Lazy Journalism: A Ghanaian Thing?

Ours is fast becoming a country in which intellectual-laziness or, to give it a more colorful name, mediocrity is generally practiced and accepted as “normal.”

Politicians who know absolutely nothing about administration can make it into positions of power (simply because they were the most vociferous during their party's campaign leading to the election and deserve to be rewarded), and individuals who should have being better off making a living in carpentry or farming are able to find their way into parliament and, in there; they are bound to put in a mediocre shift for four solid years and be paid for it.

Sadly, 70% of our journalists are also part of this bandwagon. 30% of Ghanaian journalists are top notch individuals who write everyday and are constantly learning and honing their craft while the rest range from good to competent to average to just plain rubbish.

There are people who don't have much interest in journalism and are only in it to make a living. They don't have any passion for it and won't seek to improve themselves. These are the lazy ones; the lazy intellectuals; the lazy journalists who are making “lazy journalism” a “Ghanaian thing.”

Yes. That's the bitter truth; and, something you can prove for yourself.

Just pick up a few of our newspapers on a given day and peruse their contents. If you have a good grasp of the English Language (both written and spoken), you'll soon be spotting countless grammar crimes, improper sentence structuring, and a shameful lack of writing finesse. Same goes for some of our broadcast journalists—both radio and TV. Writing crimes that if committed in other countries will cause the grammar police to hunt you down are the norm in our newspapers and the online media.

The social media, in particular, is notorious for such sorry writing and reportage. Everybody becomes a journalist, and a single reading of few opinion pieces posted online could drive you bonkers, and you'll end up nursing a disturbed mind in the grammar hospital. Yes, the writing is that horrible.

Instances of poor journalism make me wonder, at times, whether such media houses have editors at all. Or, the editors themselves aren't good? They are not better than the writers they edit? Then what in journalism's name are they being paid to do?!

Truth be told, such lazy journalism doesn't bode well for our nation. It is a minus for the development of our dear motherland and needs to be curtailed without hesitation

Let's kick “lazy journalism” out of Ghana. Mediocrity isn't and will never be a virtue.

NB: Stanley Courage Dugah is a self-educated writer and poet based in Ghana. He regularly blogs at scdugah.wordpress.com. Besides writing online (wherein he has won multiple writing contests), he's also working on a number of novels, novellas, short stories, and a poetry collection. His debut work titled "A Love Tale, a Political Satire, and a Thriller" will be published and launched in July, 2013.

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