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Journey to becoming the first journalism professor
Prof Goretti Nassanga says she is contented that she has reached the top in her career. PHOTO BY george katongole
What you need to know:
Prof Goretti Nassanga is a woman of firsts. She was the first PhD graduate of Journalism & Communication department at Makerere University in 2003. In 2016, she became the first professor at the department. After 30 years of the department, Prof Nassanga reflects on a journey she started accidentally but one that has been very fulfilling.
1979, a time when Uganda’s political landscape was in turmoil, a young Goretti Nassanga in her early 20s, was hired as an information officer at the then Ministry of Information. Nassanga had just graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Social Work and Social Administration.
At this job, Nassanga was required to write stories for the Uganda News Agency which would air on Radio Uganda and Uganda Television. But Journalism was not one of the things she had ever dreamt of doing as she grew up, nevertheless she took on the mantle.
“It was accidental. I did not set out to join journalism, but I joined to earn a living,” she says. But she had a natural appetite for news.
First she was deployed at the general desk, where she covered a number of assignments. And was later posted to Parliament as a reporter, where she was charged with covering House sessions and the office of the Speaker, later rising to head the Parliament desk. After that, she joined the Presidential Press Unit as a reporter, then as head of the Presidential Press Unit.
“Before joining journalism, my idea of Uganda was the distance from home (Mukono) to my former school, Naggalama, which is about 10km, Namagunga which is 8km from Mukono, and Makerere about 18km,” she said.
However, as a journalist, she says she travelled across the country and beyond and admits she learnt a lot of things she would not have known had she been on a desk.
“Once you are assigned to cover a story, you have to do research, to dig up background information. As the saying goes, a journalist is a jack of all trades. I have tried to invest time in improving my social capital.”
Nonetheless, she admits that the profession has its own challenges, top among them being the meagre pay. “I did not gain much in terms of monetary rewards. Knowledge is not always quantifiable or equated to money, but I got social satisfaction.”
Joining academia
Nassanga retired from active journalism in 1989 for a teaching position at the School of Journalism at the Institute of Public Administration (now Uganda Management Institute). She later embarked on a Master’s degree in Journalism, from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK in 1992.
Upon her return in 1993, she joined Makerere University as a lecturer on the Journalism programme, which was under the Literature Department at the time.
“I worked with Dr Monica Chibita and later got other staff to join us. In 1998, the department was granted autonomy and I was appointed the first head of department,” she recalls.
Having created a strong bond with the Literature department, Nassanga recalls that it was not easy for them to gain independence. “The Department of Literature wanted us to stay since we had bonded, but we needed to stand on our own and grow just like any youth has to leave the parents to start an independent life,” she explains.
A woman of firsts
Nassanga enrolled for a doctorate at Makerere University and graduated in 2003. This made her the first PhD graduate from the department.
“It was a big achievement for the journalism fraternity to get the first doctorate in Journalism & Communication at Makerere University. We have continued to grow since then, with a number of staff at the department attaining PhDs, although mostly from abroad.” Today, the department has 10 staff with PhDs with three ongoing.
On July 29, 2016, Nassanga became a professor, and in fact she is still the only professor at the department.
Although being first has advantages such as making a name, it is also disadvantageous.
“You have no one to look up to, so you have to grapple in the dark and find your way,” she says.
Publications
Scholars pursuing journalism and communication in Uganda will often get referred to books by authors from the US, South Africa or Nigeria, bringing to the table the discussion on whether Ugandans do not publish.
In fact in an interview with The Observer newspaper in 2017, one scholar, Dr Brian Ssemujju, revealed that after reading a lot of content from foreign authors such as Denis McQuail, Pieter J. Fourie, Baran and Davis, he wondered, “there is no Ugandan in all these textbooks… is it possible that Ugandans have not been writing?”
But Prof Nassanga is one of the few Ugandans who is trying to change this.
Asked how much she has published, she says, “we cannot quantify knowledge, but I have made my contribution and I am still continuing.” Over the years, she has published 32 peer reviewed journal articles and chapters in various book.
“Researchers in the discipline now have local literature they can build on. There was hardly any academic research on media in Uganda years ago,” she says.
Nassanga has conducted research at national, regional and international level. Her major publication areas include, development communication, environment communication, health communication, gender, media and development, media ethics, regulation and communication policies, peace journalism, ICT and new media, among others.
Satisfaction
Even with such an impeccable career, Nassanga is not about to stop contributing to Uganda’s body of knowledge. “As scholars in academia, it is difficult to get to a situation where you feel that you now know enough in your discipline. So I always want to know the new developments in the discipline and cannot keep away from reading to explore what other people have done, and also writing to publish to share my own findings.”
“This is particularly important for our developing countries as most of the resources we use in training, text books, training videos, among others are from the west, so there is need to conduct research so as to generate our own resources relevant to our local context.”
All in all, Prof Nassanga says she has been on the road to self-actualisation (as opined by Abraham Maslow in his hierarchy of needs), “I feel content that after 40 years in media practice, and I have reached the top of that hierarchy.”
Advice
On wealth. Not to discourage those with big ambitions and those that aspire to be well-off and lead a comfortable life, Prof Goretti Nassanga warns that wealth does not come over night, but over time. “Start with a modest life, some forget their humble beginnings once at university or start work and develop unhealthy competition.”
On work ethic. “If you have a job, do it with due diligence. It is important to get the job you like, but more important is to like the job you get. I did not set out to be a journalist or trainer, but I respect my job and have got to like it very much. Put your best in your job.”
