A LECTURER at the Department of Publishing Studies of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, has called on radio stations to stop the use of politicians as panel members for morning show discussions.
He said politicians discuss issues based on party affiliations, denying the people objective analysis of matters affecting national development.
Speaking in an interview, Dr Opoku-Amankwa stressed the need for panel discussions not only to be composed of technocrats with deep knowledge of issues at stake, but also people who would discuss such issues dispassionately to accelerate sustainable national development.
He also expressed concern about the over-reliance on newspapers in discussing radio morning show programmes in the country.
The lecturer noted that the situation had been the main cause of political intolerance, resulting in the use of insults and foul language on radio.
He pointed out that the over-reliance on newspapers for morning show programmes proved that the radio stations did not have their own programmes to be discussed each morning.
“This tell us that on their own, they do not have planned programmes for their listeners. This is not good enough, because discussions which have politicians as the main panel members give the politicians the leeway to do things the way they want, instead of putting them on the carpet to address issues of national concern,” he stated.
Dr Opoku-Amankwa, therefore, challenged proprietors of radio stations to impress upon their producers to change the format of over-dependence on newspapers for their morning show programmes.
He said radio stations should rather devise formats that would reflect the promotion of health, education, agriculture and environmental issues among others, and stressed that such issues were key to sustainable national development.
Dr Opoku-Amankwa pointed out that the over-concentration of newspapers and use of foul language on radio undermined the primary objectives of journalists being the watchdogs of society, explaining that radio stations fail to explore areas that would put politicians on the carpet for them to respond to issues they had failed to address over the years.
“It is not good to discuss headlines of newspapers from morning to midday, based on partisan lines because such discussions do not help to properly address issues that promote accelerated and sustainable national development,” he said.
He pointed out that by designing well-defined formats and communication plans for such morning show programmes, as well as inviting technocrats with deep-seated knowledge as panel members instead of those affiliated with particular political parties, the radio stations would be able to explore the problems that had undermined the effective and efficient development of education, health, sanitation and agriculture, among others, which he said had become major problems in the country over the years.
“Our first year students are still not in the classrooms because there are no facilities to accommodate them for them to start their academic programmes. Teachers are not attending to them, and from the look of things, it is not likely that they would undertake any serious academic programme before the terms ends. These are the issues that should be taken up by the radio stations, because the students are supposed to complete their programme in three years, so efforts should be made to ensure that they do not suffer unduly,” he bemoaned.
Dr Opoku-Amankwa also pointed out that the issue of armed robbers harassing the citizenry, which the police had described as being over-blown by the media, are other concerns that should be properly investigated by the media to calm the nerves of the public.
He pointed out that so far, our politicians have proved that they are not capable of addressing the problems of educational reforms, so the media should also take up the challenges affecting education reforms in the country from pre-school level to tertiary and explore means by which the citizenry can take to address the challenges.
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