• The most trusted source of information is television across all demographics analysed with respondents aged 25-34 years having the highest of 45 per cent.
• The survey indicates that the state of data journalism in Kenya can improve as evidenced by the coverage of the Covid19 pandemic.
Image: FILE
The Kenya Media Assessment 2021 survey conducted by GeoPoll Internews survey has revealed that the majority of Kenyan have come across fake news.
The majority of the respondents (79 per cent) said that they received questionable or fake news sometimes with a very low percentage reporting having never received fake news.
From the outcome of the survey released on Monday, about 64 per cent of the respondents do not completely trust the news and information they get from the media.
Part of the distrust from the survey is fueled by the emergence of the fake news phenomena, partly driven by technology.
Between August and October 2017, during the General Election, there was a notable rise in fake news and hate speech through the media, something that continues to date.
Hate speech and fake news have remained features in Kenya’s media; resulting in stringent self-censorship by many media houses and individuals, and resulting in harsher government scrutiny of media outputs.
According to Safaricom, one of the largest mobile service providers with more than 26 million subscribers, the biggest challenge they faced in 2017 was the sheer volume of fake news moving through their servers.
Despite the outfits that have been set up to fight fake news, it still remains a key concern as the 2022 general election looms.
From the survey, digital migration opened up broadcast space for other players who had until then found the cost of distributing TV content to be prohibitive.
“Post-2015, all they had to be concerned with were costs associated with content production; different entities would do the (signal) distribution thereof, at a modest fee. This resulted in more TV stations, some broadcasting in vernacular, which is a good thing.”
The most trusted source of information is television across all demographics analysed with respondents aged 25-34 years having the highest of 45 per cent followed by those aged 18-24 years while the radio is at 23 per cent, mostly followed by those aged 35-44 years.
Kenya’s radio environment has been described as extremely competitive and competition for audiences (and revenue).
Radio’s space as the main source of news and information has been taken over by social media.
Although there is a substantial concentration of radio stations in urban areas, there is significant reach in rural areas through 54 private vernacular radio stations broadcasting in 19 different languages.
About 35 per cent of the respondents preferred social media and the internet as the main source of information.
Most of the social media and internet users being male whereas female respondents spent the most time on television. The younger age groups (18-34 years) are more into social media and the internet whereas the older respondents aged 35 years and above preferred radio.
Also, the survey indicates that the state of data journalism in Kenya can improve as evidenced by the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic during which coverage has largely been focused on reeling out Ministry of Health statistics without much contextualisation.