Every country has news consumers—and news avoiders—who are media illiterate. OJ-UGANDA’s media literacy section exists to change that. Follow along.
Musaazi NAMITI | Media Literacy
Just days after President Museveni announced the cabinet, a Facebook page called Team Yoweri 24/7 published a post about the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adonia Ayebare.
The person behind the page misspelt Mr Ayebare’s surname as Ayebale. They also claimed the diplomat-turned-cabinet minister worked, between 1996 and 1998, for a newspaper called East African Business Week.
He did not. Mr Ayebare worked for The EastAfrican, a weekly published by Nation Media Group and launched in November 1994. In fact, he had quit journalism when the East African Business Week launched in the early 2000s.
The Facebook page in question has not corrected its errors, and anyone who says they may never be corrected could be right. The episode illustrates one of the biggest differences between content creation and journalism: accountability.
Admittedly, journalists get facts wrong. But they are bound by a strict code of ethics and editorial guidelines that require corrections, retractions and accountability when mistakes are made.
Their relationship with the audience is built on trust. If trust is eroded, they are out of business. And it is not only the possibility of losing trust that forces them to adhere to editorial guidelines. The legal consequences of reporting falsely can be dire.
Six reasons you should trust what you read on this website—and share it with confidence
1. Led by experience that travels well
Our founder and editorial director, Musaazi NAMITI, brings more than two decades of serious newsroom experience, including eight years as an editor at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, and consulting for the African Development Bank, UN agencies and Globe Media Asia in Cambodia. His global exposure anchors OJ-UGANDA.COM in professional rigour and fairness—standards that too often slip in Uganda’s crowded media space.
2. We fact-check with scientific precision
Verification is NOT a box we tick; it is how we bring journalism to life. We confirm spellings, dates, figures, places—every detail that shapes a story. If a fact looks shaky, we pause and probe. Emotion does not lead us; evidence does.
3. We are a legal entity and are fully registered
OJ-UGANDA.COM is a company registered with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau. Our registration number is: 80034266163714
4. Radical transparency in how we work
We do not hide behind mystery. We show readers how information is gathered, verified and edited. You will always understand why we stand by a story—because we will let you in on the process.
5. Accountability you can see
When we err, we do not sweep it under the carpet/rug. Our corrections policy ensures every error is corrected immediately, with a clear note explaining what went wrong and what has been fixed. No quiet deletions. No half-truths.
6. Fair treatment for contributors
If you write for us, your ideas remain yours. We refine, not usurp. We share every edited version before publication, and we publish only work that is fact-based and mutually agreed upon. Your voice stays authentic—and honest.
🔴We run a clean, professional news site that prioritises editorial quality and draws readers’ attention to what matters.
News outlets that are sued and lose court cases can be forced to pay high damages and failing to pay is also costly.
The same barely applies to content creators. Many have become hugely popular not because of high editorial standards. Sometimes it is precisely because they have no editorial standards that get in the way. Unlike journalists, they are usually under no professional obligation to verify information, seek opposing perspectives or ensure balance.
A rumour can be reported as breaking news, and it will travel widely on social media and get more engagement than news stories published by traditional news outlets run by journalists.
Social media algorithms often favour content that provokes strong emotional reactions, whether shock, outrage or fear.
The creators also seem to be popular with younger people, many of whom have grown up in the age of the smartphone and prefer audio/visual formats for news delivery.
There is evidence that this shift is not marginal but profound. The Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report, based on nearly 100,000 respondents across 48 countries, found that 44% of 18-to-24-year-olds now cite social media and video platforms as their main source of news.
Among people aged over 55, the figure is just 20%. Video is also becoming increasingly important. Globally, the proportion of people consuming news through video rose from 52% in 2020 to 65 percent in 2025. In countries such as India, Kenya, the Philippines and Thailand, more people now say they prefer watching the news to reading it.
The rise of content creators is not solely a consequence of weaker editorial standards. It is also a reflection of changing audience habits. Younger audiences increasingly consume information through social media and video platforms, where creators have a natural advantage.
Journalists, by contrast, still publish a lot of news and analysis that is text-heavy and has to be read, even though many outlets have audio and visual packages.
The challenge for journalists is that the public thinks creators are journalists. Today, anyone with a smartphone, microphone and social media account can reach an audience that once only established news organisations could access.
This is where being literate about how the media works becomes essential. News consumers need to know the key difference.
Content creators are after a huge following and can publish what they want as long as it gets them views or followers. Some have become “newsfluencers” and have built large communities around their personalities on TikTok, YouTube, etc.
They push views they know their audiences want to hear and stick with them even if they are controversial, misleading or ill-informed because saying the opposite can turn off some followers.
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Journalism cannot get away with that. It follows facts and evidence. Accuracy, fairness and evidence have to be at the centre of news reporting, and when it comes to opinions, conservative views, for example, have to be balanced with liberal ones.
But sometimes journalists have failed to remain impartial, arming content creators and newsfluencers with a powerful argument: Better to take sides and make that known than to lay claim to impartiality when in reality you keep failing.
Despite the stiff competition, there is still a lot going for journalism. Discerning news consumers are more likely to go to well-established outlets than to content creators. What is more, established news organisations still enjoy advantages in authority, reputation and discoverability.
Journalists, not content creators and their platforms, are best suited to truth telling. As Nobel Peace Prize winner and journalist Maria Ressa famously stated:
“If these platforms spread lies faster than facts, people cannot tell the difference. So without facts, you cannot have the truth. Without truth you cannot have trust. Without these three you have no shared reality.”
🔴 If you care about truth, credibility and understanding how journalism really works, media literacy is essential. Follow OJ-UGANDA’s media literacy section to sharpen your news sense and separate fact from fiction. Media literacy is your weapon against misinformation, manipulation and media distrust.