[kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

[Isaac Mutunga]

The decline of the quality of print journalism has been on  a downward  decline for the last couple of years. But the current free fall in terms of grammar and quality of stories is worrying. In my opinion  there are several causes but the major one is the management. When the IT sector experienced the dot.com bubble bust in late 90s and early 2000, it did not compromise on the quality but instead it raised the standards and the results are the fruits we are reaping. The same applies to print media, poor quality journalism will kill it. 
 
The social media has eroded the advertising base of the news papers leading to downsizing and reorganization of the print industry. This means there are very few journalist and even fewer copy editors. Interns are given important beats without adequate supervision  resulting to invasion of privacy, libel and plagiarism. Not all interns are do this but it is better to be cautious when giving them assignments. 
 
The issue of cronysim and tribalism is rampant in media recruitment and promotion.  Due to this practice some senior editors who are supposed to be gate keepers are merely gate watchers because they do not have the skills to filter out the chaff before the copy is printed. Other times the pull of the advertsers' shilling is stronger than ethical consideration and PR materials are passed on as business news.
 
The remedy for this may be what KICTAnet is doing-providing a fora to discuss the performance of the print media.But there is need to name and shame specific dailies like Makali's Bulletin does giving fortnightly assessment of media performance. 
May be the Media council could consider setting up an office of ombudsman to help the media in Kenya to engage with the audience constructively. It can be set within the media complaints committee and may be each media house can nominate a member. 
 
Chaacha Mwita's book, ,Citizen Power: A Different Kind of Politics, A Different Kind of Journalism, in my opinion aptly captures the point when the rain started beating on the bare back of the print media
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