Metro TV... Coverage You Can Count On?

Ok, so their motto may not really be Coverage You Can Count On, as that is WANE-TV's motto, but today I had a flashback to my internship days.... well sort of!

Today I had the opportunity to visit one of the three television stations in Ghana, Metro TV. It was so exciting to be on the tour and seeing the similarities and mostly the differences between media in the U.S. and in Ghana.

After learning that I'm a journalism major, Andrea from Planting Technologies, the NGO I'm working with, got me in touch with Richard who works at Metro TV. He gave me a tour of the small television station that provides news coverage to Ghana.

I was so excited to have this opportunity. It was awesome! The set where the anchors sit was small and dimly lit. One of the female anchors was there and we were able to chat for a second before Rich summoned me to the next room. There was another studio in the station where taped shows are recorded and then a sports desk.

Heading outside and upstairs, Rich showed me where the editing is done and to my surprise, I found a room full of computers. No one was editing at the time, as it was still early in the morning. I looked at the editing software and it actually looked very similiar to what I have used. It is non-linear editing on a computer. I could have spent all day there! I just wanted to know more!

We then moved to the newsroom where the reporters write their stories. Richard introduced me to the producer and some of the reporters. One of the reporters was working on a project about orphanages, since one had just been recently shut down because of accusations of sexual abuse. It wasn't going to run that day because he said it was a multi-part story! Very interesting! They were writing their stories in Microsoft Word instead of a script writing program that I'm use to using, so it would have been interesting to see how the script got fed into the computer that operates the newscast.

The station was awesome! But the next part of my day was pretty cool too!

Andrea, Richard, and I went to Parliament (like the statehouse) to talk with a Minister (like a congressperson) about the dedication ceremony for Planting Technologies, taking place next week.

It was interesting though because the reporter was doing the story and then she had a photographer. They also had a sound person, and then a separate driver. So all of those people, 4, go out on a story every day, which is a lot in comparison to the U.S. where at the most two people will tackle a story and at times just one.

The three person team was very interesting to me because the sound person was in charge of making sure, obviously that the sound was ok, but also to hold the microphone. In the U.S. the camera photographer would have taken care of the sound as well as run the camera and the reporter would have held the mic. The efficiency in this I couldn't understand. Richard explained to me that it's to make sure that everyone is doing their job and there would be no excuse to come back to the studio without sound or video. However, this is the same expectation in the U.S. just accomplished by less people.

Anyway, the reporter was very nice and she told me that she was still in school, as she finished a two year program and then was able to get a job, and is finishing a second degree of two years while she works. I asked her where she wanted to move up to after she graduated, since working in the capital of a country for a TV station seemed like a pretty good job to me, but she told me that she wanted to go into banking... where she said was where the money is.

Georgina's (the reporter) dad and two brothers are American citizens but she has never been to the U.S. She said that she liked living in Ghana and didn't think she would ever move to America. What surprised me though is that when I told her I was from Indiana, she knew all about Indianapolis because her friend works there! Wow.

LOL! I know I am going on and on, but this is what I'm very interested in. One more thing! I asked her how long her stories usually were and she said that they could be anywhere from 30 seconds to SIX MINUTES! I couldn't believe it! The maximum length of a news story is in the U.S. is a minute thirty! This is absolutely unheard of! A producer in the U.S. would laugh at you if you even thought about turing a six minute package!

And back to Parliament... we were able to sit in on an actual proceeding so that was really cool. It was exciting being able to do things most won't be able to while they're here.

Ok, well that's enough for now... if anyone has even read to the end! LOL
Have a good day!

Love ya!
Melissa