The President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) have spoken of the need of a more participatory model as to development and journalism in the country.
Mr. Ransford Tetteh, also the editor of the national daily newspaper Daily Graphic, spoke at a two-day workshop in Accra on post election conflicts in Africa, according to the national news site myjoyonline.com.
"Development is about people, so the people must be free to discuss and decide what kind of development they want. The new approach to development is information distribution, -sharing and -participation, media can only promote development if it offers the platform for two-way communication", Mr. Tetteh is quoted.
This is a different voice to the one expressed by state officials, blogged about in my last post on Ghana, a voice and policy which points towards more of a pure, old-fashioned modernisation approach to development and journalism.
Not that the idea of modernisation is gone alltogether in Mr. Tetteh`s arguement: "Every development activity is information-based or information related. People must be exposed to new ideas and new concepts and the opportunities provided for adopting the necessary measures towards development or modernisation", he said.
On democracy, Mr. Tetteh said: "the media keeps democracies viable by giving a voice to the voiceless, ensuring that a ruling majority can not trample on the rights of a minority, promoting press freedom is really about promoting human freedom".
There is a lot to be read about participatory development theory - an idea that points towards greater participation from the "subjects" of development - as opposed to the "imitation" seen in modernisation theory. Jan Servaes write about it in his book Communication for Development: One World, Multiple Cultures, where he scrutinises the different perspectives towards development theory in a historical context.
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