Stephanie Bane5/1/14Int'l 550The anti-homosexuality law and distraction in UgandaThe media is an incredibly powerful tool. It informs, tells stories and announces important news. Information presented by the media tends to be accepted by the public that consumes it. The media has the power to convey information in a way that might make the public feel a certain way. Affect is what the audience feels when receiving different forms of media. It is often compared to emotion but as Brian Massumi points out, they follow a different logic. “Affect is intensities that come together, move among each other, transform and translate under or beyond meaning, beyond semantic or simply fixed systems, or cognitions, or even emotions. . » Intensity is above all what affect does. I think of it as a feeling deep in your gut. Something completely uncontrollable, which makes you feel a certain emotion. This can take the form of pain, sadness, feelings of right and wrong, etc. The media uses emotional tones in their writing in order to provoke the audience. Having been interested in Central Africa for some time, I paid attention to a story in Uganda that was featured in the media in recent years. It all started in 2009, when David Bahati, a Ugandan politician, proposed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This made it illegal to have sex with someone of the same sex and, if arrested, could be imprisoned or sentenced to death. Since 2009, this bill has received the attention of Ugandan and Western media. Looking at affect and media, I decided to examine how Ugandan media used specific writing styles to convey the anti-homosexuality bill in a certain way. I wanted to talk about the population of the country. In conclusion, media is an incredibly powerful tool. When put in the wrong hands, the consequences can be serious. Media is also a very important way of transmitting important information across the world. The difficult thing about the media is that you have to be informed to find the factual truth. When there are few news sources that report on important stories, tabloids can easily step in and become the primary media outlet. Sources like The Red Pepper take advantage of the misinformed, creating unwarranted fear. These fears are then passed down from generation to generation and the cycle continues. HIV/AIDS, for example, is an incredibly serious problem. The general population must remain informed about this ever-growing problem. If people read news sources with an agenda, they could be misinformed, which could have harmful consequences..