Zeitschrift für Massenkommunikation und Journalismus

Effectiveness of ICT Education in Schools of Journalism in Kenya

Abstract

Tom Kwanya

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the face of modern journalism. The new tools have great potential in facilitating fast, cost-effective and targeted journalism than the traditional media before them. However, this potential cannot be realized fully if the journalists lack the requisite skills to exploit it. Most schools of journalism have recognized the need to equip their graduates with adequate ICT skills and are already offering regular ICT programmes not only at the undergraduate but also at the graduate levels. Further, there are also a number of online courses and on-the-job training models organized by media houses or journalists’ professional associations. In Kenya, however, schools of journalism seemed stuck in time and continued to focus largely on offline journalism. But recently in an attempt to catch-up, these schools have now introduced a number of ICT courses. Using the survey technique this study investigated how effective these ICT courses are. The findings reveal that the courses are not effective.