MCK CELEBRATES WORLD RADIO DAY AND OTHER FORMS OF MASS MEDIA

By: Jane Beatrice Obila

As a way of celebrating the high level of professionalism in the media industry, the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) commemorated World Radio Day by giving the 2022 media performance report in Mombasa today.

A report released by MCK CEO, David Omwoyo shows that many people listen to radio stations during morning hours. 35% of the listenership prefers shows aired between 6-10 am and another 24% listen to this mass medium from 8 pm to midnight.

The majority of the percentage aforementioned has been attributed to the audience using radio apps in the Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) from work in the morning and evening hours respectively.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 13th February is set aside to celebrate radio broadcasts, improve international cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to create and provide access to information through radio, including community radios.

As a way of celebrating other legacy media in the country as well, the MCK disclosed that television and newspaper recorded increased usage in 2022 compared to radio further explaining that people aged between 18-24 years rely mostly on television, radio, and digital platforms such as Facebook for accessing information.

Newspapers, however, recorded low readership with a survey conducted revealing that seven out of ten people do not read it either physically or in digital version.

To show the percentage of those who do and don’t trust the media in every ten people surveyed, the MCK report has it that 69% either have trust issues or don’t trust the media at all. This is brought by concerns from some Kenyans that there is the spread of fake news, biases, and poor coverage of important issues as per the report.

Television, a legacy media that recorded increased usage with 80% of Kenya’s population subscribing and relying on it during the past electioneering period, however, has the highest trust issues (33%) in the country followed by radio at 32%.