NAIVASHA, Kenya, Apr 25 – Mobile Telecommunications company OPPO is keen to work with Team Kenya Media for the Tokyo Olympic Games on matters technology in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has stalled activities around the globe.
OPPO marketing manager, Muthoni Wachira, said technology will be the key driver during this period when social distancing is the norm of the day.
She said they saw the need of working with the Team Kenya media because Kenyans will be yearning for information during the entire games period.
“We have discovered that it is not going to be easy for our media team that will be on the ground in Tokyo to relay news without being tech-savvy and we want to partner with them and ensure information is relayed back home in good time,” said Wachira.
On his part, WRC Safari Rally CEO Phineas Kimathi said technology is the way to go for journalists in order to relay real time information.
“The technological advancement of this century has been tremendous, first of all we are looking at a very first internet and that is why we have pulled a fiber optic cable to this point because when do the WRC Safari Rally it will be broadcasted to 155 countries from here, Editing is done in the United Kingdom and the lag time is less than 3 seconds so you can imagine what technology has brought to the rally,” Kimathi, who is also the Kenya Motorsports Federation Chairman said.
Muthoni said it is important to equip the media team because they form a very important component of Team Kenya.
She said she has been following progress on the African Rally Championship Equator Rally in Naivasha and discovered that journalists are slowly embracing technology in hyping the event and they would like to part and parcel of the change.
“During this era, we have no choice but to embrace technology considering that physical meetings have been curtailed. We at Oppo are trying to keep pace with the shift and that is why we are trying to partner with various sporting disciplines to ensure information is being relayed on time,” she added.
Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK) President Chris Mbaisi welcomed the partnership, saying it will go a long way in boosting the content quality of sports journalists.
“With the COVID-19 restrictions of social distance and reduced numbers of media personnel in events, digital journalism is an idea whose time has come with journalists now combining roles in gathering photos and videos on top of writing their stories,” Mbaisi said.
Recent sporting events have seen a shift in the way journalists discriminate information and material, with digital journalism taking centre-stage quick turnaround of events.
