International research regularly takes longer to accomplish than domestic research, but the project that colleagues Will Kinnally, Nancy Achieng' Booker, Hellen Maleche and I are trying to accomplish in Nairobi right now should win some sort of prize.
We are trying to study Kenyan youths' media use and their response to sexual content. The plan was to begin with a survey of students from several local high schools, after which Will would arrive from the U.S. to work with Nancy and Hellen to get a few students started with keeping daily media diaries.
When it came time to do the survey in January, the teachers at all of the public high schools across the country went on a two week strike. We couldn't even contact the schools to arrange any meetings, much less conduct a survey. About the time Will arrived, and while we were still figuring out how to catch up from that debacle, the Kenyan government shut down access to all non-cable TV stations in a strange move toward migration from analogue to digital platforms. That was two weeks ago and the TV stations are still not available. So right at the critical points of our data collection on youth and media we have: first no youth and then no media.
le sigh.
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