Blame lecturers for declining standards in journalism – Former GJA President

Kabral Blay Amihere, former president of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has blamed the poor quality of “latter-day journalists” on the lack of qualified lecturers at the various Journalism training schools in Ghana.

According to him, the practice of journalism is practical and therefore, training of journalists must involve intense practical work, something a number of lecturers currently lack.

“Most of the lecturers have gone to the best schools, masters PhD’s but when it comes to practice, few of them have had that practical experience, so they will teach something like writing an editorial, when they themselves have not seen or done one before,” he said.

He stressed that, “the gap between theory and practice has always been there and it is a void that must be filled.”

The former GJA president said another contributing factor to the poor quality of journalists in the country is the lack of learning materials and the absence of local content in the little literature available.

“Literature or books available are very few for journalism and those are even written from America and Europe for us and so the examples and experiences that are shared in those books don’t match with our realities,” he bemoaned.

Speaking at the launch of a book ‘Principles of Applied and Practical Journalism” written by Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie in Accra, Mr. Amihere, spoke of the need for all journalists and communication student to get a copy of the book.

“There are about 400 private FM stations in this country and not too many of those who work there have had formal education in Journalism but there are being trained on the job, so I recommend this book for them.”