Just in Case You Missed the Comments on CHRAJ's Anna Bossman...

Last week's post about the Ghanaian media, and Anna Bossman elicited zero comments on my blog, but plenty on Facebook! Food for thought...

Updated on Thursday · Comment · Like / Unlike

Samson Ojo, Julius Sowu and 2 others like this.

Francis Doku

Good for you

August 20 at 12:30pm · Delete

Emmanuel K Bensah Jr

the new blog has already been set up. The content is en route--so-to-speak: http://ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com

August 20 at 1:14pm · Delete

Ato Ulzen-Appiah

She's on Facebook? how cool. another blog, Emmanuel, wonte gyae koraa! Bravo.

August 20 at 7:01pm · Delete

Francis Doku

how many blogs do you have?

August 20 at 7:02pm · Delete

Anna Bossman

Thank you Emmanuel

August 20 at 9:42pm · Delete

Emmanuel K Bensah Jr

Ms.Bossman, it was a great pleasure! Looks like some people are unaware how Facebook-friendly you are;-) @Francis: blogs I have? That's a tough one. Let's just say I regularly maintain six of them. Right now, I have been very regular on four. @Ato: I am begging for a translation, please; I only understood "koraa":-) Cheers!

Fri at 9:50am · Delete

Ato Ulzen-Appiah

hehe, wonte gyae means you don't understand stop. basically you keep on going, nothing stops you :-)

Fri at 9:53am · Delete

Oluniyi David Ajao

Hmn. The media landscape is a bit too mediocre. Indeed, Joy FM (and its sister stations) and Citi FM stand out among the legions of wanna-bes. If only many journalists were not so deeply entrenched in partisan politics.

Good write-up Emmanuel. Keep up the good work.

Fri at 10:12am · Delete

Emmanuel K Bensah Jr

@Ato: takes one to know one, I guess!;-) @David:thx for kind words. Keep the fire burning urself!

Fri at 12:19pm · Delete

Nana Awere Damoah

@Emmanuel: I do have my own little testimony concerning Madam Bossman. I was preparing for the launch of my first book Excursions In My Mind last Dec (See fotos of book launch: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=74981&l=87730&id=570051201), and was looking for someone to chair the function. A friend said he may be able to get Madam Bossman to ... Read Morechair, but I said, hey, pls I dont think she will have time to attend. so we find another person to chair. I find her on Facebook, humbly ask that I be her friend, which she consented to. I invite her on FB to attend the launching; she again accepted the invite, joining the events page on FB. D-Day, I am standing infront of the hall, I see a car arrive, a policeman opens the door and with my mouth aping the opened door of the car, I welcome Madam Bossman to my book launch! Biggest surprise of the day, which still thrills me when I think of it. So she is right, she sees no 'small fries'.

Fri at 9:57pm · Delete

Nana Awere Damoah

On the other point u raised, I hold the view that we have vy little creative writing amongst our journalists. most of them are just conveyor belts. The minister said, the victim said, the President reported that...bla bla. I am in Nigeria presently and anytime I come here, reading their newspapers is a pleasure, though I think some tend to be ... Read Morevoluble, but there is indeed creativity, fluency and depth in what they write. And there are journalists who are into articles that go behind the scenes, analytical treatment of the headlines. We dont see that a lot in Ghana. And when we do see such attempts, the political innuendoes just cloud the intended messages. We have some work to do, and it shd start when the practitioners themselves acknowledge that they have a deficit that they need to clear to the point of excellence.

Fri at 10:08pm · Delete

Nana Awere Damoah

Finally on Shamima, I was privileged to meet her in Nottingham when a reception was hosted for British council scholars in the Midlands, when I was a Chevening scholar then and I was impressed with her; her mettle shows in her work at Citi. Which brings to mind another fine journalist, Marie Acolatse, at Metro TV (I think her surname has changed ... Read Morenow, abi?), also a Chevening scholar. The Chevening thing is coincidental, but my main point is that for both ladies, advance training has had a part to play in their excellence. Komla is another example. Kwaku Baako impressed me always with how much he learns and improves each time I listen to him. There are countless examples of such who have done some more training just beyond GIJ. Our journalists need to realise that strand, their training shdnt end at GIJ. A knowledge of English and access to ink, paper, mic or camera shdnt be the only criteria for journalism. Continuous training and self-development shd be the key.

Fri at 10:15pm · Delete

Nana Awere Damoah

Now, finally (hehe, u know when u are sitting under the voice of a boring and lengthly sermon/speech and the speaker says finally or in conclusion, pls dont take him at his word, lol), vy nice piece, I enjoyed reading it. Cheers and menti gyae!

Fri at 10:19pm · Delete

Ato Ulzen-Appiah

am i now Madam Bossman's biggest fan or what? :-)

Fri at 11:30pm · Delete

Julius Sowu

Am adding my voice to the praise of Ms Anna Bossman, for her work.

