The Press In Ghana

This book examines the relationship between the press and the government in Ghana from 1822 to 1992. It provides a critical, historical, and analytical perspective for understanding the origins of, the present status of, and the outlook for the future of the Ghanian press. The author documents decisions and actions taken by the respective regimes regarding the press and press freedom issues -- from the colonial period of the 1820s to the immediate post-independence era of the late 1950s to the revolutionary transformation period of the 1980s and early 1990s. Asante also analyzes the media's role in helping to nationally develop and integrate the developing country Ghana. The Press in Ghana is comprehensive in scope, yet organized systematically and straightforwardly. Written simply and clearly, the discussions move chronologically from one regime to another. Succinct summaries at the end of each chapter highlight social, economic, and political policies and programs of each regime. Visuals include maps and black-and-white captioned photographs of Ghana's political leaders. This well-researched and cogently written work will be an indispensable tool in courses on international communication, mass communication and society, and surveys of foreign press systems.

In The Press and Political Culture in Ghana, Jennifer Hasty looks at the practices of journalism and newsmaking at privately owned and state-operated daily newspapers in Ghana. Hasty decodes the styles and uncovers the strategies that characterize Ghana's major printed news media, focusing on the differences between news generated by the state and news that comes from private sources. Not only are the angles radically different, but so are ways of gathering the news, assigning beats, using sources, and writing articles. For all its differences in presentation, however, Hasty shows that the news in Ghana projects a unified voice that is the result of a contentious and multifarious process that joins Ghanaians in global, national, and local debates. An important engagement with the production of news and news media, this book also explores questions about the relationship of popular culture to state politics, the expression of civic culture, and the role of the media in constituting national and cultural identities.

Scientific Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Communications - Journalism, Journalism Professions, , course: None, language: English, abstract: A free press is the cornerstone of a democratic society. It has been said that liberty depends on the freedom of the press. However, when these freedoms and rights are left unrestricted or without borders there are likely to be abuses. This write-up looks to figure out the provisions in the 1992 constitution that protect the independence and freedom of the press and also try to find out if there are other provisions in the constitution as well as other legal documents that act as checks on these rights and freedoms. The write-up will later examine situations that could warrant deliberate restrictions on media freedom. The write-up has been organized into seven sub-headings namely; article 162 of the 1992 constitution, the media, brief history of the media in Ghana, press freedom and the role of the media in Ghana, the need for press freedom in Ghana, abuses of press freedom in Ghana and circumstances that would warrant restrictions on the media without jeopardizing the human rights of Ghanaians.

The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press is of high conceptual, theoretical and methodological quality. It gives a good overview of the literature and the state of the art in the fields tackled by the author. The originality of the book lies especially in its methodological approach. Prof Guido Keel, Director of the Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press is a comprehensive and highly analytical study of the impact of foreign news organisations on the creation of an image of Africa in its own press. Identifying a problematic focus on the Western media in previous studies of the African media image, Serwornoo uses the Ghanaian press as a case study to explore the effects of centuries of Afro-pessimistic discourse in the foreign press on the continent’s self-description. This study brings together a number of theoretical approaches, including newsworthiness, intermedia agenda setting, postcolonial theory and the hierarchy of influences, to question the processes underpinning the creation of media content. It is particularly innovative in its application of the methodological frameworks of ethnographic content analysis and ethnographic interview techniques to unveil the perspectives of journalists and editors. The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press presents a vital contribution of the highest academic standard to the growing literature surrounding Afro-pessimism and postcolonial studies. It will be of great value to scientists in the field of journalism studies, as well as researchers interested in the merging of journalism research, postcolonial studies, and ethnography.

Ghana is widely acknowledged by the international community as a model of democracy: the first black African sub-Saharan country to gain political independence from Britain. Focussing on the matrix offered by the media-democracy paradox in Ghana, Africa and the Global South, it will generate debate in democracy, media, journalism and communication.

A detailed account of politics in Ghana's urban neighborhoods, providing a new way to understand African democracy and development.