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The National Media Commission (NMC) has advocated more media coverage of topical issues in the country such as the increasing presence of women in politics instead of dwelling on trivialities.
According to the Executive Secretary of the NMC, George Sarpong, the media plays a crucial role in projecting a positive image of the country.
He made this known when he spoke on Class FM’s women empowerment programme Women’s Manifesto on Tuesday August 9, during which he also urged the media to give more coverage to women in politics.
“The media across the world, particularly in Ghana, is, in terms of ownership and leadership, heavily gender-biased against women,” Mr. Sarpong observed.
“… What are the things that excite media attention? Research across the world has shown that conflict, drama, and issues like that drive media content across the world. These are what we call the macho elements; the kinds of things that are so muscular, and so the critical issues that confront society that particularly women in leadership and women in public life tend to engage themselves with, like questions about development, education, health, sanitation … are not the things that the media concern themselves with because they are not ‘the conflict’ and ‘the drama’. And, so, to that extent, the structure of the media and the content of media itself is biased…” he stated.
Mr. Sarpong continued: “That then leads to a certain attitude towards sourcing the material, and in sourcing the material, media tend to pursue those sources that are likely to play them along the lines of conflict, drama, violence, and issues like that. The concern that the commission has is that once this generally may explain the phenomenon, it does not entirely excuse the media because your programme – Women’s Manifesto – it’s a choice Class FM has made, so every media house has a certain degree of choice in determining who to source content and news from and how to handle questions of selection.”
