News coverage in this country over the years has usually been to report on events, people and of course, government activities, projects, as well as what businesses are doing and its impact on the people and the economy.
The picture is however different when you have a team of dedicated professionals who have tasked themselves to be advocates for communities in what can be described as community journalism.
It is against this backdrop that 3FM brings to you Community Connect; a typical professional news coverage style that typically identifies issues– sanitation, power and water supply, planning, housing, transportation and general service provision – in the inner parts of your community.
Hosted by award winning journalist, radio and TV personality Johnnie Hughes, Community Connect airs on 3FM 92.7 on Mondays between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. Hughes is the 2016 Pentasi ‘B’ Universal Inspirational Poet Awardee.
“The Show aims at creating a consistent buzz about issues bugging the various communities that calls for the attention of public office holders for ultimate redress. You can call us the community advocacy flag-bearers and you would not be far from the truth,” Producer of Community Connect, Gideon Sackitey said.
Community Connect has in the last six months demonstrated its tenacity to pushing central and local governments off their comfort zones to get their core duties done for the various communities for the betterment of the people.
“Fortunes vary from one community to another and it has become obvious since we started that, some public officials have left [their] community needs and provisions to the wind”, Mr Sackitey noted.
“We are finding out that in some instances, public duty bearers, such as local government officers from the local assembly level to the level of state Ministers often go to sleep or take forever to undertake normal public tasks and because they are not voted for, the views of the various communities only stop at a point.”
Kweku Adjei Nkrumah, a resident of Weija, near Pambros Salt Industry, who through Community Connect got the authorities to respond to a case of being sandwiched by two filling stations, said “I can see that you guys at 3 FM are serious and can get the authorities to act. We were to go to court to stop this. But we had no money, through your medium – Community Connect- we have got the results we needed.”
A member of the Production team, Nii Amarh Amarteifio, also notes that “Community Connect is not out to run anyone down, except to make the lives of people in small, inner communities worthwhile, before they become a statistic of some sort.
“Our aim is to bring attention to situations before they get out of hand”, he added.
Tune in to Community Connect on 3FM 92.7 on Mondays at 5:00PM as we get authorities to act on some anomaly in your neighbourhood with a local flavour stewed with your concerns in a way that gets results unlike a mere news coverage.
By 3FM 92.7FM|3news.com|Ghana