A recent study by the Institute of Brands Narrative Analysis (IBNA) has found that business and financial journalists in the country have relied on only a few financial analysts or experts for their opinions when reporting banking and finance news in the country.

The study found that only three finance analysts are being used for stories that cover the banking industry especially, and the financial market as a whole.

More specifically, an analysis of 88 banking and financial news stories from 59 business newspaper editions found that only 10% of financial analyst’s references and quotes were made.

“The analysts’ references were skewed around the following analysts’ sources: These financial analysts were Dr. Richmond Atuahene, a banking consultant, John Gatsi, an economist, Courage Martey an analyst with the Databank. Woefully, 90% of banking and financial news analyzed were without analysts’ references. This style of financial news reporting is not encouraging for the Ghanaian banking and financial industry”.
IBNA

Need for constant training of journalists

For a robust financial sector development, the IBNA research recommended that the business sector partners with business and financial journalists to offer consistent training. It also encouraged Media organizations to resource financial and business journalists for research oriented news reportage.

On the other hand, the IBNA urged business and financial journalists to diversify their portfolio by making use of the numerous financial and business experts in the country to help build a strong financial sector.

“As much as the constraints facing Ghanaian journalists is well appreciated, for an insightful investment projection, journalists are encouraged to wrap their business and financial stories around analysts’ references since business and financial analysts matter in business and financial news reporting”.
IBNA

Financial news narrative and its business impact

According to the IBNA, financial and business journalists impact on financial, stock market, political and economic spaces within society. The IBNA stated that negative and positive emotions, tones in analysts’ quotes and paraphrases attach to banking news narratives, for instance, could affect and influence panic levels among investors, trading markets and the public.

Furthermore, the IBNA argued that financial and business analysts’ references in business news narratives impact on business sector by educating and informing the public about financial world, investment opportunities and subsequently provide insight to the banking sector.

Challenges facing financial journalism in Ghana

The IBNA highlighted that from an observational point, a sharp change in the Ghanaian traditional media ecosystems due to the new media – online news – has in a way contributed to high drop in advertisement revenues which has affected employment of financial journalists and editors. According to the IBNA, the very few assigned and dedicated journalists too are somehow overstretched.

Consequently, the IBNA stated that the challenges facing the journalists in these areas has led to a new form of news reportage, “financial and banking public relations stories”.

“Also, the financial journalists lack the needed financial resources and news gathering logistics from their media establishments to embark on financial and business research. In addition, resource for consistent training in financial and business news reporting remains inadequate. Furthermore, it appears the challenges facing Ghanaian financial journalists has contributed to financial news texture that may easily be described as what I term financial and banking public relations stories. Certainly, these financial journalists cannot entirely be blamed, but needs to be resourced with the necessary tools”.
IBNA

The Ghanaian financial journalists were subtly blamed for failing to connect with market analysts in its reportage to alert the market before Ghana’s financial sector clean-up by the Bank of Ghana in 2018, the IBNA said. Therefore, the IBNA stated that it is imperative for financial journalists to connect with market and business analysts in news coverage.

Scope of the study

The IBNA conducted the study in the first quarter of the year under IBNA’s Global Media Standards Measurement Index (IBNA-GMSMI). The scope covers only Business newspapers (B&FT, Business Finder, and Economy Times). News editorials and features were excluded. Methodological application was quantitative news content coding and appraisals. This study, however, excluded Radio, TV, and Online media “hence this study serves as a pointer for business and financial news reporting”.