Kenyan newspapers: Have they lost their way?

The internet has really revolutionized many aspects of our lives. The world is now literally at our finger tips. All it takes is some internet connection on your phone or on your PC/laptop for you to finally get to know what is cutting on in the world. Thus, by the time newspapers reach the news stands, the news is already stale. Those without internet access have read have already watched the news in their TV stations or heard on their favorite radio station.

The country’s main newspapers, the daily Nation, Saturday Nation, Sunday Nation, Standard and The Star are business ventures and hence must deliver revenue to their respective shareholders. So we perfectly understand why political news in Kenya will always make headlines. However, the newspapers could also inform the public a bit more on the other happenings in Kenya and the world.

For instance, just recently, one aspect went totally unreported in our daily newspapers. As anyone in the information technology sector might have known, Google changed its algorithms in late February and this will likely affect about 12% of the search queries/websites. Algorithms are basically the formula that is used to calculate which website is going to rank higher up in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. This never received any mention, not even a small byline in the inner pages in the newspapers. At least a Kenyan tourist operator will have known the change and seek the appropriate services to make his/her site rank on page one. Right now, probably, a tour operator is wondering why there are fewer people inquiring about tourist bookings in the country. But since they don’t have such information, they are just going to hope that everything turns out okay.

There are times without number that such important issues are never highlighted. Of course, we know that the media houses must make their money so it’s granted that the politicians are going to always make headlines. But at least on the inner pages, we hope that the Kenyan newspapers are going to include some useful information. Otherwise, it becomes a letdown since a reader has invested their time in reading the newspaper and it is only fair that the investment be recouped in terms of useful information. Recently, Sunday Nation columnist Philip Ochieng featured an article on the same. The media stations had apparently met in a bid to urge a total black out of the politicians but you and I know that the media goes to bed with the politicians and hence that will never happen.

Otherwise, Kenyans with means are going to look for alternative sources of information as they are currently doing. Hopefully, there will be some sweeping editorial changes in the mainstream newspapers.