Uganda genel seçimleri sürecinde yazılı basının rolü: Daily Monitor ve New Vision gazeteleri örneği

Mass media can contribute to the democratic process by cultivating social spaces for public dialogue. The purpose of this research was to determine the role of the print media in the Uganda 2021 general election process. The qualitative and quantitative mechanisms were used by the researcher. As data collection tools, content analysis of selected stories from the daily monitor and new vision newspapers, as well as interviews, were used. Thirteen interviews were conducted with editors and journalists from the selected newspapers for the qualitative study. A total of N = 1,704 newspaper articles were quantitatively retrieved and examined, with 883 (51.8%) coming from the new vision and 821 (48.2) items coming from the daily monitor. Findings of the study indicated that 98.6% of news items analyzed, mentioned at least one candidate, and only 1.4% of news items didn't mention a candidate among analyzed news. The study results indicate that 63% of the candidates covered in the analyzed articles were male and only 37% of the candidates were female, 75% of the candidates appeared in the newspaper as subjects of the story, and only 25% appeared as newsmakers. Whereas the dominant political party in the newspaper was the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led by President Yoweri Museveni with 46.8% of the analyzed news. Whereas the National Unity Platform (NUP) came in the second position with a total representation of 33.1% of the total coverage. Other political parties had minimal scores. The study confirmed that print media contributed greatly to electing some political candidates during the 2021 Uganda general election.