Journalists covering health concerns have been urged to avoid sensationalizing stories and instead concentrate on presenting facts to get policymakers' attention.
In order to prevent victimizing the people they report on, they have also been reminded to respect the privacy and dignity of those they report on.
Dr. Charity Binka, Executive Director of Women, Media, and Change (WOMEC), who provided the guidance, stated that it was the duty of journalists to publish factually correct, dependable, and unbiased information by making sure that their sources were legitimate and that the material was fact-checked.
She asserted that journalists had a duty to report accurately, taking into account how health concerns affect people on a personal level.
She stated that journalists should work to strike a balance between the public's interests and the interests of the people they cover.
reporting on urban health
Dr. Binka was giving a speech at a two-day training session at Dodowa designed to increase journalists' ability to cover problems with urban health systems and related topics.
The Community-led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems (CHORUS) initiative at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, was also intended to teach journalists how to effectively convey and package study results and outcomes.
Building resilient urban health systems is the goal of the six-year CHORUS project, a multi-country research program consortium (RPC) funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office of the United Kingdom. It began in May 2020.
Research is being conducted as part of the project in the urban settings of the four partner countries of Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, and Nigeria in order to address the practical difficulties of providing equitable health care.
The University of Ghana team conducted participatory action research (PAR) in four villages within the Greater Accra Region's Ashaiman and La-Nkwantanang Madina towns.
Health communication that works
Urban health, according to Dr. Binka, refers to the health results, difficulties, and determinants of health, which include a person's social and economic surroundings, physical environment, and personal lifestyle.
She asserted that in order to effectively explain health concerns to urban populations, journalists must have a thorough awareness of their social, cultural, and linguistic variety.
"Health messages should be tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of the target audience to ensure that they are culturally appropriate, linguistically accessible, and relevant to the individual's circumstances," she said.