Impact of media political incitement on social unrest in Uganda: A case of Kampala central division

Abstract

The role played by media in social unrest has been an issue of discussion all over the world. Although media influence has increased tremendously in the last decade, researchers are yet to agree on the impact of media political incitement on social unrest. The context of analysis of medial political incitement on social unrest in Kampala Central Division during the presidential and parliamentary campaigns between 2011 and 2016 revealed media can act as a double-edged sword. The study reviewed various literature on hate speeches & messages, political participation & violence, social protest movements and challenges facing media reporting. From the review the study adopted a conceptual framework developed from the libertarian theory and social responsibility theory of media reporting based on Aday Andersen (1974) &Buor (2004) with the propagation of social unrest as the dependent variable which relies on the media political incitement as the independent variable. In addition, people’s response to conflict coverage is persuaded by their level of democratization, form of media, access to information and level of political maturity as intervening variables. This study investigated the impact of media political incitement and social unrest in Kampala Central Division. The objectives of the study were to examine the nature of media political incitement in Kampala, document the different types of social unrest that have been caused by media political incitement in Kampala and establish the challenges facing media in reporting on political issues in Kampala. The study used a cross sectional survey design, applied qualitative and quantitative approaches and collected data using interviews and questionnaires. Stratified random sampling technique was applied to the study population of 209,500 people from the Kampala Central Division from which the sample of 84 participants were selected. The study found that media political incitement had an impact on social unrest in Kampala Central Division during the presidential and parliamentary campaigns between 2011 and 2016 and was escalated by vernacular (local) FM stations. In particular, 76.7% of the media in Kampala, publish content with hate speeches and 60.4% broadcast messages of hatred and intolerance through media platforms like Twitter, Facebook (69.4%) on a monthly basis. Most of the incitement makes most people uneasy (76.7%), resulting in social unrest (53.5%) aimed at influencing Government decisions. This was associated with the wave of murders, kidnapping as the residents (>50%) were expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership (53.5%). The media however faced harassment from the police and some of the public (58.9%) were unconformable talking to media on political issues. The study concluded that media in Kampala Central Division politically incite people through hate messages, publishing content with hate messages, preaching hatred and intolerance which promotes social unrest. The political incitement is through platforms like Twitter, Facebook making most people uneasy and could result in social unrest associated with the wave of murders, kidnapping as the residents and aimed at influencing Government decisions. Residents expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership, were unconformable talking to media on political issues and asserted that media faced harassment from the police. Therefore, to mitigate conflict reporting misrepresentation, specifically in weak democratic states, a common approach to conflict reporting should be designed and adhered to. Independence of the media should be guaranteed and media should be provided with adequate resources to enable it provide accurate and reliable news. Government should address the political concerns of its people. More importantly, there needs to be stringent regulations including legal action and control of vernacular (local) FM stations which are prone to manipulation by political elite. This should be coupled with training of journalists on conflict reporting and development of a standard conflict reporting procedure.