Fix mindset, save journalism

Statistics and various research findings continue to show that media and journalism, in general, is facing challenges. This is attributed to the changing habits in news consumption and the emergence of various digital technologies that have completely disrupted a hitherto very lucrative career.

This decline in employment opportunities has seen many journalists move to the corporate communications sector, including consultancies. Now the sector appears saturated, based on the number of those applying for advertised communication-related vacancies.

So, which way journalists? Should media schools stop training for these very important courses and programmes? My answer is “No”. Rather, what is required is a mindshift: The ability and will to look out for ways through which journalists can transition and make money from the various niche sources.

Take, for instance, data storytelling. If a journalist refocuses their efforts into this area of data storytelling, it would be a game changer in the way stories are told. A lot of data collected by the various researchers often ends up on the shelves, unreported. This is because there is nobody to break it down and to communicate it to the public. Data also informs patterns— be it in the economic, health, education and, basically all spheres of our life.

Another area is venturing into a start-up. This can be informed by using the Lean Canvas Business Model, which is very helpful in identifying those niche areas that are yet to be tapped onto. Take, for instance, an AI content verification start-up where the journalist can team up with media schools, NGOs, the government and other companies. With the emergence of so much fake AI generated news, fake audio clips, fake social media accounts and bots, as well as deepfakes, coming up with a tool that can detect these malpractices would be very beneficial to very many news consumers and companies.

Their skills in source evaluation, fact-checking, evidence gathering and ethical reporting can be transformed into a scalable business, hence benefitting a wide range of companies, financial institutions, the education sector, NGOs and so on.

This is a call to action for journalists in East Africa and across the globe, now afraid and uncertain of the future. I dare say the future is very bright--if only we leveraged the many niches available around us.

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Ms Njoki is the technical operations manager and co-facilitator at the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media & Communications, Master of Arts in Digital Journalism Programme.