Victor Bwire./FILE
It’s no longer an emerging issue in journalistic practice; technology has tremendously changed, for good and worse newsroom operations, especially on media production, dissemination, reception and consumption.
Traditional media content production and consumption have moved on, and both players and consumers have had to adapt to changing trends by mainstreaming technologies in their daily schedules.
It’s a dual approach and both news producers and consumers are competing with creativity and innovation especially adoption of digital technologies, particularly mobile phones and wireless Internet as instruments through which they can quickly collect, package, and disseminate information. Granted, the demands of the marketplace, including immediacy and instantaneity, means that sometimes media houses hardly take time to refine information to offer audiences better packaged journalism. Nevertheless, consumers now can resist the culture where news is solely treated as a product for sale rather than public good.
Conservative thinkers in the media sectors in Kenya holding onto arguments that innovations are often messy and risky particularly at the infant stages (job losses, streamlining operations etc.), are looking at very heavy business loses, for its dangerous to continue to ignore digital technology in the media ecosystem given the changing trends and effects on both media productions and content consumption.
And we must be alive to the fact that the impact of technology on media in Kenya is not homogeneous but rather depend on how quick, effective and creative guys use them. Quality of use rather than mere access determines the efficacy and effects as well as any benefits accruing from such utilization. Similarly, it is obvious that audience’s consumption of, and interactions with media has been enriched because of technology. Audiencias can consume and produce content (user generated content, and now they are aptly referred to as prosumers) and sometimes inform
A study by the Media Council of Kenya released in January 2026; Navigating the Digital Reality: Monetization Challenges and Opportunities for Kenyan Media in the Digital Economyhas established that, digital technologies have fundamentally reshaped media production, distribution, and business models worldwide, producing both opportunities—such as cost efficiencies, larger audience reach, and new revenue streams—and threats, including declining legacy advertising and platform dependencies. It further noted that newsrooms in Kenya, both offline and digital, have innovated new approaches to monetize their content, including programmatic advertising, sponsored or native content, branded partnerships, subscription and paywall experiments, mobile payment or donation models, affiliate marketing, and events.
While many pundits doubted that audiences in Kenya, can pay for content, as media especially print introduced paywalls and subscription models, the MCK study indicated that audience willingness to pay is conditional: users are more willing to pay for exclusive, high-quality, informative or specialist content—such as investigative reporting, niche analysis, educational material—and for ad-free experiences. However, price sensitivity remains high, and free substitutes are widely available.
On digital platforms used to access news or entertainment content, over 50% of Kenyans participating in the study used social media (Facebook, X/twitter, TikTok, Instagram), and streaming platforms (Netflix, Showmax, Spotify, YouTube), in that order as news websites, radio and television play the chase game. Interestingly, entertainment content leads the park on what audiences want from media platforms while the reason people are flocking the various news platforms range from real-time updates, credibility of sources, personalized recommendations, how much media outlets adopt feedback by way of user-generated content to access the content and business-related content.
News access is now from digital appliances led by smartphones, smart TVs, laptops, radios, desktop computers and tablets. The overwhelming use of smartphones to access digital media indicates a strong mobile-first consumption pattern among consumers.
New revenue streams include online advertisements, sponsored posts, subscription or paywall models to mobile payments and philanthropy/ donations. Audiences are very much and happy to pay for quality and professional content, especially the specialized thematic ones, done well and rich in clean information, starting entertainment content (music and movies), followed by news and analysis, educational content, podcasts or documentaries, business content, sports content and religious content (.
It appears that the adage in media today, “While professionalism is King, Content is Queen,” holds, as consumers indicated that their motivation for consuming content was quality, exclusive access, support for creators, preference for an ad-free experience.
Technology in the media space is here with us and embracing it is the least we can do. A continental strategy to deal with media regulation and content moderation, which by extension requires a continental approach to the governance of digital platforms, is urgently required. The Africa market for digital content required by the platform providers is so fragmented that engaging to benefit our citizens is almost impossible.
Regulators in the media and communication space from the continent must quickly realise that a continental approach is required, and the faster they advise their governments, on such approach, which should consider co regulation model, allowing governments, regulators, academics, civil society, religious groups, and tech experts are required in this endeavor.
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