145 © The Author(s) 2018
H. M. Mabweazara (ed.), Newsmaking Cultures in Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54109-3_7
CHAPTER 7
Newsmaking Practices in Uganda:
A Comparative Framing Analysis of Two
Leading Newspapers
Brian Semujju
Global newsmaking practices can be explained using fve factors as articu-
lated by Preston (2009). These include (1) individual infuences, which
deal with how personal characteristics and the background of an individual
journalist infuence newsmaking decisions; (2) media routines and norms,
where conventional journalistic work is based on the daily newsroom rou-
tine practices like meeting deadlines, sourcing and others; (3) organisa-
tional infuences, with which particular media houses draft mission
statements and editorial policies to defne journalism practice (Doudaki
and Spyridou 2015); (4) political economic factors, which link the journal-
ist’s work or professional behaviour to the nuances of the economy (like
advertising) and other powerful political players; and fnally, (5) cultural
and ideological power, the kind of infuence that stems from our socio-
cultural setting. The infuence that journalists derive from social under-
standings of life can be traced through signs and codes that journalists use
to interpret news for the audience. The last factor therefore focuses on the
framing of discourse (Preston 2009) to unearth the underlying ideologies
informing and shaping newsmaking practices. It is this factor that informs
B. Semujju (*)
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda