MAKERERE UNIVERSITY- A senior lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University in Uganda, has won a United Nations research grant to conduct a study on its peacekeeping mission radio networks.
Dr. William Tayeebwa, an accomplished journalist, media trainer, researcher and academic of great repute, won the grant towards his research project titled: “Airwaves for Building Peace and Inclusive Societies: The Case of United Nations Peacekeeping Mission Radio Networks in Africa.” He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University.
In a statement released yesterday, the world body announced that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund (UN-SDGF) has awarded to Dr. Tayeebwa and five of his continental research associates USD 339,650 towards his research project. The money is an equivalent of about 1,200,000 billion Uganda shillings.
“This continental research project examines how the programming of nine United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission supported radio networks have addressed issues of ‘national integration and security’ in the respective countries. It also probes how the radio programs have covered the implementation of the 17 SDGs and the country-specific targets,” reads the statement.
It adds that the goal and main output of the project will be a book tentatively titled “United Nations Radio Framing of Peacebuilding in Africa” that has already been solicited by Palgrave McMillan Publishers based on previous research on Burundi and DR Congo by Dr. Tayeebwa.
Accordingly, the project will also provide four scholarships to four continental Master’s students as well as two post-doctoral researchers. The research associates and authors in the book are Dr. Amanda Coffie at University of Ghana, Dr. Tharcisse Musabyimana at University of Rwanda, Mr. Anthony Ochan at University of Juba in South Sudan, Ms. Nobantu Taylor at Internews Monrovia in Liberia, and Dr. Charlotte K. Ntulume at Makerere University in Uganda.
About Dr Tayeebwa:
Dr William Tayeebwa is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University in Uganda. He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Communication from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada (2012) focusing on ‘peace journalism and communication.’
His working experience has spurned several sectors that include academia and mass media, as well as consultancy for government ministries, non-governmental and international organisations such as UNESCO, NORAD, SIDA and USAID.
His areas of research, teaching and consultancy have included the nexus between journalism with environment, peace and conflict as well as migration and refugee mediated narratives.
He has published in the areas of community radio, social media, as well as media and peace building.
A previous postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge in the UK, he is a co-author with Kristin Skare Orgeret of Journalism in Conflict and Post-Conflict Conditions: Worldwide Perspectives (Nordicom, 2016).