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New Challenges Old Tactics: How Ugandan Newsrooms Combat Fake News

aOslo Metropolitan University, Norway
bMakerere University, Uganda
cMakerere University, Uganda

Digitisation, AI and Algorithms in African Journalism and Media Contexts

ISBN: 978-1-80455-136-3, eISBN: 978-1-80455-135-6

Publication date: 14 December 2023

Abstract

This chapter examines strategies deployed at individual and institutional levels to combat fake news in two media houses in Uganda. Grounded in the hierarchy of influences model, we examine journalists' and editors' perspectives on how Vision Group and Nation Media Group newsrooms respond to fake news. Journalists' and editors' responses, obtained through semi-structured interviews as well as document review enabled us to underscore the centrality of professional standards, training and technology in combating fake news. We found that technology plays a key role in fact-checking, although newsrooms are yet to adopt advanced digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. The newsrooms under investigation deploy conventional hardware and software to detect, flag and debunk fake news. We posit that for the strategies adopted at the organisational level to succeed, they ought to appeal to individual reporters' goals and interests. Further, discourses on adoption of newer technology ought to reflect the contexts in which the news organisations operate in addition to their financial standing.

Keywords

Citation

Selnes, F.N., Walulya, G. and Lukanda, I.N. (2023), "New Challenges Old Tactics: How Ugandan Newsrooms Combat Fake News", Dralega, C.A. (Ed.) Digitisation, AI and Algorithms in African Journalism and Media Contexts, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-135-620231004

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024 Florence Namasinga Selnes, Gerald Walulya and Ivan Nathanael Lukanda. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited