Research Paper On Anti-Homosexuality Law And Intensity

Stephanie Bane

5/1/14

Int’l 550

Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Law and Distraction

Media is an incredibly powerful tool. It informs, tells stories and breaks important news. The information portrayed by the media tends to be accepted by the public that’s consuming it. Media outlets have the power to convey information in a way that could be made to make the audience feel a certain way. Affect is what’s felt by the audience receiving the various forms of media. It is often compared to emotion but as Brian Massumi points out, they follow different logic. “Affect is intensities coming together, moving each other, transforming and translating under or beyond meaning, beyond semantic or simply fixed systems, or cognitions, even emotions.” Intensity is primarily what affect does. I think of it as a feeling, deep down in your gut. Something that is completely uncontrollable, that causes you to feel a certain emotion. It could come in the form of pain, sadness, feelings of right and wrong, etc.

The media uses affective tones in their writing in order to provoke the audience. Being interested in Central Africa for quite some time, I have been paying attention to a story in Uganda that has been playing out in the media over the past few years. It started in 2009, when David Bahati, a Ugandan politician, proposed the Anti-homosexuality bill. This made it illegal to have sexual relations with a person of the same gender and if caught, they could be imprisoned or receive the death penalty. Since 2009, this bill has received attention from both Uganda and Western media. Looking at affect and the media, I decided to look at how the Ugandan media was using specific writing styles to convey the Anti- homosexuality bill in a certain way. I wanted t...

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...on of the country’s people.

In conclusion, media is an incredibly powerful tool. When put in the wrong hands there could be serious consequences. Media is also a very important medium to convey important news across the world. The difficult part about media is one must be informed in order to find the factual truth. When there are few news sources reporting important stories, tabloids can easily come in and take over as the main media outlet. Sources such as The Red Pepper are taking advantage of those misinformed, in turn creating unwarranted fears. These fears are then passed down generationally, and the cycle continues. HIV/Aids, for instance is an incredibly serious issue. The general population must stay informed on this ever-increasing problem. If people read news sources with an agenda they could be misinformed in turn creating detrimental consequences.