Kenya
Year: 2024
Type: other
Abstract: Over its history, Kenya's media has been described as vibrant, plural, diverse, and dominant, at least in the East and Central African region. Kenya's media landscape is multifaceted, extending across print, broadcast, and digital media. These operate under a blend of liberal, authoritarian, and communitarian ideologies. Beyond liberalism and authoritarianism, elements of communitarianism are also present to a degree in Kenya's media landscape. This chapter discusses the status of Kenya's media, its strengths, challenges, and future outlook. Largely fueled by ethnicized politics, elections in Kenya have become synonymous with political incitement, hate speech, rigging accusations, all culminating in pre- and postelection violence. Political ownership of the media continues to pose a major challenge to the professional development of the Kenyan media landscape. Besides, political manipulation and intimidation against any media organization that politicians perceive as oppositional continues to be a major threat to the freedom of the press.
Authors: Joy Kibarabara, David Cheruiyot
Institutions: Stockholm University, University of Groningen
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4401806975