With the new technology today, journalism has slipped from the hands of professionally trained journalists to untrained individuals masquerading as journalists, who have tainted the image of journalism severely.
When you scroll through your Facebook account, Twitter account, YouTube channel, or Google plus just to name a few your eyes are confronted by some shocking posts, images, and videos that are annoying and irritating. Some have gone to the extent of owning blogs they use to unleash their unprofessional content. I wonder what media house can post viral content carelessly.
As if it is now a norm, many people find it normal to post nude images or images with sexual appeal. At the end of the day, the blame goes back to media and related authorities, as people question the ethical consideration of some of this content.
Each one of us either black or white is familiar with traditions that give us our identity. We must fight to defend these traditions at all times. Furthermore, we also hail from different religious affiliations but do we preach the same gospel that our pastors, priest, imams and reverends teach us. We tend to forget that it is everyone’s social responsibility to know what to post and what not to post. Charity begins at home and what you disown right away from home should be similar to what you avoid and disown on social media.
Cheap publicity has also been the new, emerging issue that every Facebook account and Twitter handle owner wants to do. They want to be the Rihanna or Madonna in their own village or institution. How many people spend the rest of their day posting anything on social media in hope of gaining popularity? How many people have engaged in political extremism, to the point that they are ready to die as sycophants as a result of political divides? By doing this we go against what media ethics entail. That is why some have landed behind bars for posting hate speech content.
In Kenya, social media has initially been thought to be a unifying factor. However, what we see on social media platforms is shocking. The level of ethnicity we spew on social media is so rampant. Ethnocentrism has taken centre stage as some tribes brand themselves as ‘superior’ while others are despised as being inferior. This may plunge this country in yet another ethnic clash that may are so detrimental to our economy.
We should cease from shouldering trained journalists with the burden of embracing responsible journalism forgetting that as citizens, we have a vital role to play. Let’s be the change we have always wanted to be.