Training citizen journalists to engage their communities for development

I haven't written a blog in so many years. I have been busy with Ghana Business News and NewsBridge Africa, the not for profit journalism skills training organisation that I started on returning from Columbia University in 2014.

In August I received a call from an official of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The organisation wanted to know how available I will be to undertake a one-month training of citizen journalists across four districts in four regions of Ghana.

I was excited about the prospects. Training others is my passion, it's one of my long-term goals. They asked me to block the whole of October to be able to do so. I obliged and cancelled all other engagements so I can be available to do the training.

The first training scheduled to run for three days was set in the capital of the Twifo Atii Morkwa District of the Central Region, Twifo Praso.

From October 10 to 13, 2017 I travelled with the affable Adiza Moro Maiga, the Programme Officer for Media, Development and Democracy at the MFWA to Twifo Praso to meet an eager group of 10 men and women waiting to learn the ropes - to acquire the skills for citizen journalism.

I prepared to teach about using some social media tools like blogging and tweeting to engage the communities. I taught them basic communication and writing skills, showing them a good number of examples and scenarios they are familiar with, so the ideas can be cemented.

By the end of the third day, most of the participants have learned how to create a blog. They also created Twitter accounts and posted their first tweets!

Most were excited, and felt some sense of accomplishment. Most said they have learned new things for the first time and will be happy to apply them.

The journey is long, the training goes on till the first week of November. After a couple of days break in Accra, we set off on daily trips to the Tema District near Accra for the second segment of the training from October 17 to 19, 2017. Here in Tema, the group of participants were not different from the participants we met in Twifo Praso. Eager, willing and ready to learn.

We took off as usual building a connection with the group, building their confidence and trust in us so we can impact and equip them with the skills they need to be citizen journalists.

They are lapping on the information and trying their hands on the new skills of creating a blog, creating content and tweeting.

The importance of this training programme cannot be overemphasised and hopefully, if the participants, in spite of the challenges, pursue their passions and apply the skills, they are very likely to become influencers in their communities.

Our next stop is Ellembelle in the Western Region and the last district we shall be heading to at the end of October is Wa in the Upper West Region.

The entire one month training is under the hashtag #Mycitizenjournalist. You can follow that on Twitter.

Why the GH¢1m Ghana Media Development Fund is in limbo

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi     

The Ghana Media Development Fund is in limbo. Long after the government announced a GH¢1 million seed money to start the fund to facilitate media development in the country it has not taken off yet.

Vice President John Mahama announced the government’s intention to set up the fund on September 9, 2011, when he spoke as the guest of honour at the 16th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards held in Accra.

And November 16, 2011, the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor announced the allocation of the funds while he was presenting the 2012 budget statement  in Parliament.

A great idea that would facilitate the healthy development of the media in Ghana appears to be still-born because as usual the politicians want to do ‘their own things’ with it.

The Ministry of Information wants to manage the fund! But it is ill equipped to do so. Besides, it has no good history of disbursing funds to the media as our recent history has shown.

For instance up till now, no one knows which group of ‘editors forum’ that the Ministry gave  GH¢150,000, even though speculations have been going about who handled the money at the Ministry and which specific journalists were given the said money.

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has made it clear to the Ministry that it doesn’t have a good record when it comes to disbursing funds to the media. The GJA therefore, suggested to the Ministry to set up a Board of Trustees and put the Fund under the management of the National Media Commission (NMC). It is also on record that Alhaji Haruna Atta, publisher and Editor-in-Chief  of the Accra Daily Mail has written to the Ministry making a suggestion similar to that of the GJA.

The media is a significant player in national development, but in Ghana, the media is seen as an appendage to the highest bidder. Media organisations are run mostly as business first, which makes its social role opaque. Journalists are made to believe that ethics and social responsibility do not matter, but serving a ‘master’ is all that matters even if that meant threatening social cohesion and the well being of the masses.

The announcement of this fund gave some hope that, at that point the government was taking cognisance of the important role of the media by offering support, but alas it is support with a string. A string to be used to control the media and to support mercenary journalists and to borrow former Attorney-General Martin Amidu’s words ‘the rented press’.

If the case was not so, then the government must prove skeptics like me wrong and let an independent body manage the fund. As the case already stands, government is not being fair to a section of the media that is also making significant contributions to national development. Government advertising is unevenly spread, with ‘government friendly’ but often unprofessional media organisations getting a good chunk of government advertising while, some very high quality publications are starved of funds because they are seen as ‘unfriendly media’.

The future of this country can to some extent be determined by what kind of media we have and if indeed the government means well for the people of this country, it must do the right thing to develop the media by making this fund functional.