Assessing the Digital-Analogue Ideological Positioning of the Jubilee Coalition.

The objective of this study was to assess the digital-analogue ideological positioning of the jubilee coalition. Lakoff’s (1993) Conceptual Metaphor Theory was the guiding principle to this study for it hoists metaphor above its linguistic value to consider the conceptual property on which this study is founded. This study adopted an interpretative research design targeting all the telecast campaign coverage between 24th December 2012 and 1st March 2013. The video clips as well as the FGD participants were purposively sampled in terms of specific relevance to the objective of this study. The study made use of video method of data collection as well as FGDs. The video clips used in this study were sought from the mainstream TV channels namely Citizen TV of Royal Media Services (RMS), Kenya Television Network (KTN) of Standard Group (SG) and Nation Television (NTV) of Nation Media Group (NMG). The clips were transcribed and then interpreted for their conceptual relevance to the digital-analogue metaphor. This study established that the digital alagoue Metaphor summarized the ideological incline that characterised their campaign discourse which in turn accorded them a favourable attitude from the voter. It was clear that majority of the voters were influenced by the ideology pedalled in the digital-analogue narrative. The study recommended that there should be a critical evaluation of campaign discourse for the public to decide based on deliberative and substantive policies from those seeking elective positions.

Readership of Newspapers among the University Students at the wake of Covid-19 Pandemic in Nakuru County.

Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected the newspaper sector. Majority readers, especially among the students, have since opted to use social media, television, radio, and online for news updates. Most of the students avoid reading the newspaper due to fear of contracting the disease. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods of research designs. The quantitative design helped in identifying the readership magnitude of the hardcopy, online and broadcast versions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic while; the qualitative design helped identifying the causes of variation in magnitude in hardcopy newspaper readership. The study collected data from the primary source using a questionnaire with a sample of 50 respondents picked through convenience sampling method. The findings indicate that majority age of students interviewed ranged between 18-22 years and majority were male at 68% compared to female, 32%. Also, most students, 94%, read the newspapers before the outbreak of Covid-19. 56 percent of them preferred the Daily Nation, 24% the Standard Newspaper while the rest went for the Star, the Nairobian and other versions of print media. However, after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, most students, 90%, feared reading the newspapers and instead 68% went for Facebook, 24% used twitter while 8% used other forms of social media for news update. In conclusion, the use of traditional media like television and radio is still common among the students. The study indicate that majority 58%, of students used television sets for news update, 24% used radio, 10% used online media while 8% used other forms of media.

Sexuality Communication between the Clergy and Adolescents in Nakuru County, Kenya.

The study examines the sexuality communication between the clergy and adolescents in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study uses Systems theory anchored by Ludwing Von Bertalanffy (1969). Eighty students were sampled from ten secondary schools in Nakuru East and Njoro sub-counties representing both urban and rural teacher population. The schools included six same-sex secondary (three only boys and three only girls) schools and four mixed-sex secondary schools. The categories of the schools included two national schools, three extra-county schools, three county schools and two sub-county schools. The study used a self-administered questionnaire as a method of data collection, which was appropriate for collecting sensitive information such as sexual communication yet provide quantifiable data that can be used for statistical analysis. The schools were categorized from letter A to J. The results of this study showed that although the clergy engage the adolescents in some sexuality communication, the sexuality information communicated by the clergy was insufficient to help them manage the sexuality challenges they encounter. This is partly because adolescents did not consider their interests as fully taken into account since the clergy used strategies that were convenient for them, but failed to address the adolescents’ needs. The study suggested that clergy should be more accommodative of the views of the adolescents by considering the feedback regarding their interests and concerns. A good system will seek balance through interchanging with its environment and this comes through those feedback loops that enlighten the system on how or what to modify in order to maintain the system balance.

Sexuality Communication between Teachers and Adolescents in Nakuru County, Kenya.

