Where are people going online for elections news?

December 7, 2008 is a big day for Ghana as it takes a giant step to consolidate its democracy through yet another presidential and parliamentary election.

Eight (8) persons including one independent candidate are competing at the presidential level with scores of independent candidates among the persons putting themselves forth to represent 230 constituencies, spread throughout the country, in parliament.  As the elections date fast approaches there is a very high demand for elections news, information, knowledge, analysis and predictions.

So where are the electorate and other interested parties going to keep informed about this key election?
Apart from the traditional news sources of print and broadcast media, there are online elections news resources available.  These can be classified into three types:

 

1.       Online resources belonging to traditional news outlets:   

These either devote a section on their existing websites to elections news and analysis or create websites devoted to elections news.   An example of the latter is www.myjoyonline.com.  According to its editor, Mr. Isaac Yeboah, the site is at an advanced stage of launching a special website for the elections and they hope to ensure it can cope with thousands of visitors especially during the period the election results are announced.  Other examples of online news resources that belong to traditional news media include www.gbcghana.com, www.graphicghana.com, http://accra-mail.com/.

 

2.      Exclusive Online news outlet:

These are online news sites which do not belong to or are not associated with, any traditional news media.  Quick to come to mind in this category is www.ghanaweb.com.  Other examples are: http://www.theghanaianjournal.com/, www.ghananewstoday.com , http://www.newsinghana.com/ and http://www.ghanaflash.com/ etc

 

3.       Special purpose websites devoted to Ghana's elections. www.ghanaelectionshotline.com comes to mind easily and then there is www.ghanadecides.com which gets redirected to http://www.ghanaelectionwatch.com/new/.  Some other web addresses which fall under this category were registered but are not in use.  Examples are www.ghanavotes2008.com,  http://www.ghanavotes.com/ and www.ghanaelections2008.com.

 

In conclusion, although radio, television, newspapers, word of mouth, SMS are going to be the main sources of elections news for a lot of Ghanaians, there are still many across the world who are going to turn to the Internet to find out who wins Ghana's elections 2008.  Obviously, the online resources can give up-to-date reporting in a timely manner just as, if not quicker than, radio and television and certainly faster than print media.

 

source: www.africanelections.org