5 Steps for a Successful Transition from Journalism to Corporate Communications: My Personal Experience

It is such a powerful thing to be a journalist

When they say the pen is mightier than the sword, it may not be easily understood until you try picking up a career in journalism.

Let me try to explain it in plain language.

A soldier armed with a sword can maim, cut, or kill perhaps dozens in a battle.

But if you possess a pen, you can spread ideas to thousands or probably millions of people by opening their minds to new possibilities.

Sound amazing, right?

That is how influential scribes you see behind your TV screens or read their works in the newspapers ostensibly to get acquainted with the latest news updates.

The media inform, educate, entertain, and I add this: shape public perceptions and opinions, and many more.

Journalists will peddle a narrative that many will blindly take as the gospel truth.

As they are called members of the fourth estate, journalists occupy the fourth most influential position, behind Judiciary, Legislature, and Executive.

I was a journalist in my earlier career journey between 2012 and 2015, and I can attest that scribes are well respected.

Journalists rub shoulders with who is who in society, you have direct contact with nearly every news subject, including senior politicians, scientists, and other influential personalities.

Indeed, being a journalist is fun, but knowing how your work transforms lives is even more fulfilling.

To obtain news, journalists specialize in particular topics or subject areas such as courts, Parliament, crime units, and many more.

When I was a scribe, political stories were hot topics that any folk wishing to grab headlines would venture into such stories.

Reporting political news was like a ‘direct ticket’ to getting your piece of work published.

As a result, news platforms would be dominated by political stories, leaving the rest of the stories to compete for a few remaining spaces in the newspapers.

Besides politics, negative stories were equally in demand.

These are stories of suffering—calamities, violence, crime, and epidemics, to name a few.

That is why when I first landed a print journalism job in 2012, many of my colleagues we joined with picked politics as their preferred beat.

Today, some of them have become great political analysts, editors, and senior reporters.

As for me, I wanted to try something different—solution journalism—reporting about social problems and providing a way out.

Growing up in an informal settlement, I held a solid belief that people, more specifically those from poor backgrounds, lag in all aspects of life because they are disadvantaged.

And given opportunities coupled with a level playing field, such folks can thrive and create a lasting impact in society.

Today when you read newspapers or watch TV, you will realize that negative news still enjoys a fair share of coverage.

On the other hand, solution journalism is coming at the tail end—not given much preference.

After all, there were tones and tones of positive things happening around healthcare, education, innovation, infrastructure, etc.

Back in the newsroom, as politics and bad news were thriving, I was slowly getting my space in transformative news—stories that positively impact people's lives.

If you have worked in the newsroom, you will realize that such pieces of content were not easy to sell to a news editor.

But it is not entirely the fault of the media to bring bad news.

Some analysts argue that bad news gets higher ratings and sells more papers than good news.

By focusing on positive events, I wanted to provide an alternative to the gloom-and-doom news currently flooding our news outlets.

So, sometimes my articles saw the light of day (published), and sometimes they failed to make it into the papers.

But that did not dampen my spirits.

Some of my popular stories include:

A mother’s death costs the family dear - Kenyan study

Kenya tackles poverty by sending teen mothers back to school

Pneumonia vaccine shows promise in Kenya

Research needed to tackle maize lethal necrosis in East Africa

Later, I widened my scope to include health together with humanitarian issues.

And little by little, I found a niche in health stories that later landed me a job in the corporate communications field.

Today, I still use my journalistic skills to build a positive brand image by creating awareness alongside changing negative perceptions through storytelling.