Almost two years down the lane, I I wrote about how lazy most Ghanaian entertainment journalists have become. Among other things, I talked about duplication of content (verbatim copy and paste) on various entertainment blogs/websites as well as the unidirectional reportage of issues.
Even though I was met with some sort of rancor from some phony bloggers, I was exultantly enthused on the grounds that I spoke the palpable truth.
A year and a half has passed, yet there has not been any positive change in the entertainment industry with regards to reduplication of content by these same bloggers. They choose not to leave their comfort zones where plagiarism is a trademark to challenge their thinking faculties and put their writing propensities to test.
Sadly, the same breed of wind seems to be blowing across Ghanaian radio stations, with entertainment talk show hosts joining the doubling bandwagon.
Most often times than not, I keenly follow almost all entertainment programs, be it on radio or television. With the advent of technology and some internet-based radio apps, it’s now easy to stream and listen to several talk shows across the globe, making evaluations stress-free.
Ghanaian radio airwaves have become saturated with political programs, with less consideration given to other areas such as culture and art, fashion, etc. It therefore becomes interesting when entertainment programs spring up on a number of radio stations, paving way for intellectual discussions on issues concerning Ghana’s entertainment industry and that of the world at large.
The competition among several radio entertainment hosts and their programs has become really tight. It is in this direction that some of the radio stations are adding extra days to their custom days to treat entertainment topics.
This is a course in the right direction, but to me, it’s a totally waste of time and I think most of these additional days allocated for entertainment talk shows ought to be eradicated – serving no purpose aside duplication of content.
Lack of Inventiveness
You need not be a space scientist before you realize that there is lack of creativity on the side of our entertainment talk show presenters.
Such hosts are not able to create unique content (not to even talk about exceptional segments) for their listeners rather than reproducing the same old stuffs. Mimicking is a true hallmark of almost all of them – from the big old nuts to the small fresh bloods.
The layout of segments are so akin, making the entertainment talk shows become so predictable to the extent that one does not need to sit through to the end to make out where they are heading to – from newspaper review to panelists discussions, with song review becoming the order of the day.
Aside brushing up some 2 or 3 newspapers, these entertainment talk show hosts almost not come up with any interesting and thought-provoking topics for discussions. The same showbiz newspapers are discussed everywhere, with virtually same panelists making same input all over the places. Why then do I have to waste my precious time to listen to same thing again and again?
Same Angle of Tackling Issues
Several issues pop up in the Ghanaian entertainment sector and the way most; if not all entertainment talk show presenters tackle them make one wonder why.
There have been quite a number of times that I had to sojourn listening to such programs because I knew the tail end of their discussions.
For example, station A starts its program at 9am on Tuesdays. During that time, the host will tackle some issues that come up from a specific angle, interviewing some people who are involved in the issue. Instead of looking at the issue from a different point of view, station B whose program airs at 10am the next day will follow the same course as station A did, and so will stations C and D, even to the point of asking the same old questions that were asked by the presenter at station A.
This makes listening to such programs boring and unexciting because you would have listened to the same discussions elsewhere.
Same Crop of Panelists Every day and Everywhere
It’s not a bad ideal at all having one stationed panelist and other varied ones on entertainment talk shows intellectually discussing issues on board.
On major talk shows across the globe, the topic on board determines the kind of panel members the production team invites into the studio for discussion. These panel members are supposed to be individuals with in-depth knowledge about the topics to be discussed.
At some point in time when a panel member feels he/she does not have comprehensive information or knowledge about the issue on board, he/she is free to remain mute since whatever will come out from the mouth will be false information.
Despondently, such is not the case with regards to our entertainment talk shows. I will not be wrong to say almost all the talk shows/entertainment review programs have all panel members stationed. The same crop of people troop into the studios every week, which makes me wonder if Ghana lacks people with profound knowledge about the entertainment industry.
Not only that, such ones move from stations to stations within a week, adding no value to the programs, rather than repeating whatever had been said at the previous stations. This makes listening so boring because nothing new is added such discussions.
You listen to some inputs by panel members on these programs and you ask yourself if they indeed know what they are talking about. Some feel they ought to talk so far as they are in the studio, even though they know next to nothing about the issue on board.
What the Future Holds
I have a feeling that a greater number of radio stations are adding some days to their traditional days to treat showbiz news not because they have something extraordinary to give to the public but because other radio stations are doing it, they have to also join the trend.
If care is not taken, our entire entertainment review programs on radio stations will be full of ‘garbage’ discussions. For now, I see nothing aside reduplication of content.