This article explores the discursive practice of editorial writing in Runyankore-Rukiga print media. It also explicates the generic structure of Runyankore-Rukiga editorial text and the rhetorical devices that the editorial writers have invoked to comment on issues that affect society across different times of history. Using genre analysis, the article analyses a diachronic corpus of editorial texts across Ugandan local newspapers from 1955 to 2010. The article demonstrates that while the construction of a Runyankore-Rukiga editorial appears to conform to the architectural structure of an English editorial (Ansary and Babaii 2005), it does not adhere to its rhetorical moves and the attendant argumentation principles that govern the construction of an editorial text. During the early years (1960s) and throughout the 1970s of Runyankore newspaper writing, the editorial text was a significant genre often appearing on the front page and largely characterized by rhetorical moves consisting in religious and biblical propositions. The editorialists have occasionally employed proverbs to premise or reinforce their arguments, but also to bring humour to the text. The contemporary editorial text also exemplifies use of conversational language, a discursive style that appears to identify with and endear it to putative readers. While the genre has been in constant flux, Runyankore-Rukiga print media outlets have discontinued editorial writing because of commercial reasons and apprehension concerning the consequences of articulating issues that disfavour policies and undertakings of a coercive government. The article reiterates the significance of editorial writing in newspaper discourse and advocates continued articulation of other non-political issues that do not necessarily endanger print media praxis.

News reporting studies have largely been confined to the Western cultures and languages, yet news reporting in other languages has proliferated throughout the world (Thomson et al. 2008; Thomson & White 2008). This article explores news reporting in Runyankore-Rukiga, an agglutinating Ugandan Bantu language, focusing on land conflict. Assuming the influential discourse-linguistic framework of Appraisal theory and genre theory (Thomson et al. 2008), the article investigates the linguistic expressions of evaluative language in Runyankore-Rukiga across government-oriented and private newspapers. It also examines the properties that constitute Runyankore-Rukiga hard news reports. Although the genre analysis reveals that the structure of Runyankore-Rukiga hard news reports resembles the satellite structure of the English hard news reports as proposed by White (1997), some differences are identified. Not only does the news report unfold in a chronological order, it exhibits a distinct discursive feature that is characterized by anecdotes, metaphors, grim humor, or proverbs in the lead paragraph. This type of introduction does not necessarily capture the gist of the entire report but rather seeks out the reader’s attention. The article further explicates the nature of lexicogrammatical properties of evaluative language that news writers invoke to express attitudes in the news events. The appraisal exploration also examines instances of graduation in which different figures of speech and non-core lexis are invoked to amplify attitudinal values. The article thus extends Appraisal theory analysis to one of only a few African languages examined within this framework, and contributes to the understanding of news reporting in these languages and cultures.

This chapter examines the presidential addresses delivered by the Ugandan president during the Covid-19 lockdown. It invokes genre analysis to examine the nature of the rhetorical moves that characterised the Presidential statements. It also employs critical discourse analysis to examine the linguistic devices that the president invoked during the addresses. Focusing on the extempore narrative episodes emanating from 20 presidential addresses, the chapter explicates the nature of utterances (rebukes, warnings and reassurances) the President made. It demonstrates how the President not only invoked the war rhetoric, metaphors, and proverbs to sustain the attention of his audience but also to explain the science of the new pandemic, justify the continued lockdown and other restrictive measures, and rally support from the citizens.

This study examines the construction of news reportage relating to normative breach. It analyses news stories on major corruption incidents involving embezzlement and the misuse of public funds by government officials in Uganda. The study employs a discourse analysis to explore how corruption is constructed and construed in the print media. It invokes Appraisal Theory to analyse hard news reports recounting corruption occurrences, proceedings or findings of commissions of inquiry into corruption incidents and arrests of suspects, public hearings and court proceedings of suspected corrupt persons across two daily newspapers published in English. The study explicates the nature of linguistic evaluative resources that news writers invoke to map feelings, and to evaluate news actors, processes and phenomena. The analysis reveals that news reporters heavily rely on external texts and voices to recount corruption stories. These sources are couched in legal language (legalese), which in turn impinges on the linguistic resources employed to evaluate news actors. Whereas this rhetorical strategy enables the news report to achieve ‘objectivity’, it appears to protect the journalist against defamation or slander. Appraisal analysis reveals dominant instances of negative inscriptions of the social sanction of propriety, namely overt negative evaluations of non-compliance with the civic responsibilities and state laws. The news reportage exhibits positive attributes of corrupt persons in relation to their material wealth and social capital. Finally, the study also reveals the journalistic stance towards corruption, which is covertly shown via modes of meaning intensification.