What is communitywatchdoggh?
Communitywatchdoggh is a media house that provides a trusted and indispensable source of information about local communities and community development in Ghana. We are a watchdog of local problems, wrongs and misconduct in the most vulnerable areas of the country, based in the Volta region.
What does communitywatchdoggh do?
Communitywatchdoggh reports about local communities and community development by consulting a broad spectrum of local stakeholders from civil society, government, business, and education. For our stories, we reach out to chiefs, school teachers, social entrepreneurs, civil servants, employees & volunteers of NGO’s and expats. We provide:
- factual news,
- interviews,
- guest blogs,
- opinion & discussion and
- investigative journalism
about the pros and cons of various community development approaches.
Why does communitywatchdoggh do this?
Many local communities in the country lack a lot of social amenities like schools, water, hospitals, road etc. We raise awareness of these issues and are a platform for discussion of best (and worst) practices for community development. We see a great difference in development between the regions of Ghana and believe every community deserves a certain human standard.
What is the history of communitywatchdoggh?
Communitywatchdoggh is founded by Mark Sandow, a Ghanian journalist born in Buipe. Being from a local community he has experienced at first hand how local communities normally suffer. The reason he chose to study journalism is to help local communities and his country. After having worked for several radio stations, TV stations and websites he came to realize all-round and in-depth news about community development in local communities was missing in de media landscape since most news stations mostly report about urban issues. He then chose to found a new media house, to accelerate positive change in underdeveloped regions.
What are the sources of income of communitywatchdoggh?
We finance our activities by advertisements, paid guest blogs and sponsoring. We strive to not let commercial influences interfere with our values as independent journalists and will always be critical of our guest bloggers if they do not meet our journalistic values, mission, and vision. The same goes for sponsored articles. We will always give insight into the sponsors. We aim to maintain a clear separation between journalism (truth-finding) and commerce (advertising; promotion; priorities of advertisers) in order to have a true social impact.
What are the values of communitywatchdoggh?
- Independence. We are guided by truth-finding, not by political or economic interests.
- Integrity. We do our work honestly, openly and carefully.
- Transparency. We are willing and able to justify how and why we do or have done our work.
Copyrights:
overwriting other people’s work in order to present it as one’s own, without proper mention of the source is a serious journalistic offense. The use and mention of sources are such that chefs or chief editors can get answers to questions about the origin of quotations and facts.
overwriting other people’s work in order to present it as one’s own, without proper mention of the source is a serious journalistic offense. The use and mention of sources are such that chefs or chief editors can get answers to questions about the origin of quotations and facts.
Truth-telling and fact checking: We assume that as a rule people (would) want to tell the truth, but always take into account distortion of information and lies. This also includes: propaganda, disinformation, spin and counter-spin. When in doubt about the credibility of an initiative or action, we carry out extra checks, such as requesting (and having assessed) further documentation.
