Illusions of Participation in Kenya’s Contemporary Television Broadcastscape

Abstract

Discourses on active and meaningful participation and inclusion in social and cultural spaces in Kenya are not just of significant scholarly and intellectual value, they are germane in the rebuilding and democratisation of a Kenyan nation-state in the post-2007 election violence that exposed deep and historical “ethnic” fragmentations. I argue that although several contemporary television broadcasters in Kenya continue to create a perception of increasing and robust audience participation in televised content, significant forms of current participation on Kenyan television broadcasts are illusionary and futile as they largely entrench television’s power among media elites. I propose that these forms of participation, which continue to marginalise ordinary people and gate-keep everyday events, are passive and minimalist. Anchoring my conceptual discourses on convergence culture and debates on self-representation, and through a critical textual analysis of prime-time television content sampled from four television broadcasters in Kenya, I conclude that the Kenyan television broadcastscape still extensively manifests traditional approaches of “old media.” Kenyan citizenry is afforded token and peripheral participation in contemporary television workflows in which content is still largely, and in many cases almost exclusively, conceived, shaped, distributed and controlled by media elites—bodies whom they consequently largely benefit.