The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has condemned the practice by some television stations of requiring prospective presenters to have a certain number of Facebook followers before they are employed.
He described the practice as "a complete affront" to professional standards and said media organizations risked undermining journalism when social media popularity became a condition for employment.
Pratt made the comments at the Ghana Journalists Association's (GJA) 77th anniversary symposium in Accra on August 19, 2026, where he urged media organizations to review how they recruit journalists and presenters in an industry increasingly influenced by social media.
He said some television stations now considered the number of followers an applicant had on Facebook when deciding whether to employ the person as a presenter. "I know some television stations you don't get employed as a presenter if you don't have a certain number of followers on Facebook," he said.
Pratt described the practice as "a complete affront to all of our standards" and said media houses that adopted such an approach "should bow their heads in shame," adding that "they are contributing significantly to undermining our credibility."
His comments formed part of a broader discussion on the growing influence of social media platforms on editorial decisions, audience measurement and the recruitment of media professionals. Pratt said journalism should not be reduced to a contest for attention, stressing that the duty of journalists was to establish what the public needed to know rather than simply maximize audience engagement. He said digital platforms often rewarded controversy, outrage and sensationalism, while journalism required professional judgement. "The journalist's task, however, is not simply to maximize attention, but to determine what the public needs to know," he said, adding that a journalist could be first to publish a story and still be wrong, while another could publish later and produce the most important story of the day. "The internet rewards speech. Journalism requires judgment," he said.
Pratt also challenged Ghanaian media organizations to reconsider whose experiences dominate national news. He said major news bulletins often centered on state officials, corporate executives and institutional authorities, while farmers, market women, fishermen, teachers, nurses, unemployed young people and entire communities received less sustained attention. He said ordinary citizens should not feature in national news only when disaster strikes. "These people are not merely background scenario to the national story. They hold the country in place," he said.
Pratt urged journalists to recover what he described as "the responsibility to listen and not only the ability to speak," saying journalists must pay greater attention to citizens who do not hold press conferences and whose experiences are often reduced to economic statistics. "If journalism is serious about telling the people's story, it must go where the people are," he said.
His comments formed part of a wider argument about the future of Ghanaian journalism and the need for media organizations to maintain professional standards while adapting to digital platforms and artificial intelligence. He said the challenge was no longer simply access to information, but how journalism could establish the truth in a society overwhelmed by information, and that media credibility had to be built through accuracy, verification, fairness, courage and a willingness to investigate people and institutions in positions of influence.
Pratt also questioned the influence of ownership, funding, advertising and political interests on editorial independence, arguing that freedom from government censorship was not the same as freedom from pressure. He said media houses could not demand fearless journalism from journalists while ignoring the economic and professional conditions under which they worked.
The GJA's 77th anniversary symposium was held under the theme, "GJA at 77: Building on our legacy, advancing ethical journalism and shaping the future of digital media."
