THE NEWS DIAMOND: A KENYAN NEWSROOM EXPERIENCE

The News Diamond model comes highly recommended for the 21st century newsroom. It still being an uncharted territory in this part of the world, I set out to find what new experience the model offers, within the confines of a Kenyan newsroom.

In the morning hours, shortly after been assigned to do a TV news story about plans to legally allow Kenya's intelligence officers to eavesdrop on private telephone conversations, I sent out an Alert in NTV's Facebook and Twitter account, with the aim of soliciting comments on the topic.

And the almost instant response, with some very compelling arguments for or against spy agents being allowed to tap people's phones, made me realise how involving the online community can favourably shape a news story, in its formative stages.

It is a pity that the NTV website is still an old-fashioned static one and so for the Draft stage, I wrote a quick-fire blog post that was hosted here in my personal blog, anchored by twitter comments harvested by a Storify article on the same subject, which I had earlier published. This elicited more comments from the blogosphere.

At this point, which was well into the afternoon hours, I could not do a proper Article or news Package, as recommended in the News Diamond model, because I had to schedule and follow up on TV interviews with a couple of experts.

I had in the meantime again linked my blog post on the subject to the NTV Facebook page, thanking the followers for their comments and inviting them to tune in that evening to watch the TV story. This again spawned more reactions on the subject.

And later that evening when I did the TV news piece, I had hoped to incorporate some of the rich online comments into the story to be aired, but was unable to because of time constraints. I did give it a mention though.



The Analysis or Reflection and Context stages thus were all hinged on that television story. And as for interactivity, I can quote the SMS, telephone and twitter messages I received after the story was transmitted.

Customisation stage could be covered by having the news clip posted on Youtube, and this blog post, which should possibly enable users to tailor-fit the information contained in my story, according to their respective needs.

And that is my energy-sapping but wonderful experience of the News Diamond model in a Kenyan newsroom.

WHY THE MEDIA NEEDS TO DO MORE IN HIGHLIGHTING THE HIGH COST OF LIVING

Different circumstances same need

Great anger is gradually building up in Kenya, over the escalating cost of living. Whereas both traditional and social media have given this issue ample coverage, such is the nature of distress spreading in the country that the media needs to do more than just highlighting the problem.

Already, streets protests, like what is happening in Uganda, are being contemplated, at the very least, to try and elicit some useful or far reaching response from the Kenyan government.

It is an outright violation of the rights of the citizens the state is bound to protect, if the usual taxation levels apply on essential commodities and yet the government has the capacity to cushion its people through subsidizing basic necessities, by forgoing or reducing their due taxes.

And the local media too, in my opinion, needs to go beyond just reporting how the public is suffering. The hardships aside, this is one of those rare moments, when the press can unite and jointly campaign for the reversal of the dire situation.

If it was possible for the media outlets to carry the banner headline, 'Save our Beloved Country,' at the height of the 2007/8 post election crisis in Kenya, then I don't see why the same energy cannot be dedicated to pressing the government to take urgent remedial measures.

As depicted below, using Storify, the writing is on the mind of many Kenyans.

DOES FAILURE TO MENTION NAMES MAKE RAILA ODINGA'S 'HATE SPEECHES' OK?

What exactly constitutes hate speech in Kenya? Whereas Kenya's 
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has been roundly criticized for his outbursts, especially after they were given prominence in the mainstream media, the same cannot be said of public pronouncements by Prime minister Raila Odinga.

Much as Raila's remarks probably fall under the same realm of abusive and potentially divisive utterances, they somehow didn't seem to interest the local media, as much as Uhuru's coarse comments.

Again, using the power of Storify to aggregate some of the reactions about the Prime minister's speeches, it nevertheless emerges there are those, who feel Raila too, has on a number of occasions been out of line.

UHURU KENYATTA'S UTTERANCES: USING STORIFY TO AGGREGATE FEEDBACK

Kenya's Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has come under sharp criticism for what many people think are unsavoury public outbursts that are unbecoming, for a person aspiring to be a national leader. And to help in aggregating feedback on this issue, I've had the privilege of using Storify.

Simply put, the Storify application takes the social media experience to the next level, especially for a journalist or news organization. The functionalities are amazing, when it comes to covering an on-going story or aggregating feedback or reactions to a particular news story.

Getting the official invite and accompanying unlocking key could turn out to be a major turning point in my online journalism experience. And the Uhuru Kenyatta story provides an excellent way to showcase the power of Storify.