Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Kate Addo, has stressed the changes that have gone in the media landscape from when Ghana’s Legislature was first inaugurated in January 1993 and the establishment of the Public Affairs Department in 2003.
According to her, these new developments have not only created opportunities but also expanded the frontiers of information dessimimation and by which means.
Information dissemination, she said, was mainly through the major newspapers and the main TV and radio channels at the inception of Parliament with feedback being mostly in-person once in a while, and the citizens using the traditional media to complain.
She noted the terrain has changed so dramatically that statements and couple of interviews that have hitherto addresed these complaints have become inadequate to satisfy the Public.
Speaking on Saturday at a two-day training workshop organised for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC), Ms. Kate Addo argued not only are there more varied and sophisticated ways of finding out information, which has now made information management a lot more difficult, there now exist many high tech facilities that give easy and ready access to information sources.
She said, “Another issue is the development of electronic media at such a fast pace, ordinary citizens now compete with mainstream media practitioners. This idea is almost clichéd but the truth is that anyone with a smart phone can record and upload any news.”
“Indeed major news channels like CNN, BBC and even our local networks have on occasion, used footage from such smartphones for breaking news before the news team can actually get to the location of the breaking news.”
The Public Affairs Department, she said, is therefore committed to building and maintaining an effective and competent Press Corps as the success of Parliament’s public affairs unit can only be complete by working hand in hand with the media in Parliament.
She averred that the two-day workshop is aimed at equipping members of the PPC with the requisite skills to enable them to give their best in your reportage of proceedings from Parliament.
“The workshop is part of efforts at streamlining communications in Parliament, which I am sure we all will agree, have had challenges over the years, as a result of various reasons.”
“Again, this has become necessary in the face of misconceptions and bad press over the years that have tended to put the name of Parliament into disrepute, thereby creating disenchantment for Parliament by the citizens, she added.
According to her, the leadership of the House have expressed grave concern about these and many discussions have been had on ways to have a more effective information machinery to improve not just the communication drive, but also the overall public image of Parliament.
Source: MyPublisher24.com