02.19.2010 at 12:35 pm | Have your say »

Citizen Journalism on the next level – The Ghana experience

A citizen journalist lurking behind the scenes of torture secretly filmed the video at his own peril.

As the case may be, some army officers, detailed to restore peace at Bawku in the Northern part of the country were instead, busily inflicting pain, harm and disgrace on two innocent pupil teachers for no obvious wrongdoing.

The citizen journalist, who requested anonynomity, later sent copies of his tape to two major media organizations, TV3 and the Daily Guide.

It was headline news on that television station, which is one of the most watched in the country. The station repeated it so many times that everybody in Ghana got to know.

It was also the only Front Page story on one of the biggest private newspapers, the Daily Guide, with pictures of the two being whipped.

Soon, an incident that escaped the lenses of professional journalists was all over the airwaves as other media organizations, especially radio stations reviewed the paper and opened their phone lines for a public discussion on it.

This is one video that awakened the instinct of many more Ghanaians to the contribution and impact that citizen journalism could have on the overall development of Ghana.

Citizen journalism has come of age and on daily basis, there are many more cases been reported by these “journalists”.

Hitherto, citizen journalists were neither recognized nor rewarded. The few citizens who showed interest in this type of journalism did not also have enough motivation.

Following this exposure, however, many Ghanaians became citizen journalists reporting varying issues on politics, disasters, and environment among others.

The concept is thriving in Ghana now and growing by the day and more so through radio.

With more than 100 radio stations across the country, citizens have become instrumental in breaking the news and setting the agenda.

A citizen journalist has the option of reporting through different medium including internet, radio, television and newspaper.

Internet users are rather few but that notwithstanding, these media organizations are reaching out to the few who have online access, through social media such as facebook and twitter.

Through this medium, citizens write their findings and opinions on burning national issues.

| Tagged Case Studies, Ghana