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_media maverick
crucial issues in kenyan journalism

Sept-Oct, 2004: Click on or on heading to read story

Oct 31, 2004

Walking the tightrope of creativity and professionalism

It is time to ask our TV news anchors a crucial question: What happened to impartiality? Why are our news presenters increasingly — and with impunity — getting into the habit of injecting personal opinion in news items?

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Oct 24, 2004

Stations caught in Wilson blast

The reporting of last Sunday’s explosion at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport raised pertinent questions about the judgment capabilities of our broadcast media.

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Oct 17, 2004

Devolution by computer

Thursday’s Daily Nation story, "Surf the net for law reports", unveiled the crucial role the media has to play in e-governance. The country is sleeping wholesale on the benefits of technology.

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Oct 10, 2004

Borderline journalism

Three unflattering issues are beginning to stand out in Kenya’s newspaper journalism. First, newspapers appear intent on shocking readers. Two, sales is becoming not merely a Number One priority; it appears to be the only priority. And three, newspapers are threatening to wipe out magazine journalism.

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Doctored pictures

It turns out that the story discussed here last week about a wife who reportedly bit off her Maasai husband’s genitals had other serious issues. Accompanying pictures in the online edition of the Standard on September 24 appeared to have fiddled with journalistic truth.

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Let readers decide the mood of a story

“Agony of unmanned moran,” screamed a headline in Thursday’s Standard. It was the story of how a wife bit off her husband’s genitals. The story found international mention on the British Broadcasting Corporation. For the rare events recounted in the story the BBC, in its Thursday Press review, called it “bizarre”. But perhaps an obscure bizarreness lay in the way the story was told.

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Adverts are edging out online news

Between news and advertising, it is now hard to tell what ranks top in the online edition of our newspapers. All over the screen, there are competing blinking objects, flashing pictures, and staccato text. Each is practically screaming, "Click me! Click me! Click me!" And the static text section for news, which gets smaller by the day, plays second fiddle to all of this. The sum result is that advertising appears to edge out news online.

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How they trade the right to know for cash

This column wrote two weeks ago that poor pay translates into poor journalism. Well, poor pay may not be the only problem in our media houses. Ethical amnesia appears to be an even bigger concern of our journalism. It came out in the manner the media handled a recent City Council Press conference.

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Media has perfected its role as watchdog

The Daily Nation story on Wednesday about another possible sleaze in government, yet again involving the police department, paints the picture of how far the media has come in this country. It also paints the unstoppable prospects that lie ahead.

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