A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA)
has revealed that most public service workers in the nation's capital rely on newspapers for basic information on what is going on in the country.
Though with limitations the survey, which was confined to the Ministries area of Accra, aimed at providing a fair idea about the newspaper reading habits of public service workers in the Metropolis, as well as gauge their general perception about the performance of the news media.
Out of 200 people who spoke to the GNA, 128 said they read Daily Graphic daily, while 50 read Ghanaian Times. Graphic Sports and Business and
Financial Times had a readership of 30 and 25 respectively, while 15 respondents said they read Daily Guide. Ten respondents read The Mirror,
with about 25 per cent of them placing their preferences on more than one newspaper.
Evidently, Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times tops the list of preferences of majority of workers in the Ministries when it comes to 'serious' news, with most of the interviewees citing credibility and in-depth analysis as
the over-riding reasons that informed their choice.
According to the respondents, the categories of stories they like to read in the newspapers are politics, economics, sports, health and
entertainment in that order.
There were, however, opinions of scepticism and dissatisfaction about the way some of the newspapers go about their reportage on political issues
Some of the workers said newspapers focused more on individuals rather than exploring what the politicians can do to improve the living conditions of the people.
They attributed this to the fact that some of the newspapers, especially the private ones, either belonged to politicians or were being influenced behind the scenes by some political interest groups.
Some of the respondents also complained about what they saw as the general lack of objectivity and constructive criticism among politicians
when discussing matters of national importance, and called for a change in the interest of national development.
The workers also said the headlines of such newspapers were often misleading and mostly did not have any bearing on the content of the story.
They appealed to editors to cross-check the information they obtained on sensitive issues before publication.
Some of them also appealed to journalists to specialise in areas such as economics, politics and health to enable them to report more authoritatively and to educate the reading public more effectively.
Interestingly, the survey revealed that out of the 200 workers the GNA interviewed, only 20 (or 10 per cent) responded affirmatively to the
question as to whether they buy newspapers.
Some said they enjoyed a 'free read' from subscriptions at their various workplaces, with only a few respondents who had access to the internet indicating that they preferred reading the news from 'Ghanaweb' and other online sources.
Some newspaper vendors who spoke to the GNA said a small number of workers paid for their own newspapers, and that sometimes patronage depends on the front page headlines.