With its official launch on February 13, 2024, Kara House aims to extend the reach of compelling investigative stories to wider audiences.
Speaking with The ICIR, Banjo who is the creative lead, with over 10 years of journalism experience, noted that Kara House is focused on bridging the gap of distribution that combines both traditional and digital media to reach diverse audiences and building a sustainable public service journalism outlet that can stand on its outside of grants.
She added that establishing her own media house stemmed from the discovery of audio storytelling.
“When I found audio and started listening about four years ago, it felt like I’d been missing out on this impressive medium all my career life. And it’s so strange because we have lots of radio stations in Nigeria but I was never a fan of the kind of content you find on our radio stations.
“I then began to ask myself, how do you use this medium to solve the inherent problems in Nigeria? I should say that radio already holds lots of power. It has the widest penetration in Nigeria” Banjo stated
Banjo thought of the kind of content that would encourage civic and democratic participation in Nigeria with the power radio wields.
She further stated that Kara House is not just a podcast or a news website but a journalism production outlet while noting that the goal is to improve how readers perceive journalistic articles.
“We are not just another news website and we are not a podcast. We are a journalism production outlet. The website, podcast channels, and radio stations are just paths through which we are distributing our products. We want to change the way journalism pieces are seen. Your investigative story can provide public service but it can also be commercial,” she stated.
“One of the things we do is to creatively package our product in the same way other media content is packaged. We want to keep the attention of people by making the content short. And even though we take on serious issues in our society, we grind them down to tiny bits that it becomes comprehensively for anyone and it is not laborious to follow,” she explained.
Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected]