ST.

AUGUSTINE UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS

DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION

An Assessment on the Contribution of Alternative Media to the Facilitation of Peace

Education in Tanzania

A Case of Nyamagana District

BY

SILVIA

BAMC

December, 2021
 CHAPTER ONE

THE PROBLEM AND ITS CONTEXT

1.0 Introduction

This chapter is based on the contribution of alternative media to the facilitation of peace

education in Tanzania which covers background of the study, statement of the problem,

objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study,

limitation of the study and definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the Problem

Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media

in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or

government-owned. Alternative media differ from mainstream media along one or more of

the following dimensions: their content, aesthetic, modes of production, modes of distribution

and audience relations. Alternative media often aim to challenge existing powers, to represent

marginalized groups and to foster horizontal linkages among communities of interest.

Proponents of alternative media argue that the mainstream media are biased in the selection

and framing of news and information. While sources of alternative media can also be biased,

proponents claim that the bias is significantly different than that of the mainstream media

because they have a different set of values, objectives, and frameworks. Hence these media

provide an alternative media viewpoint, different information and interpretations of the world

that cannot be found in the mainstream. Because the term alternative media has connotations

of self-marginalization, some media outlets now prefer the term independent over alternative

media (Albert, 2006).

Trigona (2004) notes that alternative media tend to emerge during spectacular happenings.

The historical contextualisation of alternative media is clearly illustrated in the cases of

Bolivia and South Africa. In Bolivia, for example, community radio emerged largely to uplift

people's cultural values in the face of oppression. As puts it, community radio is a sine qua

non of cultural resistance, particularly in times of military View metadata, citation and

similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to by CORE provided by South East Academic Libraries

System (SEALS) to control union activity. In such times, community radio forms a network

of resistance against the approaching armed forces, broadcasts decisions made at public and

organisational meetings and allows union leaders and members, women and students to offer

advice, encouragement or criticism.

Historically, alternative media have been a crucial resource for social movements and

marginalized groups in the United States. Revolutionary pamphleteers helped fan the flames

of independence against the British. A vibrant abolitionist press kept alive the anti-slavery

movement for decades preceding the Civil War. Similarly, a popular working-class press was

integral to the burgeoning labour movement in the first half of the twentieth century. In the

early 1900s, the advertising-supported socialist newspaper The Appeal to Reason reached

nearly a million subscribers and helped advance the socialist candidate Eugene Debs’s

presidential ambitions. During the nineteenth and twentieth century’s, an ethnic press

provided sustenance for various marginalized cultural groups. Likewise, an underground

press helped sustain the civil rights movement and other activist groups during the 1960s

(Dowmunt, 2007).

South Africa has a long history of alternative media. During the 1980s there was a host of

community and grassroots newspapers that supplied content that ran counter to the prevailing

attitudes of the times. In addition, a thriving small press and underground press carried voices

that would not have been heard in the mainstream, corporate media. Pirate radio projects

operated by Caset were the forerunners of the country's community radio and small

pamphlets and samizdat were included in the mix. The advocacy journalism of early activist

titles was in stark contrast to the complacency of the country's large media houses. While

many of the counterculture titles associated with the apartheid struggle no longer exist, there

has been a resurgence of alternative media and the small press after a period of decline,

notable because large corporates absorbed many of the so called struggle journalists and

mopped up small publishing houses. These media projects involve multi-media as well

as electronic journalism. However, there are some who criticise what they call a lack of real

alternative media in South Africa (Downing, 2004).

Alternative media historically has contributed much in bringing peace education is an

emerging academic discipline and professional practice for the development of formal and

non-formal learning programs toward the creation of peace around the world. There is a

multitude of peace education programs provided by alternative media, with different

approaches, principles, and goals. Some of the programs seek the immediate cessation of

physical violence in communities Others emphasize values and behaviours, such as

nonviolence, cooperation, social justice, and sustainability. Some desire social reformation,

others social transformation and still others aim toward international understanding. Some

programs work with elementary schools, others with high schools, some are integrated into

undergraduate curricula, others in teacher-training institutes. Some train professionals and

others work with community associations, some work with governments, others with non-

governmental organizations and civil society initiatives (Johnson & Johnson, 2006).

