Reimagining the Kenyan television broadcasting scape: Active user-generated content (AUGC) as an emancipating platform

Abstract

A critical historical reading of the Kenyan broadcasting space irradiates a recurring motif in which the political and economic elites repeatedly stifle national discourse, imposing a monolithic enunciatory space. This has relegated significant sections of the citizenry at the periphery to remain passive participants in the national narrative, and victims of broadcasting platforms and instruments which are national resources. The article is framed on Billig's (1995) thoughts on ‘banal nationalism’ and draws insight from the tenets of Bhabha's ‘cultural difference’ theory. The argument here is that the Kenyan broadcasting space has, since colonial times, been an antithesis of Billig's and Bhabha's propositions to the narrative of the nation. Premised on these debates, the use of active user-generated content (AUGC) as a potential intervention to ‘opening up’ the Kenyan broadcasting space, is proposed.

Keywords:

• broadcasting
• convergence
• digital media
• Kenya
• peripheral citizens
• television

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. Terah Ambala

A. Terah Ambala is lecturer in Digital Media/Multimedia, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Email: [email protected]