Assessing the Influence of the Media on the Work of Development Organisations
The media has become a great partner influencing the development focus of organisations, governments, and other institutions. It has served as a watchdog and gatekeeper constantly shaping public opinion, creating awareness, promoting good governance and development by documenting and reporting on socio-economic developments such as issues of public health, education, women empowerment among others (Sikanku, 2011). Its reporting practices, priorities and community-level interventions determine how humanitarian activities, emergencies, structural disadvantages, and global poverty are covered in news, structured, sensationalised, or simply buried (Porche, 2004; Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2010). Their publications generally determine how works and interventions of development organisations are viewed and rated by the public. Development organisations have, in numerous instances influenced the work of the media. They have equally been part of the success story of the media especially in Africa and other developing countries since the 1990s. This paper uses the role of the Ghanaian media in cancelling the comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) policy in Ghana and criminalising the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) to analyse the interdependence and reciprocal influence between media and development organisations.
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