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An Educationist and Social Commentator, Mr. George Akom has indicated that with the current media space as a channel for disseminating information to the public is now becoming a necessary evil to governance and political activities of nations. He continued that the media since its existence in the 1780s has played a very significant role in democracy ,governance and also by shaping human minds through social, political and economic activities around the world. He added that despite the numerous advantages that we derive from the media, the emergent of social media ecosystem is affecting the main function expected to be performed by the media, especially in the realms of politics and governance. He emphasized that the various information across the various social media space to inform the citizens of Ghana about our governance and political activities are infiltrated with a lot of disorders which make it difficult to ascertain the veracity of such information. Mr. Akom stressed that many citizens rely on information they get from the media to take decisions in their life and also make inform choices, and for that reason, if such information are not accurate, they affect whatever decision they make. He bemoaned that the current situation of diversity in the dissemination of government and political information where there are always counter information from various groups is a bane to verifying the truth in such information to measure the performance of government in the media space. He further clarified that the three information disorders; Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation are issues that are becoming prevalent in our government and political discourse. Everyday, we see and hear different communications coming from different groups on communication platforms purporting to inform or explain to the public about the same issue. There have been several counter information from different quarters to justify these stands. This is becoming difficult for citizens to know which ones are true or false, Mr. Akom stated. He explained that many of the these information disorders have come about as a result the emergence of Citizen Journalism through the so called Citizen Journalist who come out with information to deceive public for their own personal interest and gains without verifying the authenticity of the information they publish. Citizen journalism involves private individuals, who are normally the consumers of journalism, generating their own news content. Citizens collect, report, analyze, and disseminate news and information, just as professional journalists would, creating what is known as user-generated content. He added that the triangulation of information disorders, misinformation, disinformation and malinformation have become difficult to combat because, citizens sometimes do not verify or do not have any means to verify before they consume such information. He explained that Misinformation is information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm, Disinformation is false and deliberately information created to harm a person, social or political group, organization or country, and Mal-information is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, social or political group, organization or country. Mr. Akom who is also an Assistant Registrar of the Ghana Technology-Kumasi Campus, advised that citizens of Ghana should be vigilant and open their eyes to subject any information they see and hear from the media to verification, especially on social media landscape without believing in them from the source. Source:Broadcastergh.com/
