NTV hits 1M Twitter followers as Citizen and KTN close in and Uhuru (@1.21M) is beyond the horizon na haringi

NTV hits 1M Twitter followers as Citizen and KTN close in and Uhuru (@1.21M) is beyond the horizon na haringi

NTV celebrates clocking 1 M followers on Twitter. Photo/NTV

By MUSYOKA NGUI

NTV is the first Kenyan television to hit a million followers on Twitter this week. Citizen TV has 969K followers while KTN has 920K followers. I follow all of them.

While NTV’s reach to 1 million mark makes for favourable advertising bargain it should not forget that Citizen is just 31K followers shy and KTN only 80K followers less. NTV will argue that it is not a million flat but a million and counting.  But so are the others. No one can sit pretty. The bar of competition goes a notch higher by the click of a button.

 Separately, President Uhuru Kenyatta has 1.21 million followers. The digital president is more popular than all the leading Kenyan televisions.

Citizen TV has been polled by Synovate (2014) as the most popular Kenyan TV. Photo/Citizen TV

What these numbers mean is that the future of journalism is aggressively shifting to the internet and it can no longer be ignored as the next frontier for the Fourth Estate. It remains to be seen whether NTV will maintain the lead or its competitors will surge ahead.

As for media professors, courses should be tailored for this new world. Digital communication is the way to go. USIU already has a masters of arts in Digital Communication. This is a first but clearly it is not enough as more social media managers are needed at all levels to drive campaigns online.

The oldest private TV in Kenya commands a huge following on social media spaces. Photo/KTN

Universities will be relevant if they come up with short professional courses, certificates and diplomas and not just degrees on media studies. The Aga Khan Graduate School of Media is leading the way. Other than the private sector, we are seeing little of shift from tradition in the public universities which are high on theory and low on practice.

If media is to move from the traditional screen to the tablet, smartphone or the mobile, the media must think outside the TV tube. One way of doing this is embracing technology. For now, a luta continua to the media online war.