Making Money: 8 Issues Kenyans Want TV Stations To Cover- Report

A report by the Aga Khan University on Monday, May 29 put pressure on media houses in Kenya by highlighting issues that Kenyans, particularly the youth, want them to cover.

The report obtained by Viral Tea emanated from a study on media consumption by millennials and digital natives titled Media Consumption In An Evolving Digital World: Millennials And Digital Natives’ Consumption Habits And Implications For Legacy Media In East Africa which dealt with Kenyan Millennials and Gen Zs who are relatively highly educated and more than 50 per cent have college and university education.

Among the issues highlighted, the top three mentions showed Kenyans' desire for content that revolves around making money as well as saving money and the need to be financially able to live on their own, amidst the high cost of living in the country.

"The top three mentions by the respondents indicate that 61% would want the media to cover more content on making money, 56% want content on how to become financially independent, while 37% would desire content on saving money and the needs of their families and friends," stated the report in part.

How to save money in Kenya. /FILE

Other issues covered include content on buying a house, being fulfilled, having new experiences, stability in education and others which took up one per cent.

Additionally, most of the respondents (46 per cent) indicated that their top career aspiration is to get a good job/dream job within the country and to make money (45 per cent).

Other top aspirations include venturing into entrepreneurship or starting your own business (39 per cent), pursuing further studies (33 per cent) and getting a good job/dream job abroad (26 per cent).

"The above findings suggest that given their aspirations, it does seem that millennials and Gen Zs natives perceive the media as very critical in helping them achieve their aspirations. This is underscored by the fact that their aspirations of getting dream jobs in the country, making money and venturing into business would be enhanced by the kind of content they have predominantly mentioned as the content they would need the media to cover," added the report.

The study also sought to establish the content that young Kenyans consume (format and tone), their motivation for content choices and content type preferences.

The findings indicate that the top three types of content that the younger generation in Kenya consume are entertainment, celebrity news/gossip and profiles; general current affairs and political news content, with the youth preferring content presented in visual/video/pictorial formats and that is interesting, attractive, available, and reliable.

Television was found to be the top platform relied on for general information with 76 per cent of the millennials and Gen Zs indicating that they rely on TV stations for general information, followed by social media (74 per cent) and radio stations (55 per cent). 

Newspapers (19 per cent), websites of the news media organisations (18 per cent) and digital native media houses were however revealed to be not popularly relied on by the millennials and Gen Zs, with the findings further painting a grim picture for newspapers, despite the 19 per cent reading physical copies of the newspapers.

"However, it does appear that the millennials and Gen Zs read offline newspapers, and the encouraging sign is that only 49% of the respondents indicated that they do not read any of the newspaper brands," added the report.

Newspapers, just like TV and radio, were found to be attractive to millennials and Gen Zs because they find the news credible and reliable (46 per cent), educative and entertaining content (42 per cent) and important for providing updates on current affairs (35 per cent).

The other elements that make newspaper brands and their news attractive to millennials and Gen Zs are the competent and professional journalists (29 per cent) and the element of news content that is simple and easy to understand (28 per cent).

A collage of Kenyans watching TV and newspapers on sale. /VIRALTEAKE