Ali Balunywa in Gulu, Uganda
The Monitor office unlike the New Vision’s in Gulu has several female reporters and correspondents. Cissy Makumbi is one of them. She joined the Monitor in 2007 as a correspondent. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper. It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media house, The Nation Group of Companies that publishes the biggest circulating newspaper in East Africa. It also owns radios and televisions in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
For Cissy, a typical day depends on what is happening in the region. However, she is always at the office by 8.00am to attend the editorial meeting. Thereafter she goes to the field in search of news, following up tips or to conduct interviews.
After getting her stories, she goes back to the office and discusses them with her boss before typing them. The discussion involves establishing what angle the story should take. The computers are not networked, so Cissy uses a flash disk to pass the typed story to her colleagues and bureau chief, before sending it to the Monitor in Kampala.
To Cissy, the Internet is the most important new media for journalists. She uses it for communication via email, yahoo and messenger. She also uses it to access news from other sources and to beef up her stories with the Google search engine. She does not blog, nor belong to any social networking sites, but she relaxes with the Solitaire computer game.
The other tool Cissy uses most is the mobile telephone. Her phone has a camera, recorder, radio video and texting in addition to making and receiving calls. She is a proud user of all the functions of her telephone.
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