How skewed media coverage negatively impacts on society

Let me begin this communication by reproducing a passage from a Grade Two book (later withdrawn) in the new curriculum;

I saw a helicopter / It was flying low / It was flying just above the trees / “Our leader! Our leader!” we shouted / It was our Member of Parliament / He travels in a plane. It belongs to him / Three big cars arrived in our compound / They, too, belonged to him / He came out and greeted us / His wife waved at us. She had golden rings in her hand.

This passage indoctrinates three lessons in children.

Lesson One: Mindless sycophancy. The chants of “Our leader!” are eerie echoes of “Nyayo!” of the 1980s.

Lesson Two: An MP, not a doctor or athlete, is the embodiment of success.

Lesson Three: Owning helicopters, limousines and gold rings are the hallmarks of success. By this definition, the Mother Theresas or Wangari Maathais of this world are failures.

What has all this got to do with media or the mandate of the Media Council of Kenya? Everything. By determining the source and subject of news, as well as the space, prominence and frequency given to particular views, the media not only determines the nature and agenda of national politics, but also, more insidiously, the content of national culture.

How had the writer of the children’s book come to idolise politicians? What led to a culture that viewed obscene display of wealth and sycophantic behaviour as virtues which children should aspire to possess? Where did the writer get the idea that the man owns the assets and the wife’s role is to look beautiful, and, therefore, a young girl’s ambition should, by inference, be to marry a rich man?

Since 2002, politicians have become the sources and subjects of most of our news. Their interviews and press conferences make headline news. During these interactions, the journalists grovel, asking polite questions, their every sentence punctuated with Sir, Your Excellency, Mheshimiwa. One is in constant fear they will prostrate themselves next, crying out, “Your holiness!”

Pronouncements of politicians at funerals are covered dutifully. Today, a scoop means a photograph or footage of a politician disembarking from a helicopter or lifting off, leaving impoverished villagers in reverential awe.

TV panellists feature professors or lawyers analysing the ethnic mobilisation tactics of this or that presidential candidate. Often, the panellists are politicians themselves, cleverly pushing the agendas of their tribal groupings. News bites, relayed in between news broadcasts, exclusively feature a politician’s sagacity. There are intermittent biographical snippets of politicians on TV, as if we are political diabetics needing a bit of political sugar before the main meal of political news. On some vernacular TV stations, journalists abandon their mediatory role and literally cede the microphone to politicians to brainwash viewers for hours on end.

There is nothing wrong with giving politicians prominent coverage. The problem is when their views are given coverage to the exclusion of other voices or visions, precisely because society is denied the benefits of alternative world views.  

The death of a global thought leader like Binyavanga Wainaina gets only passing coverage in mainstream media. By contrast, when a politician dies, even one who opposed enhancement of rights or stole from us, the media and the political class choreograph a national hysteria. We have blacked out alternative visions, competing values, other modes of behaviour, other examples of conducting debates, other models of success. We have given politicians carte blanche to define our politics, set national priorities, and shape our cultural values.

Who is to blame for the skewed media coverage? Is it editorial policy or the training of journalists? Do politicians own shares in media houses and, if so, what is the extent of their influence on editorial policy? The introductory passage reflects the cultural decrepitude of a society fed on a distorted vision of itself. The consequences are everywhere around us — poverty, corruption, tribalism, sexism, etc.