Charles Ayitey

Charles Ayitey

Class of 2024

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Charles Ayitey is a broadcast reporter and narrative writer living in Oakland, California. His beat is on racial equities in health, business, and policy in the United States, and has publications in Oakland Side and Oakland North.

Before joining the UC Berkeley Journalism School, Charles was a business anchor and writer at Joy News – a leading news organization in his hometown, Accra. Ghana. While in Ghana, he produced and presented award-winning coverage of the resilience of African entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was awarded the best business journalist in Ghana and the best Climate reporter in Africa in 2021. Charles has moderated various business conferences including the Africa-EU Business Summit where he spoke on the impact of local journalism on Africa-EU relations.

Charles holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (An affiliate of the University of Ghana) and expects to graduate from Berkeley Journalism in May 2024 with a Master in Journalism degree.

EDUCATION

  • UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
    Master of Journalism - Class of 2024

  • Ghana Institute of Journalism
    Bachelor of Arts, Journalism (2015)

EMPLOYERS

  • Multimedia Group Limited - Accra, Ghana (Broadcast Journalist)
    December 6 2016 - August 2022

    - Produced and anchored business news bulletins

    - Produced human interest feature news

    - Moderated high-level conferences and forums

    - Assigned to live news coverage and reports

  • Genesis Media - Africa Chapter (Digital editorial assistant
    Genesis Media)
    10/2015 - 11/2018

    - Managed Ghana's editorial team with decisive and disruptive online media strategies

    - Made news outlet the top 3 in
    Ghana.

    - Introduced Ghana's first ever multimedia online news reader interactivity.

    - Tripled unique readership from 500k of initial publisher stages to 10 million in 5th operational year.

  • Face2face Africa - USA (Staff Writer)
    05/2015 - 08/2018

    - Researched and published Pan-African articles that sell good narratives of African history and political development.

    - Featured on BBC Radio 5 for an interview regarding an article on the ban on skin bleaching in Ghana.

    - Executed online news analysis op-eds on the economic and political comparisons of African nations as pegged against
    the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

AWARDS & HONORS

  • Africa Climate Change, Environmental Reporting Awards (06/2022 - Present)
    Issuer: Pan African Climate Justice Alliance
    - 1st Runner Up TV Category

  • Top 10 Business Journalist in Ghana
    (05/2022 - Present)

    Issuer: Brand Innovations Forum - Ghana (Radcomm Group)

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER WORK

  • A United States of Africa: Real Possibility Or
    Mere Rhetoric? - May 25, 2018

    tps://face2faceafrica.com/article/states-africa- possibility-mere-rhetoric

  • Bridging the vaccination gap: only 43% of eligible Alameda County Black residents are boosted against COVID

    https://oaklandnorth.net/2022/10/14/oakland-covid-vaccines-low-rates-black-residents/

  • Monkeypox vaccinations in Oakland lag among Black and Latinx gay men

    https://oaklandside.org/2022/11/14/monkeypox-vaccinations-oakland-alameda-county/

  • ‘Vaccination fatigue?’ Fewer people in Alameda County are getting flu shots

    https://oaklandside.org/2022/12/09/flu-shots-alameda-county-oakland-2022-vaccine-fatigue/

MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

  • National Association of Black Journalists

REPORTING INTERESTS

Community-centered reporting, Public health, economic equity, ethnic minorities