Board Chairman of the Graphic Groups of Communications Limited, Professor Kwame Karikari
The Board Chairman of the Graphic Groups of Communications Limited, Professor Kwame Karikari, has said that some rich businessmen who are clueless about the work of the media set up radio stations and employ some persons who are clearly unprofessional to work for them.
He noted that professionalism in journalism is key in pushing the democracy of the country forward “so professionalism must be adequately influenced and supplemented with critical journalism.”
“Many business owners don’t understand what journalism is so they just recruit anyone,” he said.
Prof Karikari said these when he was speaking at the MTN Bright Conversations on Wednesday, September 1.
The conversation was on the topic: ‘Promoting Professionalism in the Era of Social Media & Citizen Journalism.”
He noted that the media in Ghana has done a good job in helping mobilize the society on the dos and don’ts but this, he said, is not enough.
He believes that the media hasn’t done enough in the area of financial education “so that people learn and not be fooled by scammers.”
“Professional journalism is needed to underpin the democracy moving forward,” he stressed.
The former Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) believes that there is a high level of professionalism in state media as compared to the private sector.
“State media displays some high professional standards,” he said.
In the area of social media, he is said it is only a bad media that will pick materials on social media and publish it without verifying.
The role of the established media is to put themselves in the area of trust so that people who see materials on social media can rely on them for verification, he said.