MCK Report Exposes Kenyans Who Don't Care About Media

A Media Council of Kenya (MCK) report released on Monday, February 13 unveiled a new finding with regard to concerns expressed by Kenyans regarding the media in 2022.

The latest State of Media Report revealed that there are some Kenyans who have no concern about the media, a matter which was highlighted among the four main topics of concern.

According to the report, 13 per cent of Kenyans felt nothing about the media in 2022, stating that they simply just don't like the country's media coverage or anything to do with the media at all.

The category was fourth, a percentage behind the 14 per cent of Kenyans who revealed that the media had poor coverage of important issues, 20 per cent accusing the media of bias and 24 per cent of Kenyans believing that they are concerned about the media because of the spread of fake news, especially during the August 2022 election period.

Others noted a lack of diversity in coverage, frequency of adverts, lack of freedom of expression and strict regulations by the government, among others.

On the bright side, 26 per cent of Kenyans indicated that their trusted media organisation reported important issues whereas 16 per cent cited that they report local news or news about local people.

"Further, 14% of the respondents indicated that they trust the media organisation they rely on since they are well known in terms of reporting news for long whereas 12% highlighted that their trust was triggered by the presence of breaking/current news," read the report in part.

Additionally, a majority of Kenyans celebrate the media due to the freedom of media, quick dissemination of information, high level of technology used as well as  diversification of platforms for accessing information, such as social media

Also included is a level of professionalism in the media, even though a section of Kenyans had nothing to celebrate about the media.

Despite the era of digital disruption, television (33%) and radio (33%) have consistently outperformed other platforms to stand out as the main media platforms, followed by social media (18%), family/friends/colleagues (6%), and newspapers (6%). This was a significant increase from 58% in 2021 and can be attributed to the election season and the accessibility of online platforms such as YouTube.

Overall, legacy media platforms such as television (80%) and newspapers (29%) recorded increased usage in 2022 from 2019, whereas radio has recorded a decline in performance reducing by 6% points from 84% in 2019 to 78% in 2022.