Sima Paramjit Knowles
University of Birmingham
Nationality: Ugandan
Self-Funded
Full-Time
Registration: October 2001
Completion: 2005
Director of Studies: Michael Green
Second Supervisor: Dr.David Mills
The aim of the PhD
- To document how/explore whether the new forms of oral communications provided by radio, allow for a critical public sphere.
- To examine the role changing technology, media globalisation and market pressure have brought to the broadcasting environment in Uganda
- To examine how the Ugandan government is coping with a rapidly expanding broadcasting sector in the country.
- To examine whether in the case of countries like Uganda, where national broadcasters are too close to governments – national broadcasters can still be equated to public service broadcasters
- To examine the role radio has played in the development of rural Buganda.
Experience in stages towards the PhD
My experience in this whole PhD process has been very unique to say the least. In 2002 when I was in Uganda doing my fieldwork, the University took the extraordinary decision, without any notification to students, to shut down the department.
Nonetheless, despite the hitch, I continued working on my thesis, which adds to a small but growing literature about radio and broadcasting in Africa. It considers oral communications as a vital part of the radio public sphere on the African continent, examines the broader issues of global communication process on policy and highlights the need to rethink theory, when applied to global contexts.
Transfer
Although I wasn’t required to transfer to PhD as I was a direct PhD student, my yearly panel reviews helped me in consolidating good practice, identify gaps and refine my research question.
The fieldwork
This was the part I enjoyed most! Before setting out, I had attended various seminars, workshops, and IT courses designed to help research students. Having accumulated ‘wisdom’ from other research students who had done it, I was determined to keep a diary of all my activities, who I talked to, a summary of ‘off the record’ conversations I had with people, dates and times I spent at various places, which all made my write up considerably easier since the fieldwork was carried out in three phases over a three year period. It was also a time of refining and redefining my research design as I constantly found myself encountered with new situations and directions I had not expected.
Writing
My writing was done in many phases. I wrote my literature review and methodology chapters before the fieldwork. However the bulk of the thesis was written in the last fifteen months. I also revised the literature review and methodology after the fieldwork to accommodate new data.
Support
I had constant support from my supervisors, who encouraged me to attend cross-faculty seminars to accommodate my interdisciplinary research, through research training in methods of research both from the school of social sciences and the former Department of Cultural studies. I was also given full IT training for research students and financial assistance to attend conferences by the new Department of Sociology.
What you would suggest to a new PhD student...
Keep a meticulous record of your fieldwork experiences and bibliography. It can be a nightmare to have a beautiful quotation that makes your point so perfectly and yet you can’t find the reference in your ‘mountain’ of books.
Abstract of the Thesis:
This thesis examines ways in which radio stations serve the development 'needs' of rural Baganda women in Uganda. The thesis argues that a new participatory public sphere has been created in Uganda with the rise of commercial radio stations, with important implications for social development. These conclusions are drawn from an analysis of media liberalisation and globalisation in Uganda, informed by communication development theories and the theory of the Public Sphere.
In this thesis, I examine the African Public sphere and the way that Uganda's vibrant oral culture has fostered the rapid expansion of radio services in the region. The thesis unpacks 'development' as a concept, exploring its relationship to radio services in Africa and Uganda in particular. I conclude that as part of the push for 'development', media liberalisation has led to haphazard licensing of radio frequencies with no proper spectrum planning. It has also seen the growing influence of commercial radio stations like Radio Simba.
Using content analysis of the programme schedules of Radio Simba and the publicly funded Radio Uganda, the thesis examines the quality and nature of radio programmes available to rural Baganda women. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with radio producers and government representatives, it concludes that in places like Uganda, where national broadcasters are too close to governments, their public service role is limited.
I argue that Radio Simba partly fills this role. Using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, the study goes on to examine the access and uses of radio by rural Baganda women for development. I conclude that rural communities use radio to inform, enhance farming practices, health promotion and human rights campaigns. Radio also has a 'psychosocial' purpose, enabling a redefining of Ugandan identity through music and 'local' programming.
The thesis ends by describing some of the moral panic created as a result of the presence of this new global public sphere in Uganda, and the limited nature of Ugandan academic debate about the changing nature of public service broadcasting.
Publications and Papers
Books
(chapter, forthcoming, 2006), “Radio and Development: Uses by Baganda women”, Cambridge University Press, Compiled by The Third World Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
(Forthcoming, 2007) “ Critique a crucial part of academic writing” chapter to be published in Helen Lauer, (Ed) Reappraising the Social Sciences and Humanities from African Perspectives (Ghana)
Journals
Changing production cultures in Uganda: a comparison of Radio Uganda and Radio Simba (forthcoming, 2006/7), Sage Publications, compiled by CAMRI, University of Westminster.
Current Job
Trying to publish as many articles as possible and seriously job-hunting!
Contact details
Sima Paramjit Kaur Knowles
simakaur@yahoo.co.uk
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