Time to Shun Mediocrity and Uphold Professionalism in Media and PR

The media is the mirror of the society. What you see in the media reflects the views and behavior of the average population of a given community. If you truly want to understand a people, take time and scan the media spaces, they will give you the realest characteristics.

I have wanted to write about this topic for quite some time now. But each time I put pen to paper, something beckoned me otherwise. Until now! I have one Victor Kinuthia to thank for this dismal victory.

Of all the comments from all and sundry on our friend Kinuthia, I particularly liked this one from Cynthia Nyamai… who better than her to speak about journalism: “Reporting Live is not easy! Butterflies, action all around you, your mouth goes dry, news director in your ears then you remember your mother plus all your enemies are watching!”

This in a way summarizes all the KOT comments online. Understandably, majority of Kenyans stood behind the star reporter and urged him on for as Alexander Pope rightly puts it, “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”

And yet, nothing was new about his miserable, amateurish journalistic attempt. It was such a performance but only good for the comics and not worthy of prime-time appearance.

We were quick to accept it and move on because we see it every day, we have been accustomed to accommodating lethargic and inordinately self-entitled talent at the expense of professionalism.

As a public speaker, the most valuable feedback you will ever receive are the negative ones or what others refer to as positive criticism. Your biggest detractors on the other hand are those who lie to you that you are doing just fine.

Frankly speaking, we deserve better! As a society, it is time we started demanding better from ourselves, our leaders, service providers and from all professionals. It is only through this that we will be able to move our nation to the next level.

As a public speaker, the most valuable feedback you will ever receive are the negative ones or what others refer to as positive criticism. Your biggest detractors on the other hand are those who lie to you that you are doing just fine.

Intensive training for journalists

Back to our anchor story. Any journalist out there – even students – will agree with me that before one can be awarded a journalism or communications certificate, he or she must have gone through hell and back – literally.

The training is intensive and conducted under some of the most unfriendly environments.

Many colleges and universities offering journalism and communication courses are measly equipped with many students having to share one camera for examinable practical lessons. In the end one is expected to produce a documentary, news feature, newsletter, magazine, among others… how you do it is up to you!

Any student who performs poorly is given another chance to do the unit all over again. Another semester of jostling for equipment and juggling between lecture halls and the studio.

There is absolutely no way you will go through this and come out green, you will have to be in a class of your own to achieve such an accomplishment!

Industrial Attachment

But for argument’s sake, let us suppose that some students go through college and manage to sneak out raw, thanks to mwakenya and other exogenous factors like sexually transmitted degrees. Out here, another intensive program called attachment awaits them!

I remember back then on internship at the Kenya News Agency, working under the tutelage of the late Joseph Olewe Owiti, we were expected to publish one news story every single day and do at least one feature story every week.

If for some reason the university did a sloppy job with you, this process would certainly unclog your system and not only give you a strong nose for news but also nurture the journalist in you to constantly seek perfection.

Jobless Graduates

Naturally, after going through such a rigorous training and graduate with flying colors, one would be forgiven to expect that he or she should be given a job, a well-paying one at that, soon after graduation. Shock on you! There are many qualified youth in Kenya today with degrees to even masters level but are jobless despite spirited attempts to apply for jobs.

I remember an experience I had with Jeff Koinange when job-hunting. At that time, he had just moved back into the country and partnered with Rose Kimotho to launch K24 TV.

Those words still ring in my mind like it was yesterday. In his deep baritone he told me: “Go get some experience my friend.” I wanted to ask him ‘where’, but I ran out of credit and the line got disconnected. I was thankful that he was courteous enough to at least return my call. Not many get to be that lucky!

Millions of other Kenyans today put in applications for jobs and get no responses; call but nobody answers; walk from office to office until their soles give in, inquiring about vacancies with little or no avail.

Frankly, with this in mind, it is criminal to be mediocre at what you do and more so when you get an opportunity to be on screen at prime-time.

I neither know Victor personally nor how long he’s been on the news-beat or how he got there in the first place, but what I do know is that he had no reason at all to perform the way he did. He should try and pick lessons from one reporter I know in Kisumu. Any time NTV carries a good story from the Western region, it will be by Ouko Okusa. He is a one-man production crew!

Okusa started out as a cameraman, worked his way up pulling himself up by his own bootstrap to become the household name that he is today.

At that time when he was transitioning from a cameraman to the screens, we watched and laughed at him as he placed his camera on a tripod stand and once he was sure he had a good shot, he would dash to the other end, with a microphone in one hand and take the story away.

Okusa hardly speaks Swahili but when called upon to do the seven o’clock news, he would show up in fluent Swahili. So, for one to blame a poor performance on the language used, is inexcusable, abominable even. Accepting this is settling for average!

Before one is allowed to practice journalism in Kenya, over and above the university degree, one must be certified or accredited by the media council of Kenya.

Can you imagine having a quack doctor undertaking a brain surgery? Would you be comfortable with a novice engineer being given a superhighway to build or a sloppy pilot as captain of a passenger Airbus flying overseas?

If we cannot take mediocrity in other professional disciplines, why should we be too quick to allow it in the media and communications industry?

Can you imagine having a quack doctor undertaking a brain surgery? Would you be comfortable with a novice engineer being given a superhighway to build or a sloppy pilot as captain of a passenger Airbus flying overseas?

We must speak up and demand for excellence. We have permitted mediocrity to rule our streets so much so that people who can neither compose a song nor possess a voice to sing, become superstars with poorly produced music getting airplay, stealing the thunder from struggling artists of virtuoso calibre. One day I will write about this!

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