A Senior Lecturer at the African University College of Communications, AUCC, one of Ghana’s prestigious and premier journalism institutions, Mr. Samuel Ato Afful has advocated for regular refresher training for media people in active media practice. The exercise, he noted was essential in boosting the effectiveness and extra preparedness of media people to enhance their work.
Mr. Afful who made the call in an interview with Rite news during an in-house training for staff of Rite FM in Accra was convinced that such frequent training would also go a long way in enhancing the efficiency, skills and knowledge of workers to suit the current or modern trends of their chosen fields of endeavour.
The training which was organized by management of Rite FM, a subsidiary of Farm Management Systems Ltd, FMSL, was to afford its staff the opportunity to upgrade themselves through regular training sessions to enhance their chosen profession.
Most media houses in the country are privately owned; a situation the Senior Lecturer contends should tell the drive to organize such regular refresher training for their staff.
‘Most media houses in the country are owned by private individuals and so there is a need for owners to hold in –house training for their employees considering its beneficial aspect, effectiveness, and the extra building at large,’ he stated.
The media mogul, who also describes himself as a lifetime coach, took the opportunity to counsel people, particularly media practitioners to embrace the benefits of knowledge augmentation especially in a fast evolving world as the one in which we find ourselves today.
‘As the World is evolving, there is [the] need for every human being to learn further to upgrade every knowledge and information already acquired through regular assessments, tuition, and consultations,’ he encouraged.
According to him, in as much as the media is the mouthpiece of the public, its ‘code of ethics and principles cannot be handled anyhow.’
Media sanction:
The astute media lecturer also took the opportunity to call for sanity on the part of media houses in the Ghanaian media landscape. This follows the sanctioning of some 131 radio stations by the National Media Authority for various violations.
The National Communications Authority has sanctioned some 131 FM stations for various infractions of their authorizations to run as contained in section 13 of the Electronics Communication Act (2009), Act 775.
Mr. Afful laid the blame at the doorsteps of the government for its inability to fund the media in the country and thus giving the media and the profession the opportunity to ran on a ‘try and error’ basis. He added that, since most of the stations are privately owned, their sole aim is to make profit and survive.’ Such posture, he argued would end up serving personal interest and not the nation.
He so advised government to consider funding the media landscape which would later allow it to make sure that all laid down principles are followed.
Rite FM’s Agric Policy:
Rite FM’s exclusive focus on agric also won the applause of Mr. Afful. While commending Rite FM for its unique focus and ‘immense efforts in promoting Agriculture in the country and its rich content of production, brand and teamwork, nevertheless urged the station to take advantage of its unique focus to maximize its profitability.
Source: Joyce Bedeley/ritefmonline.org/jbedeley9357@gmail.com
