Passion for community development, youth agenda, and good governance is the reason why many young people want to start content development with digital platforms being the preferred channels of use.
This emerged in the ongoing Digital Storytelling training by the Bloggers Association of Kenya in conjunction with the American Embassy.
Given the situation occasioned by the Covid Pandemic, the training is virtual on the zoom platform and has managed to rope in participants from various counties in Kenya among them Nairobi, Nakuru, Busia, and Bungoma.
“I started a blog Horizonnews.co.ke so that I can create content that can’t be published on mainstream paper…. a blog is an alternative paper. It is fast and easier to share news than waiting for the next day’s paper,” said Nicholas Wamalwa
Apart from the perennial issues aforementioned, there are emerging issues such as the environment and mental health that concern the young content creators as well; some who have already embarked on their journey and joined the training to perfect their skills.
“My desire to start blogging is because I would like to share my articulate ideas with the world especially on environmental conservation as well as sports,” said Nekesa Wafula
The three-day training will touch on topics such as social media, blogging, how the internet works, podcasts, cyber-bullying, and internet security among others.
In a session with the trainees, seasoned journalist and founder of Khusoko.com David Indeje was very emphatic about bloggers always taking their audience into account.
“Audiences find people who create value on their content,” he said
Fellow trainer Mwende Ngao also a seasoned blogger and now podcaster observed that only a paltry 5 % of internet content comes from Africa and urged the participants to curate more content.
“We need to be curating ourselves as much as we can. We can’t be left behind; interview people, research, let us tell our own stories as much as we can,” she said
The training attracted 87 applicants who will be divided into about 3 groups to ensure everyone gets a chance. The first group completed their training on 13th May 2021.