By: Stephen Ssenkaaba
Week two of our stay in Ghana went by so fast. After the first few days of touring and dancing,the honeymoon was soon over. We quickly shifted gears and started our internships. Our first day at work was Friday. A strange day to start work if you asked me. But after Professor Leslie Steeve’s explanation that the following Monday would be a national holiday in Ghana, it made sense. I could sense a mixture of anxiety and excitement as we pressed our clothes and polishedour shoes on Thursday night in preparation for our first day at work. What would it be like? I kept asking myself. The journalist in me thought perhaps this would be one of those newsroom experiences, with slight differences. Yet, as a person who spent my entire journalism career working for newspaper and online media, I knew my work was cut out for me.
Certainly, my newsroom experience in Uganda would not count for much here. Deep down though, I felt privileged to have been selected to work in a country like Ghana where the media, despite several challenges, is thriving; a country where press freedom is far better, albeit not perfect, than many in African countries; one with a vast landscape of new and traditional media. After a drive through town, we dropped off some of our colleagues to their places of work. Others were not so lucky. They were asked to return on Tuesday.
The team at GHOne TV received me so well. I walked into a busy and fresh-faced newsroom manned and run by journalists with youthful faces and energy. Alice Aryeetey my internship advisor, a softspoken, demure young lady welcomed me and after introducing myself as a Ph.D. student she introduced me to my new colleagues as “Professor Stephen”. What a way to start my internship!
On Saturday July 9th, we had a tour of Elmina and Cape Coast castles. Elmina Castle is one of the early stops along the path of the Atlantic slave trade. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it stands atop a raised ground, overlooking the tin roofed houses of the Elmina fishing village. Glowing on the outside with its white coat of paint, this castle holds deep, dark secrets of torture, suffering and death of innocent African slaves at the hands of their European captors. A deathly silence followed us as we ambled through the dark, dirt floored dungeons that kept African slaves before being shipped to Europe and other places.
Our faces welled up with tears as Atoour tour guide took us through the painful torture routines that the captive men and women went through. Cape Coast castle, another of the notorious slave castles also holds tear-jerking stories that belie its pristine, majestic exterior, very similar to Elmina Castle. Visiting these places left us with important lessons not just about the atrocities of slave traders but also about resilienceand the sacrifice of their victims.
After a quiet reflection of what we had seen and heard, we quietly waded our tired feet through the dungeons, the sad stories playing out in our minds until we exited the concrete arched castle doors to the calming embrace of the seaside breeze.
Our first day at work was a Tuesday, following the long weekend to the castles. I was happy that I would be working at GHOne TV and at Starr FM, the two flagship media platforms owned by the Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) network, one of Ghana’s media conglomerates. I also got introduced to the key people that I would be working with. Musah Lansah, the burly, easygoing deputy news editor would supervise my internship, along with Alice. Lansah came to work wearing an ankle length Islamic tunic and black leather sandals. He struck me as a warm, friendly guy with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Even though I have never worked in broadcast media, I was excited about this opportunity for in it I envisage an opportunity to learn more about convergence of media platforms.
EIB network owns over 8 broadcast media platforms, two of which transmit in local languages. It has an interesting blend of traditional and new media operations that harness the old and new capabilities of media. I was excited to shadow journalists as they go about their work. Most importantly, I was eager to use my experience here to observe news routines and interview journalists and editors about their work.
My first assignment was to shadow journalists assigned to cover the New Patriotic Party (NPP) national executive elections starting Saturday, July 16th. I joined the team at the Accra Sports stadium to cover the events leading up to this day on Friday. From 7:30 am to midday, I observedand interviewed different people. I was intrigued at the intensity of coverage going on as journalists from different media converged at the stadium, using all sort of reporting tools: Phones, cameras, social media, notebooks, and pens.
GHOne TV has its journalist on site conducted panel discussions with key politicians on matters of national importance. All that went on was livestreamed on social media platforms. It was interesting how reportage overlaps media, tools, and platforms. There is just so much to learn here.