Why Ghana's TV3 Consistently Disappoints

So TV3 has just ended a season of its "Mentor " series. I have friends, colleagues and acquaintances who have told me of their profound disappointment with the show because of increasing lack of quality on the show. The lack of quality has little to do with the contestants--after all, they start as novices with a view to improving--and everything to do with the quality of the show.

The biggest thorn in the "Mentor" flesh resides in the judges who are awarded only 30%, with the remaining allotted for the voting public. Despite complaints of earlier seasons of Mentor that proved to have winners that effectively cheated by buying units for their friends and family to vote them to the highest spot, the producers seem to be still operating on the blind side of quality, by retaining a good 70% for the public who vote in with their credits!

But, really, this is not just about "Mentor".

If we were in the UK, there would certainly be lots of noises about TV3 "dumbing down".

I accept that there is no culture of regularly assessing the media in the manner that is done in the West, but I think it is never too late.

I often wonder where lie the statistics that show that the majority of Ghanaians seem to prefer TV3 to the infinitely-better METRO TV, who I feel are far more professional and dedicated in the quality of their reports??

Then there is their news.

The other day, they had a "three facts" about AUTISM. After the facts, I was more confused than ever; the information was culled from autism.com, but I humbly submit that they should have consulted WIKIPEDIA, because the definition offered was more abstract than simple! Forget even the fact that TV3 consistently has unforgiveable typos that want to make you scream!

Still on their news, there is something that irks me about their news: it just does not interest me. Sure, you have the passion of good presenters like Nana Aba Anamoah and Basuwa Hammond who make a great effort to make the news interesting. In my humble opinion, if the news is scripted poorly, the news will continue to be poor.

We like in this country to emulate the West in many aspects, but I wonder why we don't like to emulate the quality of the West. Look not too far form your dial, and you can easily tune to BBC Worldservice on 101.3FM.

Are Ghanaian newscasters--especially on TV3--tuning in at all?

The day I learn a new word than a badly-pronounced one while watching TV3 news is the day I know mediocrity will be a thing of the past.

TV3, wake up!!