Date of Award

2-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Digital Journalism (MADJ)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Nancy Booker

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Alex Taremwa

Department

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Abstract

Newsrooms in Uganda are not immune to staff turnovers as many of the seasoned journalists have been lost to other fields of work and this impacts newsrooms activities. This study analyses the implications of staff turnover and the strategies newsrooms in Uganda have instituted to retain newsroom staff. This is a case of the Nation Media Group -Uganda (NMG-U) and Vision Group. This study was guided by the Resource Based Theory of Human Resource and the Gatekeeping Theory. The study adopted a Qualitative Study Approach and employed in-depth interviews to collect data from 21 journalists that were purposively selected. The study found that staff turnovers posed implications on newsrooms where for instance they; led to the phase out or less coverage of some critical news beats, a decline in news quality and quantity and work overload on staff. The study established that newsrooms were using staff retention strategies like incentives, appraisal also allowed staff to juggle between journalism and other forms of work. From the study, it emerged that there were other factors that contributed to staff retention which included passion among journalists, opportunities enjoyed by journalists and the media brand also encouraged and kept some staff within the newsroom. The study recommends that; newsrooms periodically undertake refresher courses for staff, continuous appraisals are made from within and salary increments are made which ought to be in tandem with prevailing economic situations. It is also pertinenet that journalists are encouraged to enjoy the opportunities made available to them as a means of sustaining staff within newsrooms.

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