Odoobo C. Bichachi

What you need to know: Gloomy as this may look, it does not come as a surprise – at least for journalists and media managers that have been looking into the crystal ball. Reuters Institute’s much awaited Digital News Report 2026 is out this week and the findings indicate that the rain has not stopped beating mainstream media. The report is based on an online survey of at least 100,000 people carried out between January and February in 48 markets around the world.

Prime Writer: Odoobo C. Bichachi. PHOTO/COURTESY What you need to know: Recent events or breaking developments are far more newsworthy than past occurrences” while latter means “events involving notable, famous, or powerful people (e.g., politicians, celebrities, or corporate titans) are heavily covered”. The headline, “Where is Janet?” (Daily Monitor, June 8) got many Ugandans talking and the conversation was particularly palpable on social media.

Caption for the landscape image: Writer: Odoobo C. Bichachi. PHOTO/COURTESY What you need to know: “A social media feed without filters is a chaos of voices and, in that chaos, the loudest or most charismatic or most monetised story often wins – not the most accurate one.” Elizabeth who described herself as of “Greater Gayaza” sent me an interesting comment by SMS on one of my recent columns that I, unfortunately, only saw last week. My apologies to her.