Very EXCITING times for Kenyan journalism!!! I must say the Star newspaper has perfectly fitted the description of a UK type tabloid. Human beings by nature are very nosy and they enjoy sleaze! Ooh my!!! Smoooooooking!!! Just like the Mirror in the UK, I think the Star will change (actually is changing) journalism in Kenya. They are setting the agenda by telling us what to think and talk about. You can confirm this by reading the FB updates and Twitter comments!! Plus, the FM radio shows pick newspaper content and form a discussion or debate around it. Remember Kajwangs other wife?? The Mirror did this by making the look of news become more important than the news itself. Content was over-simplified and focused more on the sordid and sensational. I really enjoyed learning the history of tabloid journalism in my graduate class. It was a whole unit that made me smile.... Of how killings were covered, love affairs, drinking orgies... Much of it drawn from gossip and using inside sources - what journos today call eye-witnesses, close source or insider. Heeeeee!!! Back in the day, the Penny Press of New York targeted a growing mass of semiliterate urbanites with their human-interest stories that were simple and very interesting. I am itching to digress. I could write a whole essay about how Bartholomew designed the Mirror as if it was an advertising poster using sledge hammer headlines of a size, blackness and stridency never seen in the UK before. Apparently this was aimed at changing the nature of written journalism. Stories were so short that it became impossible to explain complex issues and debates were reduced to slogans. The year 2015 looks very exciting as more of us expose our private life on social media. The smart gadgets we carry around are live recorders. You cant even hide in Abu Dhabi!!! We will know whatever happens even if its supposed to remain in Vegas :-) :-) :-)
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:48:48 +0000
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