Journalists To Acquire Skills In Culture Reporting

By Stephen K. Effah
Saturday, 24 May 2008

The first in a series of training workshops aimed at polishing the skills and capacity of mid-career and junior level journalists engaged in reporting on culture in the country begins today at Akosombo.

About 20 journalists have been selected from both the private and state-owned print and electronic media to participate in the four-day workshop being organised by the Cultural Initiatives Support Programme (CISP), an E.U sponsored initiative.

The workshop, which will be led by Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo, acting Director of the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana, will help orient the journalists towards adopting a broader perspective of culture and more innovative ways of approaching culture coverage.

It will also provide an opportunity to sensitise the participants on common terminologies, key institutions, structures, forms and norms that generally comprises culture
According to the CISP, although most Ghanaians assert great pride in their culture, there is remarkable little systematic reporting on that broad and general area in the country.

"Culture as reflected in media content is often reduced to traditional drumming, dancing and festivals, and reportage in this area is episodic, sporadic and lacking depth and creativity," it stressed.

It said that only a few newspaper articles, radio and television programmes provide comprehensive and regular reportage on culture as manifested variously throughout Ghanaian life.

It also noted that the curricula of journalism training institutions have neglected culture as an important area of reporting and developed its development as is the case in other specialised areas.

That, it explained, has resulted in only a few practising journalists who are interested in covering stories on culture, adding "the Ghanaian media continue to show glaring deficiencies in journalistic skills and capacity to cover culture."

It said it is in the light of this that the workshop is being organised to address these challenges,
which will in effect highlight and promote cultural issues for development in the country.