Ghanaian Journalists Must Be Social Thinkers — US Professor Dr. Hasty

A US Fulbright Specialist and Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Jennifer Hasty, has urged Ghanaian journalists to be social thinkers and use journalism to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ghana.

She said that as social thinkers, journalists should take Ghana’s culture and development challenges into account and develop and practice journalism that is aligned with Ghana’s culture and development challenges and not follow American and Eurocentric style of journalism practice without due regard to conditions in Ghana.

Dr. Hasty, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States of America, noted that although her encounter and experience with the Ghanaian media reveal a vibrant media landscape, she, however, chided the media for allowing Eurocentric and American style of journalism to creep into the Ghanaian and African media landscape. This, she criticized, is not suitable for African local conditions and situations and encouraged journalists to "go beyond the traditional style of who said what and when", the practice of which, she said "is rampant in the American media."

She made these comments at a lecture at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in Accra. The lecture was on the theme "de-Westernization of the Ghanaian Media.” Dr. Hasty is the author of "The Press and Political Culture in Ghana", a book she wrote in 2005 after spending about three years in Ghana working in the media, including the Daily Graphic, Ghana News Agency, Independent, Public Agenda, and the Ghanaian Chronicle.

Responding to a question about how to develop and practice Ghanaian style of journalism when there appears to be established standards in journalism practice, she acknowledged that although there are shared values in the practice of journalism ”Ghanaian and African values” should inform the practice of journalism in Ghana, adding that Ghanaian and African media have a greater role to play in the eradication of bad governance, poverty, disease, and hunger.

Turning to Western media reportage of events and issues in Africa, Dr. Hasty criticized the pessimism of the Western media in their reportage on Africa, noting that "these kinds of reports suggest all doom and gloom for Africa, but there are equally a lot of good stories about Africa; talk about the rising economies of Botswana, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and others.”

She appealed to the Ghanaian media in particular, to "think of Ghana as an actor and a subject in the global community", and to desist from "personalized reports on ethnicity and tribalism."

Dr. Hasty is in Ghana under the auspices of the US Fulbright Specialist Program and at the invitation of the Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), a think tank incorporated under US law as a 501 (c) (3) research and education organization and also under Ghana law.