Journal Articles

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An Analysis of Social Media Usage by Public Relations Departments in Select Private Universities in Kenya.
(East African Journal of Information Technology, 2021) Nyabera, N. Samwel; Lando, Agnes Lucy
This paper investigates the use of Social Media by Public Relations departments in two large private universities in Kenya. Social media are web-based applications where the creation of profiles and connections of people takes place. Social media use is constantly growing amongst organizations, as technology and globalization evolve, so do the role of Public Relations hence becoming inevitable in everyday practice. Despite the availability of social media platforms, little is known on how they are used to communicate. Contrariwise, the extant literature discloses that at present, there is moderately negligible research with focus on the use of social media in public relations in private organizations. This study is grounded on the outcomes of a research submitted in lieu of a Doctoral degree in Mass Communication at the St Augustine University of Tanzania involving 270 survey participants and 2 in-depth interviews. Data was generated using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 23 whereas interviews were analysed thematically. Findings reveal that University K and St Paul University use social media to: publicize activities; send information to the public; change public opinion; enhance information value; lobby public support as well as to provide the public with a question-and-answer platform. This paper highlights need to pay more attention to the content and public’s need besides embracing other available social media tools and technologies to promote trust amongst the public and the organization. And also, need to devise means of adjusting to the inevitable changes regularly besides diverse approaches in strengthening PR practice and regulation.
A Christian Approach to the Study of Language
(School of Communication, Daystar University, 2006) Oladipo, Rebecca
Drunk with Knowledge: Depiction of a Professor in Robby Bresson's "Help"
(Peter Lang AG, 2017) Nyaole-Kowuor, Rosemary
I am an ardent fan of African films. Over the years, I have developed a habit of figuring out the meaning in film narratives. This quest led me to study Help (2007), directed by Kenyan filmmaker Robby Bresson. In Kenya, the title professor is hard-earned and highly-esteemed. It is synonymous with research, publications, and several years of teaching at a university. Of course, I look forward to becoming one. The plot of Help revolves around Lumumba (Mike Rewa), a young male student who has just completed his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE). We learn from the exposition that his parents are separated and that he lives with his mother. The film begins with Lumumbas visit to his father George Simba (Peter King). On his trip back to the capital city, Lumumba gets a ride in his father s bus, Africa Pride. The father and son opt to use a different route, a shortcut, because the police have put in place three roadblocks. Passengers may have to pay up to three hundred Kenyan shillings each if they are caught using the main road.
Negotiating the Balance between Speed and Credibility in Deploying Twitter as Journalistic Tool at the Daily Nation Newspaper in Kenya
(Benjamin Muindi (2018) Negotiating the Balance between Speed and Credibility in Deploying Twitter as Journalistic Tool at the Daily Nation Newspaper in Kenya, African Journalism Studies, 39:1, 111-128, DOI: 10.1080/23743670.2018.1445654 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2018.1445654, 2018-05) Muindi, Benjamin
Technology has significantly altered the practice of journalism at a number of levels, including broadening news sourcing and creating parallel markets of information for journalists, away from their traditional channels of content distribution. Equally, the buffer between professional journalists and their audiences has blurred. Contemporary journalists embrace new routines by deploying new technologies in their practice, and the multifarious responses by their media houses to these changes are emerging globally. This paper focuses on the deployment of Twitter by Kenyan journalists at the Daily Nation in their everyday practices of sourcing, production and dissemination of news. Data is obtained through semi-structured interviews with reporters attached to the news desk, and examined through the diffusion of innovations framework. The study found that by adopting Twitter in their daily routines—and because of the fast-paced nature of micro-blogging—the journalists have increased the speed of sharing news in order to stay relevant on the news market. The research also presents an overview of how the journalists negotiate the professional demands of clarity, balance and truth while at the same time embracing the immediacy and spontaneity of Twitter. The study recommends a need for mainstream media in Kenya to expand its news agenda by developing innovative ways of establishing the credibility of emerging news sources on Twitter.
