How three communities on Lake Victoria landing sites in Uganda perceive and interpret the radio programmes on the lake's crises

Abstract

Over the past four decades, Lake Victoria has come under pressure from a multiplicity of interlinked human activities including industrial pollution, eutrophication and sedimentation. These pressures have contributed to ecological changes in the lake, incorporating unprecedented loss of biodiversity and water quality deterioration. This is threatening the lake's capacity to provide for the communities, as well as its contribution to the local economy. In performing their social responsibilities, the news media (particularly radio) have endeavoured to highlight the environmental crises on Lake Victoria. The Victoria Voice radio programmes on Uganda's CBS radio are one of the endeavours targeting lakeside communities. The key question raised here is how these radio programmes are perceived and interpreted by the communities. While they attest to their relevance in providing information on the crises on the lake, it is also evident that audiences are not naïve and passive, but...