Play Theory and Public Media: A Case Study in Kenya

Abstract

This chapter focuses on common play, the first public activity most humans learn and practice. The authors use play theory to explain the significance of editorial cartooning in Kenya. They suggest that, in developing democracies that cannot assume universal literacy, media users concerned about public life receive initial and meaningful information on politics through conventions associated with the editorial cartoon. They argue that cartoon viewers learn through this play mode rather than from public debate or through a rational articulation of issues. The five cartoonists interviewed here describe their work in ways uncommon for the press establishment, and they evince values like courage, criticism of entrenched power, and passion for justice – values that the press establishment reveres, yet practices much more conservatively.