On Monday, July 8, the Kenya Media Sector Working Group (KMSWG) announced its bid to enhance coverage of what has been viewed as a critical segment of Kenya’s vibrant society through various media platforms
I had covered this in Episode 19 of our ongoing ‘Spill The Tea‘ weekly newsletter, which you can find here and on LinkedIn. However, I felt as though I didn’t do much justice on it, hence this extended editorial.
On Monday, July 8, the Kenya Media Sector Working Group (KMSWG) announced its bid to enhance coverage of what has been viewed as a critical segment of Kenya’s vibrant society through various media platforms. According to a press statement, the group is mulling plans to set up a platform where Gen Zs, among all Kenyans, will engage on how best to shape the country, moving forward.
My point of interest is the following quote: “We will shortly announce a comprehensive plan to develop a platform where Kenyans including Gen-Zs will engage on critical issues affecting the nation.”
Let’s go down further to what I reported; “However, it is yet to be determined if the platform will operate through both mainstream and digital media platforms as well as social media and whether established media channels, upcoming ones, or both, will be considered in its development.”
President William Ruto during a conversation with journalists from digital media outlets at State House, Nairobi on June 30, 2024. /PHOTO
What KMSWG needs to answer in their comprehensive plan to develop the platform is what is there above…will the platform be hosted on social media, like X Spaces, Facebook…or TikTok, or will media platforms be considered?
The protests that were started on Tuesday, June 18 brought Gen Z to the national limelight for the very first time. Thousands of Kenyans, mainly the youth (Millennials and Gen Z), took to the streets of Nairobi to protest against the 2024 Finance Bill, showcasing the real power of the biggest population demographic in the whole country.
You’re talking about the very same group that forms our largest audience across our website and our social media accounts, and the numbers show. Photos and short videos covering the protests alone were shared across all social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram…and for the first time, baddies suspended breaking men’s necks offline and on Instagram, to protest against the Finance Bill.
June 20 and then June 25 (which I attended), and the Finance Bill was dropped. The power of Kenya’s youth worked to the point that political figures who dismissed their demands for action ate their words. President Ruto then held more pressers at State House than possibly any other Head of State in Kenya, with radical changes, including the big one you began to read here.
How Did We Get Here?
Back to that ‘platform’. Social media has become the main environment for millennials and Gen Z and while KMSWG might be on to something proper, there’s the question of who should host/talk about that platform to the masses.
For more than a decade, mainstream media and the leading digital media platforms have been ruling the media space, but the turbulent times, especially among the former, have led to a decline in advertising revenue and ultimately, drastic decisions such as doing away with departments and firing journalists…hug anyone you see in media.
Freezing hirings or opting not to advertise job openings (if so, they come with weird requirements that show how your numbers on social media are like your CV) has made established journalists set up their own media platforms, mostly digital.
The space has become so saturated…like owning a boda boda…that people still don’t believe me when I tell them that I run Viral Tea in a tough environment, competing against more than 5,000-10,000 news websites in Kenya.
Despite being an upcoming digital media house, Viral Tea, a rapidly rising platform in the 2020s decade, has told numerous stories of Gen Zs making their mark in whatever sector in the country, from entrepreneurship to the media space itself while building a platform that caters to the demands of Gen Zs and millennials- our biggest audience. So far, I’m proud that we’ve established a connection with the biggest digital media platform in the country, but it doesn’t stop there.
For the extended part. Nobody has said this, but I’ll say it…we are under fire. Take a look at this clip:
Was posted earlier somewhere but allow me to address this…it looks like a threat to reporters on the ground.
If only these ones knew the bureaucracy that goes on in Kenyan media newsrooms…especially mainstream pic.twitter.com/cnCORAWCDK
— Marvin Chege (@marvin_chege10) July 13, 2024
When I watched it, the first thing that came to mind is what I’ve done wrong. My platform had been following up on the Kware killings from the moment news broke out from it, relying on real-time media reports to get the tally on the number of bodies recovered and the first thing that someone who only watches TV and listens to radio is…we are lying. How I wish he knew what goes on in newsrooms of the leading media houses…there will come a time where journalists too will ‘drain the swamp’.
But therein lies the problem. We’ve become so used to expecting so much from mainstream because we follow them every single day, which isn’t a bad thing…and worshipping social media as a disruptor but failed to see that digital news and media platforms exist, which I can say without fear or favour, do more than three times what mainstream guys do.
There’s no doubt that the leading digital media platforms such as TUKO.co.ke have done wonders in raising the bar for digital media, as they started when many Gen Zs were in high school or university…when social media in the country was starting to gain serious momentum.
