Strategies to restructure the media, practitioners to promote national development

The topic on board is two-fold: strategies to restructure the Media and its Practitioners to promote National development. To start with, the antecedence of the media work in Ghana could be seen as sheepfold with opened gates and sleeping watchmen. The media with its practitioners is inseparably intertwined with a unique huge burden of responsibility of public enlightenment on national policies and programmes. The media over the years have played a pivotal role in shaping Ghana's democratic development but with endangering insecurity, brutalities, and inhumane atrocities perpetuated against practitioners,poor remuneration coupled with demoralizing working atmosphere and conditions making such profession and professionals easily seen as corrupt and susceptible to political influence and all forms of public bastardization. To strategically restructure this institution, one fairly needs to understand the constitutional provision establishing it and the various enabling agencies ensuring the operation of this 4th estate of the realm and how far so far their oversight responsibility ensured the good success or otherwise of national development. Most media houses we have in Ghana have been established by individuals with a profit-making mentality who care very little or to some large extent no regard for the professionalism and safety of staff. These self-centered profiteering owners resort to untrained or maybe halfway trained individuals without recourse to ethical standard operating systems to work with. When this is done, the workers' condition of service is always overlooked and downplayed often leaving them in a demoralized working environment and atmosphere which obviously creates the culture of the cup in hand for the working staff to be disrespected and prone to all vices of clandestine activities just to make a living. To cure this menace in the media landscape, the constitutional provision for the establishment of this institution should be reviewed with its attending agencies. Secondarily, the profession itself should be given some level of facelift to actually be seen as a profession with proper regulating association and body overseeing the professional conduct and delivery of its members and of course, which should be made compulsory for every graduating journalist to join. Our various universities and other accredited bodies that specialize in training these professionals should adequately be equipped with the right infrastructures and modern technology to enhance the professionals' right spectrum of technical know-how in communication and journalism for the right frame of national development. Thirdly, to ensure proper sanitization of the media landscape, we can have a higher professional body mandated to give professional certification even after one's bachelor's degree or better still a Diploma from a recognized university or accredited institute to help give impetus to the professional so that these individuals may have a certain level of working conditions of service clearly spelled out by the profession's umbrella (body) regulating its members and activities and even their mode of employment. Last but not least of the points stated: there can be a regulation or a system in place that does not allow just any businessman without journalistic background or succeeding business track record to establish a media house and also ban political parties and individuals with known links to political parties from establishing media houses. Again, various media houses should also have in place a high level of ethical standards to check political parties and politicians whom they give their platforms so that they do not compromise on issues of national interest. The media landscape has recently been bombarded with individuals bereft of a comprehensive understanding of the media profession thereby making most young and talented practitioners in this field largely seen as irresponsibly unethical and this has adversely affected the image of the media fraternity. May God help us.