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
TV viewers tend to believe wholeheartedly what they see on their screens, especially if it is news being broadcast by a high-profile media personality.
But appearances are deceptive. Earlier this month, social media users watching a TV news clip about Uganda on veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour’s X account could not believe their eyes. The journalist was presenting The Amanpour Hour, and her verified account posted: “In Nigeria this week, a new king was coronated with pomp and circumstance—but his resume is what’s really standing out.”
Yet in the video news clip she was talking about Uganda: “It has not been an easy year for journalists: dissed and disrespected all over the world, even in the land of the free press and the First Amendment. But not for one TV anchor in Uganda. Fifty-six-year-old Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma was crowned King of Uganda’s Toro kingdom this week after a succession dispute […]”
Many commenters wondered how Ms Amanpour confused Uganda with Nigeria. Others speculated that someone else, who confused the two countries, wrote the words for her.
The episode brought to mind another error CNN made in a live broadcast more than 10 years ago. The channel was reporting a terror attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, which left 147 people dead, mostly students.
CNN used a map to illustrate the story but got a couple of things seriously wrong. For example, it erroneously put “Tanzania” on the map of Uganda. Separately, an on-screen caption for a guest from the Kenya Red Cross Society read “Nairobi, Nigeria”—an error that surprised viewers given that the two countries are in two different regions, East Africa and West Africa, and are thousands of miles apart.
There is another recent episode that is not news-related but is worth mentioning. In July, the US State Department said it had incorrectly labelled all six countries it identified on a map of Africa at an international conference. It called the act “an unfortunate error.”
The map was shown during an event at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It highlighted six countries: Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi and Cameroon.
The mistakes are different as well as the institutions involved. But the takeaway from all three is that information can look authoritative when it is factually wrong or misleading.
Six reasons you should trust what you read on this website—and share it with confidence
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More importantly, it is curious that all these examples are about Africa. How likely is it that a CNN news anchor can confuse France with, say, Belgium? Would the State Department make the same error if it was dealing with Western Europe?
For information consumers, the challenge is not to spot or catch errors but to develop media literacy skills needed to question the veracity of what they view on TV, what they read in newspapers and on websites.
Media literacy skills equip news/information consumers with the ability to not equate credibility with accuracy. The three examples amply illustrate that even respected broadcasters, journalists, global news outlets and government institutions make mistakes.
Viewers/readers need to question information even if it comes from credible news outlets or institutions. Visuals can look polished and convincing when, in fact, they contain errors. Taking media visuals at face value can be poor judgement.
Media Literacy also enables users to know when they are dealing with fake news, misinformation and disinformation. In the examples cited, there is nothing to suggest that CNN was disseminating disinformation. Its wrong map and its caption placing Nairobi in Nigeria were false, but they appear to be errors, not deliberate deception.
Pertinent questions media literate information consumers need to mull over: Does the reputation of a journalist make it impossible for them to get facts wrong? While the three examples about Africa do not mean Western media and institutions always get facts about Africa wrong and always right about the developed world—but are people with real knowledge and experience of Africa involved when stories, images, maps, infographics about the continent are made?
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🔴 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.
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