There is a presumption held by many that a pluralist media system enables an open and free debate on political and social issues and a flow of  accurate news reporting. In countries that have recently lived under repressive governments the public sphere doesn’t automatically thrive from the lifting of censorship and undoing of government monopoly on  broadcasting. The case of Kenya stands as an example of the problem, which I have researched on the basis of  field study in Nairobi 2009. Here follows the abstract of my dissertation. Feel free to pose questions or place comments regarding this subject.

Pluralist Media in Kenya: A critical view

This paper sheds light on the practice of journalism and its relation to the structure of the media system in a “transitional democracy”. Kenyans have seen an expansion in broadcasting with new independent channels, and some growth in the press during the past decade. Is the new pluralistic media providing a source for reliable information and a forum for open political debate? For the purpose of this paper I have chosen to focus on how political reporting is perceived by the Kenyan media practitioners themselves. By thematically analysing 15 interviews conducted with various journalists in Nairobi, it is possible to uncover the difficulties they face and the weaknesses of the media system.
After the eruption of violent political clashes following the last election in Kenya, a commission set out to investigate the causes behind it. The commission lead by judge Phillip Waki produced a report, which puts some portion of the blame for the political violence on Kenyan media (Waki P., 2008). This stirred debate among Kenya’s media practitioners and caused some self-criticism by journalists, which is echoed in the responses that were given in my research. However, the question of ethnic tension is only given marginal space in this dissertation, as part of the problem of a partisan media, which impacts the practice of journalism. The structure of the Kenyan media system appears to result in many media outlets turning in to direct political instruments in election campaigns, during which politicians use ethnicity to win votes. By interviewing ordinary journalists and editors the focus here is on how they perceive their own practice within the structure. Theories surrounding the political economy of the media and theories of libertarian media is explored in the literary review and applied to the case study.
©Elisabet Helander, London

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