The aims of alternative media is to bring peace education activities that attempt to end

violence and hostilities can be carried out informally within communities or formally within

institutional places of learning, like schools or colleges. Alternative media in facilitating

peace education has been practiced informally by generations of humans who want to resolve

conflicts in ways that do not use deadly force. Indigenous peoples have conflict resolution

traditions that have been passed down through millennia that help promote peace within their
communities. Rather than killing each other over their disputes, they employ nonviolent

dispute mechanisms that they hand down from generation to generation through informal

peace education activities. Anthropologists have located on this planet at least 47 relatively

peaceful societies. Although there are no written records, human beings throughout history

have employed community-based peace education strategies to preserve their knowledge of

conflict resolution tactics that promote their security. More formal peace education relies

upon the written word or instruction through schooling institutions (Banta, 2003).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Alternative media plays a significant role in facilitating peace education among the

community against the effects of trauma and violence and in developing their resilience and

skills to resisting recruitment into community groups and engaging in violence in general

alternative media is an evidence base to demonstrate the role that peace education can play in

addressing young, children and adults acquire peace education needs and increasing their

resilience in the face of violence, displacement and war in particular their resilience to reduce

groups for violence. Evidence can be gathered through civil society organisations that shows

the provision of psychosocial support, safe spaces, supportive and positive adult role models

and value-based lessons in non-violence, human rights and self-care helps young people to

navigate and cope with the impact of alternative media to peace education. Therefore, this

study will intend to assess the contribution of alternative media to the facilitation of peace

education in Tanzania. A Case of Nyamagana District.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

1.3.1 General Objectives

The general objective is to assess the contribution of alternative media to the facilitation of

peace education in Tanzania. A Case of Nyamagana District.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

i. To identify the purposes of alternative media in facilitating peace education.

ii. To examine the positive impact of alternative media in facilitating peace education.

iii. To determine the barrier facing alternative media in facilitating peace education.

1.4 Research Questions

i. What are the purposes of alternative media in facilitating peace education?

ii. What are the positive impacts of alternative media in facilitating peace education?

iii. What are the barriers facing alternative media in facilitating peace education?

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study will be significant to the community members because alternative media contribute

to the strengthening of civic attitude and allow citizens to be active in one of the main spheres

relevant to daily life and to put their right to communication into practice.

Also, the study will be significant to the government as alternative media has a big role in

educating people and in promoting peace education among the community.

Lastly, the study will help other upcoming researchers to conduct on the same study, whereby

this study can be used as reference on how to conduct research of the same topic.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study will be based only on the contribution of alternative media to the facilitation of

peace education in Tanzania. A Case of Nyamagana District, whereby by the stud will

specifically deal with the purposes of alternative media in facilitating peace education, the

positive impacts of alternative media in facilitating peace education and the barriers facing
alternative media in facilitating peace education. Also, the study will not go out of the study

area.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

In the course of conducting the research study, a researcher may face some certain limitations

such as;

i. Limitation of time, the time allocated will not be enough for a researcher to collect,

analyze and deep interpreting data for the final research report due to other academic

duties.

ii. Financial fund, this research investigation needs sufficient amount of money for food,

bundles, stationary, such as computer services like photocopying and binding. As a

researcher is not yet employed and expects the fund from the sponsor, this situation

will somehow be difficult because a researcher has to minimize the money given by

the sponsor to avoid the family to be in bad cost.

iii. Respondents limitation, the study will involve a number of limited respondents, thus

researcher will be limited to the respondents during the data collection due to the

nature of the study itself.

1.8 Definition of Key Terms

Alternative media – are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of

media such as mainstream media or mass media in terms of their content, production and

distribution.

Peace education – is process that promotes knowledge, skills and attitudes to help people

prevent conflict occurring, resolve conflicts peacefully or create conditions for peace.
 REFERENCES

Albert, M. (2006b). What Makes Alternative Media Alternative? Toward A Federation of

Alternative Media Activists and Supporters - FAMAS: Z Magazine. Retrieved 12

April. 2007, From Http://Zena.Secureforum.Com/Znet/Zmag/Allarticles1.Cfm

Banta, P. (2003). Ecological Security and the Need to Reconceptualize Sovereignty.

Alternatives, XIV (4), 389-428.

Dowmunt, T. (2007). Introduction. In K. Coyer, T. Dowmunt & A. Fountain (Eds.), The

Alternative Media Handbook (pp. 1-12). New York: Routledge.

Downing, J. (2004). Radical media: The political Experience of alternative communication.

Boston: South End Press.

Johnson, R. & Johnson, T. (2006). Alternative media: Conceptual difficulties, critical

possibilities. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 24(4), 357-378.

Trigona, M. (2004). Alternative Media Debates. Available:

Http://Www.Zmag.Org/Sustainers/Content/2004-01/24trigona.Cfm. Accessed On

2006/08/02.