Kenyans on Twitter presentation

K.O.T (Kenyans on twitter) KENYAN ONLINE MILITARY
Kenyans on Twitter can go to great lengths to push a cause they believe in. They have raised money for the hungry, helped the sick in hospitals, donated blood or defended the pride of their country through Tweets.

Bashing politicians

Kenyans on Twitter staged a peaceful protest on 9th October 2012 against the proposed 2 billion shillings send off package for Members of Parliament.

Feeding the hungry

Kenyans online  came together through the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), Safaricom, Kenya commercial Bank and other partners to raise funds to help the affected, an initiative that raised over Sh677m.

Exposing plagiarism
Popular blogger @RobertAlai connected the dots that Caroline Mutoko had copied a whole article from a blog and exposed it on his twitter. His tweet received up to 52 retweets, and from then on going viral on the social network. Kenyans flooded to the link article Letter to My 20-Something Self with vehement rebukes at the fact that they got hoodwinked.
Caroline summed up the piece with her opinion on the recent ‘Campus Divas for Rich Men’ saga saying the internet never forgets! Surely the internet won’t forget this copy paste for a long time to come.

Bashing airlines
The announcement read: “Korean Air will launch three non-stop flights per week from Incheon, Korea, to Nairobi, Kenya, on June 21. Korean Air will become the first air carrier in Northeast Asia to extend flight services to Nairobi. Fly to Nairobi and enjoy the grand African Savanna, the safari tour and the indigenous people full of primitive energy.”

Within hours, the advert was pulled down after it sparked a flurry of angry Tweets and Facebook postings over the description of Kenyans as ‘indigenous people full of primitive energy’.

This description enraged Kenyans on Twitter (Kot). But as it is normally the case, some threw in some humorous bits about everything Korean and Kenyan.

Angry @roberalai, one of the first people to post the advert online, tweeted: “Sad that Korean Air thinks that our ‘primitiveness’ is a tourist attraction.”

“An insult to a nation. Kenya doesn’t have primitive people. They should apologize,” posted a Twitter user who identified himself as Kevin Kimani.

Caleoustous Juma tweeted: “Offensive #KoreanAir ad has been removed from website, thanks to Twitter energy.”

@muterundumo wrote: “Kenya’s online military. #Kot is the new line of defense against insulting foreign incursions! Hongera.”

Straightening bad journalism
In their coverage of an explosion in Nairobi, CNN used the by-line “Violence in Kenya” with the country’s flag in the background. That image drew the wrath of Kenyans on Twitter who immediately launched a campaign through the hash tag #SomeoneTellCNN which was meant to inform the CNN how misinformed they were about Kenya. This campaign gained traction and later went viral leading to the tag trending worldwide on Twitter.

Another campaign was launched, #CNNapologise, to have CNN issue unreserved apology. CNN Nairobi correspondent, David McKenzie, later apologised but Kenyans on twitter are yet to be contented with the apology. The netizens are still campaigning to have CNN issue apology on TV.

References
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000060125&story_title=Resolute-Kenyans-on-Twitter-force-apology,-once-again
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2012/09/kenyans-for-kenya-funds-stop-hunger-pangs/

http://niaje.com/kenyans-on-twitter-kot-to-protest-against-mps-pay-package/?doing_wp_cron=1351529830.2467620372772216796875

http://niaje.com/caroline-mutoko-caught-copy-pasting/?doing_wp_cron=1351530102.3503689765930175781250

http://www.kenyansontwitter.com/

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-15235/hashtag-kenyans-kot

http://diasporadical.com/2012/06/21/event-recap-kola-boof-vs-kenyans-on-twitter/

Wanting a Meal

This is a small explanation of the picture above which I presented in class

While in Sudan, near the village of Ayod,  Kevin Carter found a small, emaciated toddler struggling to make her way to the food station. When she stopped to rest, a vulture landed nearby with his eyes on the little girl. Carter took twenty minutes to take the photo, wanting the best shot possible, before chasing the bird away. He faced a lot of criticism for the picture.

 "The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering, might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene."

Sold to the New York Times, the photograph first appeared on 26 March 1993 and was carried in many other newspapers around the world. Hundreds of people contacted the Times to ask the fate of the girl. The paper reported that it was unknown whether she had managed to reach the feeding center.

in 1994 the picture won the Pulitzer award but Kevin Carter committed suicide two months later owing to depression.

colours

This is a cool color trick that we learned in class about how the background color of a design has a great  impact  on how the foreground appears.

The foreground is the same exact color although to the eye it seems different because the background color is different.

logo

This logo was made with adobe illustrator.

While making this,  I had several things in mind. 1st I wanted the logo to have a personal touch, communicate clearly what I do and at the same time remain simple, concise and easy to the eye.

I'd initially thought of going with a quill but that proved to be a bit diffcult as i did not want to download  a vector from the internet. I wnated every bit of the design to be my own.

Eventually i settled for a film clapper board with my second name inscribed in it.

The clapper board was easily designed using only rectangles of different sizes and colored black at the zebra top. The typography used for the name is also quite simple and readable.

collage

Who am i?

My name is Eugene Mbugua. I am a fourth year journalism student at the United States International University in Nairobi. I am 21 years old going to 22 in November this year. This is my third blog. I love to write. I write mostly articles and poems. I find it easier to communicate my ideas in writing other than talking. I read a lot as well.