The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) has announced plans to include faith-based media houses in its State of the Media Report.
MCK in a Thursday, May 16 statement expressed concern over the lack of participation of the media houses in the recently launched State of Media Report 2023.
The authority noted that they had left out faith-based media houses while developing the survey tool, possibly locking them out of the report.
As such, MCK Manager for Research Planning and Strategy Leo Mutisya affirmed the Council’s support to work with faith-based media houses to develop a survey tool that will specifically address concerns about their performance.
“The importance of an annual review of the performance and the general public opinion of the media is very crucial in fulfilling the Council’s mandate,” he noted.
“We realized that we had left out faith-based media houses in developing the survey tool. It is therefore important to work together to bridge this gap.”
Family Media Chief Operations Officer Amber Slingerland also reiterated the inclusion of faith-based media houses when developing the parameters for the next State of the Media report while also leveraging their existence to gauge their performance against commercial media houses.
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“TBN Family Media has been in existence for 25 years and has grown to be the largest independent Christian Media house in Africa,” she stated.
“As a trailblazing media station in Kenya, we appeal to the Council to incorporate the opinions of other faith-based media houses in the survey tool for the report. This will create equality in a competitive market.”
Leo Mutisya on the Monitoring Role of MCK
Mutisya while meeting with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) Family Media espoused the role of the media monitoring aspect of the Council in conducting media research saying that it enables it to generate reports on content shared in varied media platforms.
He further noted that the department is also mandated to carry out yearly research to review media performance in the country.
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“Research is a major component of the Council when reviewing the performance of the media. We take pride in employing it to develop our annual, daily, and weekly reports based on content shared by media houses. This also builds into our weekly observer publication,” he said.
Likewise, Family Media Chief Operations Officer Amber Slingerland lauded the Council for its role in addressing media sector challenges and enhancing compliance among media houses in the country.
“The Council has played an upfront role in championing concerns affecting the media in the country. It has created room for partnerships, collaborations, networking, and innovation among peers in the industry,” she expressed.
