Journal of Communications, Media and Society (JOCMAS) ISSN: 3134-5484
Published by the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC), the Journal of Communications, Media and Society (JOCMAS) strictly adheres to the principles and best practices outlined by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The journal fully supports Open Access publishing and the FAIR Data Principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable — encouraging authors to share underlying data, code, supplementary materials whenever possible, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. JOCMAS is a multidisciplinary academic research platform focusing on communication, media research and other related issues in the social sciences and humanities. The Journal provides an opportunity for the academic community and industry players in Africa and beyond to publicize their research findings in the above-mentioned fields and also access similar information.
University of Media, Arts and Communication
“Tilapia Da Conceptual Blender”: A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Ghanaian Political Cartoons
This study analyzes the comic alternative to formal news in Ghanaian political media. Political cartoonists provide relief from formal political discourses. Using political cartoons created under the pen name Tilapia, this study discusses the pictorial representation of political issues, how cartoons are employed in Ghanaian media to allude to biblical stories, and the impact of humor on public and political discourse. This impact can be realized when such cartoons go viral and spark widespread public debates or political discussions. Specifically, by applying the Conceptual Blending Theory of meaning-making and a content analytical approach, this study unpacks how cartoons used in Ghanaian political news highlight social identities and representations of political figures. This study shows how cartoons induce a whole background of meanings by using relevant biblical stories common to Ghanaians. The analysis demonstrates that, in addition to their amusement purposes, political cartoons offer alternative ways of criticizing politicians. We observed that the conceptual connection between the cartoons and the projected background stories was coherent with the stereotypes, beliefs, and opinions of the political leaders depicted.
Copyright (c) 2025 Grace Nana Aba Dawson-Ahmoah, Lawrencia Agyepong, Eric Opoku Mensah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Unheard Third: Ghana’s Newspaper Coverage of Voter Apathy and its Implications for Participatory Democracy
Political actors decry low voter turnout during elections, emphasizing their impact on democratic participation. The media’s role in focusing on the phenomenon of triggering behavioral change cannot be overemphasized. Although scholarly interest in election coverage is growing, little is known about the salience of the media’s coverage of voter apathy, especially in emerging democracies such as Ghana. Through qualitative content analysis and the prism of media salience in agenda-setting, this study analyzed news stories published by two leading Ghanaian newspapers during the 2020 presidential election in Ghana. The study found that the media hardly attaches attention and prominence to voters’ apathy in their electoral coverage, and the valence (tone) is somewhat negative. Much of the media’s focus is on presidential candidates, at the expense of a phenomenon that threatens participatory democracy. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Theophilus Peculiar, Noel Nutsugah, Eva Kuupuolo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Government Communication and the Public: An Examination of Communication Strategies Related to Ghana’s Return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Program in 2022
Government communication has emerged as an important aspect of political communication in efforts to generate well-informed citizens and enhance their understanding of key national policies, ideas, and decisions. Communication remains a critical instrument in the art of governance for several reasons, including galvanizing support for government decisions, shaping public perception, and ensuring accountability. The goal of this research is to examine the communication strategies employed by the government of Ghana in communicating its decision to return to the IMF as part of economic policy measures to support what was seen at the time as an ailing economy in 2022. The main goals of this study were to identify the various communication strategies employed by the government and to assess the strategies unearthed while offering recommendations. Th study is anchored by the framework of government communication, an emerging field in political communication studies. In-depth interviews were conducted with the media, communication experts, and scholars to address the objectives set forth. The following communicative problems were unearthed: inconsistency in government communication, lack of authentic and honest discourse, evasion of responsibility, use of wrong channels, and unsuitable communication officials. The study has both practical and academic usefulness, as it informs studies in the increasingly important field of government communication and the professional practice of communication by governments, particularly in emerging democracies such as Ghana.