On Mariama Bâ's novels, stereotypes, and silence
(Duke University Press, 2007) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
The title of this article is borrowed from Trudier Harris’s essay that analyzes the reception of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Harris argues that Walker had been chosen by the one-track-minded American media, which, “by its very racist nature, seems able to focus on only one black writer at a time.” The publicity had in turn created “a cadre of spectator readers . . . who do not identify with the characters and who do not feel the intensity of their pain, [but] stand back and view the events of the novel as a circus of black human interactions.” Harris suggests that the acclaim Walker’s novel received had discouraged critics from writing critical reviews, even though the characters appeared implausible against the historical background and experience of black Americans. I raise similar concerns about the increasing critical focus on Mariama Bâ’s novels, particularly Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter). Bâ’s fi rst of two novels is currently about the most popular African woman-authored novel in the United States and is featured in reading lists of courses that range from French to African and women’s studies. However, there is little or uneasy acknowledgment that Bâ and her characters represent a small and privileged section of African societies or that her women have condescending views of African traditions consistent with colonial ideologies. The few critics who have been categorical about this reality have been criticized for ignoring the colonial masculine privilege. Between them and those who read Bâ’s work as an expression of a feminist consciousness, the intricacies and the human complexities in the narrative are minimized, while the biases and assumptions behind the popularity of the work remain unquestioned. In this article, I argue that the popularity of Bâ’s novel rides on stereotypes of African cultures as inimical to love, individual fulfillment, and monogamy. I trace these images to the imperial framework and locate them in the criticism of her work.
What can Christian Higher educations do to promote educational well-being in Africa
(School of Communication- Daystar Uniiversity, 2006) Nguru, Faith
Walengwa wa Ujumbe katika Bembelezi za Watikuu
(East African Journal of Swahili Studies, 2022-08) Simwa, Sheila Wandera; Akaka, Lina
Nyimbo zikiwa za watoto, inatarajiwa kuwa walengwa watakuwa watoto wenyewe kwa kuwa maudhui yaliyomo yatawalenga. Bembelezi zilizotafitiwa katika tamaduni mbalimbali ulimwenguni zinaonyesha kuwa ujumbe uliyomo huwalenga watoto na wakati mwingine, mama na baba zao. Kimsingi, wanawake, kando na kuzitumia katika shughuli za kubembeleza watoto, huzitumia pia kama jukwaa la kujieleza na kutakasa mioyo yao kutokana na uchungu, mtamauko na mfadhaiko wa mawazo uliosababishwa na matatizo ya kindoa kutokana na mifumo ya kibabedume inayoendelezwa katika baadhi ya jamii. Makala hii inachunguza diskosi zinazojitokeza katika bembelezi za Watikuu ili kubaini walengwa wa ujumbe uliomo. Lugha inayotumiwa na wanawake katika uimbaji wa bembelezi hizi inatilia shaka iwapo ujumbe uliomo unalenga tu watoto au mna watu wengine wanaolengwa kando na watoto
How Teachers of English in Central Region of Kenya Perceive Portrayal of Gender in Literature Textbooks
(Africa Journal of Media and Communication (AJMC), 2020-07) Gachari, Regina
Textbooks are an important socializing tool and play a crucial role in determining students’ worldview of gender relations in society. Gender responsiveness is one of the emerging issues that have attracted major debates in various forums including in the education system in general and choice of textbooks in particular. This study examined the responses of teachers of English to gender issues in the following literature books; The River Between, An Enemy of the People, The River and the Source and Coming to Birth which were used as KCSE literature textbooks from 1999 to 2009 . The study applied the Reader – Response theory which emphasizes the reader’s role in creating meaning of a text and experience of a literary work. The findings indicated that the KCSE textbooks all had elements of gender bias, stereotyping of character and role, unequal representation of male and female characters and use of gender insensitive language. However, the study also revealed that some writers had made attempts to make the literature textbooks gender responsive. The teachers’ responses revealed that the teachers were keen and enthusiastic about gender issues in textbooks despite the fact that they had no formal training on how to implement the gender policy in education. The study recommends closer scrutiny of literature textbooks, in-house training of teachers on gender responsiveness, sensitizing students on gender responsive textbooks, training of education stakeholders and providing checklists for identifying gender stereotypes and other relevant gender issues in textbooks. In addition, it also recommends the development of a more gender responsive curriculum in tandem with Kenya’s developmental aspiration where men and women are viewed as partners in the development of all sectors of society.
