HOW DO CITIZEN JOURNALISTS USING SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT THE ACTIVITIES OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA PRODUCTION AND HOUSES AND HOW ARE AND HAVE THE MEDIA HOUSES STRATEGIZED TO MEET THIS CHANGING TREND IN MASS MEDIA WORK TREND

A critical look at the trends of how the use of the social media has dominated the dissemination of information and news stories have push the journalism profession to the edge of collapsing. An instance the use of the social media such as twitter,Facebook , Blog Spot and the likes in transferring messages across the media which is much fast and accessible as compared to the of the main stream journalism where messages are sent across with the use electronic, waves where its operate based on it reach coverage.Hence information sent across using the social media gets down well with the audience due to its wide range of coverage and its accessibility in view with the traditional media which is extensively used by the mainstream professionals.

Innovation has been the core element of this era, it is frequently said that society is living in an information age; hence it has pave the way for the provision of diversities of information technologies world over. These technologies ranges from phone, social networking to other devices such printers, multiple voice recorders that have boost the effect of good communication all over. In the view of this inventions led to the rise of the term citizen journalism, where ordinary individual have the edge to send news stories via the above mentioned social networking.

With rise of citizen journalism due to the advent of social media , a core element of new media, for the purpose of understanding , we love to fully expand on the term, how its personnel’s operate , it merits and demerit, and how it affect the activities of traditional media and lastly how to tackle these effects

A citizen is an individual who has the legal right to stay in a country.Citizen journalism is different from civic or community journalism, where the latteris perform by professionals ,however, to the ordinary man on the street, the former simply refers to an individual who send messages or information via the internet using the social media such Facebook,BlogSpot about an issue of concern for consumption of the general public. Aside the above basic knowledge of the term, other school of thoughts have come out with different definition to this concept. Courtney C  Radsch a school of thought,  sees term to mean an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as response to the shortcoming in the professional journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional journalism. Also Jay Rosen proposes the term as’’ when the people formerly known as audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another’. From the definitions above, citizen journalism can be term as participatory or democratic journalism where the view of any concern citizen is taken into consideration as far as is news worthy. Also it can be ascertain the term as individuals taking the role traditional journalist by collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating information via the social network.

Citizen journalist using the social media to play the journalistic role poses a threat to the traditional media.

WHY IS IT CONSIDERED AS A THREAT

Social media’s reach is wider than that of the traditional media. An example is that, a person might get into contact with an issue and reports it on Facebook. The message cuts across worldwide and different people from different places get to know about that issue unlike a traditional or mainstream media who in its operations might report on an issue and that would not have a wider coverage like that of the social media.

Also, advertising is much cheaper on social media than in the traditional media.  Now goods and services are advertised on Facebook, twitter, and on individual’sblog sites. It is well known that most traditional media houses depend on advertising for survival. Now that people choose to advertise on social media, the traditional media is affected financially.

Social media helps bring out creativity in the individual or citizen. Individuals who report via Facebook, blogs, twitter etc., don’t report only words but also attach videos and audio files and images which explain his or her reportage and makes it lively than that of the traditional media where you are restricted to a particular format.

 Some of the weakness of citizen journalism is their lack of training, personal interest and copy wright issues.

Professional journalism are properly trained to understand the libel law which regulates the style of writing for public consumption, hence they (journalist) knows what is lawful and unlawful in connection to the what is news worthy or not.An instance is during the recent presidential petition in Ghana; almost all the convicted of libel contempt were either not properly trained journalist or have not full grasps of the libel law. Another disadvantage of citizen journalism is the probability of the individual being bias, thus to manipulate the information to suit his or her course.  An example is the Boston Marathon bombing where a citizen journalism wrongly accused some individuals as the culprits of the properly to satisfy his or her on desires hence causing huge tragedy for innocent people and also slowing down police investigation.  Lastly the threat place on them by the copy right law, where individual use their information without their knowledge either to advantage or not.`   

HOW THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA SHOULD STRATEGISe TO MEET THE CHANGING TREND

The traditional media are now employing new media strategies in their way of disseminating news. They are now using the social media to interact with its audience. An example is that, most media houses employ social media representatives to help circulate their issues and get feedback as soon as possible.

Most of the reportage by citizen journalist via social media are rumors. Some turn out to be false since there is no censoring.  The traditional media could use their own social media to correct those rumors.

An example is an instance when an ex-footballer called Mohammed Polo tweeted that ‘’ I think Kelvin Prince Boateng is not committed to the Black stars’’. A journalist called Ransford Frimpong Prempeh debunked it using proper journalistic approach i.e. researching on issue. He also did that via the social media.

To conclude, as it is popularly said that two heads are always better than one head and also, interdisciplinary approach is key to academic success.Based on the information presented above, we propose the traditional to take advantage of the invention of the social media to meet their handicap of information outrage and its accessibility.

