Media owners and news managers should allow journalists to specialise in reporting, a UoN academician has advised.
This will help them grow from general news reporting, George Nyabuga, a senior lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication said.
"We have seen serious gaps in reporting on serious matters that affect human life. Young journalists in newsrooms today can report on almost
anything. This has left majority of them as above average journalists," Nyabuga said.
The professor spoke at
Strathmore University in Nairobi on Wednesday, during a forum on the role of the media in enhancing public interest in global affairs.
The meeting was
organised by the Centre for International and Security Affairs.
Nyabuga, who was once a Managing Editor at Standard Group, noted the need for media houses to develop programmes that will help journalists specialise.
The curriculum in learning institutions can be revised so the programme is offered at the post-graduate level, he said.
"We initially had such a system but the demand for journalism as an undergraduate programme left most of our universities with no option but to offer substandard courses," he said.
"The programmes are not meeting the requirement due to lack of monetaryresources to run them. This has left many journalists half-baked."
His sentiments were echoed by United Nations Information Centre Deputy Director Newton Kanhema, who asked media houses to facilitate their journalists' searches for stories.
Kanhema said many are struggling with this and that compromised quality is the result.
"It is worth noting that every time you are facilitated, the facilitator automatically owns you so the independence of your reporting remains a fallacy."
Kanhema further said normal newsroom cultures give a story prominence in terms of placement so PR managers have learned how to advance their agenda.
"It is common knowledge that even our consumers have given up on the content we give them. Newsrooms have remained commercial entities that are not meeting their needs," he said.