Audrey Gadzekpo

Professor Audrey Sitsofe Gadzekpo is a Ghanaian media practitioner and female dean of the School of Information and Communications Studies at the University of Ghana. She was formerly a Communications Consultant and Lecturer who represented women's groups.

Quotes

• We find the political capture of the broadcast media space, in particular, and the increasing concentration of the media in a few hands as worrying for the country’s democracy, and there is the need to address this situation.

• Investigative journalists are the most at risk of attack and state actors, including political appointees and police, are the worst perpetrators of attacks on journalists.
  • Research collaboration with the Media Foundation for West Africa

• As we globalise and link up with the wider world, we need to always be reminded of what makes us unique.

• Media are a public good and must be supported to survive, if nothing else in the interest of democracy.

• As the maxim underscoring the symbiotic relationship between democracy and media holds, where there is democracy, there must be free media and where there is free media, the political system being practised is bound to be democratic.
  • [Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo Delivers Inaugural Lecture [1]

• In today’s world and with social media the children are going to learn about that which is a taboo in this country which is homosexuality.
  • Speaking on Comprehensive Sexuality Education
• The study revealed that media ownership in the country was shrouded in opacity, with political faces found to be behind most of the broadcast media entities.
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• While there were growing tendency towards media empire-building, the National Communication Authority (NCA) had a laissez faire attitude to questions about transparency of the media ownership.
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• Political faces behind broadcast media ownership mean that partisan actors and governments can control public discourse, and this is not good for our democracy.
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• Generally, many organisations in Ghana are not profitable and are, at best, breaking even and cannot fund investigative reports because of the cost involved.
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• The study found that the traditional media organisations were heavily dependent on the pharmaceutical industry, especially herbal products, for adverts.
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• In terms of working conditions of the media, the study found that journalists worked in precarious conditions, with some of them working without any contract or receiving salary at all.
  • [7]

• It was discovered that in most of the media houses, there was no clear-cut promotion mechanisms.
  • [8]

• The report also found that many journalists had the feeling that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary did very little to protect their safety.
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• As a researcher with a multidisciplinary focus, I am always looking for opportunities to expand my research agenda in ways that are meaningful, particularly in relation to African development. The APN has impacted my perspective and focus, in that I am now more consciously deepening my knowledge on peacebuilding, security, and development.
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• I came to the subject by accident, by being invited primarily by training institutes such as Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to lecture for one of their courses. For example, next week I am teaching part of a course on gender and conflict, where I will speak about gender, media, and conflict. So, you can imagine that chairing the conference panel at Wilton Park on “Case Studies: The Role of Civil Society across Regions,” particularly focusing on gender, provided me with another opportunity to expand my knowledge and challenged me to think about issues in a different way. Therefore, when I teach that course, this experience will inform some of the perspectives that I bring to it.
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• The opportunity to do good research certainly. However, additionally, the networking and the other processes, such as training workshops, around the grant meant that I had the opportunity to engage multiple times with other grantees and to be mentored in that sense to sort of reshape my ideas. I also had the opportunity to organize a regional training workshop for practicing journalists in the West African sub-region on reporting about peacebuilding, with a couple of APN grantees as resource persons. One of them, Dr. Peace Medie, just last week sent me a published article based on an aspect of the lecture she gave for that workshop. So it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of sharing ideas and research and publication opportunities.
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• Yes, I definitely think that APN grantees and prospective applicants should take advantage of the broader APN network as much as possible. I think that is the broader benefit of the grant, becoming part of a constantly growing pool of people: colleagues, experts, mentors, and practitioners working on peacebuilding.
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• This happens both locally and across the continent. For example, there’s another APN Alumnus at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), also here at the University of Ghana, Legon with me, Dr. Amanda Coffie (IRG 2016). Amanda reached out to me so we can get together and do some talking on what she’s working on, just informally. Also, I share information and articles with another Alumnus from LECIAD, Dr. Peace Medie (IRG 2015, BMC 2016).
  • [14]

• Beyond building connections within institutions, the APN has helped me to meet contacts working on similar topics throughout Africa. Sometimes, when I am writing a paper and want to have an idea of those that are doing similar work or topics, I first go through my APN contacts and see if anyone has done something in this field, what their thinking is, and then build on that. Future APN grantees should take advantage of the large and growing network, in formal and informal ways, because it’s really a great resource.
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