By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Prof. Amin Alhassan has hinted that issues of Mal-information, including, misinformation and disinformation will continue to be on the rise so far as sourcing media content from nonprofessional sources persist.
Prof. Alhassan speaking at a GBC’s stakeholder meeting at the Alisa Hotel in Accra, explained that Ghana has witnessed a dramatic transformation of the media landscape in the last two decades, which reflects the wider Global phenomenon.
He continued further by saying “Beyond the fact that the audience is spoilt for choice due to the high number of media outlets, what is remarkable is the fact that the very model of mass media value-chain of content production, Transmission, and reception has changed.
We are seeing an increasing preference for Direct-to-Home (DTH) over Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). We are also witnessing a growth of online and social media over legacy media. With these developments, comes the increasing number of Ghanaians sourcing their media content from nonprofessional sources.
That is why the various strands of Mal-information, including, misinformation and disinformation will continue to be on the rise.”
According to him, the new media ecosystem has brought about a change in the media culture of Ghanaians. Adding that “Media consumption habits of Ghanaians have changed beyond our imaginations. What these changes mean for GBC is that our structures setup for Radio broadcasting some 80 years ago and TV broadcasting some 59 years ago appear not fit purpose.”
The DG of GBC maintained that the idea that Radio and TV operate as separate entities cannot be sustained in an era of extreme media convergence. As radio studios are changing to visualized studios and online and social media are transforming TV content into converged listening, viewing, and reading on our mobile phones and tablets, it cannot be business as usual at GBC. Change has been imposed on us. He noted.
Bold New Content
According to Prof. Alhassan, management and staff of GBC have only two options to choose from, i.e. either accept the new phenomena of happenings or resist change and soon become unsustainable.
However, the DG was quick to say “We have welcomed the change. In the last 3 years, we have rolled out bold new content both on radio and television. We have undertaken a comprehensive branding exercise.
Today, GBC can be rightly described as a House of Brands. We have moved from the idea of a GBC and one monolithic brand to 7 distinct TV brands. We have also repositioned the regional and district FM stations, 18 of them, into separate brand identities.
When COVID-19 struck and schools were closed down, within two weeks, we launched a brand new channel, Ghana Learning TV (GLTV). The channel is still running. We will continue to innovate and experiment with new content.”
