Abstract #1: Abbey Little

1. LINKING NORMATIVETHEORYTO POLICY
MAKING: A CASE STUDY OF KENYA
Abstract #1: Abbey Little

2. Background Information:
• Transformation of media landscape since
the 1990s from 2 media institutions to
several privately-owned institutions.
• Government is now trying to control and
regulate the media landscape of Kenya.
• Opposition has risen amongst media
institutions, academics and civil society.
• Study seeks to argue the role of normative
theory in relation to the policy debate.

3. NormativeTheory: Social Responsibility
• Basic Points:
• Media should accept and fulfill their obligations of reporting truthful, objective and balanced
information.
• Media should self-regulate and avoid the promotion of crime and violence.
• Media should reflect diversity within society.
• Media practitioners should be held accountable to society, employers, and the market.
• Why is this relevant?
• “Normative theory provides the foundation for press freedom.” (Ugangu & Fourie, 2014)
• Increasing diversity  difficult to regulate media  challenges to normative theory
• Deciding on new media policies requires governmental leaders to take the normative theory
into consideration.

4. Conclusions:
• Kenyan society, like most societies, are
diverse in their views and beliefs.
• A one-size fits all approach is not feasible
in creating policies for the media.
• By creating laws controlling the media
sector, media practitioners are no longer
able to reflect the diverse viewpoints in
society or truths from all perspectives.
• Policies must be created from various
media practitioner points of view
throughout all levels of society.