Help me visualize the magnitude of Keta’s tidal wave disaster.
About the online reports of the Aug. 29 tidal wave that hit Keta, what was missing for the news audience?
Keta was hit by a tidal wave on August 29, and some news websites published the story.
It would have been unexpected if a Ghanaian news website covered the disaster the way New York Times did for an avalanche at Tunnel Creek, with an interactive storytelling, popularly known as snowfall.
This is not to say Ghanaian journalism couldn’t achieve that, but because we barely experiment with such storytelling types.
But the least online reporters could have done to help the audience imagine the event better, would have been the details of the extent or magnitude of the waves:
How far inland did the wave(s) travel? How high did it rise? How does it compare to previous events?
Telling how far and high
Many Ghanaians measure things relatively. For example to tell how far you should drive to a place when asking for directions, you are likely to get someone pointing and telling you, “You, just drive to that road, right there, that’s the place.”
You rarely get someone tell you how many meters more ahead you have to go. It gives the impression the lay Ghanaian doesn’t care much about measurement, and Keta’s reportage shows our journalists agree.
However it is something worth considering. Extent, magnitude, are details that determine the value of a story where applicable. 100 people have been displaced, 50 homes gone. Good you told us. But how far did the wave go inland? 100 metres? 200 metres? How does it compare to previous waves since this is not the first time in Keta.
In the first place, there should have been a research institution monitoring Keta, that would give a press release, sharing the full details. But in their absence, a reporter on the ground in Keta after it was safe to do so, could find a spot parallel to the coast and approximate. She/he could also look round for objects (like the walls and mud wells in the photos) that were swept over and tell the least height in meters or inches, where the waves reached, to have submerged the objects.
As last resort, a witness could have helped a reporter with such details.
Take away
Ghanaian reportage hardly pushes the boundaries in helping the audience visualize, be it the absence of media or details that help form useful mental images of what is happening in our environment.
But there are standards. They are not too good for us. We can opt to reach or pass them if we are to be competitive and be taken seriously internationally.
Stories with specific details help the audience understand what is really going on. If you haven’t done that, you have only scratched the surface.
Some audience feedback on their expectations for the coverage of such stories are below:
“Comparing the measurements to some common or known things in society/environment also helps one to appreciate the scale being communicated.
Stating the affected area as multiples of say Stadium or the Independence Square helps the reader to visualize the size being reported.
Eg: Affected area is about 20 football pitches or the affected area is the equivalent of Dansoman Estate.” — Abu, Engineer, Kumasi.
“Being from the area, I’d be concerned about which exact areas the waves hit, and an analysis of the relative frequency of such incidences across geographical space.
The data is not only valuable for public knowledge, but actually government action.” Gameli, Tutor, Keta.
