Smartphones and news consumption in Kenya : How technical devices are used by students at the Technical University of Mombasa

Abstract: Our study has explored how university students at the Technical University of Mombasa, TUM, in Kenya consume news. The aim of the research has been to get a snapshot picture of what the consumption look like in a time and context when the development of Internet Communication Technology, ICT, has increased rapidly in a short period of time. Our empiric data has been collected through three different methods. First we approached the area of the Technical University of Mombasa with an ethnographic method. Then we went on with an in-depth interview with one of our key informants before handing out a survey to collect quantitative data to analyse. Through theoretical framework rooted in the theories of Digital divide and New media we interpreted our data to be able to answer our research questions. The results show that the use of the smartphone is widely spread in order to consume news among students of TUM. Money is still a big obstacle for the majority of the students in our population in how they can access news through technical devices. The gap between those who can afford and those who fight with financial issues is still large. Our study confirms that the gap in the digital divide is still big but we could read signs telling us that the gap maybe is about to shrink.