THERE’S MORE TO WHAT WE WATCH

Memory biases:
 Photo Courtesy of Kmac

I don’t watch a lot of TV. I think the real world is way more interesting. I appreciate the role St Paul’s University has played in making it possible for me not to watch Tv especially News bulletin, another player I would like to congratulate is ‘the Thika Superhighway’ . I know most of us might be wondering why the above parties are so important to me. The former has scheduled its evening classes to end at 8.30pm and even if it ends earlier I can’t make it home before the 9.00pm bulletin. The latter despite it being one way traffic with more lanes it has decided to keep us on the road.

I’ll be honest, though—watching the news can be a real routine. It can make a person think everything is doom and gloom and that nothing good happens ever.I guess that’s good for ratings. But the sad truth is, throughout the world, every day something devastating is happening. A vehicle plunges into ocean, KDF exploded by improvised explosive, hate speech by politicians.

Why would the media want to communicate such destructive information , you may ask. The answer is, because our culture has no values; it's amoral. It doesn't care about us and it has no sense of social responsibility.

Today's media is concerned with only one thing, money, and it will do everything and sacrifice anything to achieve that end, including hurting the society it is meant to serve.

Some argue that the media  is just giving us what we want. But I don't recall any demonstrations outside of the television/radio studios demanding such content.

Sure, there’s a lot to be concerned about

I believe there are good things that can be reported and hence changing the perception of Kenya. Some people have even gone ahead to hate their country because of what they see on TVs. They tend to believe what they see a reality, but far from the truth there are good things that Kenyan can be informed about.

Don’t believe the people who tell you there’s no hope or everything is bad. Some of the media outlets have severe biases and it has reached a point where they dont even bother to pretend they dont.

Functions of the media such a education , inform and  analyze data for the public has been left unattended.  The public is need of information concerning disaster preparedness, disease control, Climate  change, stress management, Drug abuse management, wellness, new technology among others but what they get from the media are negative news and subjective reporting.

Next time you hear bad news, ask yourself how you can be make a good news out of it.