The Role of Private Radio Stations in Promoting Participatory Democracy in Northern Ghana: Practicalizing Competency Based Training

Abstract

The effectiveness of radio as mass medium derives from its capacity to go beyond barriers of illiteracy, to strengthen democracy and governance. Participatory democracy entails a broad involvement of people in administering their nations or organizations. The populace gets involved in decision making by getting their voices heard. Private radio stations, more than the state-owned ones are better positioned and poised for the task of enhancing the mass participation in government business, by not only listening to what the government of the day has to tell them, but also giving them an avenue to hear other views and to also air their (alternative) views. Private radio facilitates the democratic ambitions of the populace, who get to dialogue with government and their representatives. Gone are the days when radio was a one way medium of communication, and all the audience could do was listen to a reader/speaker presenting an item. Today the listener can contribute to the current news item via SMS text or phone INS. It has been in the post-airwave-liberalisation era, when we got into private broadcasting, that radio phone-ins became rife, where live, on-going discourse is captured and relayed to the people, and others call in to share their views. This is what Democracy is about. The proliferation of tiny FM receivers, and radios embedded in cell phones give nearly everybody a radio receiver. The proliferation of private radio stations has opened up more avenues for disseminating information in the local Ghanaian languages. In addition, private radio stations have provided forums for debate in the run up to national and local elections. These debates provide platforms for the electorate to assess the worth of would-be representatives. Private radio stations complement the effort of the public media to inform voters of election calendars, processes, profiling candidates, and mediating information between the general public, politicians, and government. Private radio stations can promote participatory democracy better when workers are given more practical training through a competency based training programme. Competency based training would enable an imbibement of a practically oriented knowledge base that would yield excellent work output.