Why We Need Advocacy Journalism in Africa

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When one mentions the term journalism, some wonder what that actually means. Is it the content that makes you a journalist? Is it your take on the contemporary issues that guarantees you to be referred to as ‘Journalist’? Well I refresh my mind back in 2006. By then I was in Form 2 in Machakos school, I bet it is still the best school in Eastern Province. The politics, constitutionalism and regional integration filled the air… as a young man of 16 years I could not make out what that actually meant for us, and by the ‘us’ I mean the so-called future leaders.

Felix Kilonzo- Mku studios

I dropped the idea of pursuing the Bio-Chemistry dream and deviated fully to the Journalism field and 7 years on, I am yet to see the entire ship.

Talking of a process, I do remember my Mathematics teacher back in the days. She used to say life is like a normal distribution curve or simply the ‘bell curve’, you struggle, you achieve, you maintain and finally you fall. To bring out the ideas into clear picture is that Journalism in Africa has been the most challenging field as the pro status quo has continued to pre exists in the individual countries. For instance in Kenya, the idea surrounding the iron fist rule of president Moi is actually based on the Bullet theory where many tyrannical regimes adopted to keep the truth from the public.

For instance, there used to exist a single TV station, several Radio stations but controlled and owned by the government, and newspapers thoroughly vetted. Today, I bet my colleagues in the main stream media find it hard to vet a story that its content is already in the public domain.

I do remember my lecturer in University on Newspaper Reporting, Ms Sarah Njuguna used to reiterate that the times have changed as different forms of media has affected the dire field and therefore those who jet inside the field needs to inject their own dynamic angle to capture the eye of the readers.

Advocacy Journalism is the idea in question here and in brief, I wish to echo that in Kenya such practice is so scarce. When I watch Citizen TV news, I feel done in justice if I don’t see a news clip by Alex Chamwanda. Love him or hate him, he is the only Kenyan Reporter who does real political reporting. It’s not just what the source said, but what does what he said mean to the target audience. Advocacy Journalism vests itself on subjectivity and not entirely on Objectivity. I have heard people from several quotas argue that Felix Kilonzo misses the Objectivity part of it, and my response is so clear that in the events of reforms and agenda we not only need the Objective reporters but also Advocacy journalists are deemed to be necessary.

I quote Robert Niles former Editor of the OJR, “when ‘objective’ Journalism decays into a cowardly neutrality between truth and lies, we need advocacy journalism to lift our profession and the community leaders we cover- back to credibility”

The editor further argues that nothing about objectivity can hinder you from advocating on behalf of your results and I do agree with him on that for proper leadership in Africa, we need advocacy journalism in Africa and more importantly if the war against the culture of impunity is to be won.

We should not be followers of systems, but checks and balances to the system. We should not let corruption prevail whereas we ourselves can actively condemn it not necessary inciting but painting it negatively.

In Kenya, it’s so funny that despite the huge talent in our TV screens every Prime Time News, only a single reporter breaks down the news for the viewers. Its even worse that Kenyans rely on Mohammed Ali to give investigative reports and finally its sad that we have many amateur presenters on our TV screens when many trained Journalism students and professionals move to PR jobs for denied chances in the media industry.

Media industry is like Comedy arena, what you see must meet your expectations and therefore if one is shallow minded advocacy journalism will be actually a job to him as he or she will not offer insightful criticism to the systems and therefore end up being like what President Museveni calls ‘uninformed Journalists’.

Talking of uninformed journalists, I remember Emma Kwezi Tabaro’s promise that I was going to answer him on the same and here it is; only if you read this up.

To sum up, I find the talk of objectivity in analytical not in order as we may keep the truth away from the readers and listeners who expect us to do it. Someone said that Journalism practice in Uganda and Rwanda is hard and I back him for that owing to the fact that the change is in the air and the regime is turning to silence those who advocate for such a change.

What’s your take on the advocacy journalism in Africa? Simply Tweet me @starkolix or include #felixblog in your tweet and we shall talk more on African Perspective