By Tabitha Onyinge – Omenya

The practice of journalism has changed a great deal. Social media has brought news so close you get to know the content of the next news bulletin as it happens.

“Just seen Kirigo; believe it or not, she’s headed for the studio in a dashing blue dress!” read a tweet a few weeks ago. I suspect that tweeter (the person who tweeted) was at the Royal Media reception, perhaps waiting for a date or something. Anyhow, Citizen TV re-tweeted her, and there I was, my dusty hands on my phone, knowing the news content, complete with the presenter’s dress code, many minutes before lunchtime news! I didn’t need to watch to know.

Starting out in the media in the mid 1990s, things were different. TV news was like a suspense movie – you waited for the grand evening release at 9 sharp! Regular news updates were a radio thing. Not TV. And TV news studios were like theatre stages with props and costumes. (My friend Pamela whispers that they still are). In those days, only the bust of a still seated newscaster was shown on TV, one at a time! I hear some would read news in boxers and slippers! Today we have catwalk newscasts…

In came the Internet. We started out in media at a time that plagiarism was a real and rare crime. To be a good writer, you read widely; not Internet stuff, but books, reports and magazines; on paper print. Copy paste is a term I first heard in 2008; and I remember Generation Ys laughing hard at me. How could I have copy pasted from book to a typewriter? I miss those days when journalistic content was fresh, rich and nice to read.

Recently I edited some profiles for an upcoming book, and in the process my first name changed from Tabitha to Google. Most of the profiles, mind you written by seasoned journalists, were patches of other people’s work from the Internet. I’d cut a paragraph that felt like the horn of a cow patched on the head of a dog, and google it out. Then the whole cow would just pop up. Don’t swallow me yet, I’ve since discovered more sophisticated plagiarism detectors.

My contemporaries in media did not have the pleasure of ‘copy paste’. Not then; not now. We wrote features and other news materials from knowledge we gained in real journalism classes, and notes we took during actual interviews and authentic research. We made mistakes and learnt from them. It was fun. Of course there were a few exceptions, like the evening my editor at Kenya Times, Martin Masai, sent me to a Hindu Temple where Vishnu, the goddess with twelve arms, was drinking milk.

I found Vishnu sitting pretty on her golden throne, an enthusiastic young Indian man spoon-feeding her milk. Of course it was leaking off a small outlet on Vishnu’s back, onto a sponge below. “I knew all along that this was a hoax,” I thought as I gave the pair a disinterested last look, and dived into the nice food that was served. I socialised, listening to interesting stories about families, businesses, Bollywood, fashion, pets, everything, but Vishnu.

Mid morning the next day, Masai asked me for his story. In a bored whining voice; I told him, “Ah, there was nothing really…” And went on to share how the whole plot was a prank. “The faithful didn’t think I saw the milk getting out,” I said. I almost fainted when Masai exclaimed, “Great! That’s an awesome story! Can you give it to me in a few minutes!”

That incident changed my life as a young journalist. I had been so lazy, arrogant and judgmental, that an opportunity to bang a page splash had slipped through my fingers. I had the whole dang story drain out of Vishnu’s body as I watched! If Internet were available then, I probably would have googled up something for Masai.