Kotoko and the Ghanaian media

A U-TV Reporter interviews Didi Dramani

When I was a little younger than I am now and an ordinary Kotoko fan, I easily believed that the Ghanaian media was anti-Kotoko. I cannot explain why but I guess based on my inordinate passion for Kotoko at that time, any negative story on the club caused me to assume that, the media didn’t like Kotoko and for that reason, they were always eager to put Kotoko in bad light.

That was childish. I have come to realize that negative news sells more than positive news. A thorough sifting of my Kotoko passion, journalism education and in totality, maturity, has significantly altered my perception of our media and their reports on Kotoko. Without fear of contradiction, I say, that, most sports journalists I have come across in Ghana have sympathies for Kotoko although not many of them are keen to make that public for fear of being labeled.

They eagerly share how madly they are love with European clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The reality however is that, fans of our local teams know the clubs most Ghanaian sports journalists support here. Some Kotoko fans have often got it, awfully wrong, not alone in identifying some Ghanaian journalists as anti-Kotoko, and attempt to either attack them verbally or physically.

At times, it is as if those media practitioners are ‘outcasts’ who must be dealt with for hurting the club but regardless of how irresponsible some journalists turn to be with Kotoko stories, there can be absolutely no justification for any sort of attacks on them. I do not know how the sports desks of media houses in Ghana decide to handle Kotoko stories. What I know is that the media houses do not suddenly wake up to ‘launch a negative agenda’.

Thus the tendency for us within Kotoko to easily feel and think that certain media houses have an ‘agenda’ against the club at the least chance is worrying. This is not in defence of media houses in Ghana. Media houses thrive on information. I thrive on information at Kotoko Express and asantekotokosc.com. I will not fill the vacuum with just any story on Kotoko in the unlikely event of being deprived of Kotoko news as a journalist for the club’s newspaper and website.

But, given my small observation of the Ghanaian media landscape, there is little or no guarantee, that, other journalists or media houses at large won’t be tempted to feed the public with half-baked news on Kotoko if regular and accurate information on the club isn’t forthcoming. What this means is that, steps must be taken to properly set up a Kotoko communications or public affairs desk to interact with the media as often as they could.

Michael Akuffu speaks to journalists from Multi Media 

Again, I am not justifying the practice whereby some journalists or media houses – especially radio stations broadcast inaccurate stories on Kotoko either deliberately or mistakenly. My position is that, Kotoko appear not to have, in recent times, comprehensively dealt with the media well hence leaving a huge vacuum often filled with misleading reportage.

There must be clear, constant, free flow of Kotoko information to the media. That could eventually reduce to the barest minimum, if not completely halting the sometimes outrageously false information on the club – a situation which worries everybody at the club.

As observed by speakers at the inauguration of Kotoko’s 2014 Africa campaign committee, where issues bothering on the media’s relationship with the club were raised, Kotoko needs the media. The media also needs Kotoko. The two institutions must find acceptable means of interacting for mutual benefit. I agree with Board Chairman, Paul Adu-Gyamfi’s call on the media to respect confidentiality when it comes to players’ contracts and sponsorship deals.

I am also with the Board Chairman regarding his position on the need for the media to be circumspect when talking about managers of Kotoko. Board member, Samuel Osei Kuffour also expressed similar sentiments. While their admonitions are worthy, it’s important to stress that, we will all be winners when there’s a clearly defined communications desk at the club which will frequently and professionally handle public and media related matters. This is imperative. That, in essence, calls for the setting up of proper administrative structures at Kotoko.