Media Ownership and Digital Authenticity in Slum TV

This chapter considers alternative media ownership in Kenya through Slum TV, a digital project created in 2008 by artist and photographer, Sam Hopkins. His vision was to authentically film and document the community of Mathare (a collection of slums in Nairobi, Kenya) by training the residents to use mobile cameras and affordable video editing equipment. The purpose of this was to empower locals to represent themselves through a digital identity. Hopkins argues that how most western representations of the slums, through major news channels, printed newspapers and film and literature, usually depict a typical 2D portrayal of the slums as an area of poverty or violence, which is an artificial representation. This chapter considers the ubiquity of the digital image and the power it has in defining societies through its influential omnipresence. Arming the Mathare locals with cameras enables them to take ownership of their identity back. Positive documentaries that feature families, home life and a positive education system are used as a counter-narrative to contest the hegemony of western interpretation. The residents use digital storytelling to positively and authentically portray their lives. This chapter incorporates an original interview I conducted with Hopkins to consider the portrayal of identity through Slum TV, and questions whether digital representation can ever be truly authentic.