How media feeds our obsession with politics

We are a strange, incurably political people. It is aided by our media.  The world is engaged in the Covid 19 battle. Across the globe, governments are daily briefing their citizens on their progress.

In the United States of America, the briefing battle has pitied the governor of New York against president Donald Trump.

Trump hates to be upstaged and particularly in the media and so was not going to take it from the governor. 

He has been giving marathon press briefings lasting over two hours each aimed to appeal to his base. But Trump can be forgiven because their elections are in November.

In the UK where Covid 19 temporarily took out the prime minister Boris Johnson, his stand-in Dominic Raab has been doing the duty, updating the British people on the progress made in the war against the virus.

But back home, while the virus matches on without let yet, one can almost cut through the impatience of our politicians to return to politics as normal.

The itch to get back on the trail where the music stopped is irresistible.

Over the last week, a national newspaper has led with stories on Jubilee Party politics. It seems the party warriors could not wait to go at each other. 

That opportunity came in the form of some changes in the party management structure. Political parties can make their changes as they deem fit without the matter consuming the entire society. But not in Kenya.

One section of the party went up in arms. Strong words were bandied around, and protests launched.

One would have thought that a coup at the national level was in effect. While the world’s attention is on the coronavirus, ours is trained on some nondescript officials being replaced.

The rains have caused havoc in some parts of the country. But the urgency with which the changing of the officials has been met makes the floods that have now killed more than a dozen people look like a child’s play.

If it was not for coronavirus and the ban on public gatherings, we probably might have been witnessing rallies throughout the country to condemn the furtive hand that has sneaked into Jubilee to spoil the party.

Kenya’s obsession with politics is not just a function of the politicians but actually of the media. It takes the media to amplify an event, to make the event count for something in the public estimation.

If the media were to ignore the event then it would almost be relegated to a footnote. It would not be a subject of discussion.

Why does the media focus so much on politics? Let me hazard guess. First is because political stories are easy to write. It is simply a question of one character accusing the other and vice versa.

Second is the corruption in the media. Covering politicians comes with its own exposure and opportunities for rent seeking.

Third reason could be laziness. A phone call would easily generate a story. But further consideration could be related to the emotive nature of Kenyan politics, although this may have been driven by media in the first place.

There is a perception in Kenya that politics sells. But that needs to be empirically tested particularly at a time such as this.

When all that the media provide is politics, the public is left with no choice and the self-fulfilling prophecy holds.

Coronavirus gives us an opportunity in the Kenyan media to change course. It is not that we should ignore politics altogether but to acknowledge that there is more to life than politics. — The writer is the dean, School of Communication, Daystar University