SECONDARY OR HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL

(General Overview, Challenges and Recommendation)

The natural progression has always been and would still be that student or pupils will form basic thus, junior high level gain admission into the SHS level to continue the education, however this situation seem not to be the case no longer since most student are not able to continue, some reasons that have been given as parents of these children do not or cannot among other expenses any more, some student too do not perform well thus not meeting admission into the SHS. These reasons are topic for another day to be treated, but the few ones who get admission have to face some challenges among others.

Firstly we look at the whole SHS system here in Ghana; there is the boarding and day school as well as the private and public. It looks more of a convention or something of that sort that majority and with emphasis of students who attend private basic schools together with their counterparts from government schools do choose the public senior high schools, again this is another subject student select schools that are normally and most at times not in their region of residence, probably for change of environs or due to the reputation of the school and one challenge with this boarding is that a lot of student turn to choose a school and most of the school turn out not to have enough space to accommodate the students, bringing about overcrowding which could but to quick spread of disease outbreak especially combinable ones.

Another worrying thing with student at SHS level of education is that, they enter the school obviously having chosen their course of studying, but turn out to be either they do not know their selves well enough and strength to choose a course that suits them or apparently do not know enough about the course itself thereby fading and not performing well enough and this lead to the universities where some of the student who find themselves in such situation totally direct into different areas or basis to the course or subject area they turn to struggle.

Over the years, when it comes to formation of the national sporting teams with regards to the truck and field, tennis, volleyball among other sports athletes and players were most selected and picked from the inter collages or school games at the SHS level, however it is not so, lately because school authorities have discourage issues of extracurricular activities in the schools thereby hindering the talents of the students in sports, since not everyone might come up top academically and some will tune in other disciplines.

Some recommendation to the challenges address above will be that, the government together with other stake holders like the old students associations, philanthropist among others need to come to the aid of the students and their school to build and expand their boarding facilities. Also with regards to the career and course guidance schools need to have or equip their tutors and mite people who can help shape, better educate the student in choosing course and careers of the strength and not just pass through the school but come out better equipped, finally extracurricular activities, including sporting activities especially should be encourage and aloud in schools.

Once again these post cannot exhaust everything issue, challenges in the SHS level of our education, therefore readers are urge to continue wherever they are and comment and suggestions arebwelcomed.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC BASIC SCHOOLS

     It’s no secret that results that come out of the Basic Education Certificate Education shows that school at private level do perform incredibly well, not to say that the public school do not do well but however not comparable to the public schools.

Every individual or student needs a good platform or foundation to get going, thus in terms of climbing the educational ladder and also career, therefore the basic level foundation needs to be very solid. However pupils or student who go through the public schools system at the basic level popularly known as or called ‘’sito’’ in the local parlance do not come out with good grades to even continue with the second cycle institutions and further up the ladder. This article will seek to address some of the challenges and try to recommend some solutions.

     One problem with the public schools I believe is, there is poor supervision, thus the teachers employed turn to use the lesson hours to engage in non-academic activities and most at times in selfish interest like, working and stacking of lotto, sleeping, loitering and some do not even come to the class at all. This issue may be a problem or challenge to basic schools because of the absence of effective supervision especially the external ones. This attitude however affects the student at great deal and schools at their final exams results. Some of these teachers are not fully qualified to teach but gain admissions and placements and turn to deliver their best.

                                            (a basic school block)

     Another challenge with public basic schools is the lack of infrastructures and other educational materials to make teaching effective, easy and comfortable for both teachers and their students. Most of these schools operate a system called the ‘’shift system’’ whereby the students virtually every class is divided into two groups or parts attending morning class and other due the afternoon, which is attended periodically. This system is not the best because it does not allow the students more hours of studying and this is due to the inadequate classrooms, even though the government have made some strides in controlling the situation, a lot is still expected. The effect of these is what we all know as poor results.

Poor remuneration or better still not enough of it and incentives. Teachers at the public basic school really do worry about their income or salary with most claiming they are not sufficient, hence compelling them not to give off their best and innocent students being the victims of the action of  their teachers. Now we have been able to enumerate some challenges of public basic schools that makes sets them apart on a decline from the private once, we look at some recommendations. The educational offices at the various district level should be proactive, thus making sure they appoint supervisors to various schools to ensure to the detriment of students. Punishment should be meted out to the recalcitrant ones to sanitize the system.

     Also as stated earlier on as the government is trying its best to abolish the ‘’shift system’’  by providing them with enough structures to cater for students among which some study under trees, but however it can do more and also individuals, philanthropist can also come to the aid to help build or produce efficient youth for the count. Increment of salaries, allowances among other incentives should be considered by stakeholders to urge teachers on.

Some of these things are what private schools are doing right to gain better results, and I believe if some of the recommendations are considered it could bridge the gap between the public and private basic schools. Obviously, this piece is not exhaustive therefore I urge all to continue the discusses and help bridge this gap.