Kampala — Uganda's entertainment industry has grown far beyond music releases and celebrity appearances.
Behind the artists and performers is an expanding ecosystem of concerts, fashion, events, branding, digital content and businesses built around the country's creative talent.
Yet the media coverage of this industry has often been reduced to announcements, celebrity profiles and snippets of artists' personal lives.
Yiga Silajje believes there is room for something broader.
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He is the founder of Yummy News247 TV, an independent digital media platform covering entertainment, local news, politics and current affairs. Much of its identity, however, has developed around its coverage of Uganda's artists and creative community.
His work offers a glimpse into the changing role of entertainment journalism in a creative industry that is itself becoming more organised and commercially significant.
More than celebrity news
Entertainment journalism is sometimes dismissed as the lighter side of the news business.
But the sector it covers is connected to livelihoods, investment, intellectual property, events, advertising and a growing number of young people seeking careers in creative work.
For audiences, entertainment stories can also provide a way of understanding the personalities and cultural trends shaping popular culture.
That creates a role for journalists that goes beyond reporting who attended a concert or what an artist posted online.
Yiga describes journalism as a bridge between artists and their audiences.
"Journalism has never been merely about reporting events," he says. "It is about creating a bridge between artists and their fans while ensuring that audiences receive timely and credible information about the personalities they admire."
The emphasis on the relationship between artists and audiences is significant because the two groups increasingly communicate directly.
Artists now have their own platforms for announcing projects, addressing controversies and promoting their work. This has changed what audiences expect from entertainment reporters.
Simply reproducing information supplied by an artist is less useful when the artist can communicate the same message directly.
The journalist's value increasingly lies in the reporting around the story.
Covering an industry, not just its stars
For a platform such as Yummy News247 TV, entertainment provides access to a much larger creative economy.
A story about an artist can lead to questions about the business behind a concert, the people producing music, the growth of streaming, the work of fashion designers or the companies investing in entertainment.
This broader approach can help move entertainment coverage away from being treated purely as celebrity journalism.
It also reflects changes within Uganda's creative sector, where artists increasingly operate as entrepreneurs managing brands, businesses and audiences.
The media covering them has to adapt accordingly.
Yummy News247 TV represents another development in the industry: the growth of independent media platforms built around specific audiences.
Yiga does not operate within the structure of a conventional newspaper, radio station or television newsroom. The platform distributes its content through digital channels, allowing a relatively small operation to develop its own audience and editorial identity.
That model has opened opportunities for journalists who might previously have needed to work within established media organisations to reach the public.
It has also created greater competition within the media industry.
Independent publishers now operate alongside established broadcasters and newspapers, while artists, influencers and publicists have their own channels of communication.
For entertainment journalists, the challenge is therefore to provide reporting that audiences cannot get simply by following an artist's page.
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The journalist as part of the creative ecosystem
The relationship between entertainment journalists and the creative industry is particularly important because journalists are not merely observers of the sector.
Their reporting can influence which artists receive attention, which stories enter public discussion and how audiences understand developments within the industry.
That makes editorial judgement important.
Entertainment journalism requires access to artists and their representatives, but it also requires enough independence to report beyond publicity material.
For independent outlets, maintaining that distinction can be particularly important as they build their reputations.
Yiga says he wants to strengthen the reporting systems behind Yummy News247 TV, with an emphasis on improving the quality and accuracy of its entertainment coverage.
