Bayimba Cultural Foundation started producing a television series discussing the role of Arts and Culture in Uganda and East Africa under the theme “Our contribution to society”. Panellists are always invited to these discussions to share their views with the artists and the public. Our first discussion focused on the “Role of Arts and Culture in Society” while the second discussion was titled “Arts and Development”, the third discussion focussed on “Supporting Arts – Whose role”.
This time around (Friday, 22nd May 2009) the topic of the discussion will be “The role of the Media in developing Arts”. Panellists and public are invited again to share their thoughts and opinions.
Introduction to the topic
Media and arts have a number of things in common:
- They are both the result of creative minds at work
- They both have a powerful influence on people’s life and mind-sets
- They both have the potential to contribute to development i.e. social, economic and political development.
The media has two faces here. On the one hand, media form part of the creative industry Art works created with new media technologies constitute one of the most popular contemporary arts genres (media arts) and new media plays an important role in innovation and artistic development and facilitate the connection of the arts sector with other sectors.
On the other hand, media as means of communication – e.g. television, film, radio, newspapers, compact discs, magazines, computers, and internet – extend the human capacity for creating, duplicating, transmitting, and storing messages – messages that are transmitted across time and space. Therefore, the media play a critical role in informing citizens and influencing public opinion.
The emergence of popular culture
Just as the media influence public opinion and perceptions, influence attitudes and help shape the latest trends in music, fashion, entertainment (as well as other facets of daily life). They have become critical in providing information for the choices we make and the attitudes we take: ranging from what music we choose and books we read to what clothes we wear and which performances we attend. As media (through new media technologies) have been closely entwined with technological change, they have contributed to a wide dissemination of messages, reaching out to large segments of society, i.e. the masses. As such, the media have heavily contributed to the emergence of a popular culture (mass culture).
Popular culture and mass media have a symbiotic relationship: each depends on the other in an intimate collaboration. This has affected their content and platform: the focus is on reaching the masses. The downside of this is that there is little room for diversity and pluralism in the content of the message (because of the desire to reach out to masses). Perhaps this means that cultural differences and traditions will inevitably erode altogether? Will the cultures of individuals from groups, organizations, and societies that have great access to and control of media overpower those that have fewer resources and less access and control? Does this allow for diverging opinions, views and trends?
Media and popular culture in Uganda
Media are typical products of the industrialised world. As a result of globalisation, the media and new media technologies were brought to Africa and the role of the media in African society has grown significantly – radio is all over, with community radio experiencing a boom; TV is rapidly expanding throughout the continent (mostly but not exclusively in urban areas); satellite TV is facilitating international TV access all over; internet access is increasing in public domains and mobile telephones are commonly used. As a result, the media have equally influenced society and lifestyles in Africa.
The media have become part of African reality and African everyday life and enabled many Africans to be informed, to communicate and to participate in society. However, the coming of (new) media technology to Africa has also brought along the popular culture which is in essence a creation of the industrialised world from which those media stem – this has resulted in cultural globalisation, a global mass culture that is available in all corners of the world. Also the arts sector has been influenced by this cultural globalisation – American artists (especially musicians) are famous in Africa and local artists often imitate these artists, thereby neglecting their own cultural roots. How can there be room for cultural and artistic diversity and pluralism, both at a global and local level? To what extend does this global popular culture do justice to African culture and arts? What role can media play in ensuring cultural and artistic diversity and pluralism?
The role of media in developing arts
When it comes to media and arts, we acknowledge the efforts of those who have passionately reported on arts, talked about it, followed artists and presented a diversity of arts to the public. However, in Uganda little is known about the actual art industry by Ugandans, because many of our people enjoy the arts without knowing the meaning of what they are enjoying, thus not appreciating it. With the exception of mainstream (popular) music and the prominent theatrical groups, very few people go for authentic art, i.e. different genres of music, artistic paintings, contemporary dance and drama. Surely, artists can show their work but the question is who can create a wider awareness? The media could: not because they must but because they have the capability to reach out to numbers that individuals cannot reach (especially because of the new media technologies). One could argue that arts need the media to connect to the public, to create an audience (even for bigger masses) and platform of cultural and artistic exchange and learning. In turn, the media needs the arts for continuous innovation and creativity. In that sense, media and arts are inseparable – they interdependent and therefore can (when aiming for the same objective) reinforce each other. There is a need for cooperation and collaboration between the media and the arts, especially if meant to positively shape and transform society.
There are several questions that arise:
- What role are the media playing in the arts sector in Uganda? Do the media critically analyse and report on arts and to what extent are the reports of a diverse nature?
- What role can the media play in developing arts?
- Arts about numbers (mass culture) or content? Can informative arts dominate media pages?
- What role can the media play in promoting diversity and pluralism in arts (as a reflection of a diverse and pluralist society)?
- How can media and arts interact for a common purpose?
- Do journalists need training for reporting on arts? Do artists need to design media relations strategies?
A serious national discourse must be undertaken to explore the use of existing and rapidly emerging media technologies to foster hope and promote social inclusion and development. The media have both an opportunity and possibly a responsibility to help people understand their cultural and artistic diversity. Such an increased understanding can be a powerful resource for social and economic development, provided that the Arts sector in its turn remains faithful to artistic diversity as well.
Bayimba Cultural Foundation
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
i do believe that the discrepancy between the media and the all artery freternity, why?the media has been uninvolved as a result of littlr recognitiong of the art discipline as an entity in developing the career end goal form our learning institutions.hence scholars in the media come out still having the lag of that mentality from institutions.therefor the way forward is for going back to our institutional recognition of arts before the media can be called upon as a patner on board. thanx very much.
The state of media largely in existence at the time tended towards fragmented, individualistic and elitist reporting which left a larger percentage of the population with no effective media communication and hence little input into the development process of the Art sector.
The recent trend towards liberalisation and privatization of the Media has resulted in the art sector in Uganda taking a step towards liberalizing the Art sector industry in the hope that new actors would take services to the people.A lot of radio and television stations offering a wide variety of content have mushroomed more than before.
Suffice to mention that liberalisation of the airwaves has opened up space for more discussion in the Art Sector and thus giving a larger percentage, the ability to easily and quickly transmit their opinions on the Art sector to their representatives
There is lack of coordination among the existing policies and guidelines in the various channels of the media so as to create a singular national framework under which the country is to operate. Secondly, media are still elitist, urban centered and vertical in nature reducing rural communities to recipients rather than participants in sharing of ideas, processing and disseminating information for development in the art sector.
Well,some media help promote artists like what WBS does and some Radio stations,its an eye opener to the public and it acts as a link between the sector and funs,but while doing so they tend to speak more of some ones failurse than achievements,