Journalists are more reckless than bloggers – Halifax defends bloggers

According to Halifax, mainstream journalists are quick to highlight the wrongs of bloggers, forgetting that those in the traditional media do the same thing.

Speaking on Blogging in Ghana and Checking excesses with MzGee on Simplyshowbiz, Halifax Ansah-Addo disagreed with the notion that blogging should be discredited and downplayed as compared to writing for the mainstream media houses.

He said, “many of the so-called professionally trained journalists from the most accredited institutions are more reckless than the bloggers we are attacking.”

He cited some veteran journalists who toyed with misleading and sensational headlines to throw off competition in the past.

“When we entered this media space, we were trained by people like William Ali. Do you remember Accra Mail in those days? He was one of the fiercest to go and train them how to write, he and Alhaji Gomda. But by then, we were hearing of people of his calibre who will go and write all sorts of stories. Do you remember the Joojo Chicken Saga? Journalists were doing it in this country.”

Halifax further pointed out that even the gripping laws of libel couldn’t stop them from fabricating stories and being sent to court. Therefore, the actions of modern-day bloggers are not new. He also suggested this exaggeration and constant highlighting of blogging mishaps could be because of their inability to fight back at mainstream media for the name-calling. Halifax asserted that those in traditional mainstream media do almost the same thing.

Halifax also mentioned that blogging has evolved from just dairying opinions into a form of journalism.

He pointed out that events organisers would invite bloggers to cover their event rather than go in for the mainstream media house.

In conclusion, Halifax said nobody is born a good journalist or blogger. It takes constant training to be good at any job.

According to him, no matter how trained you are as a journalist, if you want to be irresponsible, you will be. And no matter how untrained you are as a blogger, if you would like to be professional, you will be.