Makerere University’s Department of Journalism and Communication held the 2024 Annual Media Convention, characterized by excellent awards in journalism, communication, and photography, on 3rd September 2024. This was a high point in the academia calendar, recognizing the achievements of the top-performing students in various categories.
Miriam Najjingo was awarded the prestigious Cranmer Mugerwa Photojournalism Award as a way of appreciating her great ability in creating strong images that tell great stories. Oroma Hope won the PRAU Communication Award as the best student in communication, which is evidence of her ability to create appropriate and effective messages for any audience. The Tebere-Mudin Journalism Award was bestowed upon Olara Moses for being the Best journalism student of the 2023/24 academic year, which shows his trait commitment to the truth and a penchant for telling it.
This year’s convention took the following theme: How Artificial Intelligence and Social Networks can be leveraged in mitigating misinformation in Uganda. The theme emphasized with urgency the need to make use of technology amid a world faced with increasing menace posed by misinformation in the digital era.
The guest of honor was Hon. Kabbyanga Godfrey, the State Minister for ICT of Uganda, who called for a collective approach in combating misinformation. He thus called upon stakeholders like academia, media houses, and NGOs to combine in devising ways of countering the information with its opposite truth. “The government of Uganda is committed to investing in research to tackle this phenomenon,” Hon. Kabbyanga said, adding that the potential of AI to transform society and influence communication should be fully embraced.
The occasion also marked an emotional send-off when the department bid farewell to one of the oldest serving lecturers, Dr. Adolf Mbaine, who retired from service in October. He was grateful that Makerere University had allowed him to do some teaching over the years at the Department of Journalism and Communication. “I have wished and desired like a prayer answered,” he said with a great keen and enthusiastic desire to witness the department attain school status in his farewell remarks.
Organized by the Department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, the Annual Media Convention has continued to act as a fusion of celebrating academic excellence with discussing salient issues in the media landscape.
