealing with. One day, the government is announcing a development model that promises at least one hundred million for each parish in the country. You wonder what sense there is or logic in each parish getting that small amount of money for development. In that context you find that the money is too little, the policy riddled with challenges.
Then you hear that some individuals got the same amount each for just belonging. Facing the facts of Shs100 million per person to do what we do not understand is hard even for Christians during lent. In the face of everything happening in our political and economic environment, one must wonder if these ever changing times can get a sober response to dealing with our challenges.
Can journalists raise the stakes in telling these stories? What would it take to do research in this environment? I have always advocated for research that must go beyond documenting the obvious, beyond the everyday common sense knowledge or what we might find in the next door coffee shop.
One must raise the bar for knowledge creation and increase its relevance beyond our borders in order to be a reference point for other researchers. Research needs to create opportunities for meaningful conversations around issues of importance. In the area of media governance and development, there is need for research on the continent that will guide policy development. Journalists ought to be at the centre.
What it means for research to be relevant is if it can generate compelling evidence that in turn can influence policy, create meaningful conversations and bring the facts to bear in ways that ordinary people can relate with them.
It also means that we are asking the right questions and finding answers that take us to the next level, or at least, that we understand what it takes to make positive changes in our various spheres.Research needs to create opportunities for meaningful conversations around issues of importance. ”
Emilly Comfort Maractho, PhD. Associate Professor of Media
Studies[email protected]
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