Nana more to the point there is no doubt on the creativity of our peoples, you just have to be at any bossing session to know we as a nation have a creativity in turn of phrase which is the envy of the world. Its the freedom of mind which seems to hold us back when applying this creativity, I have always put this down to our attitude to authority, for some reason when given authority/responsibility we tend to defer to our "boss" and as such do nothing for fear of doing the wrong thing.
Thus the average Journalist will not report as he sees it but how it will be perceived, and as in many cases this impacts his livelihood not surprising.
... Read More
This independence of mind is missing not just in Journalism, but in many spheres of our community.

I will end with the Ethos that saved my sanity as a young man "yes you can criticise/correct your elders, and still show respect, in fact it is your duty to do so"

Sat at 8:12am · Delete

Nana Awere Damoah

@Julius: I agree with you. In his amazing book "Outliers", Malcolm Caldwell calls it 'mitigation speech', lack of assertiveness. I agree.

Sat at 8:15am · Delete

Julius Sowu

Not read Outliers but love the title and will look for it

Seeing as you raised Ms Bossman in your thread will give you a personal take on it, as we grew up there were certain oasis's in Accra where one could be a "free minded" individual and the Bossman household was one of these such places, in fact how they put up with our shenanigans at the ... Read Morefabled "box" I will put down to love.

Suffice to say everyone who passed through there turned out to be the most creative people I personally know,and can only put it down to the fact we could "find" ourselves in a society at the time which did not bode well for "free thinkers" and take this opportunity to thank the family for saving my sanity.

Sat at 8:35am · Delete

Emmanuel K Bensah Jr

@Nana Awere: many thanks for ur kind comments. My God, this has got to be the longest comments I have had. I might have to drop in Ms.Bossman's name ini my posts regularly!:-) Nana, am with you on the Nigerian journalism. Though I have never been to Nigeria, our trusted friend, the 'Net, has given profound insight into our ECOWAS neighbours. @Ato: ... Read Morenot to be sycophantic or anything, but Ms.Bossman deserves more commendation than she usually gets. IMHO, her strength is all that you guys have said, PLUS the strength of her character--pity she's unable to use her French so much in Ghana:-( @Julius: if u haven't already connected with Ms.Bossman, she's reading this, and you might just do that! Thx for ALL ur insights!

5 minutes ago · Delete

Reflections on the Ghanaian Media (1): Small Fries and Anna Bossman on My Mind

On Monday evening, I was priviledged to have a brief Facebook-chat with no less than the very personable and delectable Ag.Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) Ms.Anna Bossman.

I like her; I've always done so. I think she often speaks truth to power. I love her candour, and the fact that she's so doughty--and such a strong woman. She has many endearing qualities, including her ability to talk to you like you mattered. I've met her personally before--but, then, she didn't know my name.

In short, we talked cursorily about the organisation of the 14th GJA Media Awards and how they could have rehearsed it. Plus the fact that we need to fight mediocrity in this country. I complained to her that I dropped the idea of meeting her at the panel because I'm small fry. It's difficult to tell with "celebrities" or people in the public eye, but when she wrote that I should have and she doesn't consider anyone "small fry", I kind of believed it. That she also engaged me first was a reflection of the degree to which she finds it important to do outreach even to people "beneath" her status. Did I say I like her?!!

All that said, I do not think you need to be a journalist to appreciate the work of journalists. Long before many of us knew what the Fourth Estate was in reference to, it was evident that their role was not to be sneezed at.

This is the reason why in scanning the media landscape, one cannot help but experience another level of frustration. Compared to my Nigerian counterparts, Ghanaian journalists in 2008/2009 have generally fallen short of quality and high standards. That might be rich coming from someone who is not a de jure journalist, but let's be real now: it's the truth! Grammar is often poor and, save the broadcast journalist, there are few that remain on top of the issues and give

robust interviews. One that easily comes to mind is CITI97.3FM's SHAMIMA MOSLEM, who is a very commendable broadcast journalist. (But more on her and CITI later!) Point is: many journalists and not just found wanting for quality, but napping.

Aware of this all-too-sorry state of affairs, which I consider a bit of a mini-crisis, I was greatly priviledged to sit on the 14th GJA Media Awards Committee out of the blue in June. The insights I have gained from these two months have only compounded the desire to do something constructive about it.

That I further got the opportunity to attend the awards night to see it all in what Graphic Showbiz's Francis Doku calls "Comedy of Errors" was not only humbling and a great honour, but a kind of great calling to blaze the trail on the improvement of standards in the profession. There is serious discontent among the fraternity of the inky kind and it needs must be resolved. I believe I would have failed if I do not take this experience to embolden a drive for improvement in the industry.

Even if I am "small fry".