Smartphones, Professional Behaviour and Workplace Socialisation in Kenyan Organisations: A Case of Capital FM
(Africa Journal of Media Communication, 2020-07) Wamunyu, Wambui
The news media industry globally has experienced a great range of changes due to the entry of digital technologies in journalistic practice. Journalists are facing the challenge of evolving norms and practices in commercial companies which in turn are struggling to generate revenues, as well as keep and grow audiences. The internet-enabled smartphone is among those technologies whose increasing affordability has caused it to be everpresent in journalists’ professional lives. This study’s research objective was to interrogate the use of the smartphone among journalists at Kenya’s pioneer commercial radio station, Capital FM, and the implications of that use on professional behaviour and socialisation. The study uses social learning theory and applies a qualitative case study research design. The data collection tools were observation and 23 purposively sampled interviews, the latter undertaken until saturation was reached. The data show smartphone use has facilitated the fast flow of multi-media content and changes to workplace routines. It has also redefined the nature of interactions among individuals in a working context, and transformed certain newsroom basics or rendered them obsolete. Overall, these changes suggest implications on the future vocational socialisation of journalists. The study recommends further long-term interrogation of the effect of smartphones and other digital tools on professional behaviour to better assess the effects of organisational norms, practices, and structures. Key words: Smartphones, Workplace Socialisation, Work Routines, Digital
New Technologies and Journalistic Practices at the Time of COVID-19 in Africa
(Advances in Journalism and Communication, 2023) Kamili, Jean-Paul Paluku; Nyamboga, Erneo Nyakundi; Nyaole-Kowuor, Rosemary
This article aimed to show how new information technologies have influencedand innovated journalism practice during COVID-19 in terms of collecting,processing and disseminating news and information. The study wasliterature based. A literature-based study primarily relies on existing published literature rather than collecting primary data through experiments orsurveys. The findings reveal that the management of new information technologieshas led to the rise of infodemia, a phenomenon of misinformationthat disrupts the informational ecosystem due to the prevalence of erroneousor misleading news. As a result, the media’s role as a watchdog is compromised.Infodemia has become the most prominent dimension of this challenge,with traditional media struggling to maintain their status as reliablesource of information amidst the influence of amateur journalism on socialmedia. The traditional media plays a crucial role in covering COVID-19 butfaces challenges in producing and disseminating accurate information due tothe specialization of journalism and the shortage of specialists. The emergenceof new categories of journalistic practices, including terrorist journalism,diversionary journalism, ideological journalism, and journalism as abusiness, poses a major threat to the credibility, trust, and timeliness of real news. New technologies, particularly social media, have filled the void left by traditional media and facilitated the spread of fake news and rumors. Despite the challenges, information and communication technologies have brought innovation to journalistic practices in raising awareness against COVID-19 in Africa. The study provides several recommendations based on its findings. Traditional media outlets in Africa are recommended to prioritize hiring and training specialist journalists to cover health-related topics, establishing measures to combat the spread of fake news and rumors related to COVID-19, continuing to adapt to the use of new technologies in disseminating information, upholding ethical standards in reporting, and prioritizing public health awareness and prevention. Lastly, the study suggests the need for further research to better understand the impact of new communication technologies on journalistic practices in Africa in the context of COVID-19.
An Analysis of Social Media Usage by Public Relations Departments in Select Private Universities in Kenya.
(East African Journal of Information Technology, 2021) Nyabera, N. Samwel & Lando, Agnes Lucy
This paper investigates the use of Social Media by Public Relations departments in two large private universities in Kenya. Social media are web-based applications where the creation of profiles and connections of people takes place. Social media use is constantly growing amongst organizations, as technology and globalization evolve, so do the role of Public Relations hence becoming inevitable in everyday practice. Despite the availability of social media platforms, little is known on how they are used to communicate. Contrariwise, the extant literature discloses that at present, there is moderately negligible research with focus on the use of social media in public relations in private organizations. This study is grounded on the outcomes of a research submitted in lieu of a Doctoral degree in Mass Communication at the St Augustine University of Tanzaniainvolving 270 survey participants and 2 in-depth interviews. Data was generated using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 23 whereas interviews were analysed thematically. Findings reveal that University K and St Paul University use social media to: publicize activities; send information to the public; change public opinion; enhance information value; lobby public support as well as to provide the public with a question-and-answer platform. This paper highlights need to pay more attention to the content and public’s need besides embracing other available social media tools and technologies to promote trust amongst the public and the organization. And also, need to devise means of adjusting to the inevitable changes regularly besides diverse approaches in strengthening PR practice and regulation.
Media ethics in the Kenyan media?: Understanding the disconnect between the classroom and practice
(The East African Communication Association, 2013) Lando, Agnes Lucy
The media in Kenya are increasingly criticised for their one-sided reporting, sleasy tabloid style of pornographic content, and control by the businessinterests of proprietors and advertisers. Yet nearly all of the staff of Kenyan media are now graduates of university programmes stressing media ethics and a large percentage are graduates of media degrees from confessional, Christian universities which place a high priority on forming professionals of personal integrity and ethical practice. To discoverthe causes of this disconnect between strong ethical formation and weak ethical practice, this study interviewed 85 graduates of Christian universities working in the Kenyan media. These graduates report that they appreciate the attempts to give them a solid ethical foundation but that in the pressures to get and maintain employment in the Kenyan media it is often impossible to carry out the ethical principles they learned in the classroom. This article makes recommedations for improved teaching of ethics, especially in confessional, Christian media training programmes.
