Carlton Cofie

Biography

Carlton Cofie is a broadcast journalist and a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism where he teaches broadcast and print journalism. He had his basic education at the Apenkwa Shiayennoh Primary and Middle school, and secondary education at Koforidua Secondary Technical School in the Eastern region then continued to Super Stars Sixth Form School in Accra. In 1995, he enrolled at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and completed in 1997. He had his training as a broadcaster at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Deutsche Welle in Cologne/ Bonn in Germany. In his quest for more knowledge, Mr. Cofie he enrolled at the University of Westminster in London for his master’s degree, completing in 2006. Aside lecturing, Mr. Cofie is the editor of the “Eyes on Malaria” magazine with contributors from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal and Mozambique. It is published by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN). Mr. Cofie also does consultancies, a recent one being the Ghanaian Ebola Experience for the Ghana Health Service. He is the CEO of a company called Media Amigo which trains broadcasters in the best standard practice. “They have to know the skills and get the right orientation as well as the ethics” he said. “The youth are very smart. They are using mobile phones, I.C.T. to do things that we couldn’t do in our time. And if they get good instructions and orientation they would become better practitioners than us,” he stated. The affable lecturer believers GIJ stands head and shoulders above other journalism schools in the country. “GIJ is still the best journalism school in the country. When you consider what we teach here and the links that we have with media houses for practical development it is obvious. “When you come out and go to a media house as a GIJ product, you should be able to do your work if you are a good student and you have been taking the right instructions and implementing them. “I find that the GIJ student is very creative and very resourceful and finds a way to always a get a story. I think the practical nature of the training and the experiences they get make them ready. When you go to media houses today you see a lot of GIJ products,” he emphasized. Mr. Cofie advised student journalists to put the theory that they learn at school into practice and be willing to listen to instructions and allow themselves to be corrected by experienced practitioners. “During practice you will make a lot of mistakes. You should have the humility to learn and accept corrections from professionals.”

Research Interest

Journalism, Social media.