I am a media practitioner and I am worried about the increasing reports of poor standard of journalism in the country.
So my question is "Are Ghanaian journalists intellectually bankrupt?” Sorry, if I am using a brush to sweep everyone, but that is the growing public perception.
The problem with sections of the media, unfortunately the majority, in Ghana is that they don’t occasionally assess their performance and improve on it. They think they are the alpha and omega of knowledge.
Imagine a journalist asking a Minister of Sports about the kind of meals players ate at the just-ended AFCON, when he had the opportunity to interview him?
Poor questions
And when the minister complained about such a poor question, a section of the media got offended and worsened it by writing funny things to embarrass themselves further, for example, “Letter of apology to Sports Minister Mahama Ayariga”.
It is my hope that the author of that piece is not the Suleman Braimah of Media Foundation for West Africa MFWA. I will be disappointed. Was that the only issue of public interest that these journalists could think about? If these journalists do not appreciate the value of their airtime, they should know that a lot of people have value for their time and cannot waste it on frivolities.
The explanation by these journalists that the question to Mr Ayariga was an attempt to seek accountability cannot be acceptable because we don’t seek accountability through mediocre media standard practice. It rather enables smart and intelligent interviewees to wriggle their way out.
Irrelevant questions
A similar incident happened when President Mills met the press at the then Osu Castle, rather than focusing and asking questions on national issues/ policies, some journalists, surprisingly from the same major media houses, spent such precious opportunity to dwell on the erection of a particular traffic light on the Spintex road. When Bernard Mornah of PNC, chided them for failing to ask responsible questions, they got offended. I am happy Bernard stood his guns and even asked that those journalists be made to refund the cost of the meals they took there.
My concern: is journalism in Ghana being reduced to the less intellectually endowed persons? I am at a loss. What is the National Media Commission (NMC) doing?
It has a constitutional responsibility of ensuring higher journalistic standards in the country. It must also be told that the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and other civil society organisations such as MFWA should not limit their relevance to issuing statements only when journalists are attacked even verbally.
They also have every responsibility to ensure good journalistic practice in Ghana.
I want to use this occasion to offer free advice to the docile NMC . They can help address some of these challenges by adopting a coaching and mentorship programme with the pool of successful retired journalists such as Kweku Sakyi Addo, Madam Elisabeth Ohene, Elvis Aryeh, Gordon Avernorgboh and Mr Affail Monney. Part of the Media Development Fund can be used for this.
Gatekeeping role
It is a fact that the standard of journalism in this country has deteriorated. Presently, it is common practice that speeches and comments by individuals and organisations are published without being subjected to any editorial scrutiny or analysis, as though the journalist is just a conveyor of information. So the question is, where is the gatekeeping role of the media in Ghana? It is not uncommon now for persons to be given attributes such as : renowned, expert, celebrated, icon, eminent, senior etc. by the media without basis.
Presently, it has become a common media cliché to describe any meeting, particularly government and stakeholders to address any challenge as “crunch meeting”. Now, what some journalists do is to scan the Facebook Wall of some persons and cull their comments as a major news item without a follow up. A bill in Parliament with dissenting opinions by members is often described as “a controversial bill”. Haabaa! Courtesy Kwesi Pratt. Is it that journalists are becoming mentally lazy or just intellectually bankrupt?
The mediocrity in the media has been worsening because there is no national consensus as to who is a journalist. So anybody is a journalist, so far as the individual chooses to be identified as so. No wonder the public is subjected to media syndication and media influence peddlers to set the media agenda which are often laced with partisan politics.
Unfortunately, the few journalists who have shown media excellence or are working within the professional ethics are not being encouraged, mostly by their media owners and our gullible partisan media consumers.
It is not surprising the CNN African Journalist of the Year has eluded journalists in Ghana. This can be attributed to the current state of poor journalism. Komla Dumor was a Ghanaian journalist we are proud of , but it will not be surprising if more journalists from other countries, rather than Ghana, win the Komla Dumor Award instituted recently by the BBC.
Until the bulk of journalists in Ghana begin to use their intellect to liberate themselves, and also respect their professional ethics and standards, even before their media owners, they risk replacing the (Z) with (J-Journalist) in the metaphorical song Zombie by Fela Kuti in 1976 to describe the ineptitude of the military government.
“…Z(J)ombie no go go, unless you tell am to go Z(J)ombie
Z(J)ombie no go stop, unless you tell am to stop Z(J)ombie
Z(J)ombie no go turn, unless you tell am to turn Z(J)ombie
Z(J)ombie no go think, unless you tell am to think Z(J)ombie
It is my hope that this piece will set the tone for a public discourse on the declining standard of journalism in the country with the hope of eliciting solutions from stakeholders.
The writer is a Media Practitioner. Writer’s email :
