The Ghana Journalists Association marked 77 years since its founding last Wednesday,during which veteran media practitioner Kwesi Pratt Jnr delivered a message that every newsroom in the country should pin to its wall: journalism is not a contest for attention.
Mr Pratt took journalists to school, reminding them of the basic truth that journalism is under threat in the digital age.
And the Daily Graphic believes it should shape how we practise journalism going forward.
The challenge facing journalism today is no longer getting information.
It is deciding what is true, what matters, and what should be told.
In an ecosystem where algorithms push controversy, outrage and sensationalism to the top, the temptation is to chase virality first and ask questions later.
But speed without accuracy is not journalism.
It is rumour with a byline.
Being first means nothing if you are wrong.
Being loud means nothing if you are not useful.
The public does not need more noise.
It needs clarity.
That is why Mr Pratt’s five pillars — accuracy, verification, fairness, courage and investigative scrutiny of the powerful — must become every journalist’s daily checklist.
They are what separate journalism from general online content.
They are what give the media its credibility, and without credibility, we have nothing.
The GJA was born on August 15, 1949, as the Africa Press Association, at a moment when the Gold Coast was fighting for self-determination.
From the start, Ghanaian journalism was not a passive observer.
It was a participant in nation-building.
That legacy carries obligations.
The 1992 Constitution guarantees press freedom and independence, but it also charges the media with holding government accountable to the people.
Press freedom without responsibility can become reckless, and responsibility without freedom can become submission.
Both extremes damage democracy.
We must also confront the pressures that erode that responsibility.
Ownership, advertisi, social media metrics.
Mr Pratt pointed out a disturbing trend: television stations demanding a minimum number of Facebook followers before hiring presenters.
“That is a complete affront to all our standards,” he said. He is right.
When popularity replaces professionalism as the entry ticket, we tell young journalists that influence matters more than training, and that performance matters more than purpose.
Media houses cannot demand fearless journalism while ignoring the economic and professional conditions that make fearlessness possible.
Whose story are we telling?
Perhaps the most important part of Mr Pratt’s address was about whose voices fill our news.
He observed that our coverage disproportionately featured state officials, corporate executives and institutional authorities.
Meanwhile, farmers, market women, fishermen, teachers, health workers, the unemployed youth and entire communities appear only in times of disaster.
These people are not merely background scenery to the national story.
They hold the country in place, he said.
It is a fair critique.
If journalism is serious about telling “the people’s story,” then we must go where the people are.
A market woman in Makola worrying about food prices.
A fisherman in Teshie watching his catch shrink.
A teacher in Bunkpurugu dealing with 60 pupils and no textbooks.
These are not statistics.
They are the country.
Covering them is not charity. It is our core mandate.
Seventy-seven years on, the question Mr Pratt posed should haunt every editor and reporter: are we adequately serving our democratic, social and national responsibilities?
To answer yes, we must resist the tyranny of immediacy.
Verify before you publish. Impact comes from being right, not just being first.
The media must dedicate beats, resources and airtime to the people who do not hold press conferences.
Their lives are the measure of policy.
The internet will always reward speech.
That is its nature.
But Ghana needs journalism.
Journalism that informs, that questions, that listens, and that holds power to account.
As we build on 77 years of legacy, let us remember why the press mattered in 1949, and why it matters in 2026.
Not to win the day’s attention, but to serve the nation’s needs.
That is the standard.
Anything less is just mere content.