Copyright (c) 2025 Godwin Etse Sikanku, Louise Donkor, Frank Kofi Boadi, Nicholas Saforo-Darko Asante https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Reducing Copying and Copyright Infringement: The Case of Ghana Institute of Journalism
The paper researched copying and copyright infringement among students at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The quantitative research used a questionnaire to conveniently collect data from two-hundred (200) level 400 students. The Reference Librarian of the University was also interviewed to supplement data collected from the students. Analysis of the data revealed that even though majority of the students are aware of the Copyright Law, infringement of the law still exists among students. This phenomenon has been attributed to the unavailability of the information resources on the market. The expensive nature of some of the information resources have also been identified as a reason for photocopying, which makes it cheaper in acquiring the material. It was also found that the Institute has a guideline for referencing information sources. Besides the referencing guideline handbook, students of GIJ are given some education on Copyright issues by the Library. It is visible from the study that GIJ has measures in place to protect intellectual property among students. Students proposed severe punishment for those who infringe the law. Students proposed punitive measures such as the cancellation and deduction of marks from their overall score obtained from an assignment or an examination. The paper suggests continuous education among students and reprographers on campus about copying and copyright.
Copyright (c) 2019 Lydia Nyantakyi-Baah, Ernest Afachao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Blogging as an e-Learning Tool in Tertiary Communication Institutions in Ghana: An Exploratory Study
This study investigated blogging as an e-learning tool and the level at which it is becoming a medium for teaching and learning in communication tertiary institutions in Ghana. The study considered four theories; e-learning/online learning models; constructivism, interactivism, and connectivism to provide a context for the use of instructional technology, focusing on communication training institutions in Ghana. Using a quantitative methodology, the study adopted multi-stage sampling procedure to respond to three propositions: 1. Students who have blog sites are more comfortable with lecturers who use blogging as an e-learning tool for teaching and learning. 2. There is a significant positive relationship between students with blog sites and Communication training institutions that consider e-learning as a teaching and learning platform. 3. Having a blog site influences the career development of students from Communication training institutions. Findings were that; tutors and learners casually use e-learning tools, majority of students and lecturers in communication training institutions in Ghana would appreciate utilising e-learning tools for the delivery of various learning modules, but it is sparingly, casually and occasionally used. The study also provided a new model within the context of active patronage of e-learning tools and blogging for teaching and learning in tertiary institutions in Ghana.
Copyright (c) 2018 Hillar Addo, Yaw O. Gyau https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Election Campaigns Framing in an Emerging Democracy: Horse race versus Issue Framing in Ghana
Political communication literature has repeatedly documented various forms of framing election campaigns across democracies, although that on Africa, including Ghana, are few. Matters of interest to such studies concern issues, horse race, coverage tone and presidential candidates' media visibility. This paper presents some ﬁndings from a qualitative content analytical study that explored political campaign coverage of elections in the Ghanaian media and implications thereof within the context of political communication. Grounded in framing and gatekeeping theories, the study speciﬁcally focused on the relationship between two broad categories – issues and horse race framing – in the 2008 and 2012 election campaign coverage in Ghana. And with data from two state-owned and two privately-owned Ghanaian newspapers, the study analyses which categories dominated the press presentation of the various election campaigns. The study demonstrates that coverage of the two elections was issue-based with peace as the most covered issue. However, the data also appears to indicate that horse race has the potential to dominate Ghana's coverage of future elections.
Copyright (c) 2017 Ebo Afful https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Coverage of Presidential Candidates and Press Bias in Ghana
The news media in democracies are seen as suppliers of political stories to citizens. And one of the methods by which this activity is performed is by the news gathering and dissemination role of the media. In a situation where selection and presentation of news is based on biased instead of the interest of citizens, the ethics of the profession is questioned. In effect, it is anti-democracy and development. Above all, with regard to Ghana, it amounts to a total disregard of the code of the Ghana Journalists Association. This study examines the extent to which the press was biased in its framing of the previous presidential elections. Using content analysis, the study, which is grounded in the theory of gatekeeping, found out that in 2008 and 2012 election campaigns in Ghana, the press was biased in favour of the NPP’s presidential candidate. This result also goes to dispute the trend of incumbency bonus or advantage in Ghanaian political communication.
