COMS 210 Broadcast News Reporting 2021.pdf

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM :. i · I ' i FACULTY OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT...

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM :. i · I ' i FACULTY OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT END OF SECOND SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS (2020/2021) BROADCAST NEWS WRITING (COMS 210) LEVEL200 TIME: TWO HOURS INSTRUCTIONS: ANSWER QUESTION ONE AND ANY OTHER QUESTION Question 1 a. Write a straight news item for radio, with two soundbites, from the attached speech, labelled Appendix 'A'. (20 Marks) b. You have been assigned to cover a protest dubbed, '#FixOurRoadsNow', organized by a group known as Concerned Residents of Abokobi-Pantang. The demonstration, which will commence at Pantang Bus Lorry Station and end at the Ga East Municipal Assembly, seeks to draw attention of authorities and the public to poor roads in the Abokobi-Pantang area and surrounding communities. The protesters intend to ply some of the bad roads during the demonstration to show journalists the potholes, uncompleted drains, broken bridges, gullies, poodles, absent pavement, poorly placed road signs and dangerous curves on their roads. In addition, some of the protestors will hold placards (posters), with various inscriptions describing the nature of the roads in the area. As a television journalist who has been assigned to cover the demonstration, use the split page format to write a TV news package from the event. Based on the information provided above, write an anchor lead or introduction and the narration and indicate the shots or videos you will take to complement the narration and make the story complete. (20 Marks) Question 2 a. Write a lead of not more than 20 words from the information below: Who: A Public Health Expert, Dr. Godfred Nimako What: Government should be applauded for handling the COVID-19 pandemic effectively. Ghana is a success story in the West African sub-region when it comes to management of the pandemic...·.. Where: Press Conference organized by the Department of Medical Sciences, Uruvers1ty of K.intampo  When: This morning Why: Many doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been procured to be administered to the population. Also, a sizable number of people in Ghana have received the jabs, making Ghana the country with the highest number of vaccinated people in West Africa. b. Write a lead and a supporting lead of not more than 50 words from the excerpts of speech delivered by Chairman ofKwabenya Residents Association, Nana Kwame Sarfo. "Our main problem here is crime. Armed robbers, burglars, kidnappers and ritualists have invaded this community. They are making it difficult for our families to live a comfortable life. Children are getting kidnapped day in, day out; our wives are being chased and sexually harassed and they are breaking into our houses to steal items worth thousands of cedis. We have informed the police, the district chief executive and even the minister of interior about our plight but nothing cogent has been done about the insecurity in our area. We are appealing directly to the IGP and the President, through the media, to come to our aid by deploying more police personnel and even the army to boost security in this area.'' c. Rewrite the lead below into an appropriate broadcast lead. The lead should not be more than 20 words. Guided by the principles for writing broadcast news, identify three shortcomings in the lead below. "It is obnoxious, ludicrous and unacceptable for a country like Ghana to have 1,498,345 of its citizens being unemployed because no serious nation would leave its people redundant and hopeless like we are seeing in this country", said Prof. John Atawura, CEO of Youth Development Agency. (20 Marks) Question 3 (20 Marks) You are the editor for TV3, a station with nationwide coverage. The news items below have been presented to you for presentation on the station's major news bulletin. Guided by your knowledge in news values and news angles, re-arrange the issues into an appropriate order. Provide justification for your arrangement and state the news values that guided you in determining the place of each of the news items. a. Vice President donates school bus to Koforidua Senior High b. Ghana receives more than 1.2 million doses of Modema COVID-19 vaccines from the United States c. K.asoa: Two teenagers murder 10~year old boy for money ritual d. GIJ launches Data Journalism Programme e. A 35-year old mason in Akim Oda in Eastern Region imprisoned for 20 years for defiling 10- year old daughter f. Ghana records 373,514 teenage pregnancies in 2020 2  APPENDIX 'A' SPEECH DELIVERED BY DR. EMMANUEL ADOM WINFUL AT THE som ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE GHANA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HELD IN ACCRA Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Your Lordship Chief Justice, Hon. Minister of Health, Past Presidents of the Ghana Medical Association, Fellows and Members of Ghana Medical Association, Distinguished invited Guests, Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am privileged but humbled to be the jubilee President addressing this august gathering. I follow a line of eminent presidents of our noble Association to speak on platfonns like this, and it is an extra to have among the audience His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has been very enthusiastic about joining us on this auspicious occasion. Your Excellency, the theme for this year's Jubilee