IDENTIFY A DISEASE IN YOUR COMMMUNITY, IDENTIFY ITS RISK FACTORS AND SUGGEST A SOLUTION

 

Health communication is an attempt to solve or at least, manage a public health issue through communication channels. These channels may include health education and campaigns, et cetera.

I belong to a student community that is drawn from different tertiary level institutions including the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Central University College, University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast. I have been a part of this community for at least, 5 years. It is important to note that this community of students includes student workers. 

I have identified a recurrence of stomach ulcer or gastritis among this population. This is a stomach disease caused by a bacteria called h-pylori and worsened by the intake of certain specific foods including spices, and acid bases. It characterises an erosion of the stomach walls on the patient, thereby causing sours in that area which get irritated when the patient grows hungry or takes in the ‘forbidden’ foods. 

Though stomach ulcer is not incurable, it takes years of strict dieting and management after which it may even return years after it has been absent, once the patient returns to spices and acid bases. This living with the disease almost all of the patient’s life is its ultimate risk factor; yet it may cause death when not treated and or ignored. While living with stomach ulcer, the patient is prone to perpetual and even chronic heart-burns, throat disorders and stomach cancer. 

The causes of stomach ulcer or gastritis are clear. H-pylori are present in the atmosphere including the air and soil; and may be found in unhealthy meals including foods that have not been cooked well. They are transferable from person to person through saliva. It is not amazing to find this disease common within a student community, as this group are usually hyper-active and busy with academic work. There is less attention for food and healthy living. 

What can be done to ameliorate the case of stomach ulcer within this community is the creation of awareness for both patients and others. Patients must strive to keep to the recommended diet and avoid activities that may cause transfer of h-pylori to others. Those without the disease also share in the avoidance of contact with h-pylori, and by other means including allowing their food to cook well, avoidance of buying food from vendors and taking the ‘forbidden’ foods in moderation.

SOURCE:

www.webmd.com/digestive.../digestive-diseases-peptic-ulcer-disease

BOOK REVIEW: INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM BY WILLIAM C. GAINES

I would best describe William C. Gaines’ Investigative Journalism as a hand book for aspiring and practicing investigative journalists. It can safely be described as a comprehensive exploration of the workings of the practice of investigative journalism and a step by step guide to a successful practice, beyond the intrinsic.

Gaines has called the craft many things including unique. In his definitions, he has said that it “has its roots in good literature and story-telling skills”, that it “grew to be thought of as an independent overseer of government” and as “public service”.

In this book, we encounter investigative journalists as role models in the journalism career. They are strategists, researchers, leaders, students, pushovers, to mention a few. As Gaines says, “their craft goes beyond matters in the public domain”; they expose the rot of the powerful in a bid to protect the powerless while putting their own lives and careers on the line. Like police investigation, investigative journalists develop their own information through investigative research, conduct their own investigations, then report on their findings.

In the example of  “Mayor Mixes Public and Private Business”, what we see is a very detailed tuition on how to follow leads, do research and overcome road blockages in the pursuit of an investigative story.  Lori Benton did not stop at the greatest hurdles. And even when she came face to face with whom can be called the super powers, she found ways to reach the facts she was determined to get.

Reading Gaines’ book, I couldn’t help reminiscing about Ghana’s Ace investigative journalist, Anas A. Anas. We are given three reasons why investigative journalists tell their stories: for the exposure of rot in society, for commercial purposes and even for selfish purposes. We are told that investigative journalists everywhere are aware that “A job well done will result in public approval.” We are not there when Anas is working; but we can identify the techniques discussed in the book in his work: Initiative, transcending the system blockages, exposing rot, cleaning the corrupt system as Benton sought to do and not giving it up, et cetera.

Gains teaches methods to collect evidence: surveillance, photos, surveys, interviews, documentary evidence, etc. By comparison, Anas must be using a lot of surveillance and survey. With his use of secret cameras, doing interviews under cover, et cetera, his methods are significantly different from what we see in Investigative Journalism, however, the two still maintain significant similarities.

We also learn in Investigative Journalism that journalists use different means to broadcast their investigative pieces, the best of them being the internet as a platform, since it provides the most space, though no lesser competition. We encounter a series of investigations in a published book by Alan Johnston titled Kidnapped. Though this doesn’t fit perfectly into the definitions of investigative journalism, by its nature, we can point to it and perhaps say “That’s what Gaines is talking about”.

