Journalism is in trouble, here are solutions to save the fourth estate

It has been yet another tough week for the Kenyan media, marked by a fresh round of layoffs, declining advertising revenue and fear of the unknown. As the dust settles in the coming months—and I say this advisedly—I offer a few practical ‘prescriptions’ that Kenyan media might find worthwhile.

Be serious about ‘digital’: Kenyan media had already ‘pivoted to digital’. This pandemic has not impeded the digitisation efforts, rather it has accelerated the move to digital. At the onset of the pandemic, the media recorded record-high numbers on their websites and TV stations (not so much for print newspapers) as audiences sought for trusted news.

 In a post-Covid 19 era, Kenyan media must relentlessly pursue the opportunities in digital, through e-papers, paid content, digital advertising and must go big on publishing for mobile.

CHASING PAGEVIEWS

Quality over quantity: The days of chasing pageviews, clicks and visits are gone. It is clear that this business model will only work for the short term.

Quality content-or quality journalism— will be the cornerstone of a successful business model for Kenyan media in a post-covid era. Therefore, a significant investment must go into creating quality journalism that will loosen the purse strings audiences. It goes without saying that good journalism is expensive, laborious, but it will finally pay off.

Experiment with storytelling: The most fascinating changes in journalism under the digital dispensation is not that journalists can write stories from the field, but that journalism can be told in some of the most exciting and captivating ways. In a post-covid era, Kenyan journalism should be more visual.

 We must not be afraid to use more video, graphics and photography. We should have more podcasts that tell stories using voice for those who enjoy this kind of storytelling –without throwing away the long reads that another fraction of the audiences enjoy. With digital, audiences are fragmented, have different tastes and every story must be told in the way the audience prefers.

INCLUSIVITY

Diversity and inclusivity: It is one thing to have more female journalists and young people to be part of the journalism process. It is another to include them in the decision-making process.

In a country with 75 per cent of the population under 35, it means that nearly 8 out of 10 Kenyans are your target market. Incidentally, this is also the target market for some of the biggest spending advertisers –and even more importantly, this is the demographic that pays for content such as Netflix, Showmax and Spotify.

You therefore cannot run a successful media business without the ‘under 35’s’ on that decision-making table.

Newsroom organisation: In the post-covid era, media must not just change how they tell their stories, they must change who tells those stories. The world over, we are moving from ‘generalist’ journalism and embracing expert journalism.

For extra depth and analysis, it is only logical that journalists be experts in whatever they report on. In the future newsroom, we must normalise having journalists with medical backgrounds report on health issues while journalists with economics and business backgrounds tackle the business stories and so on.

It will be also very critical to have journalists who can code, who are comfortable with numbers, data and know their way around technology. “Flexibility is a virtue”: With the changing times, ways of thinking, philosophies and paradigms must change.

WORKING FROM HOME

The media in a post-corona era will be unrecognisable. Journalists will be working from home more, stories will be edited from dining tables and headlines will be conceptualised and written from home offices and balconies. This is bound to spring up a lot of resistance especially from those who are used to a certain way of doing things.

The advertising model will no longer be enough to sustain the media and we must change our perceptions and fix our rigidity. The media in a post-covid era must leave room for fresh ideas, have the patience for new challenges and the courage for a higher risk appetite.

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Above all else, I will pen off with a personal but befitting adaptation of the last words from Abraham Linclon’s second inauguration speech, delivered at a time when the country had just come from a brutal civil war.

 “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the [industry’s] wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves...”

The writer is the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications. The views expressed in this column are hers; [email protected]