Writer: Odoobo C. Bichachi. PHOTO/COURTESY
Social media is one of the most dynamic public spaces today, thanks to the constant innovations in information communications technology (ICT). For journalism, social media has not only altered the way we consume news and information but what stories we consume and who produces them.
The most popular social media platforms today include; Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), etc. In the nascent years, social media platforms were mostly about self-projection; posting personal images, thoughts, and networking. It soon evolved to “influencing”, that is leveraging “followers” to push certain narratives – paid for or not.
The more “followers” one had, the more weight they carried as influencers. The powerful influence of social media soon engendered a group of users referred to as content creators. Now these were not the traditional creators we knew of old; the creative artists, playwrights, etc.
Social media content creators are simply “…someone who produces and shares content like videos, images, and text on social media platforms to engage audiences, build a following, and potentially monetise their work” – Google AI Overview. In line with its inherent dynamism, another group of social media users soon made its way to the centre-stage. These are the social media content curators.
Curators and curation are traditionally associated with museums, archeology, and dusty environments. Social media content curators and curation are quite different. “…it is the process of discovering and sharing high-quality relevant content from various sources to a specific audience on social media platforms; going beyond simple reposting and adding value through insights and context.” – Google AI Overview.
Now, both content creation and content curation were once domain of journalists – reporters, writers, and editors. While it still remains journalists’ main business, now there is competition on social media by creators and curators that have no attachment to journalism by way of background. These are simply creative persons who understand what their audiences want. They do not originate the content, they simply string it together.
Two social media content curators have lately caught my attention on X (Twitter) mostly because of their curation of crime content. One is Kenyan and goes by the name Don Bull while the other is Ugandan and goes by the name Mukyaala Wandera.
Crime reporting is one of the important pillars of journalism because of the value it brings to the public. It creates awareness of criminality, plots crime trends, shows prevalence, shapes policies, and evokes accountability from the criminal justice system, among others.
For the public, crime stories have a powerful allure. Many are drawn to them by the curiosity to know the motivations behind particular crimes, concerns about the efficacy (or lack of it) of the justice system, and of course the thrill of cracking a complicated crime. The two have, therefore, picked an area of great appeal. They have tailored their storytelling to the platform, weaving a long thread about a particular murder crime and attaching photos, videos, documents, etc in the thread. These bring authority and authenticity to the storyline.
One of the most recent stories by Don Bull was posted on February 27 on X. It is “The crazy story of Don Bosco Gichana, 29-year-old Kenyan who stole Ksh96m from Fina Bank and Ksh7.9bn by depositing forged cheques in Tanzania”. It reads like a thriller.
For Mukyaala Wandera, she is now on Story #33, the trial and jailing of Uganda High Court judge, Lydia Mugambe, in the UK. She only started her stories in January with the following post on X:“How would you like it if I wrote short narrations about some of the most mind-blowing court cases from Uganda? I have a lot of tea off-head and guys committed some serious and funny crimes. It will be so much fun. 100 likes and I begin tomorrow. Motivate me, I serve you tea.”And off she started with story #1 – “Godfrey Kato Kajubi, a Masaka tycoon who’s literally the definition of…”
Can the X threads of these content curators be defined as investigative journalism or journalism, anyway? Or are they simply well-crafted recitals? I do not know. What I know, though, is that journalists – especially crime journalists – should pay attention. Yes, there are “new” kids on the block when it comes to crime stories and the public on social media is noticing them.
Crime reporting is one of the important pillars of journalism
Odoobo C. Bichachi
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