Copyright (c) 2016 Ebo Afful https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Exploring New Approaches to Children’s Broadcast Programme Production: The Concept of Child Participation
The paper discusses the phenomenon of child participation in contemporary Ghanaian children's programmes. It is based on an exploratory study of selected programmes - Curious Minds, Choice Children's Channel and Smart Kids - aired on Radio Ghana, Choice FM and Ghana Television respectively. The study examined the production processes and content of the three programmes with a view to establishing the extent to which child participation ideals are incorporated in production. As background to this paper an overview of children's programmes in Ghana before and after broadcast de-regulation in the early 1990s is provided. The concept of child participation is defined. Subsequently, the paper discusses child participation in practice in the light of some critiques and concerns. It examines production approaches employed in the selected children's programmes as well as the content of the three programmes in the light of children's agenda setting roles. Challenges and factors that account for the adoption of particular approaches are further discussed. The paper argues that full child participation holds great promise for transforming content and programme production practices in contemporary children's programmes. However, programmes owned and controlled by children are more likely than those owned by the stations and individual producers to encourage the full child participation approach.
Copyright (c) 2009 Sarah Akrofi-Quarcoo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Social Media and Crisis Management During the Covid 19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the Twitter Activity of Five Key Ghanaian State Actors in the First Year of the Pandemic
The covid 19 pandemic led to a public health crisis which was responsible for the death of more than four hundred and fifty thousand people. Governments worldwide devised many strategies to help slow down the spread of the virus and reduce its impact on the economy and livelihoods of people. Even though social media platforms played a key role in information dissemination and awareness creation in relation to the novel Corona Virus, it is unknown if the activity of key government social media accounts have any relationship with the number of recorded cases. The researchers used a quantitative content analysis strategy to analyse the posts of 5 key Ghanaian government accounts on Twitter between 11th March 2020 and 11th March 2021, in relation to certain Covid 19 keywords. The researchers found that, no correlation exists between the Twitter posts of key government accounts and number of recorded Covid-19 cases in Ghana. The study also shows that, the lowest number of Covid 19 related tweets were posted in December 2020, the month of the Ghanaian elections, whereas, the highest number of Covid 19 related tweets were posted in March 2020, the month in which the first case was detected in Ghana.
Copyright (c) 2023 Manfred Kofi Antwi Asuman, Alfred Appiah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Framing Competence: African Women Leaders’ Representation in US News Media
This study examines the media representations of African women presidents (Ellen Johnson-Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi and Sahle-Work Zewde) in two US newspapers: The New York Times and Washington Post, six months into their first terms in office. Addressing the dynamics of Western representation, this paper examines how the newspapers negotiated the representation of African women leaders through the lens of framing. Informed by qualitative content analysis, the findings indicate African women leaders were predominantly framed around competence, and stereotypes in ways that invoke socio-cultural concepts about marriage and domesticity as essential in women’s upward mobility to leadership spaces. This paper makes the argument that such gendered representations normalize these stereotypes as the global standard for women leaders and symbolically annihilate women who do not meet such criteria. This study extends the body of literature by applying feminist media concepts on traditional media, specifically newspapers, and representation of the Other, thus merging concepts of framing, feminism and transnationalism.
Copyright (c) 2023 Benedine Azanu, Solace Asafo, Timothy Quashigah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Relationship Between Media Literacy and Ethical Usage of Social Media among the Youth in Ghana
The surge in social media platforms has made everyone a creator of content on the online space for both the young and old. This follows the amazingly powerful tools that aid in the discovering, editing and sharing content without the checks and control mechanisms ascribed to the traditional media. Yet, alongside this development and opportunities in the technology has come a rise in inappropriate use of social media. This has become a major social and ethical concern. This paper examines the relationship between social media competence and the ethical usage of social media by the youth. Findings reveal that media literacy skills among the youth in Ghana is generally high but does not correspond to ethical social media use behaviour.
Copyright (c) 2022 Ramatu Mustapha Dadzie, Franklin Nkudefe Adjotor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Exploring MIL Opportunities in Senior High Schools in Ghana: Perspectives from Teachers and Students
As young people increasingly conduct both academic and personal activities online, curriculum and extra-curriculum content in the school system are evolving to address their media and information literacy (MIL) needs to position them to become responsible creators and consumers of online content. While this trend is common to the economically advanced world, the same cannot always be said for less-endowed countries. The aim of this study is to explore opportunities available in the senior high school system in Ghana for MIL content infusion. Using in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of supply (school heads, teachers and librarians) and demand side elements (students), the study attempts proposals for interventions in schools and extends the growing MIL scholarship with practical guides for increasing the MIL skills of young people in developing countries.
