Radio leads Uganda’s media environment, with over half of citizens (56%) saying radio is their main source of news. However, this is down from eight out of ten (79%) seven years ago, while TV, the internet and social media are rising.
Significantly, this trend does not apply equally to everyone: poorer citizens, residents of rural areas, older people and those with lower levels of education continue to be highly dependent on radio, while young, educated, urban and relatively wealthy citizens are increasingly watching TV or getting news online.
These findings were released by Twaweza in a research brief titled Who’s engaged, who’s excluded? Ugandan citizens’ opinions and experiences on media engagement and citizen participation, based on data from Sauti za Wananchi, Africa’s first nationally representative highfrequency mobile phone survey.
For this brief, data were collected from 2,741 respondents in the seventh round of calls to the second Sauti za Wananchi panel, conducted between January 9th and February 13th, 2024.
Internet usage is rising rapidly, driven by mobile phones and social media. In just the past three years, the number of citizens who had accessed the internet in the previous four weeks on their mobile phone increased from 15% to 24%. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the vast majority of citizens (76%) report that they did not access the internet for any purpose in the previous four weeks, and are thus effectively excluded from the many benefits that internet access can bring.
Similarly, social media use is dominated by young, relatively wealthy and well-educated residents of urban areas. These groups are all far more likely to use social media than other citizens, and the link with levels of education is particularly strong. WhatsApp is the leading social networking service used by Ugandans, with two out of ten citizens (20%) using the service, up from one out of ten (11%) just three years earlier. This is followed by Facebook (14%) and TikTok (9%), which has grown rapidly in the past few years. Twitter / X and Instagram are used by only a very small percentage of citizens, almost all well-educated residents of Greater Kampala.
Beyond the media, three out of four citizens (73%) nationwide report having attended at least one community meeting in the previous year. Indeed, across almost all demographic groups, a majority report having done so. The exception is Greater Kampala, where fewer than half of residents report having attended a community meeting in the previous year. And it’s notable also that men (78%) are more likely than women (67%) to report having attended.
Attendance at community meetings has returned to the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020-2021. Most citizens who report attending such meetings also report actively participating, by asking a question or raising an issue in some way. However, among women, active participation at public community meetings lags even further behind men than attendance.
Among those who report attending community meetings, four out of ten (42%) say the topics discussed included security matters, followed by water (22%) and sanitation (22%). Among those who don’t usually attend such meetings, the main reasons they give for their non-attendance are that they are not informed that a meeting is happening (28%), that no meetings take place (20%) or that they don’t have time to attend (19%).
“This is a reminder to all of us that different people in Uganda lead very different lives. This has always been the case, but it is significant that our media environment is increasingly becoming divided between a small, highly online group and the majority who never use the internet and continue to depend on the radio. This has potentially concerning implications, especially if discussions shift online and decisions are influenced by online conversations that most citizens remain excluded from. We need to protect the role of offline spaces for citizens to engage in public debate and to make their voices heard – such as community meetings. And those of us who are active online should remind ourselves that what we see represented there is only a small minority of Uganda.” said Marie Nanyanzi, Senior Program Officer, Twaweza.
