In accepting one-dimensional portrayals of ourselves, we diminish our own dignity and humanity  

Uduak Amimo is a broadcast journalist. She hosts Cheche, a talk show on Citizen TV. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Journalism has the pressure of being a public profession, so when we journalists make mistakes, they are there for the world to see. One mistake can erode years of good, solid work.
  • What I have always hoped for and worked towards is a more balanced portrayal of the continent, the good, the bad; the ugly, the beautiful; the sad; the uplifting; contemporary Africa, historical Africa; the backward, the innovative – the list could go on.
  • Having a specialisation makes you more marketable as long as it’s a specialisation that is in demand or has an audience. The journalistic skills you gain from school should stand you in good stead for any specialisation or beat, as we refer to them.

What qualities or skills do you think student journalists need to cultivate in preparation for a career in journalism apart from what they get in their academics?

A strong journalism program will combine the theory, technical and practical aspects; why journalism exists, the role journalists play in society; how to write, produce and edit for different platforms, different roles in a newsroom or production team (I’m a broadcaster!) etc., and ensure that graduates have the competencies to be productive team members.

Personal qualities are important too: team work, leadership, grace under pressure (this is a very competitive, stressful career), meeting deadlines, humility, people skills, self-awareness, respect, being able to synthesize huge volumes of information and make sense of them for your audiences, persistence. This list is not exhaustible but covers most of the qualities editors and managers would be looking for when hiring.

Use your time in school wisely. Join the school debate club, magazine or newspaper. If these clubs do not exist, create one or all of them.

 

1.     Please describe a challenge that you had when you started out your career in journalism and how you dealt with it.

The challenges I faced when I started my career had to do with people skills. Journalists can be difficult people to work with, and coming fresh out of university, I was quite naïve about people, their ways and their intentions. So when office politics was directed my way, I found it difficult to believe that people could be petty and underhand.  I’d make excuses for them, make them tea, try to find out if they were having a bad day and so on. The day I decided I’d had enough was the day I stood up for myself. The result was an open confrontation in the newsroom. No one disturbed me after that!

 

2.     Journalism in Kenya has come under a lot of criticism for supposed lack of professionalism. Do you think these are valid accusations?

Let’s understand what we mean by professionalism, first. For journalism, as with other professions, it means that we adhere to a set of standards, which in our case include values such as: accuracy, fairness, avoidance of conflict of interest and much more, which underpin our profession.

Journalism has the added pressure of being a public profession, so when we journalists make mistakes, they are there for the world to see. And the world we serve can be a very harsh, unforgiving one.  One mistake, one error of judgment can erode years of good, solid work. And, trust, integrity and respect, which are all integral to our profession take time to rebuild.

 

The criticism about the lack of professionalism in professionals is valid but not confined to journalism. This is a general problem afflicting Kenya and which I think can be traced back to the erosion of a constructive value system and proper education and training. I think we as a profession fail to hold ourselves to the standards we hold the people and institutions we report about to. And we sometimes tend to focus more on our rights and interests than on our responsibility to the audiences we serve.

 

Do you think there is a difference between journalism as should be and journalism as practiced in this country?

Well, if there is criticism about the lack of professionalism, then that would mean that journalism as practiced is falling short of journalism as should be.

 

What mistakes do you think you made as a young journalist?

My mistakes had to do with relating to people in the work environment. I was young and naïve; I expected everyone to be as passionate about Africa as I was; journalism was my life and my life was journalism, I was driven and in a hurry so I didn’t give myself time for interests beyond work; I was and still am quite demanding about my work and I am rather plain-spoken, which can rub some people the wrong way.

 

There is a constant cry about the disconnect between the education students get in universities and what is actually required in the market place. What do you think can be done to improve the quality of journalists being released into the job market?

We need more synergy and regular interaction between journalism educators, regulators, interest groups and journalists themselves to develop curricula and certification that responds to the needs of the market place while maintaining the focus on journalism standards.