We learn that Investigative reporters serve as mentors in news rooms. They are held in high esteem. “Sometimes, they are normal reporters who have worked for long and impressively. They usually never go back to normal reporting.’ In Gaines’ own words.

Investigative reporters are not exempted from the laws surrounding dealing with information and people. Laws such as trespass, theft, libel, bribery and extortion etc. may only be escaped when the journalist publishes a successful story. Otherwise, the laws are applied fully where a journalist is found meddling in the private business of their subjects.

We encounter an axiom among investigative reporters that “is not likely to be challenged”: it says that there are more stories to be done than there are time and reporters to do them. This is indeed true. However, it is important for journalists to appreciate their role in curbing this problem. Indeed if every journalist would employ investigative techniques in their reportage, though not all stories may be covered, we will be many steps ahead of where we are today.

Indeed, Gaines covers investigative techniques that can be employed successfully in almost all the various segments of society: governments, corporate organisations, individuals, etc. He takes the reader through how to following a tip, follow up on a breaking story, looking for subjects for planned projects, choose relevant stories of interest, et cetera.

Gaines’ Investigative Journalism tackles all aspects of the profession in a detailed step by step manner that makes it easy for both beginners and experienced professional to easily understand the intricacies of it. It has been called one of the best hand books for investigative journalists; and that cannot be doubted.

WHAT IS LAW?

Law is a system of principles and rules of human conduct prescribed or recognized by society and enforced by public authority.

It can also be defined as accepted ethics or codes of conduct with accompanying sanctions which guide societies and organisations.

Dan Jerker Svantesson in the book, Ratio Juris, defines it as “a jurisprudential concept- A collection of legal rules (created by legislative enactments and court judgments) and the context of those legal rules.

Types of laws

There are several different types of laws. Article 11 in Ghana’s 1992 constitution addresses the sources of laws in Ghana. The types of law include:

·         Written and unwritten laws

·         Rigid and flexible laws

·         Main and subsidiary laws

This paper will focus on unwritten laws. 

Unwritten laws

In Ghana and beyond, unwritten laws are mainly derived from customs and conventions. When people refer to unwritten laws, they are ultimately referring to uncodified laws. In the UK for instance, the laws are written but in different documents. They are not contained in a single document, therefore they are not codified. There are binding unwritten/uncodified laws. Examples are the UN law that prevents soldiers from exchanging food for sex in conflict- ridden countries and another UN law that prevents countries from obtaining diamond from war-torn countries. Much of international laws are unwritten/ uncodified.

IMPORTANCE OF UNWRITTEN LAWS

1.      Unwritten laws become conventions which are as enforceable as written laws. A person can be tried and punished for breaking an unwritten law just as is done with written laws. Unwritten laws have the force and power of written laws. They carry the same weight as written laws in so far as they are not in contradiction to any provision of the constitution.

2.      Unwritten laws are flexible. They can be modified or revised as old identities and situations become less relevant over time and new ones emerge. They are responsive to the changing rules of society.

3.      Because there is no special procedure for changing unwritten laws, they are less expensive to operate; generally they need fewer resources to be amended.

4.      Unwritten laws are commonly found in primitive societies where illiteracy dominates. Because many residents in those societies cannot read and write, there is no point in writing the laws, anyway. We are aware that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.- that it is not an excuse for those who cannot read or write to break the law.

5.      Many unwritten laws are exclusive to communities; therefore they are able to cater for the needs of those communities, where written laws do not make provisions. Example: in fishing communities in Ghana, there is no fishing on Tuesdays. Though this has a superstitious explanation to it, the real reason is that the sea tide rises to a level that makes it unsafe for small fishing boats.

6.      Unwritten laws are generally the basis for written laws. Therefore we can say that unwritten laws are fundamental laws. “no legal theory exists in perfect isolation from the reasoning of those theories expressed before it.”- Dan Jerker in Ratio Juris.

IMPORTANCE OF UNWRITTEN LAWS TO AN ORGANISATION

1.      Fundamental to the growth of both organisation and the individual in the organisation.

2.      They are symbols of orderliness

3.      Improving the efficiency of the team

4.      It allows for swift day to day administration of the organisation, since unlike written laws, time would not need to be taken to refer to it where needed.

5.      They can be easily amended to suit the changing dynamics of the organisation as it grows. Examples: new management, new property, extension of size and staff number