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By Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra – 1 March, 2019
The Communication Students Association (COMSA) of Wisconsin International University College (WIUC) Ghana on Thursday celebrated one year of their newspaper production.
The occasion was also used to launch COMSA.
But the survival of the newspaper was the burning issue.
‘We have decided to do digital migration; anybody who wants to read the latest news can get it online,’ said the editor of a leading national paper. ‘But if you have [to choose between] the free content online and the hard copy, you will go for the free content online.’
He further explained that perhaps the most important challenge of newspaper production in Ghana is the lack of a reading cultur; ‘Even today newspapers that are bought for the school library are not read’.
However, he was emphatic that newspapers that continue to innovate will survive and that the newspaper will not die.
Bit it was difficult to concur with his statement, ‘Lengthy articles don’t make an impact because people don’t have time. Articles must be short, they must have pictures and infographics as well. Articles must be well researched.’
‘He is talking like a ghanaian,’ my mentor will jab.
If he had said that the length of the most frequently read news stories were between 200 and 500 words, then the research basis of his ‘people don’t have time’ quip will carry some weight.
There are several varieties of newspapers that appeal to various demographics; they carry different articles: and the articles must always be well researched.
Let us take, for example, the article “Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth” published on theguardian.com on 25 February, 2019 by Jonathan Watts.
This article is at least 1100 words long (2 A4 pages; Times New Roman font size 12).
It has been shared at least 27,000 times. It is packed full of crucial information and analysis.
Now can any of our national papers tell us how many of their online stories have been shared 27,000 times?
A renowned photo journalist in his presentation declared that he was ‘a practical man’ who was taking photos in order to tell the stories better.
‘When you’re relaxed comfortably in your chair, then you can write your nice Grammar,’ he joked obviously to laughter from participants.
The Chairperson had a direct response to this quip.
‘As Africans we don’t like reading, how can we know what good pictures are,’ he queried. ‘Your presentation raised a question; how do you translate the value of the picture you have taken.’
The photo journalist could only manage a smile.
The celebration of the first anniversary of Wisconsin News started with a welcome address by Prof Kwame Karikari, Dean of the School of Communication Studies, WIUC- Ghana.
He was happy for the occasion and congratulated the students for a good organisation.
The chairperson synthesised the evenings presentations very appropriately and offered a response to the selling price problem raised by a national editor.
‘As a mathematician and statistician, I can tell you the law of large numbers; ‘It [your paper] could be one Cedi, but if one million people buy at one Cedi you get a large amount of money.’
The chairman’s closing message to the students proved that he was indeed the Dean of the Wisconsin Business School.
‘If you don’t write the articles they can’t have the newspaper. If you don’t take pictures, they can’t have the newspaper. Be online journalists. That’s your word for today.’
Congratulations to COMSA.
Thank you Marshall Bobobee, my Online Journalism student, thank you Kwaku Bimpong, the MC, thank you Barbara Ameyaw, new COMSA president and all of you COMSA members who gave writersghana.com your platform.
Your motto is: ‘Effective Communication is Key’.
We trust that together we shall communicate with clarity and precision.
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Writers and Shakespeares Ghana Limited exist to be a moral and intellectual guide to the best practice of PR and integrated communications around the world, beginning with Ghana.