Style Employed in the Presentation of Environmental News in Taifa Leo Newspaper, Kenya.

Abstract

Kiswahili is the national language of Kenya and the official language alongside English. Therefore, it is expected that most Kenyans have the ability to interact in both official and non official contexts using the Kiswahili language. One of the platforms that allows people to interact and gather information about what is happening in the world is print media, for example, newspapers. The Kenyan Taifa Leo newspaper is published every day with the aim of providing various types of news to the public. This newspaper presents environmental information, among other news, to the audience in the Kiswahili language. The environment is a pertinent issue both nationally and internationally. This is because it affects the life of every creature on a daily basis in one way or another. So, the information people know about their environment determines how they interact with it. In providing environmental information to their audience, journalists organize it according to their types, importance and sometimes the urgency of the news. To achieve this, they employ different styles, which involve the strategic selection of both linguistic and paralinguistic features with the aim of making the reader understand the intended message precisely and easily. This argument stems from the belief that readers understand information depending on how it is presented to them. Therefore, this paper focuses on the examination and analysis of the styles applied by journalists in the Taifa Leo newspaper of Kenya to convey environmental news.