THE GHANAIAN MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTAGE

There is no denying the fact that journalistic reporting, especially political reportage has changed over the years on account of commercial pressure and new technologies. While commercialism and the advent of new technologies have been key to the development and improvement in the delivery of journalists, these forces have equally prompted some drastic changes in the manner political reporting is conducted in Ghana. It is to shed light on how these two mutually exclusive forces have changed political reporting in Ghana that this piece is has become relevant.

Firstly, it is important in to note that  the overtly commercialized Ghanaian media has incentivize journalists or better still media outlets in Ghana  to report or pay maximum attention to political issues, even at the expense of  development oriented stories.

To remain relevant and commercially viable, most media outlets have intensified their coverage on political activities and issues, exploiting the overly partisan nature and orientation of the Ghanaian populace for commercial dividends. It is not surprising that our newspapers and radio morning show are now inundated with political issues and personalities. It follows therefore that the quest for the Ghanaian journalists and their paymasters to meet their financial targets has invariably intensified the attention and premium that is placed on political issues in Ghana. This can therefore be said to be subtle and strategic devise aimed at meeting the commercial pressure that journalists and their media outlets are faced in recent times.

Closely related to the above is the fact that in their quest to meet commercial pressure, many media houses have created many political forums and programmes where persons from the various political divides are represented. Aware that a wide Ghanaian coverage is to be reached with political debates, advertisers cash in on these programmes to solicit for patronage. This enables most media houses to meet their financial targets and obligations as they are able to engender the many advertisements on such programmes.

Again, one of the changes in political reporting, on account of commercial pressure, has been the over dramatization of political stories. The broadcast media, especially many radio stations over dramatize political stories with the view to attracting and leveraging huge listenership for their commercial purposes. Some Ghanaian newspapers also strive for dramatization with the way the capture their headlines. Others achieve dramatization on political reporting with the mastery of the cartoon works.

It is a no secret that development in technology which seen many people on the internet and many other digital platform has taken its toll on commercial viability of most media outlets. With the advent and popularity of various social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and others, news has become accessible and cheap relative to times when there never existed. As a strategic reaction to this development, journalistic reporting has also seen some changes. In that, not only have most of the mainstream media-Television, Newspapers and radio-hogged onto the internet and digital wagon, but also most of these platforms have been used to provide links to stories that usually captured in attention –grabbing headlines.

Admittedly, the development in new technologies has increased the spate and speed of political reporting. Today, the yardstick for measuring a successful and effective reportage is judged on how fast an outlet breaks a story. To this end, most of the mainstream media outlets and their reporters take to their social media platforms and their website to break stories, with the view to scooping their competitors. To this extent, it can be said that political reporting has become so swift than ever. Although the risk of not verifying these stories can always be experience with this practice, some journalists defy this fundamental ethic as they move to outsmart their competitors.

Let me conclude by recommending that while these forces of commercial pressure and development IN new technologies continue to CAUSE changes in journalist reporting and delivering, care must be taken in order that these changes does not render media outlets unethical in the performance of their duties.