THE CHIEF Executive Officer of the Centre for Media Analysis Limited (CMA), Dr. Messan Mawugbe, has stated that the 1st and 2nd quarter media research findings have revealed that President J. A. Kufuor is commonly referred to as 'a vampire'.
"Where are we going? It is sometimes sad; these are words we don't use for our parents in our homes but we use them for the President, the Head of State of the Republic of Ghana. Are we so disrespectful to the family head? he reprimanded.
He said the presidency should be identified as a national collateral so long as a country's image is a corporate identity, but it would generate its equivalent direct payment depending on the value put on it.
Disclosing this during the presentation of the Research Findings yesterday, Dr. Mawugbe said some of the names the President was called included, occultist, tribalistic, thief, liar and traveler.
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He continued that on the Ex-President, the most common referential adjective used for him was hooligan.
"How are you qualifying your President, how are you qualifying your country?
We have issues like abusive, undemocratic, bully, tribalistic, hooligan, violent, where are we going as a country?"
"Ghana is not going to have only two presidents. Are they all going to be called hooligans raised to the power four or five?" he demanded.
Dr. Mawugbe said the pie chart indicated that in terms of positive reports, President Rawlings constituted 25% positivity, with 73% negativity.
He noted that issues of that sort do not help the nation since internationally, every country was regarded from the Presidency.
He argued that the media seemed to avoid complex discussions and just preferred to stoop low by casting insults.
"If you insult a person, might he change? I don't think so. Get people convinced rather through your views on an issue".
Touching on business sector reporting, he noted that the year under review was January to December last year, adding that although Rural Banks had an important role in nation building, the media, for instance the Business and Financial Times newspaper, rather focused on Insurance and Banks and neglected Rural Bank reportings.
He said tourism, which is another area newspapers must feel encouraged to pursue in order to develop the industry, has been neglected.
"If you take Graphic for example, they are doing well, but the topics here do not really interest; look at mining, aviation, insurance banking and what role do these constitute in the lives of Ghanaians as compared to the rural banking?" he pointed out.
On Chief Executive Officers' media ranking, Dr. Mawugbe said CEOs were good corporate brands because their identity was linked to the corporate identity.
He said in that category, the Ecobank Manager, Mr. Samuel Aryitey, was listed first among the top ten CEOs in Ghana, adding that in certain cultures, the CEOs' media identity was taken very seriously.
On the media perception ratings, Dr. Mawugbe indicated that the international media focused on economy, which recorded only 41% coverage, but were however expecting more from the media.
He intimated that Africa was mostly known by the international media as a continent with civil wars.
"I think this is not the time to promote 'afrocentricism', but I think this is the time to promote dialogue," he cautioned.
