UTV gets best coverage of Melcom disaster

The local media was also very thick in the affairs of reporting on what has come known as the Melcom disaster in their own way and to their own audiences.

The radio stations went agog and each of them was clamouring for the best position to get the best scoops for their audience. On the day of the unfortunate incident and the days that followed there were different stories which were facts, truths, half-truths, speculations, exaggerations, embellishments and everything in between that would make the station look good. An example is how the public was confused about the number of levels the building had as it was conflicting between 4, 5 and 6 storeys.

There was also the confusion about how many people had died and how many people are injured and how serious the injuries were. It was apparent that to make their stories believable some of the stations were quoting figures that had not been substantiated by the officials.

Many comments knocked me off my socks with the most prominent one being Joy FM’s Evans Mensah referred to the accident site as Ground Zero while the beans and columns and bricks and mortar and other pile of rubble were still hanging and people still underneath as rescue work continued.

Well, I was talking about how the radio stations did their best to get the news to the public out and I must add that many of the stations had stationed correspondents at the site of the incident to be delivering live and periodic reports on going-ons.

However, the radio stations cannot take the entire credit for reporting what had happened from day one till early this week when the military formally declared the rescue operation over as other media like press and television also played major role in the caboodle of events.

Talking about television brings me to the issue on hand today and that is to say that Utv need to be commended immensely for playing a greater role in this whole Melcom “building” affair from when it started to the very end.

It must be said that the station being the newest on the block has not got a lot of programmes going on for them beyond showing movies and other more relaxed content and therefore had the ability inculcate new content into their existing repertoire.

The Melcom incident therefore, as unfortunate as it was, gave Utv the opportunity to do more by stationing ‘permanently’ on the site and broadcasting about every possible thing that happened so the audience would keep abreast.

Most importantly, the station ensured that times when they could not show live visuals from the venue they had recorded previous events and play it back. This was good because those of us who could not watch all the activities during the live transmission were able to follow what happened at a later time.

I saw comments on social media about how the other television stations had not been too concerned about the incident to be reporting it even when international stations were doing so. Most of those comments were critical of the local channels for what they see as showing unnecessary content when such a hot issue was on going in the very belly of their operations.

It would be unfair to say that the TV stations neglected the incident (of course they did not cover it as the radio stations did and obviously not as much as Utv) because in their own small way and with the inventory and content space available they did what they could.

Of course it also has to be emphasized that not all the station could have done total outside broadcast like Utv did by their principles, ethos and work scheduling regime. This however, does not take away the fact that any media organization worth its sort would donate enough time to broadcast what happened just for the human interest and public service, if for nothing at all.

Thus even as we mourn with those who lost loved ones in this accident and wait on the authorities to make things right we say thank you to the media for the role they played in the reporting and reserved the biggest round of congratulations to Utv for the major role it played in the process.

MTN 4SYTE  MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS IS HERE

To say that 4syte Music is the most directly targeted youth entertainment programme on television over the last four years or so will be stating the obvious. That argument could be stretched to include the event spin-offs like 4syte Celebrity Bash and 4syte  Music Video Awards.

The latter has been running for the past four years and it happens to be one of the biggest events in Ghana to gather the youth. The reason is simple: this is the event that gathers all the stars that the youth relate to and look up to as role model.

The guys at 4syte studios have managed to grow the both the television show and the event and have sold both well to the target and could afford going from one telecom giant to another as sponsor within just a period of one year. The success of the previous three events has given room for all involved to look forward to a more successful fourth event.

4syte TV shows the best music videos on television and therefore in the right position to organize an event that seeks to reward the good ones from the lot in order to encourage the production of good videos to show on their programme.

This Saturday will witness the fourth 4syte Music Video Awards with MTN as the new headline sponsor. According to organisers, there would be over 19 categories to be awarded on the night.

For most music directors and producers, it has been a nice idea pitching their videos against others. This Saturday evening will be another great night of celebration of the crème-de-la-crème of the videos we have been enjoying and applauding or denouncing over the last one year.

Listening & Watching with Francis Doku/Graphic Showbiz