Copyright (c) 2022 Patience Emefa Dzandza Ocloo, Aurelia Ayisi, Annie Oye https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Youth and Media Consumption in the Covid-19 Era in Mauritius
News diffused across media platforms increasingly form part of youth media consumption. The attention of the youth is continually solicited online and incidental news is constitutive of their everyday practice. In a notable way, Covid-19 and its restrictions have induced the youth to organize their lives digitally in an environment of news abundance. Beyond rational usage which often molds understanding of news and media consumption, this paper asks ‘can an ‘affective turn’ provide insight into youth incidental news media consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic?’ Through the notion of liminality, the paper questions incidental news and media consumption by the youth and the extent to which these are tied to their lived experiences. It delves into the habits of media consumption generally, with a focus on incidental news consumption in the participatory cultures of social media and considers the need to grasp youth media use and consumption as a social experience that is liminal. Through interviews with final year Mauritian secondary school students, this paper argues that the experiences of incidental news and media consumption encompass experiences which are affectively loaded and which evolve around passive and active engagements. It emphasizes the role of the platforms as gateways and gatekeepers. Through a decolonial lens, it makes the case for dialogic perspectives to offset the challenges posed by the platforms.
Copyright (c) 2022 Azhagan Chenganna https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Analysis of Ethical Concerns in Social Media use among Youth in Nigeria
This study sought to analyse ethical concerns in social media use among the youth in Nigeria. The theoretical framework adopted is the Source Credibility Theory. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis. The population of the study consisted of the top four (4) social networking sites in Nigeria. Out of these, Twitter was purposively selected for its widespread use for youth activism, particularly within the context of the #EndSARS protest; and for being the only social media platform the federal government had temporarily banned for ethical violations. A convenient sample of ten (10) tweets, which included retweets with text and images posted both during and within 18 months after the protest, was used to collect secondary data. Findings demonstrated a mix of ethical and unethical use of Twitter within the context of the protest. The result also revealed that although Twitter is a credible source of information, there were instances of anonymous tweets, which cast some doubts on the credibility of that specific source. The study recommends that beyond social media regulations, there is a need for the promotion of media literacy in Nigeria’s workplaces and educational system. In addition, the form of self-regulation inherent in African ethics should be applied by users of social media to facilitate harmonious communication. This study has made a modest contribution in the area of source credibility theory by proposing a conceptual framework within the context of the study.
Copyright (c) 2022 Umefien Dakoru Epepe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Introduction to the Special Issue: Africa’s Digital Youth and Media and Information Literacy Competencies and Practices
Across Africa, young people are living digital lives that manifest in their growing uptake of digital resources and media for daily routines. Africa’s media landscape is changing rapidly and has been characterized by increased media access among the youth (Silver & Johnson, 2018; Commey, 2020; Boulianne & Theocharis, 2020). The re-democratization and media liberalization wave of the 1990s expanded media availability significantly, bringing particularly radio and TV close to young people. But perhaps the biggest catalyst to the growth in access to, and use of media among young people across the continent has been the significant expansion in internet access and its affordance of access to new media.
Copyright (c) 2022 Janet Kwami , Abena A. Yeboah-Banin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dialogic Communications and Online Public Relations Practice: An Analysis of Two Web-Based Platforms of Ghana’s National Communications Authority
Using Kent and Taylor’s (1998) five principles of dialogic communication, this study examined the National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana’s use of website and Facebook to engage stakeholders. A content analysis of the website and Facebook page of the NCA was conducted for a period of six months. The study analysed indicators of the five dialogic principles which are; dialogic loop, usefulness of information, generation of returned visits, ease of interface, and conservation of visitors. The study found that the five dialogic principles were minimally manifested on both website and Facebook page of the NCA as both platforms only employed principles ease of use and useful information adequately. Comparatively, posts made on the Facebook page and the website of the NCA were similar to an extent and the principle of useful information scored the highest points on both platforms. Finally, the study revealed that the website of the NCA did not allow two-way communication between the organisation and its publics. These findings may suggest that the NCA website did not foster direct feedback. The findings support existing literature and affirms what communication scholars such as Nam (2014) have reported.
