President John Dramani Mahama has asserted that any attempt to revive the state-owned media goes beyond retooling.
He has, therefore, called for a holistic strategy to secure their relevance in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape.
The President was responding to an appeal from the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfuor, who called for urgent government intervention to rescue struggling state media outlets.
The GJA President told the President it was important to fulfill his 2024 campaign promise to revitalize the sector, warning of imminent collapse without decisive action.
“We need government intervention to save our dying state-owned media from collapsing. Ahead of the 2024 election, the then presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, pledged at a media engagement to retool the state media and bring life into it. You even promised that you will under no circumstances privilege it,” he stated.
President Mahama, responding, admitted that there were structural and financial challenges that ought to be addressed.
He was, however, quick to add that the media landscape has changed and that while retooling remains important, there was the need to strengthen content and production to meet modern audience demands.
He cited the Financial Times and The New York Times as examples of successful traditional media outlets that have so far adapted in the digital age.
“The state media are caught up in the changing media. Because the landscape has changed, and people are consuming information from more sources than before. This means people are reading fewer newspapers, and people want less of the traditional media and getting a lot of their information from short videos and bloggers,” he explained.
“It is not enough to just retool the state media, but also see how we can enhance their production so that they continue to remain relevant. We can take best practices from international news platforms,” President Mahama said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
