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News agencys vs Blogs (Kenya issue)

Posted by Timothy | Filed under Uncategorized

I have been following the situation in Kenya fairly closely as it is where I live or have lived.

The situation was and or is that there was a huge political dispute over the 27th of December 2007 General Election. The basis of the unrest was that the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was accused of rigging the election resulting him retaining the post as president. Hon Raila Odinga was the main opposition and all though his campaign was saying that rigging was in process and when he finally lost he maintained his line saying that it was rigged in favor of President Kibaki. This resulted in a sever rioting and looting. Inter ethnic clashes found the Kikuyu tribe targeted as this was the tribe of President Kibaki. As a result of the rioting the police and army, who were instructed to cull any form of political protest, used unnecessary force resulting in numerous deaths, mainly the protectors.

So what i want to compare is the “reputable” international news agency Reuters reporting on the matter. Against Hon Raila Odinga’s personal blog.

The Reuters article. www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0269316120080103?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

Hon Raila Odingas Blog
www.cemp.ac.uk/communities/interactivemedia/forum/posting.php?mode=editpost&p=3877

What i did was take a posting on the 3rd of January from the blog as well as a a news report on the 3rd as well. This was to just try and make sure that they were both nearly in the same time frame.

The blog states “Sorry for being away for sometime as you all know our country is slowly going to the dogs just because of a few individuals who manipulated election results at ECK to protect a group of individuals not ready to relingiush power.”

This is clearly a very opinionated personal thought of Hon Odinga. It is very shrewd and understandbly bias.

The Reuters report… “Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki offered on Thursday to talk to his political rivals.
“I am ready to have dialogue with the concerned parties once the nation is calm,” Kibaki said.”

The blog is very concise and to the point and states that Hon Odinga has been cheated. Although this may be slightly drifting from the point but it is interesting if you go on to read some of the comments made by the supporter it is almost in reaction to the Reuters article

“Power sharing: Forget that. How can we have a government of national unity? Who will be the opposition then? How can we share a table with thieves?”(COMMENT BY OTIENO)
VS
“U.S. President George W. Bush urged Kenyans to refrain from further violence and called on Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to “come together” to resolve the dispute.” (REUTERS ARTICLE)

A re-tallying of the votes is no longer possible. Michuki has made sure he’s destroyed the evidence at ECK offices. (COMMENT BY OTIENO)
VS
“Attorney General Amos Wako said both sides should agree on an independent person or body to carry out “a proper tally” of votes from the election.” (REUTERS ARTICLE)

So what i am trying to compare here is how Reuters has to be very diplomatic in there reporting showing much more of a factual report and concise report that doesn’t seem to side with either party. In contrast with the Blog, how it is completely biased towards the Hon Odinga Party. Even the coments that people were making on it were extremely blatant.

I think this shows, though obvious, Reuters have to report on the situation showing more informative “reputable” views.

Not meaning to generalise here but Blogs do tend to be less diplomatic and show true oppinions of “the people”. They are not censored and regulated by Corporate standards.

People try and say that they prefer certain types of News media but I would argue they are independent of each other and cant be compared, they are in fact their own separate entities.
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Comments (0) | January 22nd, 2008