"Ghana’s television will be used to supplement our educational programme and foster a lively interest in the world around us. It will not cater for cheap entertainment (or) commercialism. Its object will be education in the broadest sense. Television must assist in the socialist transformation of Ghana" – Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Dr. Nkrumah said this on the 31st July 1965 when he was commissioned the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and I will hasten to add that we must use our TV for "…the democratic and nationalistic transformation of Ghana " instead of to socialism.
I relate this to the role that our TV stations are playing in disorienting us. Recently, I was interviewed by one of our stations about the premiere league. I didn’t know anything about it and I didn’t care but because of the hype they were creating I was forced to know. The issue is that Ghanaians have developed such a liking to these leagues that it is affecting our local ones. An English premiere league match will be broadcast live and complimented with Ghanaians holding panel discussions displaying their knowledge of players and coaches as if they lived next door to the. This disorientation and a show of inferiority to the highest.
We should be proud of what we have and focus on developing it to meet standards instead of neglecting them. Walk into any local league match which is coincidentally being played on a premiere league match day and you will see the one Ghanaians prefer. The English Premiere League is for the English and our leagues are for us! And I think our TV has not helped us to realize this If it’s the World Cup, fine, its for the whole world.
Our TV is shoving things from foreign leagues to soap operas with even questionable grammar down our throats.
Even the our reality shows that we are all excited about are carbon copies. Take Mentor and American Idols for instance. How are these to transform us to believe in ourselves?
What is the National Orientation Ministry doing about this trend if even it has noticed? I’m afraid we might wake up one day after watching TV and not know our nationalities
George Korang Appiah
Ghana Institute of Journalism, Accra
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