Disinformation and Democracy in East Africa
How a Regis professor is exploring the crooked path to democracy
By Hadley Jenkins
In 1994, East Africa faced the most rapid mass killing in African history. In just 100 days, the Rwandan genocide resulted in the deaths of nearly 800,000 people of the Tutsi ethnic group. Retrospectively, media scholars have pointed to the utilization of propaganda and journalists as conduits of violence against the Tutsi people. The spread of disinformation through global media networks has since evolved with the platformization – or the increased use of social networking platforms as news and information sources – of the news cycle.
Meghan Sobel Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Communication, examines the shifting landscape of journalism in Press Freedom and the (Crooked) Path Toward Democracy: Lessons from Journalists in East Africa. The book is co-authored with Karen McIntyre, Ph.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture. Published in the spring of 2023 through Oxford University Press, Press Freedom represents almost a decade of shared research, building a framework which analyzes press freedom in historically restricted areas.
As Cohen and McIntyre gathered information for Press Freedom, they also researched and published the article Misinformation Literacy of COVID-19 Digital News in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The development of this work coincided with the increase of disinformation spread before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following Q&A is the combination of two interviews with Cohen.
What in your research background brought you to East Africa?
A: I have always been interested in media and its power to shape public perceptions. I gained interest in how media functions in this unique political landscape following the Rwandan genocide. So called “journalists” utilized radio to put forward hate speech that perpetuated the genocide. Since then, there has been remarkable development progress in comparison to other countries. Wondering if the media had played a role in that progress started my research in East Africa. I started largely in 2016 and continued that research with Karen McIntyre, branching out to Uganda and Kenya. I was trying to understand the media landscape and how it affects various aspects of society.
What about press freedom, specifically in East Africa, drew your attention?
A: Press freedom is an interesting concept. There are organizations that try to “measure” press freedom using rankings. Almost all of them say that Rwanda has very little press freedom. But, if you talk to journalists in Rwanda, they say it’s not that they can’t write critically, but that they want their role to be unifiers. They work to right the wrongs of their predecessors.
In the academic world and international development communities, there tends to be the assumption that press freedom develops in a linear fashion. Meaning a country will move from being “not free” to “free.” It’s a lot more complicated than that! In Uganda, for example, journalists largely agree that they feel they are becoming less free.
Can you describe the "framework" that you developed to analyze media?
A: In the book, we ultimately put forward these factors to help people understand how and why media systems function as they do, such as a nation’s distance from conflict, the international linkages that the country has, political changes, etc. Instead of ranking, we can look at these factors and see how and where they manifest. Instead of “most restricted” to “most free,” we can understand media landscapes around the world in more nuanced ways.
Factors to Consider When Examining Global Media Systems
A starting point for enhanced contextualization
What was the experience of working with/interviewing journalists for this book in East Africa like?
A: I really love interviewing people! It’s so interesting to hear people’s perspectives. For the book, we used interviews and a survey of journalists. Journalists are very easy to interview. They’re usually on the other side of the interview process so they’re able to describe their experiences in useful ways. There is a risk for journalists depending on how critically they speak. While it was fun and interesting, it was important to be cautious and respectful and take precautions to protect the identities of the people who spoke to us. Ultimately, we have an immense amount of gratitude to them for being willing to speak to us.
Did you notice any similarities regarding press freedom in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda?
A: There are both similarities and differences, which helped us use the three countries to build the framework for the book. In a lot of measures, Rwanda has the most restrictive press of the three countries, while Uganda is in the middle and Kenya is regarded as the “most free.” It highlights differences in how journalists can write, based on who consumes and funds media. In freer media landscapes, there is more private media. Meaning, media that’s funded by advertising, as opposed to public media that’s often funded by the government. These differences shape how journalists write.
How did you approach research for your article, Misinformation Literacy of COVID-19 Digital News in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda?
A: In 2020, I had applied for a grant from Facebook [Meta] with Karen McIntyre and three scholars located in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, respectively. We had proposed the grant before COVID-19 and planned to travel, so that ended up changing. However, I think it ended up working out for the better! Together, with each one of the scholars (we call them country leads), we were able to hire more research assistants instead.
The research assistants that spoke the local language brought paper copies of the survey around the region. It’s important to talk to populations outside of the urban centers in East Africa due to their structural differences. They couriered them back to the country leads in the capital cities who uploaded the data digitally to be analyzed. It’s the largest known study in that region looking at media literacy.
How does misinformation suppress democracy?
A: The most important thing to a democracy is a well-informed citizenry. Before the rise of digital media, people read the newspaper. From just reading, you would learn about society from many different perspectives. You didn’t have the choice of what you were going to read in that newspaper. With the rise of digital news, echo chambers have become more prominent. People now seek out content that reinforces their existing beliefs, which leads to the polarization that we’re seeing in the U.S. right now. Misinformation spreads significantly faster online than it does in other mainstream news sources.
What does the production of misinformation look like in East Africa, and does it vary from how it’s produced in the United States?
A: We first should clarify between misinformation and disinformation. Disinformation is created to intentionally mislead while misinformation is not created to be intentionally deceitful but is false and spreads just as quickly. I believe misinformation can be equally or more harmful. Then, we think about who’s producing disinformation. There could be a political aim, to discredit political opponents or to mislead. Rwanda and Uganda don’t have democratic governments; there is a single leader who can harness disinformation to their benefit. However, Kenya is a multiparty democracy, as well as the U.S., and we certainly see that our political leaders are also harnessing misinformation and disinformation as well.
noun | mis∙in∙for∙ma∙tion
false or inaccurate information
Disinformation
noun | dis∙in∙for∙ma∙tion
false information which is intended to mislead
What – if any – efforts have been made to educate the public on digital literacy in East Africa?
A: There is an array of efforts in all three of the countries. There are efforts from non-governmental organizations that host workshops and work with schools, among other entities. There are conversations happening about whose responsibility it is to teach media literacy. We’ve seen media literacy courses at all levels of education. Even at Regis, a media literacy course is now one of three required communication courses that students can choose from. Scholars and nonprofits are discussing this, and we see different media literacy campaigns pop up across different aspects of society.
What’s next for your research?
A: This research has dovetailed nicely with the book and other projects that I’m working on. They all relate broadly to the media, human rights and democratization in East Africa. [This includes] further thinking about how media systems function and importantly the role of the journalist. How do journalists globally conceptualize their jobs and the roles they play in other parts of the world? I’m not sure that we — the United States — should be a model for journalism that every country should follow. It’s much more complicated and nuanced, and each country has a wide array of factors that’s influence its media system.
Media changes will impact us globally in the years to come. The larger news and social media companies have an important role to play in media literacy, and combatting disinformation, and (re)building as they hinge on the public’s trust as the containers for in media. As far as teaching, I will continue to incorporate my research into my classes and offer opportunities for students to continue to work on research projects with me. It’s a big opportunity for students to engage in social science research, which isn’t something that all Regis students are exposed to.
Press Freedom and the (Crooked) Path Toward Democracy
by Meghan Sobel Cohen and Karen McIntyre Hopkinson
Article by Hadley Jenkins
About the Author
Meghan Sobel Cohen
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