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  _media maverick crucial issues in kenyan journalism |
July-Aug,
2004: Click
on Aug 29, 2004  Poor
pay translates into poor journalism
Not
many journalists dream of driving
a Mercedes Benz. Only sales personnel,
top editors and a select pool of
broadcast programme anchors get
to wear the "executive"
tag in the news business. As for
East African reporters and news
analysts, for all the work they
do, they can barely afford to live
in decent neighbourhoods. And this
hurts journalism. Aug
22, 2004
Journalists
defiled Njeeri’s rape story
The terrible
misfortune that last week befell the
family of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kenya’s
celebrated literary scholar, left
the media looking really bad. First,
there was the drama surrounding Njeeri’s
name. But the name haggle soon turned
out to be the least of the media’s
troubles with the story. Aug
15, 2004
Can
business news be less boring?People find business news a serious bore. And the reason is probably only one — gobbledygook. And the reason for not simplifying business stories and jerking them up to front-page headlines lies in a misconception. Editors and producers appear to believe that business, like some private club, is a preserve of a select few in society. They couldn’t be more wrong. 
Aug 8, 2004
Assumptions
wreck journalism, alwaysForeign Affairs Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere is a man the media loved to hate this week. For announcing too soon that the Kenyan hostage crisis in Iraq was over, the controversy-bedevilled minister dangled us before the world as first class jokers. But he had to go and drag the media along with him. The never-say-sorry Mwakwere single-handedly exposed a huge weakness in our media — assumption.
Aug
1, 2004
The
flipside of rehashing newsTwo disturbing trends are beginning to flourish in our newspapers — and they cheapen journalism. First, the Kenyan reader is being sold the same "news" over and over again. Second, we are being treated to a sustained use of pseudonyms in bylines, without explanation.
July
25, 2004
Journalism
is about attribution, reallyLet us begin with an honest admission. Reporting has never been easy. With the ruthlessness of a scavenger, reporters knock themselves out to bring us the news society thrives on. Yet, those who lay reputations and life on the line to bring us the news often go unappreciated. But our reporters frequently bring this woe unto themselves. They do so when they forget one crucial element in journalism – attribution.
July
18, 2004
Online
journalism is about to hit usTwo 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. Second, the United States International University registered its first batch of students for a course in Online Journalism. The sum total is that the Kenyan media may soon have no reason to drag feet on this new form of journalism.
July
11, 2004
Media
have the right to be wrong The biggest casualty after Nairobi City Council askaris hounded newspaper vendors out of town this week was the Alternative Press. Among other reasons for the crackdown, it was said that these publications litter our streets. Whether or not this crackdown was government sanctioned, the verdict is that it was a regress in democracy, and the plight of free speech.
July
4, 2004
Jungle
law does not belong on televisionThis week’s KTN edition of The Inside Story, the investigative programme that runs on Monday evening, showed gory pictures of violence publicly meted out on petty criminal suspects. The picture was bloody, literally. Journalistically, this may be a criminal treatment of news subjects by television reporters.
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