MCK urges Journalists to focus on human centered stories » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 12 – The Media Society of Kenya(MCK) has continued to push journalists to focus on human centered story reporting in their daily coverage in order to bring attention to critical issues affecting Kenyans.
During a media training engagement forum held on Wednesday at Aga Khan University ahead of the World Radio Day 2025,the Council Chief Executive Officer(CEO)David Omwoyo emphasized that humanizing stories is crucial in journalism reporting.
The Council engagement forum focused on training journalists on climate change reporting.
“Let us prioritize humanizing our news stories because it is important.Nobody cares about the story unless the story tell us how climate change has impacted people lives,” he said.
Echoing his sentiments MCK Director for Media Training and Development, Victor Bwire noted that most journalists have been focussing on data journalism alone ignoring the human element.
“There is a lot of too much data based journalism to a level where the voice of the people is missing in stories.We don’t want to loose touch with the people,” he said.
Bwire stated that journalists struggle to report efficiently on climate change due to lack and limited training.
He encouraged news reporters to turn away from conflict reporting and prioritize solution based journalism particularly on climate change related stories.
“Many editors perceive climate change as just international story thus they don’t prioritize climate change stories.Let us focus on more local reporting instead of using stories from Western Media agencies,” he stated.
Bwire highlighted the need to advocate for development journalism that focusses on the social and economic progress of the country in order to promote positive change in the society.
The Media Council of Kenya(MCK) conducts specialized and tailor-made trainings for media practitioners as well as journalists in various areas including health,business,governance,elections,public affairs,climate and environmental reporting.
These initiatives reflect MCK’s commitment to fostering a media environment that prioritizes human-centered reporting, aiming to inform, inspire, and drive positive societal change.