The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has been kicked out by the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) in the Newsroom Contest, an event organised by Cheetah Communications.
The contestants from UPSA made their way to the end of the tunnel with a total score of 178, with the GIJ garnering 168.
By this feat, UPSA will face the Wisconsin University College for the first and second positions respectively, while GIJ faces AUCC for the third and fourth positions respectively.
This year’s contest is the fourth edition since it was instituted in 2015, with the goal of injecting an extracurricular activity in the training of communication students by giving them the needed experiential value in the field of journalism, public relations, advertising, integrated communication, among others, and also expose them to best communication practices geared towards national development.
According to the Founder & President of the Newsroom Contest, Raymond Baxey, the contest contributes in deepening the understanding of communication and its practice outside the lecture halls, adding, “It builds their confidence in the area of writing, public speaking, communication strategies and research and makes them more analytical.”
He stated that the novelty with this year’s contest is the report to be generated from the contest on the performance of students highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
This report, he said, would be submitted to authorities of competing universities with the aim of contributing to academia to arrest any shortfall in the training of communication students.
“I believe this is another way of contributing to the communication training and the industry at large,” Mr. Baxey added.
The semi-finalists of this year’s contest would have the opportunity to represent Ghana in a maiden ECOWAS Newsroom Contest to be hosted in Ghana in March next year, when the Newsroom Contest turns five years.
FROM Awuraabena Appianimaa B. Sarpong