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About 20 journalists selected from leading media houses in Accra have been schooled on effective election reportage and e-learning.

The three-day workshop held at Sogakope in the Volta Region was organised by the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and funded by the United States of America (USA) Embassy in Accra.

Topics treated included:‘What makes good political journalism?’, ‘Applying research in electionand opinion polls reporting’, ‘Reporting electoral conflict, ‘The impact of political marketing and advertising on election coverage’.

Other topics treated also were:‘Political journalism: the watchdog function’, ‘Media framing and election campaigning and also spin doctoring: political actors and agenda setting’.

Resource persons for the workshop were; MrKwesi Jonah from the University of Ghana (UG), Mr Peter Ankamah from the Daily Dispatch and Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC) Mr K. GyanApenteng.

The rest of the resource persons were: Rector of GIJ, Dr Wilberforce Dzisah and his vice MrEboAfful as well as Dr Kobby Mensah also from UG.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Dzisah called on the media to take the lead in agenda setting during the election period and not leave the politicians to do that.

He said since the media gets their audience to think and talk about what they (audience) are fed, it will be appropriate for them (media) to take the lead in the election period.

Press attaché at the US embassy, Ms Sara VeldhuizenStealy, thanked the participants for coming and urged them to use whatever skills they have acquired professionally.

She also commended the organisers for coming up with the initiative and assured that the US embassy will continue to partner organisations for the growth of Ghana’s democracy.

After the workshop, the journalists were also trained on e-learning which is a tool for research to aid them in their daily reportage.

Each participant was given a certificate of merit at the end of the day.