The Impact of an Educational Media Intervention to Support Children’s Early Learning in Rwanda
(Springer, 2019-03-19) Borzekowski, Dina L. G.; Lando, Agnes Lucy; Olsen, Sara H.; Giffen, Lauren
Children in developing countries often lack sufcient support for early learning skills prior to beginning school. This research evaluates an educational media intervention using an animated cartoon program, Akili and Me. The program was originally created in Tanzania to teach early learning skills. This program was adapted in content and language use in this study in Rwanda. The two-week intervention involved primary school students (mean age=7.1 years) who were randomized into two groups (intervention and comparison group). The intervention group viewed one Akili and Me episode a day for fve days. This viewing was repeated the following week. Similarly, the comparison watched the same amount of television but the content consisted of local popular programs. Baseline and follow-up assessments evaluated 10 areas of early learning, using an adaptation of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA), and also children’s media receptivity. At follow-up, children in the intervention program, Akili and Me, had signifcantly higher scores for counting, number recognition, shape knowledge, letter identifcation, color identifcation, body part recognition, health knowledge, and vocabulary. The analyses provide promising evidence that locally produced educational media interventions can impact early learning skills, even among children living in resource-poor communities.
Slow beauty: Refocusing Oliver Hermanus’s Skoonheid through a slow cinema lens
(TYDSKRIF VIR LETTERKUNDE, 2023-04-24) Wanyonyi, Emmanuel
Oliver Hermanus’s Skoonheid is often read as a representation of South African queer realities and political progressiveness both during and since the dissolution of apartheid. Consequently, Hermanus’s contribution to the aesthetic of slowness in Skoonheid has gone largely unnoticed in the broader context of slow cinema. In this article, I examine how Hermanus, through the slow cinema conventions, urges the viewer to contemplate issues of crucial importance to human behaviour, thereby putting Skoonheid’s meditative qualities on display. Drawing on Ira Jaffe’s concept of expressive minimalism, Emre Çağlayan’s poetics of slow cinema, and Thomas Elsaesser’s observations on the virtues and demands of slow cinema, I analyse the narrative and aesthetic strategies deployed in Skoonheid within the purview of slow cinema and beyond a representation of queer sexuality. This analysis reveals that Skoonheid represents a mode of narrative-formal expressiveness distinct from, yet in dialogue with, slow cinema in its emphasis on contemplation. Principally, Hermanus finds a way to testify to some of the most urgent concerns in contemporary society through the film’s contemplative approach, which draws the viewer’s attention to the mystery and ambiguity of human experience. Skoonheid’s contemplative approach is informed by the film’s processes and experiences of alienation, incommunicability, and existentialism.
Leadership training programs/models, inter-ethnic conflict resolution and the youth
(International Journal of Leadership and Governance, 2022) Mbutu, Paul Mutinda; Wanjigi, Jimi R.
Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the various models/programs used in leadership training in the context of inter-ethnic conflict resolution and how those models can be used by NGOs in training the youth. From their many years of practice and experience in training, both Paulo Freire and John Paul Lederach propose training models that are suitable and effective in leadership training in inter-ethnic conflict resolution situations. The two approaches to training which Lederach (1995) refer to as the prescriptive and the elicitive, should be understood as analytic models, or as Weber would call them, “ideal types” (Weber 1947). Paulo Freire talks about progressive education training. In other words, in real life the exact, pure model of either type may not exist. And that is the premise this paper is built on. Methodology: Using a quantitative study approach, this study describes the different leadership training programs that have been used with relevance to the culture and needs of the youth in Kenya in inter-ethnic conflict resolution. It presents an overview of ten case studies of leadership training programs and draws from them to illustrate how leadership training programs in inter-ethnic conflict resolution for the youth can be designed and conducted to communicatively transfer knowledge and skills to help the youth in social and behavioral change and become sources of change agents in the communities they live. Findings: The study attempts to give various definitions of key terms and concepts used in leadership and conflict resolution discourses. Results in the ten cases, demonstrated there was some notable divergence in terms of topics covered in each program, but that means that the difference came about because of the different target needs and issues each program tried to address. Results showed that almost all (80%) of the training programs were evaluated. Some of the training bodies had their own biases in covering topics. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy:The researchers considers these models of leadership training and how they can be communicatively used to transfer knowledge and skills in inter-ethnic conflict resolution and bring about social or behavioral change among the youth. Design theory informs how these training programs are designed, planned, implemented, and evaluated.
