ENOUGH OF THE WELCOME BACK AND ON AIR GOODBYES!

It's pretentious and a stage-managed ploy to hoodwink the audience. One can even describe it as media personalities playing to the gallery. So you've been away for whatever reason, and when you reappear on TV screens, it's made to seem as if the public desperately needs an explanation of your absence. Enough of the welcome back and on air goodbyes! 

I can bet the proposed Standard Gauge Railway that TV news presenters and other journalists of a given broadcast station, have interacted or been in close contact, prior to going on air, even if one of them has been away from the office for some time.

So, when someone is introduced on air, the simulation of excitement at seeing each other is already an exaggeration. It should not be made overly dramatic, lest some soul out there is left with the impression that somebody is seeing his or her colleague for the first time on air, after their return to the newsroom.

And again, I plead, dear quasi-celebrity media personalities, spare us details that border on very personal information like who has procreated, (and no... this is not intended to be trash talk).

If 'Welcome back' pseudo-ceremonies are a visual nuisance and psychologically draining, then TV news broadcasts should not burden the audience with more 'Goodbye' festivities.

If one of the staff members is leaving, then the audience will eventually get a clue, if he or she ceases to appear on screen. There's nothing really special about changing jobs, to warrant excessive display of emotions on air.

It's also not exactly a complement to your employer, if you wish the departing colleague well, as he "moves to greener pastures!"

Enough of the welcome back and on air goodbyes! 

URGENT MEDIA AUDIT REQUIRED AFTER WESTGATE COVERAGE

Kenyan media, undoubtedly, went above the call of duty, to relay information (some misinformation too), regarding developments around the deadly Westgate Mall siege. But the coverage did expose serious gaps in both sensible and sensitive reporting. Hence the need for an urgent media audit, in tandem with probing the country's intelligence and security apparatus.

For starters, some media houses elected to do phoners with some of those trapped or hiding, after the gunmen struck. The outrage directed at the news anchors (see below) is evidence of this journalism faux pas.

It is now only human and professional, to also call the same people to establish if they made it out successfully.

If so, then they should be recipients of an apology from the reckless media houses, who put their lives at grave risk, while pursuing 'their' story.

If, unfortunately, the people called died during the siege, then the media houses should take responsibility for compromising the safety of those they called, in spite of the unfolding hostage situation.

A boot camp should also be organised for local journalists, to instill in them the necessary skills of effectively covering war, conflict or serious crimes, to be infused with a heavy dosage of attendant media ethics and security concerns.

The English language skills exhibited during live reporting, have also been measured and found to be wanting. It might not be one's first language, but that's no licence to kill its grammar and semantics.

And this, in my opinion, is exacerbated by the 'needless' need to have reporters on location and anchors in studio continue talking, long after they have made their points, and recycled them in numerous repetitions.

The good thing to note is that the audience is ever vigilante and alive to the erring ways of the media. This remarkably forced the CEO of the largest media house in the region to issue a public apology, after a horrendous and distressful choice of their newspaper's front page picture.

As depicted below, nowhere was the criticism more scathing than in social media circles.

THE STRAY TWEET ON THE TREND: CAN SOCIAL MEDIA OVERRULE TRADITIONAL MEDIA?

A Kenyan TV station has been running an innovative talk show, which directly taps into new media. To fit in with social media parlance, it's called 'The Trend.' And it inadvertently could have set off a new trend: allowing a journalist from a competing channel to fire a question at one of its guests.

The 'stray tweet' from the external journalist certainly turned up the heat in that discussion, succeeding in putting the guest on the defence, and perhaps helping the programme host to raise an issue that probably would not have been covered.

It indeed drew a sharp rejoinder from the guest, who did manage to identify the 'stray' question was from a journalist, (from another station?).

But what made the programme producers to pick out this 'stray tweet' knowing very well it was unusual to give a platform to a journalist from a rival station to make any contribution in their show?

That particular move, is by all means daring. And it serves to indicate how social media can easily tear down the walls put up by rival or competing traditional media outlets.

Should this trend be encouraged?

I think so. The conversation never ends!