Election 2020 Coverage and Coronavirus: Why the media should be concerned

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has warned that the quality of the 2020 election coverage by the mainstream media is likely to decrease with the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Programme Officer at MFWA, Kwaku Krobea Asante, shared on e.TV Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet Show: “I foresee huge limitations in the coverage of the elections. Election coverage comes with huge infrastructure.

"Every media wants to pride themselves with the best coverage. They want to prove to the audience that they are the best but then COVID-19 sets in.”

Kwaku envisaged that COVID-19 is likely to affect the number of human resources available to cover the elections as well as the motivation of this human resource.

He told host Samuel Eshun, "one important thing for election coverage is the training of the personnel, especially with technology. This is what we call Multimedia journalism.

It is also about asking the right questions and getting the right information. So you still need the people. So with COVID-19 when it comes to human resources, motivation and some other things, the media is cut low”.

He furthered that it is important that the media take note of how COVID-19 will affect them and how they can find a solution.

He adds that during the election, there will be much more information on social media. However, people will rely on the mainstream media for verification.