African Media and Democratization: Public Opinion, Ownership and Rule of Law
(Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 2013-11-13) Obonyo, Levi
The State of Media Freedom in Africa
(Faculty of Social Sciences and Communications at St. Augustine University of Tanzania, 2011) African Communication Research
In the view of the authors in this issue of African Communication Research the media are expected to set the agenda for debating the national development goals. These authors assume that editorial and journalistic freedom is essential for such agenda setting. This presupposes that the media have the editorial capacity and leadership to set such an agenda—a very big “if” indeed. This also presupposes that there is the “vision”, “the will” and “the unity” in the civil society to push national political, economic and other forms of leadership toward goals such as those enunciated in the Millenium Development Goals. If the media would open a forum for coming to some form of consensus regarding national goals, would there be articulate leadership to point out clearly where the nation should go? And would this leadership be able to persuade or apply sufficient persuasive coercion to bring those controlling the political, economic and other sources of power to cooperate. In virtually all African countries a fundamental problem is the self-serving political leadership that places its own enrichment and the enrichment of their friends above the national welfare. Have the media been able to bring this political leadership to a sense of responsibility? There have been rare moments of unity and new vision in the civil society—the liberalization coalitions in the early 1990s, the occasional movements to throw off intolerable dictatorships, the outcry in the face of insane genocides. There have been rare moments when the political leadership has steered a nation toward consensus that there should be universal, free, high-quality primary and secondary education with easy access to technical or professional education—and that those with the resources should pay for it! Can we say that the media utilized the their freedom of expression to set the agenda to build this consensus?
Correlates of Mental Health Conditions and Prolonged Grief Disorder among Widows from Selected Churches in Nairobi County, Kenya
(Open Access Library Journal, 2024-06-30) Kyalo, Emily Mwikali; Mageto, Peter; Komen, Leah Jerop; Ojuade, Samuel O.
Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a chronic mental health condition that causes functional impairment in which about 45% - 50% of bereaved individuals adapt to the loss quickly, whereas the rest of this population prolong the symptoms of grief for more than a year after the loss of a loved one. PGD often co-exists with other mental disorders such as PTSD, depression, anxiety and many more. Objective: This study sought to investigate the correlates of depression, PTSD, and complicated grief among widows from selected churches in Nairobi County, Kenya. Methods: A total of 253 widows with age ranges from 30 to 80 years with a mean age of 45.3 ± (SD: 10.698) were recruited into the study. The tools for data collection were a researcher-generated social demographic questionnaire, Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire Revised (HTQ-5). Results: The results of Pearson correlation test indicated that there was a strong positive correlation between PGD and depressive disorder at 2-tailed significant level (r = 0.825, p = 0.001), between PGD and PTSD (r = 0.760; p = 0.001), between the participants’ years of marriage and PGD (r = 724; p = 0.001), between depressive disorder and PTSD (r= 0.619; p = 0.001). However, this study showed a negative correlation between the period of widowhood and depressive illness (r = −0.011; p = 0.05). Conclusion: This study concludes that while screening widows for PGD, clinicians may assess other comorbidities of PGD such as depression and PTSD early enough.
Doing Mobile Media and Communication scholarship in different keys: Sounding out structure and integration in the field
(Mobile Media & Communication, 2020) Campbell Scott W. & Komen Leah J.
An X-Bar Theoretic Account of Jenjo Noun Phrases
(Daystar University, 2020) Benson, Peace; Ayieko, Gerry
This paper gives a theoretic account of Jenjo noun phrase structure in an Xbar convention. The name ‘Jenjo’ is variously used to refer to the language and the ethnic group of the Jenjo people. Dza is the actual name but they are commonly known as Jenjo. Other names are Jen and Janjo. Jenjo is spoken in Taraba, Adamawa and Gombe States, North-east, Nigeria. In Taraba State, the speakers of Jenjo are found in Karim-Lamido, Lau, Jalingo, Ardo-Kola, Bali, and Ibi Local Government areas. The Jenjo people are also found in Numan and Lamurde Local Government area of Adamawa while in Gombe State, they are found in Balanga and Akko Local Government areas. In Language Ethnologue written by Paul, Simons, and Fennig (2015), Jenjo is classified as a Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, North, Adamawa-Ubangi, Adamawa, Waja-Jen, and Jen.

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