Why journalism must rise above cheap blogging
The media and particularly the newspapers are supposed to be accurate keepers of records. There are many reasons for this.
First is the layers of information processing in the newsrooms so that the final version of the story that appears on the following day’s paper is accurate.
It starts with the editor who assigns the story, the reporter who writes the raw copy, the sub editorss who edit the story, then depending on the newspapers, they could be many other layers of officials who look at the version just to be sure that it is accurate.
Secondly, newspapers have a much longer lead time to look at the story. Unlike radio and television that have a near hourly deadline, newspapers have a comparatively extended period, sometimes hours, to look at the story.
This time could be spent digging up the background to the story, checking the facts, writing and re-writing until the final version is a true record of the events.
Yet last week we witnessed Kenyan media all entangled in stories that leave the reader wondering whether all the processes were being followed in news processing and whether the newspaper record can still be trusted.
Did Julius Owino aka Juliani and Lilian Ng’ang’a, former First Lady for the county of Machakos wed? First, is the story even important? Certainly.
It is a human-interest story, and many people would be interested. So yes, the story is important.
Secondly, by virtue of their public figure status, their followers would be interested in what they do. Juliani is a musician with substantial following much of which he has gained through the public’s adoration of his performance.
But that was not the only puzzle of the week. There was the Independent Eletoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Bill working its way through Parliament.
What was the Bill about? The media has been accused of misleading the country by misrepresentation of the facts about the Bill. Did journalists covering the story get it wrong? If they did then what about the editors?
In the same week there was yet a third story splashed in the front pages. It details the demands that One Kenya Alliance (OKA), the paper said, had presented to the Azimio group for them to merge. Again, the presumed leader of OKA, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, came out to deny that there were such demands. What is wrong with our media that they can get three high profile stories, and probably more, wrong in just under one week?
Are the journalists checking the facts? Or are they engaged in fiction writing? What then is the difference between journalism and blogging? There is a cardinal principle in journalism that whenever in doubt, leave it out. Have Kenyan media understood this and do they practice it? The survival of journalism depends so much on how it can be distinguished from other forms of information dissemination and the extent to which it plays its civic watchdog role.
If journalism is no more than the next blogger, a game of guessing what the story was, and caring little whether it is true or false, then why should citizens look up to journalism for the authentic story?
Bloggers do not have the kind of resources at the disposal of journalism and the mandate that journalism has. Bloggers may have a single source of a story and the trust levels on bloggers are low.
Journalism cant be struggling for survival and not offering the kind of product that citizens would be looking for.
We are not concerned here about media because blogging is also part of media, but our concern is specifically with journalism. Its survival will hugely depend on the extent to which it is better than other forms of media. That may lie specifically on journalism’s ability to deliver verified information to its audience.
There must be something that the public looks for in journalism which they can not look for elsewhere. Journalism must be the source of exhaustive and reliable information for the public.
—The writer is dean, School of Communication, Daystar University
