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Two random events happed
in Nairobi this week that will one day come
to change the face of journalism in this country.
First, the continental Internet Service Provider,
UUNET, announced they would offer wireless Internet
with improved speed. The company was coming
in third after Safaricom and Ericonet announced
similar ventures last week, hot on the heels
of an announcement that Telcom’s monopoly on
the gateway to the Internet ended in June.
Second, the United States International University
registered its first batch of students for a
course in Online Journalism. When the university
opens for its next academic year in September,
it will be the first time Online Journalism
is taught in this corner of the globe. The sum
total is that the Kenyan media may soon have
no reason to drag feet on this new form of journalism
that after a decade is still causing ripples
even in the West.
But what is online journalism? Is it really
a different form of journalism? Haven’t we seen
newspaper stories, TV and radio news segments
on Web sites, which are merely online editions
of the traditional media? And how viable would
this be in a country like Kenya, where netizenry
– “citizenry” of the net – is still basically
a pastime for whiz kids?
Yes, this is a new form of journalism, one that
employs new storytelling skills. Also taught
at an advanced level as New Media, this form
of journalism toys with a mix of audio, video,
photos, infographics, maps, animation and text
to tell a story. Unlike the traditional print
and broadcast, this journalism exclusively employs
interactivities – discussion forums, newsgroups,
chat, email, listservs – in stories. Besides,
here ethics lands a whole new meaning.
For this kind of journalism to work in Kenya,
we will need fast Internet. Real broadband;
not the kind UUNET, Ericonet and Safaricom are
boasting – speeds no faster than dialup on a
regular 56k modem. Only people who have browsed
the net at places like London’s Heathrow airport,
Frankfurt, and New York will know what fast
here really means. When the Telcom monopoly
gets truly behind us, competitive gateways enter
the market and the country gets into real broadband
Internet, netizens here will be amazed at the
barrage of information available by the click
of a mouse.
And that is when online journalism will really
make sense. People logging onto the Nation online
or The People online will no longer be content
with just reading the story. They will have
the alternative choice of watching it on a Web-cast,
tuning in on Web-radio, perusing its accompanying
picture slideshow or digging deeper into related
graphics – all stemming off one screen.
It is this eventuality that the United States
International University has foreseen and prodded
its student journalists to pursue. And the Nairobi
University School of Journalism, presently merging
with the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication,
is considering a brave move toward a full-fledged
New Media concentration.
New Media, this emerging communications forum
that combines so many computer technologies,
is ordinarily taught in one of two ways. A)
Student reporters are trained to use all this
technology to produce journalism on a converging
platform. The focus here is on the reporting
side of the production. B) An advanced level
of the program can be retooled to include stuff
like games and movies, interactive TV, and different
ways of communicating.
Whichever
way the training goes, students enrolling into
the new Online Journalism course at USIU will
soon find out that they are multi-talented.
Before putting a foot into that class, they
are first required to have solid foundation
in the traditional media. They must be good
reporters and writers, passionate broadcasters
or photojournalists.
But what guarantee does this upcoming breed
of journalists have that they will find jobs
after graduation? The answer, some say, lies
in what drives the media industry – economics.
“We’ll be looked at by people who are saying,
‘If I can get somebody who can do three things
for the price of one and not have to pay them
any more, I'd rather do that,’" said Prof
Sreenath Sreenivasan of the respected Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism to
Online Journalism Review, a publication of the
University of Southern California.
“The world is changing around us,” he added.
“We have students who are doing New Media now
and don't go back to it, but know that when
the change hits them they'll be prepared for
it.”
That change is about to hit Kenya.
Kodi
Barth teaches journalism at United States International
University-Nairobi.
If you have seen questionable
content in the press, write to kodi@kodibarth.com
Website: www.kodibarth.com/ | 
