EFFECTIVE MEDIA MANAGEMENT: A TOOL FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I am one of the few people who believe that the speed of the media is faster than the speed of light. And like light, its effects are visible and profound. Where a single media release can go from one place, a flash of light in one domain might be too thin for the eye to catch. It is therefore imperative for media houses and individuals to control and give direction to the content of the information they release to the world around them. However, effective media management begins with inter-personal relatioships or interactions then to the vast majority of people out there. Because of the power of the media, it can either promote development or the stagnation of anachy, under-development, bloodshed among many.

The media set the agenda for the day; from that early morning phone call, tuning to that FM station, and the reading of the bill board made alive by series of informations posted on them, the day seems programed already for certain actions and reactions. The number one target of the arrow of information released by media content is the mind. Once the mind is struck with that information a proccess of induced appropriate or inappropriate reactions and responses begins. If it has been in the military, this would had been termed the communication strategy, where the activities of an enemy aims directly at its opponent's mind with the services of either disorienting them, disarming them psychologically, or programing them to their advantage. Proper media managent is indepensable for the promotion national peace and development. We are in the information age, hence, the age where information and the structures that disseminate it are more powerful than the most dangerous explosives the world has ever known. An information released by a media can deactivate a nuclear weapon from being launched and can as well atomize it for destruction as well.

A typical example of poor media management was the genocidal spectacle the world witnessed in 1994, Rwanda. The tention between Tutsis and Hutus heigthened when one Hutu went on air and branded the Tutsis as 'cockroach', hence must be exterminated. This hindred development and was able to subject potential Foreign Direct Investors under a leash, controlling their monies away from Rwanda. If people in remote villages can catch a virus of distabilizing information far way from urban centers by tuning in to an FM station managed by degenerated media men on a battery-fed radio, who will stabilize the situation if it grows worse? It is also obvious, the strange value systems hacking the typical African cultural network through the activities of the media. I am not refering those African cultural practices that exalt female genetal mutilation, widowhood rights, and all those bad traditions that must be done away with but rather those that are God-inspired; those that promote respect for the elderly and so on.

One of the prevalent diseases emanating from both the print and electronic media is pornography. The news stands are full of such papers that excite wrong sexual passions which stir-up rape tendencies in men, wearing trousers without zips. The electronic media is worse of; you can avoid buying a pornographic news paper or magazine but can not avoid that same guest of pornography in your hall or bedroom when you turn on the television.

Democracy seems good yet it has its consequences; it sometimes makes people forget that, their freedom of speech and their political, economic, religious, and social rights end where another's begins. The State may have slim chances denying any private media firm existence like it is happening in Djibouti, other wise I would have said that, State must sanction all of such private media firms whose reportage and media content negates State initatiatives towards national development, morally, politically, economically and socially. But, so much power in the hands of a currupt central government is equally a disaster. In Ghana, the media has become the fourth arm of government; therefore it requires the independence to operate without any State interferances.

Sometimes we mock God's word but come to thinks of it, if the Holy Bible say's we should allow our words to be seasoned with salt and be full of grace and we obey, who amongs us will speak violence, promote pornography, speak against presidents and humiliate them in both the eyes and ears of the public on a radio or a TV? Who amongs us will allow a journalists use a fowl language in describing a situation and wrongfully and uncessarily politicizing them to the advantage of a party and to the disadvantage of public peace and unity. But, the problem of poor media management is so not because government is weak but because godly men are few.

Failing to learn wisdom from nature's own interactions with itself and the effect thereof has caused most men to live their lives in ignorance and deception. If there is a dry and wet season, as is the case of Ghana, what makes media men fail to realize that every political, economic, and religious season and what they must report? The media's number one responsibility apart from promoting development is to instill hope among the people. It is to let the people know the real situation on-going but in away that tells them there is still hope no matter the bad situation around.

I propose that all media firms with special political affiliations to any political party must be removed from existence by law. The popular saying, “If the dog bites the man is not news but if the man bites the dog is news” must be protested against. In the 2008 presidencial elections, Ghana, a reporter from one TV sation affirm this negative statement I have indicated above. She expressed disappointment as she went to one polling station to cover a story that was netralised, I believe by many prayers of God's people. She said, “I am disapointed by the time a got here because there was nothin to write” this she said due to the relatively voilence that went on in other polling stations. She wanted to cover a story that will sift out the hope and the peaceful anticipation of a peaceful election process of her own people. People like these are yet to understand the essence of the media.

Finally, I ask government to pass into law a ban on all radio and TV programs as well as news papers that promotes excessive pornography, violence, and all the likes. If courts will rule in favor of adverts that promotes alcoholism in the country, special duties should be charged on all imported and locally manufuctured alcoholic beverages, this I believe will minimize the rate of such adverts that runs on our air waves. May we all rise up to this call and support programs that educate and promote national development in Ghana and the rest of Africa.

BY: Fidel Y. Tetteh-Modernghana.com

Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com