COVID-19 changed everything and with digital disruption, mass layoffs across the media space and financial difficulties that could not allow media houses to hire and train new journalists, upcoming ones such as Viral Tea were born.
For four years, since the start of the 2020s, these platforms have been ignored by many, hence my bold call that it is time for upcoming digital media platforms to take over, be empowered more and for the big boys to step aside for once, mainstream included. They are already big platforms, so it would be insane for them to keep being empowered while the upcoming ones are left to waste away.
I’m saying that if KMSWG chooses the media in terms of what they want to do with the platform, they should first come to the newcomers like Viral Tea to get the word out there. First of all, we are the fastest-growing Kenyan digital media house on LinkedIn, doubling to more than 20,000 followers…three years after beginning in 2021…covering content that at times you will get nowhere else.
There is a saying that when you empower your underperforming employees at work, you’ll get the best out of them compared to giving the star performers more work which brings devastating results; you lose your best performers AND your underperformers. That’s the same case here.
Why Pay Attention To Us?
Kenyans deserve to pay more attention to the upcoming digital news and media platforms, not just because that’s where the real juice is. I have seen Kenyan media being accused of being biased, and sleeping with the ruling political class among others…but this is because they have been so used to consuming content from leading platforms and ignoring the rest…others turn to bloggers and influencers who have a large following and think they’re ‘credible’…without training, even if it is ‘self-taught’.
I can proudly say that since my stint at Kenyans.co.ke as an intern in 2020 for two months, I’ve been a self-taught digital journalist…learning from online sources, not really someone to hold my hand as a mentor since February of that year. I’m still learning, despite some ‘plause’, as I feel I still have a long way to go.
For me to pen an opinion/editorial (in this case) article on my very own platform instead of through the newspapers which to be honest take a lot of time to approve and publish shows the value of taking upcoming platforms in Kenya seriously.
However, just because the upcoming media platforms are small doesn’t mean they don’t have their own policies. For instance, we at Viral Tea check each and EVERY single pitch that comes our way, verify and use it in our stories or social media content, all at once…even though we are independent, we prize credibility as our ‘main bae’. Truth is as staple as a plate of ugali in this country and just a note; we do not consider pitches on anything that we find to be defamatory. I gave you those tips for free today lol.
A good way to empower the upcoming digital media platforms is through collaborations/partnerships. To quote my fellow digital media friend Oliver Mathenge in one of his newsletters:
“There will be a wave of consolidation in Kenyan media, as smaller publications team up or merge to take on bigger competitors. While there may be employment losses as a result of this, there may also be chances for creative cross-platform content development and collaboration.”
In one of my comments, I indicated that Kenyan media houses have shown how allergic they are to collaborations or partnerships on a consistent basis, hence the only hope for such is within the smaller publications. And no, the Presidential Debates series is not enough.
A person browsing the internet on his phone. /CONTEXT NEWS
The conflicting numbers across media platforms and even government authorities such as the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) regarding the Kware bodies discovery have caused distrust between the media and members of the public, the latter threatening to ‘occupy media houses’, which to me is a dangerous precedent. If only we teamed up to give the real numbers…
Also to note, the division is also internal in the media space; that is mainstream vs digital, young journalists vs old veterans…Kenyan media is as unstable internally as it is externally. Why can’t we just get along here?
Anywho, the call involves than just teaming up, it’s time for the big companies in other sectors to give more attention to the smaller publications and for stakeholders to invest in them so that they can grow their craft as well as hire and train the upcoming Gen Z journalists to not just align them with modern office and work culture but to also adapt to the fast-paced news environment which we have seen of late is full of content, some of which is masked in misinformation to the point of catching even the best of us off-guard.
Should anything unfortunate happen to the big media houses and leading digital media channels, as we almost saw with KTN News on June 25, it will be those upcoming publications that will be standing, some of which will have strengthened themselves in terms of accuracy, credibility and my favourite one…creativity mixed with professionalism, one that bloggers and influencers cannot match, no matter what they do.
Imagine taking the humour of Justine Wanda and mixing it up with the professionalism and knowledge of the likes of Linus Kaikai, and Sam Gituku among others. That’s your homework…tell us your results!
Allowing the leading media houses to run away with all the fame…and all the big money would force the upcoming ones to fold/shut down because of lack of funds to sustain their operations…and that clips the democratization of the media down to several sizes, hence we as the media cannot hold the government of the day, celebrity or any other newsmaker to account in a no-holds-barred way…how the Gen Z are doing it right now, and how they want the media to do it in this country…truthfully and objectively.
Marvin Chege is the founder and editor-in-chief of Viral Tea and a self-taught digital journalist and a young digital media expert with over 4 years of experience creating content with special focus on the youth: millenials and Gen Z.