Entertainment Journalists/Practitioners Must Consistently Discuss Development Issues On Media Platforms – The Dannie Black
Development comes from people who value it. It is done for a purpose- mainly to cause for great changes in a particular field. The entertainment industry is no different from attaining developmental heights as some other industries keep developing rapidly. For something to develop for long, it behoves of the practitioners to set agenda for consistent growth and results. As an entertainment presenter at Flav Radio, I consistently discuss issues of extreme importance thus developmental ones which need urgent solutions and not the sheepish trendy issues such as sex tape, beefing and nudes pics. If the music and movie industries beg for massive infrastructure to meet global standards,why should I use precious airtime to be speaking about worthless things? It’s being long overdue. This is very achievable if we set our minds to them. The time is now. Better late than never
This is a clarion call to fellow journalists or practitioners in this billion dollar industry to make a paradigm shift toward matters which will invite awareness from the leadership of the land. When this phenomenon sails through, financial investment from the state will be high because investors will know the things their monies are being used for. I keep saying those of us with the various media platforms have the huge power to set the tone for developmentally driven issues for followers to align to such path. In branding, your brand tag determines your brand price. What one puts in is what ones gains. Also, employments are created when ultra modern music,movie and other artistic theatre and studios are built because technocrats and other professionals can earn a living from such cause. It’s about time we effect such change. Let’s be the change we wanna see in our esteemed and cherished industry
Fortunately, this industry can boast of some brightest and well exposed brains just other industries like the finance,health and education can boast of. Gone were the days when entertainment industry was tagged as ‘a venture for the academically disadvantaged or the illiterate’ but at the moment, most journalists or practitioners of arts are highly educated-from first degree to PhD who can excellently work in most non arts related industries. Interestingly,it took our competitors, Nigeria and South Africa to consciously map out agenda on very significant things in their respective industries. That is not say there are not needless trends over there but the focus is more on matters which attract leadership for sponsorship. A year ago, I interviewed media mogul, Ricky Anokye and he passionately said, ‘ I have been championing this agenda for God knows how long but it seems some colleagues don’t understand what I trumpeting out there. The arts must be taken seriously like how we regard other professions. It’s a multibillion dollar venture if we toe the path of developmentally focused narratives’.That notwithstanding, recently, I had lengthy chats via zoom with colleague journalists from Nigeria and South Africa and both told me that the leaderships of their entertainment industries mean business so they critically plan on issues to discuss for the attention of their leadership therefore this is the agenda on their arts scale of preference. I believe Ghana, being the leader can do more than what we are doing. Fellow practitioners, it is incumbent on us to cause a massive change of discussion on our platforms. Just as we planned to play ninety percent Ghanaian music and twenty percent foreign. Rome was not built in a day so let’s kick off this agenda
Story By Dannie Black, The Citizen Journalist
