Your PhD is Your Gateway to Publishing!

At the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa lies an excellent academic and research unit known as the Centre for Communication, Media and Society – CCMS. I was fortunate to be part of the doctoral cohort graduating from this Centre in 2018. Graduating from the Centre does not come easily, you must have successfully defended your research proposal, carried out field work and synthesized your findings into a meaningful dissertation ready for examination. When I joined CCMS in 2015, I was assigned to Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli to walk with me along the research journey I had embarked upon. At this Centre it became known to me that doctoral studies were a launch pad into robust research and academic writing. For three years, I worked with Prof. Ruth to actualize my study – “The potential and contribution of Facebook in HIV/AIDS prevention among young people in Uganda.” The study sought to interrogate how social media has been used in health communication campaigns on HIV/AIDS targeting young people in Uganda. The study established that Facebook is a popular, affordable and accessible communication platform for young people in Uganda that caters for their individual agency. However, its benefits could not be fully achieved due to a low appreciation of social media in health communication, poor social media content management skills and a lack of social media communication plans for health interventions among programme implementers (Kakooza, 2018). Advancing this study required data mining and reading many journal texts to build logical literature and theoretical arguments, this matched with consistence of citation to achieve academic rigour. The study required ethical clearance and selection of information-rich participants relevant to the research question. Meeting these requirements consumed almost all the time needed to realise the writing of the final dissertation. Indeed, equipped with these research skills, I was confident to lead a research team for a study on the safety of women journalists in Uganda.

The objective of the study was to carry out a situational analysis focusing on attacks specifically directed at women journalists given that many of these occur because of the gender issues involved. The study highlighted the abuses, violations and safety risks encountered by female journalists in Uganda as they go about their work. The process of having an article published from this study was as challenging as the PhD journey itself but a little more hectic since all the research activities that I did in three years were now collapsed to a couple of months – you need to have data that adequately speaks to your research question within a short time (but we had been told at CCMS that yes, the PhD is the gateway to publishing). The first draft was returned with many comments! This was quite frightening; it was akin to receiving examiners’ comments. I asked myself, do reviewers act as examiners? Do I have to go through this for just a publication? If you are faint-hearted, this can be off-putting and your journey may end there.

The final draft was a result of a back and forth activity between the reviewers and the editor. I appreciated that research contributes to a body of knowledge and  that within this space, there is need to accommodate divergent viewpoints and  suggestions that are aimed at refining your publication. I also realised that journals have publishing standards that need to be  adhered to. This is what gives them credibility and a unique  identity. It is from this study that my first journal article titled:  ‘Female journalists: Negotiating safety and security risks in the  Ugandan media environment’ was published (Kakooza et.al.,  2020). And it was gratifying to see it in print. This gave me courage to continue with the publishing journey.  The second article on Social Media and Health organisations  focused on understanding opportunities and constraints using  social media platforms in communicating health issues that can  potentially improve health outcomes through augmenting not  just access to health information but care as well.

The findings  showed that among others, Facebook provides opportunity for  multimedia communication and specific targeting for health  messages. Its potential for health communication is however,  constrained by financial, structural and technological limitations  prevailing in particular areas. For this article, I received the  reviewers comments with ease. It seemed easier to work on this  second article that was co-authored with a colleague. The article  was published by the journal of Health and New Media Research  (Nakiwala & Kakooza, 2020). Along the way, I have learned that  to fit well in the publishing community, you have to appreciate  criticism and diversity of thought from your peers and mentors  in shaping your writing. I am now gaining ground in publishing,  I have worked on a book chapter on ‘Social  media and HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda’  which has been published by the Makerere  University Press in a book entitled HIV/AIDS  in Uganda: Achievements and Challenges  edited by James James Kiwanuka-Tondo. I  have also co-authored another book chapter  titled: ‘Commercial radio news coverage  of COVID-19 in Uganda: A case study of  Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio’  that will be published by Emerald later in  the year.  I must say that articles can be rejected as  well. It is not a given that every time you  submit an article it is going to be accepted.  I have so far received two rejections!  However, this does not mean that your  article is unworthy, but rather that the content might not have  been appropriate for that edition. This presents an opportunity to  rework your article based on the reviewer’s comments and make  a submission to another relevant journal or publication. The  big lesson here is that publishing requires a considerable time  investment for quality texts. It is also good to establish contact  with colleagues with whom you can co-author to avoid getting  burned out. Importantly, publishing is a thought process that  requires patience and appreciation of reviewers’ comments and  suggestions if one is to successfully walk the publishing journey.  You should not stop, just keep moving and publish.

Fred Kakooza

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