The GJA’s resolve to build the interest and capacity of journalists in investigative journalism is good news to me. The campaign to get more investigative journalists is not confined to Ghana. Workshops, seminars and roundtables have been organized in many countries in this direction. To many, investigative journalism is a mark of a well-developed media. But what is investigative reporting. There are probably as many definitions of investigative reporting as there are journalists working in the field. One reason for this plethora of definitions is that investigative journalism as a specialism within the profession is relatively new, and academics and professionals are still developing appropriate models. To many, investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. Yet, most people’s idea of what investigative reporting is all about is one that uncovers secrets somebody wants to keep hidden; it reveals scandals, and shames corrupt individuals. Whether it is exposing corrupt officials or giving an exposé of politically incorrect acts, one thing is common to all investigative reporting – reporters spend a great deal of time to deeply investigate a particular issue. If that is so then we need more investigative reporting in our media, especially when most of the newspapers are mere scandal sheets and the broadcast media hardly goes beyond the ‘he-said, she-said’ type of news reporting. In some instances media houses reproduce publications from other media without the professionalism to even give credits. The GJA, it seem, is battle-ready to fight this. It has, with other stakeholders, put together its maiden workshop for journalists from the print and electronic media as a way of building their interest and capacity in investigative reporting. But I have one worry. If the Thursday August 25 GTV prime news on the workshop is anything to go by then it seems the GJA is concerned with the type of reporting concerning corruption in officialdom, government and among politicians. This impression is further buttressed by a statement by the chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC) Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, who advised journalists at the workshop to take interest in investigative journalism as a means of putting office holders on their toes. Again, receiving the third in the series of presentations towards the 16th GJA Awards the GJA vice president, Affail Monney, stressed that investigative journalism also exposes corruption between public officers and private persons and will help Ghana's democracy and development. In terms of development I wonder weather exposing corruption in itself will help us achieve it. I am yet to come across any study that links increased reportage on corruption in the media to even a decrease in the incidence of corruption let alone the broader picture of national development. It seems to me that the act of corruption is a culture; part of the way of life of a people, which can be uprooted with a more elaborate and concerted effort. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying investigative reporting will have no impact on the incidence of corruption. What I am asking is whether there are enough statistics to support the claim that it will help reduce corruption; and even if it will, to what extent. Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a world-acclaimed investigative journalist. His work spans corruption in state instructions, private organizations, religious bodies and what have you. Days after his famous expose of rot at the Elubo border by CEPS officials, word going round was that business was going on as usual, except that this time the bribe has assumed a different name – Anas. So people do not talk of giving a bribe, they talk of giving an Anas. An issue like corruption is a cultural one which can be dealt with with the building of strong institutions. Lets look at it this way; there are a lot of people working constantly with physical cash at the banks. But in this economically unfavourable environment of ours, monies hardly get missing at the banks. Not that the workers there are angels. It’s simple; the banking institutions have strict mechanisms in place to prevent even kleptomaniacs from habouring thoughts of stealing. So I am not too sure whether reports on corruption in the media will do much to help solve the problem of corruption. At best it does what it does – letting people know what is going on in such institutions. As a developing nation with peculiar culture and history our problems are unique which require unique interventions. If the media wants to help accelerate the development agenda there are areas I suggest we can focus on. We should focus our attention on getting more environment, community and health journalists. For instance, about 33% of the districts in Ghana have serious iodine deficiency problems [MOH/UG survey 2002]. The most severe iodine deficiency was found in the Upper East and Upper West Regions, with 56.5% goitre prevalence. Overall, about 78 percent of children aged 6-59 months in Ghana are thought to have some level of anaemia, including 7 percent of children with severe anaemia. Vitamin A deficiencies affect 72% of Ghana’s under five population. Additionally, lactating mothers have low breast milk retinol levels [MOH survey, 2005]. These figures in themselves do not mean much to the ordinary person. Their importance emanate from the permanent damage they cause in children. A child who is deprived of iodine may suffer permanent low intelligence. In Guatemala, where a good number of children were being fed with food deficient in iodine and other important micro nutrients, a study was conducted in which a group of boys up to the age of 3 were feed with food fortified with these nutrients. The study found that these boys excelled in their academics and grew up to secure/create jobs in which their wages were averagely 46% higher than those who were not fed with the fortified food. The study estimated an increase in GDP of at least 2-3 percent with such people working in the economy. Maybe we should not blame school children and their teachers for the high attrition rate in our educational system. Lack of such nutrients like Vitamin A, iron and iodine may present a host of problems including stunting (dwarfism), avoidable blindness, and behavioural problems. No wonder the 2008 Lancet series on maternal and child malnutrition categorized Ghana among the 36 countries in the world with the highest burden (prevalence>20%) of global stunting. And what is frightening about these conditions are that they come with irreparable life-threatening conditions. As for those children who lose their lives as a result of malnutrition, the least said about that the better. One of the reasons we might want to take a second look at these issues is that malnutrition is no respecter of economic status. There is evidence to show that families with ample incomes for adequate food intake also suffer from surprisingly high rates of under-nutrition. As already noted, the benefits of childhood nutrition interventions go far beyond saving lives to include cognitive and physical development, better health and higher earnings. Some action has to be taken and taken fast because costs of inaction—as measured by increased child mortality, compromised life chances and reduced economic productivity—are unacceptably high. These and many of such issues are neglected – sometimes spiked - while attention is given to scandalous stories in the media. My honest view is that some attention to these issues in the media can do a great deal of help to our development agenda. There is a great deal of uninformed people out there waiting to be informed and educated on these little things that make a big difference. So let the GJA focus on investigative journalism but let them also give some attention to other disciplines like, community journalism, environmental journalism, nutrition (health) journalism and other such efforts so that we can have a rounded media other than the current skewed media. This I admit though, will need the effort of academics and researchers, professionals, and other stakeholders within such arenas. The Writer is a Communication Professional.