TV3’s central regional broadcast journalist and student of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Spencer Kwabena Boateng Mensah, has urged students interested in the media to consider volunteering as an effective gateway to earn a career in the media regardless of one’s programme of study.
He was speaking at a ‘Reckoning Force Conference’ organised by the Collaborative Team of Student Entrepreneur (CoTSE) at UCC’s main auditorium on Saturday April 9, 2016.
Other speakers included dignitaries from Tigo, Capital Bank, Aero Vector Aviation Institute and L’aine Services.
Addressing the audience of hundreds of students from UCC and the Cape Coast Polytechnic on the theme “Career Prospects from ARTS to ZOOLOGY”, Spencer noted that career opportunities in the media are like the number of maize grains that cohere to form a complete corn.
“What we perceive in the media comes not by chance; it takes an ‘A to Z’ collective responsibility of many departments that team up to produce the content”, related Spencer, the Philosophy and Religion student.
Adding, he said “Inasmuch as your programme of study begins with a letter from ‘A to Z’, your services are needed in the mass media which feeds different people who have diverse backgrounds.”
Demonstrating with a corn on the stage, the young man also said there are diverse ways of landing in the media just as there are many angles from which one can manually start unplugging maize from a corn.
“…Easy it is from some angles yet tough it is from other angles, you may choose to start from scratch as a volunteer or you may choose ‘a dear Sir/Madam application for employment’ which the coffers of a media house determines your ‘fate’…”.
He urged the audience to consider volunteering, especially in this current system of things where it is rare to find a job. He however represented ‘creativity’ with a corn stick as one of the most important requirements needed in the media since without a corn stick there is no place for grains of maize to team up as a corn.
Spencer admitted that considering studies in mass communication or in the liberal arts is a plus that notwithstanding, it is not necessarily sufficient to claim a career in the media.
The journalist and undergrat released a disclaimer last month expressing his disinterest – for religious and personal reasons – about competing for an honour in the upcoming maiden ‘UCC’s Excellence and Innovation Awards’ – and any other voting awards – when the public begun nominating him to contest for the ‘Best Student Journalist’ category.
After his ‘Arts to Zoology’ speech, Choicism probe further into whether his religious and personal beliefs allow him to take a non-voting award, “If my works inspire anyone or any group to award me willingly and genuinely without having me directly or indirectly campaign for public votes against another person, I feel it is great an achievement.” answered Spencer.
Aside from being a newsman, the ‘multimedialist’ also directs short films including the latest ‘4 DESYPOLES’ and a Campus Direct Episodes TV series – Penalty for Desire – for ‘Campus TV’ on First Digital TV.
He is the C.E.O of Pinnacle Professional College (PPC) which produced UCC’s seasoned “MC Bebe” amongst others who took a media vacation course at PPC.
His multimedia, KwaBoaMenT Ventures has also produced a documentary for the Faculty of Arts in the College of Humanities and Legal Studies at UCC.
Choicism can also reliably report that Spencer is in no time releasing an international humanitarian song to “Spread Love throughout the World”.
