[kictanet] how positive can foreign media be?

[Andrea Bohnstedt]

Maybe Kenya would have been important enough anyway to cover the elections?
And I know of many Kenyans who also stocked up on food as well (when they
haven't left the country) - you just needed to spend a bit of time in
supermarket queues before the elections to see that it was a very solid mix
of everyone who lives here.

Any Kenyan would rightly take offense with being wholesale painted as
tribal murderers based on 1,500 people having died in 2007/early 08. But
what you do is turn around and do exactly the same thing to 'foreign
media'.

Yes, there were completely idiotic, wrong, stereotypical articles, and they
should be ridiculed every single one. But there were also many competent,
insightful, sober pieces. And there are many members of the international
who don't just swoop in for elections, but actually live here. Maybe we can
judge them one by one rather than condemning all of them wholesale?

In this forum, it will probably be a tricky argument to make that some of
the international media actually still (soberly, factually) reported where
the local media just shut up. So I won't make it.

And in the meantime, I hope that everyone who's so irritated with the
international media will apply the same amount of scrutiny and criticism to
the local media and the corruption inside that system.





On 11 March 2013 20:18, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com> wrote:

> Personally, I am feeling very angry at the foreign media. Thanks Evans for
> this shocking ridiculousness. we need to expose them!
>
> I wrote this yesterday.
>
>
> http://digitaldemocracykenya.blogspot.com/2013/03/feeling-frustrated-with-change-in-press.html
>
> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 5:30 AM, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Wow, this is a gem from Time:
>>
>>
>> "At this election, with a new 2010 constitution, and a new electoral body
>> with a new — though not glitch-free — electronic voting system, Kenyans’
>> determination to hold a peaceful election has been palpable. *The
>> popular mood has also been notably anti-Western. Foreign diplomats have
>> been warned of blood-curdling revenge should they interfere in the poll*.
>> *Foreign journalists have been publicly ridiculed and denounced as
>> prejudiced if they predicted chaos and disaster.* And a central message
>> of most candidates’ campaigns was strident, patriotic self-determination."
>>
>> Read more:
>> http://world.time.com/2013/03/09/kenyas-election-what-uhuru-kenyattas-victory-means-for-africa/#ixzz2NE3fBw4v
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *----------------------------------------------------
>> Kind Regards,
>> Evans Ikua,*
>>
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>
>
> --
> Dr. Warigia Bowman
> Assistant Professor
> Clinton School of Public Service
> University of Arkansas
> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu
> http://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
> -------------------------------------------------
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
> --------------------------------------------------
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>



-- 
Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
Publisher

www.ratio-magazine.com
www.africa-assets.com
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