There was a time when GTV Ghana’s social media presence was the unexpected underdog of digital engagement. When they first broke out of the traditional, state-broadcaster mould and started engaging audiences with wit, humour, and well-placed clap backs, it was a refreshing shift.
For a station that was often dismissed as outdated, this felt like a rebrand in real time, one that made them relevant again in the digital space.
I remember one moment distinctly. My GCEO called me into her office and, in her usual curious but forward-thinking manner, asked: “Who is running GTV’s social media? Find out. Maybe we should hire them.”
At that point, their social team was doing something unprecedented for a government-run broadcaster. They weren’t just posting schedules and updates; they were engaging, taking jabs, and even challenging big brands like DSTV. People loved it.
The comments under their posts were filled with praise, laughter, and viral shares. It felt like the digital transformation of an institution that, for years, had struggled to remain relevant.
But here we are now. The final evolution of what we once cheered.
What started as a bold digital play has spiralled into an unfiltered, unprofessional mess. Instead of an engaging state broadcaster with personality, we now have an institution that is caught up in social media clap back culture, dragged into petty online feuds, responding to criticism with passive-aggressive remarks, and, worst of all, losing its credibility in the process.
Take their recent engagement with Metro TV journalist Bridget Otoo. She posted a lighthearted tweet, jokingly asking President John Mahama to appoint her as the Director-General of GTV. A perfect opportunity for a measured, witty, yet professional response. Instead, GTV clapped back in a way that was unnecessarily patronizing:
“Dear @Bridget_Otoo, the job application you've written should rather be sent to the National Media Commission and not @JDMahama. As a journalist, I'm sure you know the NMC is the appointing body of the GBC D-G.”
Then, for added measure, they threw in an eye-roll emoji and the hashtag #posco.
This wasn’t engagement. This wasn’t humour. This was a state broadcaster acting like an internet troll.
An earlier engagement between the two, which was “punchier” had left me aghast.
Even within industry circles, discussions have shifted. Recently, in a professional WhatsApp group, colleagues debated how GTV’s social media engagement had moved from witty to outright reckless.
The irony? We enabled this.
The problem with clap back culture being adopted by a state broadcaster
Social media rewards engagement. Virality. Shares. But what GTV has failed to realize is that not all engagement is good engagement; especially for a national broadcaster.
When they first started, we all cheered them on. We encouraged the witty responses, the feisty engagements, the “relatable” posts. But we didn’t stop to ask: Is there a long-term strategy here?
And that’s where we, as a people, enabled this mess. We hyped them up without demanding structure. We celebrated their banter without questioning whether a state institution should be operating like a parody account. We fuelled their engagement without considering that a brand built on internet humour has no guardrails when the joke inevitably goes too far.
Now, here we are. The shift has happened. The same audience that once rooted for them is now dragging them daily. The respect that was briefly regained has eroded.
The “cool state broadcaster” brand has dissolved into one that people simply don’t take seriously any more.
So what exactly is the strategy?...or the end goal?
The core issue here is that GTV’s social media presence does not seem to being guided by a clear, professional digital strategy (unless the strategy is to get engagement by all means). There is a fundamental difference between being engaging and being reckless. A professional broadcaster should have:
- A clear content and engagement policy.
- A crisis management plan for handling sensitive topics.
- An internal team that understands the balance between relatability and credibility.
Instead, what we see is a team operating on vibes. Reacting rather than planning. Posting for shock value rather than engagement with intent.
And the consequences are evident. They’re now in the same category as troll accounts and anonymous social media commentators, where even when they’re right, they’re not respected.
So what now?
If GTV wants to regain credibility, they need to press reset.
- Acknowledge the shift. Someone needs to recognize that the brand has veered off track. Admitting this is step one.
- Implement a social media policy. One that prioritizes engagement, but with guidelines that ensure professionalism is never compromised.
- Hire the right people, not just those who can clap back, but those who understand digital communication at an institutional level.
- Rebuild trust. GTV needs to decide if it wants to be a respected broadcaster or a Twitter engagement farm. Because right now, they are failing at both.
GTV’s social media meltdown isn’t just their failure. It’s a reflection of how we, as a digital audience, encourage chaos without thinking about the long-term effects. We love disruption.
We love when institutions “loosen up” and “get with the times.” But there is a fine line between modernizing and losing institutional integrity.
We saw GTV take a path that could have been innovative, and we failed to ask the right questions. Instead, we laughed, we shared, and we fuelled a trajectory that has now left them in an identity crisis.
And before anyone takes my words out of context, I run multiple social media accounts for major media brands.
I understand the delicate balance between engagement and credibility. I know firsthand that there is a way to be bold without being reckless, to be engaging without being dismissive, and to modernize without eroding trust.
It was all fun and games until it wasn’t.