This study investigated sexuality communication between teachers and adolescents in Nakuru County, Kenya. Thirty teachers were sampled from ten secondary schools in Nakuru East and Njoro sub-counties representing urban and rural teacher populations. These schools included six same-sex secondary (three only boys and three only girls) schools and four mixed-sex secondary schools. The schools' categories included two national schools, three extra-county schools, three county schools, and two sub-county schools. Three teachers were sampled from each school, including the guidance and counselling teacher who was purposively sampled. Two other teachers were randomly sampled, leading to thirty teachers. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The schools were categorized from letter A to J, and the teachers were coded as Teacher 1, Teacher 2, and Teacher 3. The results showed that teachers did offer some sexuality information, especially on HIV /AIDS and STIs, values and interpersonal skills, contraceptives, and unintended pregnancies, but were uncomfortable handling sexual variations and self-gratification topics. Time constraints due to high workload in teaching subjects, inadequate training, and societal taboos restricted sexuality communication. The findings show that efforts should be fostered to increase teacher training, especially in-service training in sexuality communication, to enhance teachers' capacity in delivering sexual health information to adolescents in secondary schools.

War or peace journalism? Kenyan newspaper framing of 2007 post-election violence

This study sought to examine the dominant frame in terms of ‘war’ and ‘peace’ in the coverage of the 2007/2008 post-election violence. At the time, Kenya had eight daily and over 10 weekly newspapers (Mbeke, 2008). The Daily Nation and The Standard were selected for the purpose of this study. The study applied systematic sampling method to select stories from The Standard and simple random sampling to select the stories from Daily Nation. A sample of 35 news articles (an average of 5 every day) for each of the newspapers and a maximum of 10 for each of the other categories were selected from 294 and 180 articles from The Standard and Daily Nation respectively. Details of each story were recorded in the coding sheet. This information was afterwards transferred to SPSS, a statistical data analysis programme. The study employs 11 of Johan Galtung’s 13 indicators of war/peace journalism to analyse the framing of the conflict. Galtung has proposed a new approach to reporting war and conflict that he terms 'peace journalism'. The two newspapers had an equal number of war journalism-framed stories (6 or 2%). Peace journalism framing was dominant in both newspapers. The findings contrast Galtung’s argument that in reporting war and conflict the media always give emphasis to war journalism frames.

Talking Visuals in Social Media: Linguistic Study of Facebook among a Selected Group of Kenyan Internet Users.

This paper investigates how Facebook users in Kenya lean on pictures to amply meaning in their online posts. This argument on visuals, and their utility on social media is important to the current study as visuals form part of the analysis and it will be important to examine what realities they represent apart from the written texts. The article located itself within the frameworks of Computer Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) and used questionnaires to obtain data. Pictorial presentation of information has been a common practice in the 21st century Kenya. A text on the Internet may be multimodal; having written speech and visual texts. These visual texts are used with various motives like entertainment, passing information, advocacy, and advertisement. It becomes extremely important to recognize that visuals and other forms of semiosis (making meaning) are as important as words in the construction of reality. A pictorial will often offer a different version of reality from that of verbal text. This study concluded that the number of photos by females was almost double the ones for males, meaning as far as this study is concerned, this motivation factor of photo uploads is more in females than in males.

Determining the Context of Television Serial Drama Viewership in Nairobi, Kenya.

The study sought to determine the context of television serial drama fiction viewership in Nairobi, Kenya. Watching of television serial drama fiction/soap operas is popular among Nairobi audiences. The research is anchored on uses and gratification and cultural proximity theories. The study employed a mixed-method design approach and used simple random, purposive and systematic sampling techniques to determine the population sizes. The study is further organised at two levels. In the first phase, 422 interview guide questionnaires were administered to respondents in households in three randomly selected constituencies of Nairobi followed by nine FGDs. The constituencies were Embakasi West, Makadara and Kibra. The survey questionnaires were finally analysed by SPSS and triangulated together with the qualitative findings. There is an emerging digital divide in the context of television viewership due to the impact of digital technology. The study found that many of the audiences now pay to access the television signals which they perceive as a gain reversal. Thus, the 'free' television signal connection has acquired a different meaning where private institutions, as opposed to the public (a government body), are now in charge of signal distribution and charge a monthly fee for access. From the recommendation, the government should make digital TV accessible by zero-rating taxes to the distributors. In addition to that, they should come up with a policy change that the first four most popular FTA TV stations should be accessible to the audiences at all times even when other channels are switched off.

