"Ghana has made tremendous progress regarding freedom of expression and access to information since the inception of the Fourth Republic. Looking back to a firmly rooted history of democratic practice, the country has a vibrant and free media environment regulated by an independent body and supporte
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d by a strong civil society sector. The constitution includes legal protection for journalists against censorship and violence. However, the report expresses concern over a growing sense of insecurity among journalists regarding their safety, an increasing media concentration and commercial imperatives that may pose a threat to media freedoms and pluralism in Ghana. Media practitioners, government officials, media stakeholders, civil society organizations and researchers are invited to implement the context-specific recommendations that the report formulates in order to improve the state of the media in Ghana." (Short summary)
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"This article explores the reception practices of multi-lingual audiences in Ghana, focusing on their views on the different norms and approaches of local language and English language radio newscasts. Using data from a convenience sample of 1000 radio listeners in five Ghanaian cosmopolitan cities
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the study finds that audiences prefer more performative modes of news delivery on their local language stations. It was also evident that radio audiences are discerning and make distinctions between what is acceptable on local language versus English language radio. These results call for a reconsideration of western-influenced standards of news delivery and the development of professional standards more accommodating of the inflections of culture." (Abstract)
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"Radio is hailed as Africa’s medium of choice in the global communication age. Introduced as a colonial tool of information, education and entertainment in the early 1930s, radio broadcasting was mainly in colonial languages as colonial administrators perceived local language broadcasting a threat
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to their empire building and ‘civilization’ agendas. The fortunes of local language broadcasting did not dramatically change in the independence era when broadcast media were in the firm control of the state. From the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, mostly resulting from a more liberalized media environment, local language broadcasting has undergone unprecedented growth. Drawing on written archival material, including internal communication among policy-makers, audience letters, key informant interviews and findings from a recent audience study, this article charts the progressive development of local language radio broadcasting in Ghana, and engages with the role played by early audiences and broadcasters in indigenizing broadcast content." (Abstract)
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"The authors briefly survey the contemporary and complex relationship between aid and journalism and the role of foreign aid/development assistance in shaping African media systems. A call is made for greater research into the aid and journalism relationship and the impact these processes have on fo
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stering independent national media sectors in Africa." (Abstract)
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"Now in paperback for the first time, the Handbook is an academic adaptation of information contained in the Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media, a study commissioned by the International Women's Media Foundation. The book's editor was the principal investigator of the original study.
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This text draws together the most robust data from that original study, presenting it in 29 chapters on individual nations and three additional theoretical chapters. The book is the most expansive effort to date to consider women's standing in the journalism profession across the world. Contents organize nations in relation to their progress within newsrooms, with those most advanced in gender equality representing diversity in terms of region and national development. Contributing authors are, in most cases, the original researchers for their respective nations in the Global Report study." (Publisher description)
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"The articles contained in this special issue build on the conversations initiated at the Cairo Symposium and try to make sense of the shifts and transformations in media and gender relations in Africa. Some bring new perspectives to bear on how traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and te
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levision) continue to be implicated in questions of gender, while others address new questions raised by new media forms and formats. Four articles (three in French and one in English) tackle the impact of ICTs and social media from different theoretical perspectives, locations and experiences (see Palmieri, Kane, Rouamba and Mbure). Three other articles examine the representational practices of newspapers and magazines in political and social discourses relating to gender (see Anate, Ossome and Eshiet). The contribution by Chiweshe and Bhatasara reflects on popular culture, specifically the construction of gender in music, while that of Yeboah and Thompson examine on the outstanding qualities that enable three women to rise to decision-making positions in the public relations, advertising and broadcast industries in Ghana." (Introduction, page 2-3)
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"Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa examines the role that popular media could play to encourage political debate, provide information for development, or critique the very definitions of 'democracy' and 'development'. Drawing on diverse case studies from various regions of the Afric
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an continent, essays employ a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to ask critical questions about the potential of popular media to contribute to democratic culture, provide sites of resistance, or, conversely, act as agents for the spread of Americanized entertainment culture to the detriment of local traditions. A wide variety of media formats and platforms are discussed, ranging from radio and television to the Internet, mobile phones, street posters, film and music." (Publisher description)
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