The growth of radio in the country is one of the indications of the media contribution to governance in the country. Literature abound on the important role radio plays in the lives of many Ghanaians. In the 2005 Afrobaromter survey, 67 per cent of respondents said they listen to radio news on a daily basis. Radio is hugely popular because most broadcast are done in the local languages and also it free to receive radio broadcast unlike newspapers, which are for sale. Some people also listen to radio as a matter of necessity, take northern Ghana for example, which always receives its national morning papers in the evening or a day later, so the papers appear on the stands when people in Accra have finished reading and digesting its content. Radio therefore provides the badly needed news in these parts of the country. The introduction of Phone-in programs have aided the popularity of radio stations as most people who ordinarily would not get space in the media to speak their minds, get a chance to debate public policy and even criticize public officials on a daily basis.

Freedom House, a not-for profit media and democracy organization, in its 2006 Map of Press Freedom places Ghana at par with countries like USA, Britain, South Africa and so forth.

The news media has in a little over a decade positioned itself as a partner of development. The media has been active in educating and keeping Ghanaians informed and helping develop communities. It goes to say that the media is largely responding to its role of supplying citizens with the kind of information needed to participate effectively in politics.

This is not to say that the media does not have challenges, it does. One major challenge that has been talked about severally is that of professionalism. I will limit the discussion of the challenges facing the Ghanaian media to professionalism because it has a direct bearing on the media’s role in making democracy work, as it should. There are examples of countries that have suffered wars due to unprofessional media practices… Rwanda is one such example. Any unprofessional practice has a high tendency of causing conflicts, which can retard development.

Professor Kwame in 2000 quoted from a Ghanaian Chronicle article, an apt description of the Ghanaian radio scene. He writes: “A number of FM stations have thrown all these marks of good broadcasting overboard. In their place, we have such pure nonsense ... Risky jokes and general frivolity have become the stock-in-trade of some of the very young persons — men and women — who sit in front of the microphones as they exchange what they judge to be pleasantries.” Six years later, in 2006, Dr. Kafewo Samuel also talks about the media growth not be commensurate with professionalism in an assessment of the Ghanaian media.

As we continue to discuss what needs to be done to raise media standards in Ghana, I believe it is important for us to also examine the kind of relationship that exists between the media and citizens. Is it one of the interdependency or self-opinionated? Where the media believe that they know it all and so people must “shut-up” and listen to them.

The Ghanaian media has traditionally interfaced with the public through person-on-the-street interviews, letters to the editor, phone-ins, emails and recently text messaging and blogging about issues thanks to the few websites we have.

Occasionally, you hear or read a story that has quotes of a person on the street. Other than that what you read or hear in most cases are views of public officials who have very extensive access to the media, thereby creating a huge imbalance in the public space.

The chief in Oblogo, for example, will in most cases have his views heard if his subjects decided to prevent Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) trucks from dumping garbage on their land other than that he is persona non-grata as far as the media is concern. Nobody seems interested in investigating the impact of the garbage landfill on the health of inhabitants of Oblogo.

Sometimes we tend to behave like the foreign media reporting on the “D’s”- death, despair, disaster and disease. But how is such news content relevant to the citizen, how does it address the needs of people in search of their daily bread, good shelter, education and good health for their children and themselves?

How many media houses, for instance, work with the AMA not covering their fracas with traders in Makola market but covering the process used by the assembly to arrive at fees/rates paid by residents in the city and how the revenues generated are expended? These are all public information, which are accessible to the media. Its just impossible all residents of Accra go to the AMA to request this kind of information but the media can on our behalf. Such an effort could engender transparency and accountability as many people will get an insight into how much money the AMA is projecting for a particular year, what the various budget line items are, how much it allocates to each of these items as well as the expenditure report for the previous year.

As the media strives to play its role in the Ghanaian democracy, it is important to address the challenges that can also retard development and initiate best practices.

I will like for us to ponder over the following questions:
• What do the media need to do so that the public can do its work?
• How can media connect with the public in a better way?
• How can new media work for the public?
• What kind of relationship does democracy require of citizens and the media?
• What are its characteristics? Please give examples.