The factors that influence the selection of news and editorial content in Kenya: a case study of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Nation Media group and the Standard group

Abstract

The editorial content in contemporary media has been associated with various forces that determine the selection of news. Most critical of these forces are the media owners, media managers, editorial policies, advertisers, audiences and information sources. As town dwellers rush home to view their TV broadcasts, villagers' ears are always glued to small radios to get the latest happenings in the world. It is with this background that this study of the selection of news and editorial content is conducted.

This study is about the selection of news and editorial content in Kenya. Its main focus being the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Nation Media Group and the Standard Group, who are the mainstream media houses in Kenya. In particular, the study reviews:

o The role played by media owners and media managers in the selection of news and media content Kenya o How editorial policies impact on the selection of news and media content in

Kenya

o The influence of advertisers in the selection of news and editorial content in

.Kenya

o How audiences and information sources determine what goes to media for publication and what should not

To achieve the objectives, the study takes a qualitative dimension, employing focus group interviews with journalists working in Nairobi, Kisumu and Nyeri, for KBC, Nation Media Group and the Standard, the three centres that cover six of the eight administrative provinces of Kenya. The Literature review, though much drawn from Western scholars, give the background to the study as the same issues raised are the same concerns of media scholars in Kenya. Key Inform. ants were interviewed.- face-to-face interviews. They include media managers at KBC, Nation Media Group and The Standard Group and an

official of the Kenya Union of Journalists. A review of the editorial policies for KBC, Nation Media Group and the Standard Group gives the paradigms within which journalists in the case study media organisation work. The researcher has reviewed of presentations at a conference held in Nairobi in May 2006 for journalists from East Africa.

The focus group sample size is 66 journalists working with KBC, Nation Media Group and the Standard Group. Each of the seven focus groups comprises between eight and 12 participants, drawn from the three media houses. The researcher appointed the participants due to the nature of the respondents required, journalists.

Through the discussions, interviews and analyses, the research is informed that each of the factors are major forces to determine news selection and editorial content in Kenya, based on the interests of each one of them. Since competition has become increasingly intense in the area of the mass media as they endear themselves to readers, listeners, and viewers, the life and death of a newspaper and a TV station is at stake especially when the income from advertising and sponsors is supposed to reverberate the number of readers or viewers.

The research is informed that since news media are the most important channels for the propagation of culture, ideas, and opinions, audiences and information sources would not hesitate to point out where news is unfavourably selected.

The study found out that the production of news often goes through several steps: informants and sources, press agents, reporters, news agencies, journalists, and editors. Many media are citing other media, or opinion leaders making the complete chain of information flow becomes quite long. Selection and distortion may take place at every link in this chain of information transmission. And all the forces - media owners, media managers, editorial policies, advertisers, audiences and information sources are scrambling to have a say in the selection of news and editorial content. Not forgetting

individual journalists' role in selecting and framing news, based on their personal orientation, absence of skill or political inclination.