Conference is "GMA@SO; Ghana's Health." Fifty years in the life of an organization is long enough for it to be classified as an adult. It is therefore proper for us to take stock and look at where we have come from, where we are today and plan for the future. The GMA has been a stakeholder in the health care delivery system over the past half century. We were there during the era of free medical care of the first republic, we saw the cash and carry system, and today we are part of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Each of these eras has had its impact on the people of Ghana. Today it is the NHIS that is relevant. Though coverage has expanded and access to health care services has also grown, the munber of human resource that is pivotal in the role out of the programmes has remained static or seen only marginal increases. Today doctors are overworked, stressed out and poorly and not exactly the best paid. Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen the NHIS has brought healthcare to many people who were hitherto marginalized as far as accessibility and affordability were concerned. However, the implementation process has been bedevilled by several challenges many of which are man-made. The NHIS virtually owes all implementing hospitals/institutions millions of cedis in unpaid genuine claims. At best the scheme reimburses hospitals every 3 months. If this trend continuous, most health institutions would not be able to provide vital services and the aim of the scheme would be defeated. Another issue of concern is the skewed distribution of doctors to the advantage of Accra and Kumasi, a situation which has made the workload of doctors in the districts.and rural areas even more stressful and unattractive. Sixty years after independence, there are areas in Ghana where the doctor: patient ratios are 1:90,000. How on earth is this person going to provide quality service to the 90,000 people? For those who opt to serve in these areas, their work environment is nothing to write home about. The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) must as a matter of urgency find ways of making the deprived areas a little more attractive. Would it be too much for the MOH and the GHS to put at such deprived stations a decent furnished accommodation, a car and a percentage of a doctor's salary as incentive and rural allowance? It is most unfair to see our highly skilled health professional concentrated in the 2 major cities of Accra and Kumasi. We urge government to do something about this situation to ensure equitable distribution of specialists throughout Ghana. Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, in January 2019, the GMA negotiated with government a new basic salary for all doctors and dentists in the public service. Unfortunately, we have not seen the new salaries reflect on our pay slips. Since the inception of Health Sector Salruy Structure in January 2015, salaries of doctors have seen no review, while others in the public sector had have 2 increases in 2016 3 and 2019. We have accordingly been calling on our employers since the beginning of this year to start the process of reviewing our salaries but nothing fruitful has come out of it. We have stuck firmly to and believe in the powers of negotiation but the question being asked is for bow long can the Association contain the frustration and feet dragging. We hope the Health Minister would be able to take the matter to its logical conclusion. If by the end of the year, government has not increased our salaries, doctors in this country will be forced to embark on a strike action. Salaries of doctors have been quoted by prominent public figures and the public as anywhere between GH¢7,000 and 10,000 but that is not true. Here I am, a very senior person in the service and my take home pay is GH¢3,605.00. I am not in government accommodation and neither do I have any loans to pay. The GMA humbly appeals to government to fast-track the negotiation process before we advise ourselves and resort to strike. Your Excellency, Ladies and gentlemen, further to negotiating for good salaries and good conditions of service, the GMA is actively looking at other areas that would make work and stay in Ghana a little more comfortable for doctors. This has direct bearing on the brain drain. We have now formal arrangements with Fidelity Bank for accessing auto and personal loans on competitive terms. This together with the government tax exemption facility on cars, and discount by the auto firms will enable doctors buy their dream cars. Fidelity Bank also offers mortgage facilities for those intending to acquire their own residential accommodation. Your Excellency, our special guest of honour, Hon. Ministers, the clergy, representative of sister Associations, the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen, as the GMA looks back on the 50 years of its existence there are many achievements we can be proud of. These include the establishment of the GHS, the GCPS and the NHIS, Health Advocacy in Annual Public Lectures and Annual Health Week. The vision of our founding fathers should never be lost on us. Let us pull together and rededicate ourselves to our shared professional aspirations and build a strong, united and viable GMA. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Council, the entire membership and the secretariat for their support during my first year in office. I wish members fruitful collegial and harmonious deliberations during our business session. Once again I bid you a hearty welcome and thank you for your attention. 4