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On 20th February 2020, as part of efforts to promote media & information literacy among youth, The Youth Café held a brief consultation meeting with Kofi Annan Foundation at its offices on Pinetree Plaza, Nairobi-Kenya. The purpose of the engagement was to denote the nexus between the visions trajectories of the two organizations, especially in media. Both organizations believe in the inescapable role of the media in election periods, its observance of human rights, upholding of rule of law and good governance; as well as how the media compliments democracy. But media might also have a derogatory role, if not well harnessed to a good use. KAF’s Senior Political Advisor, Sebastian F. Brack, particularly mentioned the ‘weaponization’ of social media as an instance in which the media could be used to unleash violence, especially during elections periods, rather than being routine communication platforms. Through their digital literacy and preparedness program, the Kofi Annan Foundation works towards improving electoral integrity, predominantly within individual countries where the risks of fraught, and the possibly violent elections are high. The Foundation recognizes elections and democracy as conflict points, and thus, the foundation has resorted to continued efforts to combat violent extremism. KAF’s Head of Partnerships, Michaelene Kinnersley, stressed that miscommunication, and enhancement of the environmental ecosystem for elections, are main areas in which the media has been used to undermine the credibility of election processes. Propagation of media literacy requires cooperation between different concerned stakeholders, social media, and government departments. As Kinnersley notes: There is a fair romantic technical literacy that could be built among certain departments, issues like what the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Facebook can, or can’t do, to protect the environment.
We are now subject to media messages, more than at any time in history. It has become increasingly difficult to distinguish credible news sources from unreliable ones; unlike back in the days, when one clearly had a particular source of information, as explicitly noted by Kinnersley.
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