Daily Graphic National Service Report

I would describe my experiences as a national service personnel with the Daily Graphic as an incredible one where through out the period of my stay with this medium I realised how powerful the media in Ghana was and the extent to which it could influence the public and government, in policy and decision making.

Practising journalism with this print medium has been a challenge for me but encouraging having worked for some months on internship with an electronic medium.

I have also enjoyed learning and working under the supervision of some of the most experienced professional journalists in the profession in Ghana and would say that I have benefited a lot under their tutelage.

During my service, I was exposed to a lot of issues concerning the well being of citizens in this country and the country as a whole and would say that I now have a fair understanding of how the arms of government co-operate in the administration of the country having covered assignments in almost all the ministries and other government agencies.

Things started out well for me on my first assignment with a senior reporter, Lucy Adomah Yeboah who has greatly influenced my writing skill and story construction. The Senior reporters were often helpful if they had time to spare looking at the hectic nature of the job.

They assisted the news editors to edit our stories and I would mention that Charles Benoni Okine and Caroline Boateng also contributed a lot to my ability to identify news items and the construction of good stories.

The Graphic Communications Group Limited is well structured and the departments, I believe the transport department in particular contributes a lot to the smooth running of the company in its bid to provide the discerning public credible and reliable and precise information. Apart from the Daily Graphic, I also wrote a couple of stories for The Mirror.

During the course of my service with this medium I had about three published front page stories of which one was a a major lead story on the depletion of the country’s Health Fund by Malaria and the two other minor front page stories.

The story on malaria received editorial attention and was one of the major issues that was discussed on leading radio stations in the country. From the publication, newspaper critics agreed that government needed to have a firm and an extensive programme to eradicate malaria in Ghana.

Some of the areas I often reported on, apart from the usual General news were, the Security Agencies, Business, Education and Health and Entertainment.

Aside that I also had the opportunity to cover some assignments in other regions and had insight into some of the developments activities being undertaken by the government in the regions. Some of the regions were, the Central, Eastern and Volta regions.

I also undertook some group assignments with my colleagues and would say it was a learning process for me, as I had to learn how to co-operate with them to produce good stories. I had no problem with my colleagues and the relationship between us was very cordial.

I enjoyed pursuing each assignment with great enthusiasm and I do appreciate the opportunity given to me by this organisation having helped me improve on my understanding of journalism.

Though some of the stories I did received criticism and rejoinders from some members of the public, I learnt the fundamental value of seeking for the truth and informing the public with credible and precise information in order to avoid slander or libellous reportage.

In as much as my contribution to the news room work have been appreciated by the editorial team, I also do appreciate the impact they have made on me and my understanding of journalism practice in general.

I would say that though journalists in Ghana feel that Public Relations practitioners are not proactive in carrying out their functions when we attend assignments, being on the field daily made me realise how reporters from the Daily Graphic are well respected in this profession and I believe that stems from the fact that the organisation places a lot of emphasis on professionalism by its personnel.

I also believe the company stands to benefit from some of the well trained human resources in the field, if it decides to retain some of us, having monitored the performances of some of my colleagues in other departments, during the course of our stay here.

To sum it up, the exposure has inspired me to work harder and I believe the work produced by the Daily Graphic Communications Group Limited from the human resource to the editorial team each day is a testimony of the Daily Graphic’s status as the leading and biggest selling newspaper in the country.