A case for constructive news: a passion finally defined

Serendipity. I have never heard a word used so often and mean so much. Chance occurrences repeat themselves with dizzying frequency around here. 

One habit that I carried with me to Stanford is my insatiable consumption of news. I have always been a news junkie and have not relented in following the news from back home during my JSK Fellowship year. I still find time to engage in the vibrant social media space in Kenya. I have mostly taken a bystander role to observe how the social media space is growing and continues to influence conversation in the country. 

When “shadowy” figures recently grabbed a school playground, the mainstream media seemed to be sticking to a narrative that had obvious gaps and faults. It was social media influencers who did the muckraking, digging up media archives to connect the dots and expose the people behind the scandal. As an insider looking in, I have been intrigued by the interplay between the mainstream and social media, with the former fumbling about, not knowing how to relate to the new entrant in the information space. 

However, one story that piqued my interest was not about Kenya, but the recent election in Greece that brought the Syriza party to power. As I watched the coverage, it occurred to me that Western news networks analyzed the political philosophy of the party and the then-candidate Alexis Tsipras. The coverage talked about a man who has been a leftist all his life; I wondered why we never see this kind of political analysis in many African countries. What are the contesting political philosophies? Do voters put into power people who reflect their aspirations?  And, importantly, what is the role of the media? In most countries on the continent, elections are won and lost on account of one’s tribe. With this state of affairs, politicians have a carte blanche to make wild promises the media has been willing to broadcast without fact-checking. 

How can Kenyan media remodel itself?

This lack of in-depth analysis means the media is inclined to go for confrontational journalism, which provides for great entertainment but adds little value to the lives of people and continues to alienate many. I have been for a while now ruminating on how the Kenyan media can remodel itself to play a critical role in our democracy. 

My ‘Aha!’ moment happened during an All Hands, JSK’s Wednesday evening event where a guest is often invited to speak to us. 

The guest this time was Ulrik Haagerup, a JSK alumni and executive director of news at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. He talked about a conversation he had with a teenager who told him she didn’t watch news because it was too depressing. So, he analyzed his own station’s news and realized just how negative it was. He is now making a case for solution-based journalism, which he writes about in his book, “Constructive News.“ 

He describes the concept as “giving editorial glasses a polish so that we also see the stories about things that work. Things that inspire us to dare to be both critical and constructive — to speak out about problems and actively search out stories that can contribute a solution.” Haagerup challenges the cynical slogan, that’s become a maxim in newsrooms: “If it bleeds, it leads.” 

There are so many negative stories in the Kenyan press, how about a paradigm shift? What if journalists went the extra mile to highlight the problem and suggest a solution. What if we told more stories of things that actually worked? How would this change our national conversation, how would it impact our democracy and the leaders we elect? 

Is media reflecting news consumers’ aspirations?

At the time I was reading Haagerup’s book, I took a class called “Redesigning the News Ecosystem” at Stanford’s design school. Following the conversations I had with other participants, the interviews we conducted with news consumers and the resulting prototypes we developed, we deduced a growing need for news that offers insights into people’s identities and aspirations, which are mostly driven by their desire to live and contribute to a better world. Is the media helping news consumers meet these goals? 

One of the recent radical changes in Kenya, since independence, has been in the governance structure — with the introduction of counties, semiautonomous administrative units. The story so far has been that millions of shillings have been misused, and usually these news stories are based on reports published by organizations like the World Bank or the Auditor General, an independent bureaucrat in government. The media follows with rankings and naming and shaming of governors, and then asking the same governors to either gloat or reject the report. 

But what if the reportage instead highlighted what’s working in one county and the bottlenecks in another? I totally agree with Haagerup’s assessment that the crisis in the media at the moment is not necessarily about the business model but the effect media content is having on news consumers. 

Haagerup quotes David Bornstein’s definition of journalism as a “feedback mechanism to help society self-correct.” So the Kenyan and by extension the larger African media must lead the paradigm shift to influence the public conversation for the hope of a better tomorrow. As for me, my passion is finally defined. I’m energized and ready to lead this change.