Credibility gap in Kenya’s social media age

Because while social media has transformed how we get and use news, it has not changed the question every news consumer eventually asks: Can I trust this?

The Media Council of Kenya's State of the Media 2025 Survey is clear. Social media is now the primary source of information for Kenyans at 39 percent, ahead of television at 31 percent, radio at 21 percent, and newspapers at just 13 percent—a figure that stood at 29 percent as recently as 2022.

Despite this shift, when Kenyans were asked which media outlet they trust most, the overwhelming majority named a traditional broadcast group. Meanwhile, the most visited news websites are platforms built on brand recognition cultivated through conventional media.

Kenyans have changed where they consume news, but they have not changed who they trust.

This behaviour is not a passive habit. It is a rational response to a deeply unreliable information environment.

Anyone can post news online, claim to be a source, or produce content that looks and sounds authoritative. In response, audiences have developed a self-regulation instinct. They are seeking attribution from recognisable sources and interrogating what lands in their feed before sharing it further.

The 2025 survey confirms this vigilance is widespread. The spread of false and misleading information is cited by 28 percent of Kenyans as their single biggest media concern today, tied with inadequate coverage of key issues.

For communicators, this creates both a warning and an opportunity. Audiences are not simply watching who publishes first. They are watching who publishes correctly.

The verification instinct is now under a more sophisticated threat than simple misinformation.

The survey reveals that while 59 percent of Kenyans are aware artificial intelligence is being used in media production, 63 percent cannot identify AI-generated content when they encounter one.

Audiences have historically judged credibility by recognising a journalist's voice, a broadcaster's identity, or a publication's tone. AI can now replicate all of these with no editorial standards and no accountability attached.

The scale of exposure amplifies the risk. Nearly half of Kenya is now online, and 91 percent access digital media through mobile phones. In this environment, fabricated content can reach millions of people within hours.

Speed and emotion drive sharing, and here’s where misinformation is most dangerous. In this context, a communicator's established reputation for accuracy is no longer a professional virtue. It is the only reliable filter many audiences have left.

Public debate often assumes that trust in the media is declining. The data points in a different direction.

Over 79 percent of Kenyans now express some or a lot of trust in the media, up from 74.5 percent in the previous survey. The proportion who believe media coverage of government is unfair has dropped from 73.6 percent to 46 percent, a significant credibility recovery in a calendar year.

Growing awareness of misinformation appears to be making audiences more deliberate about who they trust, and more loyal to the sources consistently earning it.

But let’s look at what is driving this recovery. Content relevance leads at 45 percent, timeliness follows at 33 percent, and credibility and reputation come in at 29 percent. These are the operating expectations of digital audiences as much as they are traditional journalism values.

The message is direct: credibility cannot be inherited from a broadcast or print legacy. Credibility must be demonstrated where audiences now live on the same social platforms they use daily. This means sourcing captions, correcting mistakes publicly, and choosing accuracy over engagement in every headline.

Pancras Mutuma is a Communications consultant and a senior partner at AM Communications