The Power of Language Use in the Mass Media: A Case of Opinion Court on Citizen Television, Kenya.

The study sought to investigate how power relations are constructed and negotiated in the talk show. A programme aired on Citizen Television. The following objectives guided the study: to describe the structure of the talk show in the opinion court programme; examine patterns that emerge in the programme and account for the patterns observed in the opinion court. Literature was reviewed on; talk show: opinion court, conversational Analysis and Language and power. The study was guided by the Sociology of Conversation Theory by Goffman (1967) and Conversational Analysis Theory. Purposive sampling method was used to select the television as opposed to radio, Citizen Television in particular and opinion court talk show programme, this was necessary because power and language interplay can best be examined when there are two opposing sides, and thus opinion court provided this forum. Data was collected through both direct viewings of the programme and audio-video recording of the conversation. The data were then transcribed, analyzed and described qualitatively aiming at establishing the structure and the patterns of the discourses. The findings of the study revealed that opinion court talk show had some structure and followed some patterns which could be accounted for. The study, therefore, concluded that the opinion court did not count because other smaller opinions emerged. This implies that power is won, held and lost in social struggles.

Promoting Commercialisation of African Indigenous Vegetables through Communication Strategies: lessons from Farm Concern International, Kenya.

The study sought to analyse the efficiency of Farm Concern International’s Communication strategies in promoting the commercialisation of African Indigenous Vegetables in Lari Sub-County, Kenya. Qualitative and quantitative research designs were adopted for the study and purposive sampling, followed by random sampling used to select 100 farmers from the five villages in Lari Sub County. The data was gathered from the primary source through the use of structured questionnaire for both quantitative and qualitative. The data was then processed and presented by the use of graphs, tables and pie charts and analysed by use of descriptive analysis. The study used two theories, Rational Argumentation Theory propounded by Cragan and Shields (1998) and Trans theoretical Model (TM) by Prochaska, Johnson and Lee (1998). The study established that the rate of commercialisation is currently high, with the majority of farmers earning between sh. 5, 000 to sh. 15, 000 per month. Majority of farmers sold AIVs to Uchumi Supermarket. The findings also indicated that FCI majorly used two forms of Ora-Media, barazas and demonstrations, to promote production, consumption and commercialisation of AIVs. However, a bit of Use of projector was also used, but no form of mainstream media or internet and drama was used. The study recommends that NGOs should liaise with financial institutions to train farmers on financial literacy and facilitate them to make savings to enhance production. Also, there is a need for more campaign by NGOs and other gatekeepers like the media, government leaders and local leaders to enhance increased production of AIVs.

Problematising News Media Ownership Patterns in Kenya: Who Controls Media Industry in the Global South?

The main aim of this paper is to investigate media ownership patterns and analyse the implications of such patterns in Kenya—while thinking globally. Notably, media industry has attracted politicians and business tycoons around the world. It is one of the most lucrative industries that come with a lot of power and influence. From the literature reviewed in this analysis, it is evident that very few studies have been done to critically look at the media ownership patterns in Kenya and the implications such ownership have in the media market place. The paper is aimed at answering three questions. 1) What has been the media ownership pattern in Kenya since independence? 2) What does media ownership patterns mean to the Kenyan Media industry? 3) How does this pattern in Kenya compare to the rest of the world? Analysis from this research seems to demonstrate that most media outlets in Kenya are either politically owned or have some political agenda attached to them. As a result of such pattern, the Kenyan media experience narrow content and lack of alternative viewpoint of news and information disseminated to the public. Secondly, there is lack of balance since the main aim of the media is to advance political agenda as opposed to being the fourth estate—that watchdogs the government on behalf of the society. The findings also indicate that there are similarities in media ownership in Kenya and those around the world. When the political class owns the media, its normative roles are compromised, the editorial independence is skewed, and the media loses its impact as a cultural institution. The recommendation is that only community media can undo the pattern that is being established by politically owned media industry.