Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

First Supervisor/Advisor

George Nyabuga

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Nancy Booker

Department

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Abstract

Rigorous and good journalism plays a key role in society by serving the public good hence it is critical to not only appreciate journalistic products like news-stories but also understand their actual production process. This study analyses the extent of the practice of protocol journalism in Uganda and its link to news production by online news media organisations (ONMOs). The study uses content analysis to examine the extent to which news stories are reproduced from information subsidies or content provided by news sources. It concludes that the practice of protocol journalism and the resultant news stories wholly or substantially reproduced from the source content is much more pervasive than had previously been studied. The granular analysis reveals little, if at all, of journalistic capital invested in adding value to the news stories. The practical implication of this study is that it laser-focuses attention to the problem of protocol journalism as an existential threat to rigorous, good journalism.

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