Media Training and Journalism Competence in Kenya: Perspectives from Standard Group Media Senior Managers

Abstract

The performance of the mainstream media in Kenya is closely blamed on its relationship with the level of journalism training. Studies demonstrate that appropriate training provides journalists with the knowledge and skills to write accurate, fair, balanced and impartial stories (Mbeke, 2010).  This study's main objective was to understand whether media training has been sufficient for the competence of journalists who work at the Standard Group.  A qualitative approach was applied and an intrinsic case study method employed. The tool for data collection was the semi structured questionnaire was administered to senior managers of the standard group who were interviewed until data saturation was reached. Additionally, the data collected were subjected to thematic analysis. The findings indicated that media training in Kenyan schools is inadequate. To this effect, media schools are churning out graduates that cannot perform in the industry once employed. According to respondents, Kenyan new recruits are not competently trained. These findings are in line with a research conducted by Ireri, (2017) on mass communication training in Kenya, which indicated that 91% of the study's respondents wanted extra training. The argument was that this could be due to the lack of qualified teachers which is likely to create a feeling among Kenyan journalists that they need further training.