Abstract
This chapter attempts to demonstrate how Mutahi constructs his publics. The discussion takes as its point of departure the fact that audiences are inherently diverse. Mutahi is thus only able to access them as a composite group through the strategic use of the column’s generic features. The chapter focuses on how he draws on a pool of familiar resources to construct publics. We argue that he draws, for example, on the use stereotypes, media templates, rumour, narrative gaps and other narrative modes to ‘make’ these publics. Importantly, this chapter argues that Mutahi recognizes and privileges the context within which he writes, the social and political situations he is explaining and the cultural positioning of his readers. He then wills into being particular narrative styles which help him bring together and homogenously access an otherwise heterogeneous readership.
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49097-7_10
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Ogola, G. (2017). The Text and Its Publics: ‘Making’ the Audience in Whispers . In: Popular Media in Kenyan History. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49097-7_8
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