Media has killed critical international news segment

By Jason Nyantino

Kenya: Kenyan media has variously been described as one of the most vibrant in Africa. With more than 90 FM stations, more than 15 TV stations, and an ever increasing number of print newspapers and magazines, this assessment might as well be accurate.

Besides, owing to the high number of prestigious awards that Kenyan journalists have collected over time is a vivid portrait that as a country, we are in the right path as far as media excellence is concerned.

But a close look at the nature of news and information that our television and radio stations churn out reveals a glaring gap.

More localised

Our television and radio stations (as a collective) have literally killed the international news segment. Much as the quality of our news is improving, the content is getting more localised. The menu is mainly local politics, which has become a power seeking game that doesn’t improve our lives an inch.

This scenario provides useful lessons as we strive to create a globally competitive nation in line with Vision 2030. 

Our television and radio news managers must appreciate that modern media is not only to inform, educate and entertain, but it has other cardinal responsibilities of connecting and empowering people around the world.

They must know that they have millions of hungry-for-news audiences every day whose lives they need to transform. In the post-modern space, people’s reference point is now the globe and not the country.

That is why we must fundamentally reconfigure the nature of our news to position Kenya at pole position to compete globally. This will not happen when our news is always punctuated with local stories, which much as they have a news value, will not take this country far.

Even with limited resources, our media must help people make sense of international events, engage in constructive global or regional dialogue that will enable Kenyans take action to improve their lives. How can we know that we are on course to becoming a middle income economy if we don’t compare ourselves with other countries?

Let’s take the subject of regional integration, for instance. Despite persistent calls in many East African Community (EAC) forums on the critical role of the media in enhancing East African integration, have we seen regular news content geared towards achieving the ideals of integration?

Admittedly, our print media has tried to do this because some of them do have segments dedicated to regional and international news but do our television and radio stations even bother to creatively highlight the need to remove roadblocks that slow trade among the member states? The vision and mission of EAC is quite noble.

Deepen integration

It envisions a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically united East Africa; and the mission is to widen and deepen economic, political, and social integration in order to improve people’s lives through increased competitiveness, value-added production, trade and investments.

This cannot be achieved without the media. In fact some major Kenyan media houses already own subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania and even Rwanda and despite them labouring under a plethora of structural limitations, they need to institute some urgent redirection as far as international content on their news is concerned. 

Our electronic media must now give Kenya her rightful place in the community of nations as globalisation hits critical phase.

We now communicate and share each other’s cultures through travel and trade, transporting products around the world in hours or days. We are in a huge global economy where something that happens in one area can have knock on effects worldwide.

This needs to be part of our news. Kenyan media should appreciate that it’s operating in a space and time defined by globalisation, the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.

Our journalists should become vessels for the exchange of trans-boundary ideas and culture that will help us grow. I hope our news managers will soon take up this challenge and empower us a little more with incisive international news.

The writer is the CEO, Media Development in Africa (Medeva) and Graduate Student in Public Administration, Indira Gandhi University.