Copyright (c) 2021 Manfred Kofi Antwi Asuman, Harriet Ama Bampoe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Assessment of the Determinants of Physical Health Quality of Life of the Aged with Disability in Selected Districts in Ghana
There is increasing proportion of the aged population in Ghana who are affected by physical and visual disabilities. Therefore, this study assessed the determinants of physical health Quality of Life (QOL) of the aged with disability in selected Districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (IGF) model was adapted to guide the study. The study used a census survey and questionnaires to collect data from 810 respondents. Those who were aged 60-69 years had the highest physical health QOL mean score and lowest for those aged 80 years and older. Physical health QOL mean score was highest for those who were married and lowest among those who were separated / divorced. Aged with physical disability scored higher in physical health QOL as compared to those with visual disability. It was observed that age, marital status and type of disability of the aged with disability determined their physical health QOL.
Copyright (c) 2021 Bismark Nantomah, Augustine Tanle, Eugene Kofuor Maafo Darteh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in A Telecommunications Company - A Case Study of Vodafone Ghana
This study explored the practice of CSR in Vodafone Ghana within the CSR conceptual framework of the Instrumental theories among the wider grouping encompassing Instrumental, Political, Social Integrative and Ethical (Garriga and Mele, 2004). This research also broadly considered /ssues about the relationship between business and society and the extent to which the company's CSR footprints conform to the CSR scientific assessment criteria: environment, marketplace, employee care, community (Wholley 2004) and corporate governance. The qualitative approach using 20 in-house and external respondents through primary research and document analysis was used to gather the data. The findings showed that Vodafone’s performance can be put within the context of four theories under the Instrumental theory namely: shareholder value enhancement; getting a competitive advantage; cause related marketing and corporate philanthropy. From the perspective of the five scientific criteria this company can be associated more with the marketplace and the community through their aggressive promotional activities and corporate social investment (CSI) performance.
Copyright (c) 2021 Kweku Rockson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Manipulative Language in Campus Politics: Deconstructing Students’ Messages on Posters in some Ghanaian Universities
The University Campus has often been seen as an important site for the publication of school-related political ideas of young people (Loader, Vromen, Xenor, Steel and Bungum (2015). Against the background that critical discourse analysis seeks to uncover the ideological assumptions that are hidden in the words of written text or oral speech, this study sets out to deconstruct the language of ‘welcome’ encoded in posters and banners by would-be student leaders on the campus of some universities in Ghana in order to reveal the ideological elements contained in these posters and banners. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and genre analysis as the analytical framework, the study showed a typical move pattern of engagement used by the aspiring student leaders on the posters. This involves names and images of the participants on the posters, welcome messages, advertised student-leader positions as well as provision of contacts (mobile phone and social media) to further extend the discourse. Also, the study, through critical discourse analysis, deconstructed the language of welcome used by the aspiring student-leaders by indicating how they used the language of welcome as a cover to establish their own ideological and political ambitions. These findings have implications for students who wish to vie for positions in future campus politics and by extension national politics.
Copyright (c) 2019 Paul Herzuah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Towards Effectiveness of Advertising Recall on Brand Preference in Ghanaian Telecommunication Companies
Advertising recall is one of the categories of measures of the cognitive response which have been developed. What remains a dilemma to advertisers is whether there is a correlation between recall of advertising and brand preference or not? This study sought to determine the relationship between advertising recall and brand preference among young communication students in Accra. Expectancy Value Theory and Media System Dependency Theory were used. The study adopted simple random sampling procedure to respond to two propositions: 1. That there is no relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service; 2. That there is no relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. Findings indicate that relationship between advertising recall and brand preference is significant. Majority of the respondents also emphasized that, in the future, their next choice of brand will be based on ‘efficiency of service'.
