Assessing the role of photojournalism in the reconstruction of gender perception in Ugandan newspapers today.

Abstract

This research assessing the role of photojournalism in the reconstruction gender perception in Ugandan news papers. The study has been carried out with the objectives to identify photographs from specified newspapers that insights the reconstruction gendered perspective in Ugandan newspapers, to classify them according to the different themes they represent, to analyze each theme that is being presented in objective two. The study adopted a descriptive study design which has both qualitative and quantitative in nature with a sample of size of 50 respondents selected using simple random sampling and purposive sampling and analysis has been done using table generated . there is a role photojournalism plays in the reconstruction of gendered perception if newspapers reduce on the coverage of photographic which portray women negatively like those which expose domestic violence, those which expose them sexually and put more emphasis on constructive photojournalism which portray role model women like politicians, those involved in commercial agriculture and those heading big institutions in order to clean the gender perception of women in the media through photojournalism giving more coverage to women in news papers in terms of photojournalism as compared to the men can also play a significant role in creating a positive perception of gender equality other than giving women less photo coverage and portraying them negatively in news papers which promotes gender inequality and subordinations, news papers through photojournalism give more coverage to the male and compared to the females. photojournalism has contributed to misrepresentation and stereotyping reducing the coverage of women nudity and sexual violence and concentration on positive aspects of powerful women in politics and business to eliminate misrepresentation and stereotyping. Women exposure to sexual violence through photojournalism as the gender themes mostly represented by photojournalism in Ugandan newspapers. Violence against women by men with 20% while women as primary caregivers / men as bread winners and aggression in male as passivity in females each scoring 10% through photojournalism and giving women and men equal coverage on news paper front pages on developmental issues Uganda will realize gender equality which is a key instrument in a country in order to realize economic growth and development hence photojournalism will play an instrumental role in achieving this, The study also indicated that photojournalism plays a very significant role in the reconstruction of gendered perception in Ugandan news papers and if emphasis on put on reduction on the coverage of photographic which portray women negatively like those which expose domestic violence, those which expose their sexually and put more emphasis on constructive photojournalism which portray role model women like politicians, those involved in commercial agriculture and those heading big institutions in order to clean the gender perception of women in the media the researcher recommended that recommendation that the five different news papers researched by should increase on the number female photojournalists to complement on the few who are already in this field so as to realize gender equality in this field, news papers should labour to reduce on the number of negative images which portray women sexuality in the news papers in order to realize gender equality. There should also be balanced picture coverage between men and women in news papers since it has been revealed in this research that news papers give men more coverage which promotes gender inequality. The researcher also recommended areas further studies such as the influence of photojournalism on political actors of Uganda, the role of photojournalism in the promotion of human rights and the influence of Photojournalism on moral decay