“The Internet is the Most Important Media Tool”, Cissy

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.

Rural Journalists Using ICT

Ali Balunywa in Mbarara, Uganda

The New Vision Mbarara bureau chief is called Deus Ruhangariyo. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug). Deus is a holder of A Bachelors degree in Social Sciences and various certificates in Journalism.

Deus’ typical day finds him at the office at 7.30 am. He first peruses the daily papers checking on the regional stories to establish what was run. He then starts compiling the line up of stories for Orumuri, New Vision’s sister newspaper published in the local Kinyankore language.

At 9.00 am, he chairs the editorial meeting which is attended by his deputies and journalists. During the meeting, they share tips and assign journalists work for the day.

In the afternoon, he calls stringers and correspondents from the outlying districts to coordinate stories that came out from other papers or to follow up assignments. He advises on what angles to take and what details to look for.

On Mondays, Deus chairs the operations committee meetings, which involves all heads of department. An assessment of the previous week’s work is made and a time frame of what is to be done in the new week is made. There is always a secretary who takes minutes and later shares them with headquarters via email.

On Wednesdays a planning meeting for the Orumuri newspaper sits. The meeting looks at the product, reviews the product on the market and brainstorms on the challenges faced while doing it. Possible solutions are also provided. Forecasts of what to include in the next issue is also made.

After all correspondents have filed their stories, an editorial meeting is held to select stories to be used in the paper. Subeditors have the mandate of deciding which stories to be carried on specific pages for example; a page runs on average 10 stories without adverts. It is also important to incorporate stories from outlets, which have high news sales returns.

After laying the pages the subeditors submit them to the bureau chief. He checks the flow in stories, cross checks facts, libel, defamation and grammar. If there is no problem he okays the pages, which are PDF-ed and sent to prepress to ready it for printing.

ICT use

The computer is the most used technology today. All stories from the outlying districts are received via email. The Internet is used to gather foreign news and Google for background information. Digital photos are fed into the computer, digitally edited using Adobe Photoshop software and integrated in the story using QuarkXPress programme. Previously, the PdFs used to be physically taken to Kampala for printing on a floppy or CD, now however, it is different. The PDFs are sent by email instantly.

Deus has 3 email addresses; the New vision mail, Yahoo and Gmail. He however doesn’t chat or use any social networking site. He is part of the Closed Mobile Group, which makes free calls within the group.

Finally he uses the FM radio to get news tips and to advertise headlines for a new paper.

Graphic Designing at the Monitor

By Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Under editorial department at the Monitor, you find the Creative section where Graphic designers sit. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper (www.monitor.co.ug). 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 

Janet Akong is one of the designers at the Monitor. She studied Industrial and Fine Art at Makerere University and joined the Monitor in 2004. She works on the magazine insertions: Full Woman, Sunday Life, Rainbow the Children’s magazine, Health and IT.

Janet wakes up at 5.00 am every morning to pray and prepare herself for work. She leaves home at 7.30 am and by 8.30 am she is at the office. She receives material from the product editor organized in a folder with a particular date when the magazine will be printed.

The pages are laid according to the stories coming in plus the pictures. Janet discusses with the product editor the final design of a particular magazine. She also liaises with the editorial team on the design. The creative section has 3 staff including Janet.

The designers use new Media tools in all their work. They receive raw material in soft copy through the intranet. They use QuarkXPress to design and layout the pages. They send the PDF copies to printers via mail. They subscribe to www.Photos.com for quality pictures they use to illustrate the stories.

They also Google for story ideas, research, inspiration and page formats. Mobile telephony is also a tool designers cannot do without. It is used for communication with editors, writers, printers and the head office in Nairobi, Kenya. Clients to receive news alerts or breaking news from the Monitor also use it. Further still it is used for texting, photography and recording.

 

 

The Monitor’s Systems Connectivity

By Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Gladys Buteraba works at the Monitor as the Helpdesk Administrator. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper (www.monitor.co.ug). 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.

Gladys is a computer nerd who studied Business computing and also holds a Cisco Certificate of Network Association (CCNA). Her job is to look out for internal clients with computing problems. She understands the sections of every department, which enables her to provide tailor made solutions.

In the course of her work, she logs on and makes personal checks to find out if the systems are running properly. The systems include; the intranet, email, accounts and editorial. She also handles the day-to-day user codes sections composed of networks, systems and helpdesk.

The networks include the Local Area Networks (LAN) and the Wide Area Networks (WAN) in other words Internet connectivity. The Systems administrator manages all the systems in the organization. These include; the editorial, digital and finance systems. Lastly, the Helpdesk is first line trouble shooting area. It also coordinates all the sections and redistributes work. It further does the check on the physical structures like the satellite Vsats that provide the wireless link to the head office in Nairobi, Kenya and also downloads foreign news from Reuters and other News organizations.

The Helpdesk department receives calls from people in trouble with their systems and someone is assigned to go and look at the problem and solve it where possible on site. Sometimes the system might need reformatting or re installation, which can only be done in the IT room.

Gladys explained with pride how the Monitor is leading in digital innovations. She mentioned the mobile alerts service, which the Monitor outsourced from service providers called: True African. They teamed up with all mobile telephone providers to provide alerts on clients’ mobile phones. The clients pay some money on subscribing to the service. 

The Monitor mobile alerts offer breaking news and news headlines to subscribers. A new client just types in “monitor alert”, enters a number and sends to a specific number provided and he will be subscribed to the service.

Gladys was also happy to note that the Internet through Outlook organized the journalists. It provided an internal email address, keeps contacts and appointments.