Copyright (c) 2021 Yaw Odame Gyau https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Role of Social Institutions in Retirement Planning Information Dissemination in Urban Ghana
Preparedness inadequacy for the retirement transition is one of the key reasons behind the need for planning information dissemination. The paper examines state and other corporate institutions’ role in retirement planning using qualitative data obtained from selected state and related institutions using the qualitative explorative approach. A cross-sectional exploratory design was used to investigate social institutions and how they shape retirement planning in Ghana. The study population pertained to institutions that performed retirement planning related functions such as the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, Social Security and Insurance Trust amongst others. Purposive sampling was undertaken in selecting 12 participants for the study. Targeted key informant interviews of social institutional officials were used in the process of data collection. Data was subjected to thematic analysis and managed with the NVivo software. The findings show that these institutions provide retirement planners with sensitisation regarding the new pension system and/or schemes, their modalities and benefits including retirement planning in general using mass communication conduits such as media forums, television, radio, outreach programmes, brochures including leaflets. However, a myriad of challenges were encountered by the pension service providing institutions in the process of their information dissemination exercises, namely difficulty in explaining the composite nature of the pension system to clients, the lack of cooperation from organisations consulted for permission before the sensitisation campaigns, poor retirement planner attitudes and low staff strength. In conclusion, the study’s outcome has implications for the realisation of retirement planners’ retirement goals including adequate planning knowledge. It is recommended that 'financial education’ should be incorporated into the national school curriculum. Further, the role of the National Commission on Civic Education must be expanded to entail financial education of workers and all Ghanaians at large.
Copyright (c) 2021 Delali A. Dovie, Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Kofi Ohene Konadu, Alhassan Suleman Anamzoya https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Adapting Benjamin Kwakye’s The Clothes of Nakedness as a Film: An Essay
This paper discusses the usefulness of adapting the novel, The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye (1998) as a film. This adaptation is relevant because the novel presents themes, language and gender issues pertaining to Ghana and by extension Africa as a whole. The thematic issues could be relevant to other parts of the world which share similar characteristics. While values that could promote development seem to receive little attention, there is a growing tendency among the youth to watch movies and other entertainment programmes. This growing inclination among the youth could be harnessed to promote values such as those depicted in the novel analysed for this study. Feminism and feminist reception theory have been employed in this study. This essay employs text analysis and literary appreciation to analyse and discuss The Clothes of Nakedness in terms of the values, characters and other literary techniques in the novel to demonstrate the usefulness of adapting the novel as a film. The title of the novel, The Clothes of Nakedness, derives from an Akan proverb which states that, ‘Se Kwatrikwa se obe mawu ntuma-a, tie ne din’ to wit, ‘If Nakedness promises you clothes, take note of his name.’ The title is a satirical reference to people who pose as wealthy, yet do not have anything but rather depend ironically on the very people they claim to assist. Mystique Mysterious typifies this pauper but it also reflects the incompetence of the men in the novel who are supposed to support their female counterparts. As an outline, the paper begins with the concept of adaptation and proceeds with a synopsis of the novel. The paper further discusses the Feminist theory and how it underpins the study. There is the discussion and analysis based mainly on gender and feminist theory and the language of the novel is also examined.
Copyright (c) 2019 Brian Akrong https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Maternal Health Education and Promotion: Perceptions from Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, Ghana
The study argues for effective integration of health education and communication strategies and their application within existing inter-related approaches to improve maternal health education in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The study design was mainly descriptive. Systematic sampling was employed to select fifteen health facilities for the study. In-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were used to collect data. The study found that though majority (sixty-five percent) of the respondents indicated that radio discussion served as a practical strategy to improve maternal health, thirty-five percent of the respondents, however, noted that programmes on radio and television hardly used bottom-up methods to educate people, especially pregnant illiterate women. The study concludes that existing health education methods need to be strengthened through integration with bottom-up communication methods. The study recommends an integrated approach to educating pregnant women on their health in the Wa Municipality.