Employers need to value on- the- job training, take some responsibility for it and budget for it. Too often, this sort of training is underwritten by NGOs and can be inconsistent. Media organisations sometimes find it difficult to invest in their own employees, and give them the space and support required to keep themselves sharp.

 

You are very keen on the way Africa is portrayed in the international media and you actually became a journalist because of your dissatisfaction with this. But where do you draw the line between ‘not portraying Africa negatively’ and speaking about the ills in Africa such of hopeless corruption ditches and bad governance which prevent us from getting to our full potential?

The problem I had and continue to have with external representations of Africa are the almost exclusive focus on the ills that afflict us. Corruption and bad governance, should and must be reported, but let’s be very clear that they are not unique to us. What I have always hoped for and worked towards is a more balanced portrayal of the continent, the good, the bad; the ugly, the beautiful; the sad; the uplifting; contemporary Africa, historical Africa; the backward, the innovative; etc. And no one can argue that there is nothing beautiful, breath-taking and awe-inspiring on our continent.

 

When coverage is one-dimensional, it makes us as Africans seem one-dimensional, like we don’t eat; dance; take pictures; compose music and poetry, write stories and direct films, discover cures and formulas; stress about mundane things like rent, weddings, jobs, house chores etc. And so what happens is that our failures are headlined, exaggerated and even celebrated while our successes, our innovations and contributions are muted, given scant attention and sometimes attributed to others outside the continent.

 

In accepting one-dimensional portrayals of ourselves that ignore our contributions to the world around us, we diminish our own dignity and humanity and the dignity and humanity of our future generations. It means that we accept less than what we deserve and allow ourselves to be devalued, as if we are not part of the human race. What this means in practical terms, for instance, is we earn less than our international colleagues because our local education, knowledge and languages are not valued, or when we want visas we are subjected to more, degrading scrutiny, we have to jump through more hoops to prove ourselves. What’s worse is our own active complicity in those singular portrayals. So, how we see ourselves, how we allow ourselves to be seen plays a huge part in shaping our choices, filtering the opportunities that are available to us and determining our destiny.

 

The situation is a bit better than it was 20 years ago when I was starting out, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

 

Since you started your practice, your career has basically been on the ffastlane. Apart from going to school, what extra thing did you do to ensure that you set yourself apart from any other graduate with a degree like yours?

I’m not sure that I did anything deliberately apart from being intentional about where I interned and worked. That process started with Reuters; I was drawn to the organisation because of Africa Journal, so I chose to intern there and was eventually offered my first job there. I was quite pleased because I thought they were the best and I wanted to learn from the best, to give myself the best practical grounding possible in the practice of journalism, and the foundation Reuters gave me has served me well. I also knew that I wanted to be in an international environment since I’d always travelled as a child and so the graduate school I chose and which offered me a scholarship, American University, gave me that both in terms of location- Washington DC being the capital and therefore cosmopolitan- and in student population. The organisations I chose to work with subsequently VOA and the BBC were both international and part of their attraction for me was that I could report about and from Africa.

What is your opinion about specialisation in journalism? (How does one become a reputable political journalism for example when all they studied in school was journalism?)

Having a specialisation makes you more marketable as long as it’s a specialisation that is in demand or has an audience.

The journalistic skills you gain from school should stand you in good stead for any specialisation or beat, as we refer to them. But in the cases of specialisations that are very technical, you could have done a double major, e.g., journalism and political science, journalism and economics, journalism and public health. If you did not double major, then you can pursue certificate courses while you’re working e.g., how to report health, how to report business, how to report on climate change. And if that option is not available to you, go and work on the team of the issue you want to cover, even if it means starting from the bottom, you will pick up a lot and gain mentors in the experience. Your hobbies and interests can also become a specialisation, for instance, sports, if you are/were an athlete; ICT, if you’re into designing websites, coding etc.; art, if you write, read, watch plays and films a lot.

What is the most common misconception about you?

That I’m serious. Very, very serious.

What other passions do you have apart from journalism?

My other interests include travelling, music, reading, dancing.