BY Samwel Doe
@samweldoe
Middle level colleges offering journalism courses are required to introduce a unit in Digital Media next month once a new curriculum for journalist training developed by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) comes into force.
The inclusion of the course was informed by a rise in breach of ethical codes of the profession. MCK officials say the new curriculum, mooted five years ago, would be operational in a month’s time. “The key feature in that curriculum will be inculcation of the use of digital content in newsrooms for the middle level colleges offering Journalism and Media studies,” said MCK head of communication, James Ratemo.
Substantive work has been done, including validation of the curriculum by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the Ministry of Education, through Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TIVET).
MCK officials and scholars say the meteoric rise of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and micro-blogging sites were undermining journalistic principles of accuracy and credibility. University of Nairobi School of Journalism Director, Dr Ndeti Ndati, described the new trend as worrying for stakeholders in the media industry.
“Core journalistic principles of accuracy and credibility are being jeopardised with the utilisation of digital media, raising important new ethical and practical questions for journalists and policy makers,” said Ndati.
A number of leading universities in Kenya have begun reviewing their media and journalism curriculum in tandem with the emerging social media and ICT trends. The University of Nairobi is already working on a programme to address such emerging challenges.
Digital era
UoN will launch a Media and Communication centre in July that will focus on refresher courses on effective engagements with the new media technologies and tools. It will also retrain media practitioners on threats from massive adoption of digital media. “The programme is meant to fill in the gaps that are posed by the ever changing media landscapes in Kenya and to give hands on skills and knowledge of how to engage with professionalism when it comes to new media,” Dr Ndeti said.
While journalists have always wanted to be first with a scoop, the fast pace of news-breaking has increased to such a point in the digital age that accuracy is sometimes being sacrificed. During a recent anti-IEBC protest for instance, a video of a man being beaten violently by police went viral. The topic began trending in a few hours and a media house reported that the victim had died and even revealed his supposed identity.
It later emerged that the said man was alive and the media house had to apologise.
Experts from journalism academia and MCK have undertaken studies and come up with recommendations that will inform policies and regulations governing digital appropriation and effective utilisation.
More than 31 million Kenyans now have access to internet with at least seven in every 10 accessing the services countrywide, latest communication Authority of Kenya data shows.
First Published in the People Daily.
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