Copyright (c) 2019 Joseph Bagah, Africanus L. Diedong, Godwin T. W. Achana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Persuasive Strategies used in the Advertisement of Herbal Medicine in Ghana
This study examines the persuasive strategies used in the advertisement of herbal medicine from a critical discourse analysis perspective. The study focused on the use of language in herbal medicine advertisement and the persuasive strategies used by herbal practitioners to advertise their products. The study used Van Dijk’s (2006) concept of manipulation as the conceptual framework. Aristotle’s persuasive appeals were applied in analyzing a twenty-three minute herbal medicine advertising jingle. The findings indicated different persuasive strategies such as ideology, intertextuality, the use of indigenous languages, repetition, personal pronouns, and rhetorical questions to manipulate the audience. The study also examined how these strategies are used to control the mind and maintain power over the audience. The study revealed that the herbal medicine practitioners control the minds and experiences of their listeners by the excessive use of pathos (emotional appeals) to create to a large extent, manipulation of the minds and beliefs of their listeners for them to patronize their product.
Copyright (c) 2019 Lucy Amoah Abedu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Readability and Corporate Communication: The Case of Four Banks in Ghana
Financial reporting is a key communication tool used by banks to communicate with investors and regulators. It is thus expected that annual financial reports are made as readable as possible to enhance communication. In this paper, attention is given to the readability of annual financial reports of four Ghanaian banks. The objective is to evaluate the readability of these reports and to establish differences in readability across the reports of the four banks. Convenience sampling was employed to sample annual reports of four banks (GCB, ADB, Fidelity, and Unibank) covering the years 2013 to 2016. SMOG readability index was computed from these reports. Means, standard deviations, and independent sample t-test, with bootstrapping, were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that all four banks used difficult words and sentences to write their reports. In addition, it was established that banks on the GSE and those not on the GSE did not differ in terms of the readability of their annual reports. It is suggested that the banks revisit their writing styles in order to make their reports readable.
Copyright (c) 2019 William Kodom Gyasi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“Those Speculating About My Health are Mischief Makers”: Contextualizing Newsreaders’ Comments on President Buhari’s Illness
President Buhari’s illness has become a subject of political interest in Nigeria that is divergently represented in the local news media and variedly reacted to the public. Premium Times – one of the country’s famous private online newspapers had published a news story about the President’s telephone conversation with his Media Advisor with the headline, “Those speculating about my health are mischief makers”. This story received 250 comments from readers within three days of publication, thus signifying public anxiety over the President’s illness. In this study, we analyzed the 250 comments to establish the tones of public opinion on the President’s illness in relation to the country’s current issues with governance. Each comment, taken as a unit of analysis, was coded into operationalized categories of “Favors the President”; “Disfavors the President” and “Neutral to the President” to determine their relative incidence. The reasons indicated for the tones of the comments were coded into a variety of contextual categories such as “Discontent with economic recession”; “The Acting President (Osinbajo) is doing better”; “Buhari is needed for the success of anti-corruption policy and institutionalization of good governance in Nigeria”; “Empathy towards the President”; “Cultural aversion towards the President”. A Residual category was created and tagged “Others” to accommodate comments that do not fit into any of the afore-mentioned categories. Findings reveal that majority of the comments took the unfavorable tone, with cross-tabulation revealing “discontent with economic recession” the most as reason. The next closely indicated reason for unfavorable comments is “Cultural aversion to the President”. Minority comments that favored the President were largely appended to “Buhari is needed for the success of anti-corruption policy and institutionalization of good governance in Nigeria” as reason for the tone. Placing these results in a broad context, this study concludes that online news media hold a vestige of becoming more successful than the traditional print in stimulating governance debate, enhancing political participation and visibility of public opinion, and bridging the gaps between the government and the public in Nigeria.
Copyright (c) 2018 Yakubu Ozohu-Suleiman, John Adegwu Obuo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Establishing the Rationale for Media Education for Students in Ghana
Recent developments in Information, Communication and Technologies (ICT) is propelling shifts in how important institutions such as the family, school and religion impart values to people, especially young persons. Arguably, these institutions seem to be losing their enviable positions as the main purveyors of values and wisdom in society. The paper argues for an overall rationale for media education in Ghana. Questionable contents of some media seem at variance with Ghanaian cultural values and norms within a context in which Media Education is taken for granted demands examination. In terms of methodology of the study, documents and other scientific research papers on Media Education were reviewed. A major finding of the study is that in Ghana there is no formal discourse about the need to integrate media education into curriculum. Therefore Media Education is yet to become a relevant course in the curricula of schools from the basic level of education to the second cycle through to the tertiary level. The paper concludes that Ghana can profit from a policy that establishes Media Education (ME) in her school system.
