Of elections, disqualifications and who has the best coverage
Election years are not normal years. Not normal for events, not normal for social life, not normal for the economy and certainly, for the purpose of this column, not normal for radio and television programming and related matters.
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This year being an election year has lived up to type as did the previous years. Even more abnormal is the disqualification last week of 12 out of the 17 people who had put themselves up to be voted as president of Ghana.
The radio and television as well as press and social media and all available media has gone gaga over the past week.
That singular act by the Electoral Commission led by its chairperson Mrs. Charlotte Osei has made this particular elections more abnormal than those before it.
Never in the history of our young democracy has such a single act led to major uproar in the body politic than this.
The reverberation has been felt far and near and we are all still reeling from the repercussions. There has been strong words from some of the disqualified nominees towards the EC chair, some very unwholesome and yet others conciliatory. Some also indicated that they will apply any legal means available to overturn the decision.
As I write this piece, on Wednesday morning, most of those who were disqualified have headed to court in a bid to overturn the decision of the EC and to ensure they find their name back on the ballot paper and their ambition to be president of Ghana restored.
It seems from the body language of all players in the election industry that the judiciary have got this and that they would ensure that issues arising from this action would be dealt with expeditiously to ensure that the electoral calendar would not be affected.
Well, I hope they are right and I hope we get this election over and done with so we can move back to normal times. Any delay would be detrimental to our quest to do things that would not put all of us in that usual political psychic prison that is characteristic of election periods.
Talking about elections brings me to the subject of which of the media organisations is taking the thought leadership in election coverage. As we all know, election is a big deal and the media takes it very seriously and this year especially some have really taken it a tad beyond the normal.
We all know that since 2000 when Komla Dumor called the election in favour of the NPP in the second round (after both Candidate Mills and Candidate Kufour couldn’t clinch the “one touch” they had wanted so much during the campaign period) election coverage has been a major part of Joy FM’s content strategy.
Over time when the station’s, owners added television in Joy News, along with the sister radio stations the positioning statement “Election Headquarters” was couched to make it a legitimate claim to coverage of everything electoral.
This year though the completion has been upped ten-fold as almost every station and group has found the election coverage as a strong standpoint to leverage. It is no more just a competition with Citi FM in who covers the elections better and whose call should be taken seriously eventually.
The coming into the game of EIB Network has added some verve to this whole elections coverage caboodle. The acquisition of GhOne has also added to the networks arsenal leading to the creation of what they call EIB Election Hub something they have seriously promoted on all channels: radio, TV, print and online.
When they launched the platform earlier in the year in Kumasi it wasn’t very clear how strong they were going to push their own elections coverage platform, but time has given them the leverage they need and they have exploited very well their strengths across all platforms to ensure they would be taken seriously by the elections news consuming public.
Another media group that has taken the coverage seriously and branded their coverage is the Media General shops. TV3, 3FM and Onua FM for starters and the others they are creating in the regions are all joining to make their claim bigger.
Election Command Centre as they call theirs is their own way of ensuring that they cover the elections and the issues emanating therefrom to the best of their strengths.
Over the last months since adopting that name and the strategy that goes with it, the group has gained adequate awareness, especially with the strength that TV3 has in the media landscape.
Citi FM is known for its focused attention to whipping up the issues that become what the elections thrive on and this year has not been exception.
Their hashtag #GhElections on social media has been driving the issues as much as it should. Their disadvantage of not having a strong group beyond the station has been compensated for to some extent by what they do on social media.
Despite Group may not have branded with a name or hashtag but they have their own platforms across the different radio stations they own and those they are affiliated to, plus UTV has given them a massive platform to leverage.
Their audience depend a lot on what they have to offer and they have been dedicating a lot of time to investigate the issues that would give their audience the opportunity to know that is being talked about and how they can contribute to the debate.
The politically backed radio stations represented by Oman FM, Radio Gold and Montie FM have been doing their own as well. As we know, they will ensure that their part of the issue is played better and those of the opponents downplayed, but they also give their audience what they want.
Anyway, on Election Day everyone will chose which media they would like to have their elections results on. Will you be tuned to the Election Headquarters, Election Command Centre, Election Hub or any of the many media outlets across the country? Whichever you choose I hope you get the best coverage of our next attempt to consolidate our democracy.