Copyright (c) 2018 Africanus L. Diedong, Damasus Tuurosong https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Enacting Personal Identity Through Language: An Exploration of Some Profile Statuses of WhatsApp Messenger
Technology in the twenty-first century has transformed the world in multiple exciting ways facilitating the rapid flow of information, capital and services across the globe. The constant evolution of new media has spurred the growth of multimedia affordances enabling people to assemble texts that integrate language with visual, aural, gestural and spatial modes. This digital revolution has transformed language by triggering an explosion of new vocabularies, genres and styles by reshaping literacy practices (Darvin, 2016). Digitization provides the technological basis for globalization and media convergence is a bi-product of globalization. In this study, I set out to explore the linguistic elements employed on the WhatsApp statuses of individuals who use the application to communicate messages to their readers and also to establish the connection between these linguistic elements and how they portray the identity of the users. Using Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse strategies - stance and engagement markers as the analytical framework- the study comes out with conclusions that users of WhatsApp application employ three main metadiscourse elements: self-mention, realized through first-person singular and possessive pronouns (I, my) (stance), reader pronoun (you, your, we, our) (engagement) and directive as linguistic strategies to negotiate their identity on the status . They achieve this by directly focusing the message unto themselves and indicating special relationship with others to reveal to readers their (users’) guiding principles and philosophies in life. Directives like imperatives, modal obligation and predicative adjectives were used to pull readers into the discourse as participants and instructing them to perform an action which ultimately leads them to appreciate and share in the user’s ideas, worldview, experiences and orientation.
Copyright (c) 2018 Paul A. A Herzuah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Examination of Ghana’s ICT in Education Policy within the Context of Globalization
The Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Education Policy was first drafted in 2003 as part of the general educational reforms in Ghana. The aim of the policy is to improve access, equity and quality education. It is also to ensure that all students acquire basic ICT skills and apply them not only in their studies but also in all aspects of life. Ghana has consistently ranked low in the International ICT development index despite several revisions of the policy. Factors that contribute to this development are not clearly known. The study looks at the current situation as regards the implementation of the policy within the context of globalization. The study seeks to inform debate on how best Ghana can take advantage of globalization and the 21st century information technologies revolution to efficiently implement the policy. It is premised on the ICT Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) that is used widely to explain information system usage. The method adopted in the study is meta-analysis. Relevant research articles, policy papers and education sector performance reports are re-examined in the light of global ICT trends to provide a clearer picture of the status of ICT development within the education sector. Evidence found suggests that not only is the implementation of the policy bedeviled with infrastructural and human resource challenges, but also low level of commitment from relevant stakeholders. The study also found that for Ghana to take advantage of opportunities offered by globalization, issues of information and communication technology must be taken seriously. It is therefore recommended that the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) in collaboration with the Government and other relevant stakeholders should set up National ICT in Education Commission with specific focus to strengthen the capacity of educational institutions to implement the ICT policy. Ghana must also move away from dependence on foreign assistance by setting up National ICT in Education Fund that will carter for the infrastructural needs of all public institutions. It is also recommended that ICT education must be an integral part of teacher education programs and should form part of requirements for the licensing of professional teachers. There is also the need for a new form of orientation for students and teachers as regards the benefits of ICT education so as to whip up their interest and enthusiasm in ICT education.
Copyright (c) 2018 Peter Yidana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Expanding Horizons of Empirical Enquiry into Feminist Media Studies in Africa
This essay argues for a broader outlook to feminist media studies in Africa. Despite decades of groundbreaking feminist research in gender and media in Africa, there is a paucity of research on the impact of contemporary shifts in media systems and media management in gender relations in journalism. Feminist media scholars need to take cognizance of the extent of impact of excessive media privitizations and the replications on work-time arrangements and schedules in the newsrooms and how these arrangements impact on gender roles and relations in African newsrooms. The call for new and broader empirical enquiry also requires corresponding development and application of appropriate conceptual constructs and theoretical approaches to explicate gender relations in the newsrooms.
Copyright (c) 2018 Kodwo Jonas Anson Boateng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0