JOURNALISM, ELECTION CAMPAIGNS AND DEMOCRACY IN GHANA EBO AFFUL September ...

295 Pages·2017·18.1 MB·English

JOURNALISM, MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES

JOURNALISM, ELECTION CAMPAIGNS AND DEMOCRACY
IN GHANA

A Thesis in partial fulfilment for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

EBO AFFUL

September 2016
Table of Contents

Dedication…..................................................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgment………………………………………………………………..........................viii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...ix
Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………….......................x
List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………........xii
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………….xii
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 The media…………………………………………………………………………………..4

1.2 News media and politics………………………………..…..................................................7

1.3 Structural Development: The experience of Ghana............................................................. .7
1.3.1 The old order gives way to new ………………………………….………………………..9
1.3.2. The political system in Ghana……………………………………………………………10

1.3.3 The party system …………………………………………………………………............13
1.3.4 The media system ………………………………………………………………………..16

1.4 The 2008 election………………………………………....................................................16

1.4.1 The 2008 presidential run-off……………………………………………………..............17

1.5 The 2012 election………………………………………………………………………....19
1.6 Problem statement …………………………………………………………………….....21
1.7 Research objective ……………………………………………………………………….22
1.8 Significance of the study ………………………………………………………….............23
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1.9 Organisation of the study …………………………………………………………………24
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Understanding democracy, media and the public sphere
2.1 Overview of the chapter…..................................................................................................25
2.2 Democracy: the debate…...................................................................................................29
2.3 Democracy: Its challenges ………………………………………………………………29
2.3.1 The tyranny of the majority ……………………………………………………………..30
2.3.2 Voters as irrational in democracy …………………………………….............................32
2.4 Deliberative democracy and participatory democracy:
Towards democratic efficiency …………………………………………………………34
2.5 Limitations to the application of liberal democracy in Africa…………………………..35
2.5.1 Lack of economic freedom ……………………………………………………………..35
2.5.2 The ethnic factor ………………………………………………………………………..36
2.5.3 The entrenchment of political elites …………………………………………………....38
2.6 Two seemingly obstacles to democracy ……………………………………………......39
2.7 The public sphere and democratic media………………..………………………………44
2.8 The media, the public sphere and the African experience……………………….............48
2.9 Summary of the Chapter…………………………………………………………………49
Chapter 3: Introducing the conceptual framework: Framing and gatekeeping theories
3.1 Overview of the chapter…................................................................................................50
3.2 The theory of framing …………………………………………………………………..55
3.2.1 Game frames: Conceptual definitions…………………………………………………..59
3.2.2 Personalization: Conceptual definitions ……………………………………………… 61
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3.3 The concept of media bias ………………………………………..................................62
3.3.1 Forms of media bias ……………………………………………………………….......63
3.4 Gatekeeping theory ……………………………………………………………............65
3.5 Development journalism ………………………………………………………………67
3.5.1 Development journalism: Redefined ………………………………………………….69
3.6 Summary of the chapter ………………………………………………………………..71
Chapter 4: Framing election campaigns: A survey of evidence
4.1 Overview Of The chapter…...............................................................................................72
4.2 Election campaigns framing across the globe………………………..…………………79
4.3 Summary of the chapter………………………………………………………................81
Chapter 5: Methodology
5.1 Overview of the chapter……………………………………………………………….....83
5.2 Mixed method approach …………………………………………………………………84
5.3 Content analysis…..................................................................................................... .......86
5.4 Getting at the sample …....................................................................................................87
5.5 The content unit of analysis…………………………………………..………………….88
5.6 Analysing the election campaign frames ………………………………………………. 88
5.7 Data analysis technique ……………………………………………………………….. .89
5.8 The in-depth interviews ………………………………………………………………....90
5.9 Interview guide ………………………………………………………………………….93
5.10 Analysis of the in-depth interviews findings …………………………………………....93
5.11 Summary of the chapter …………………………………………………………………94

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Chapter 6: Horse race verses issue/policy framing: Ghana’s story
6.1 Overview of the chapter………………………………………………………………...96
6.2 Issue-based election ……………………………………………………………………104
6.3 Peace: The dominant theme ……………………………………………………………107
6.3.1 Does peace matter: As an election campaign issue in Ghana? ……………………......112
6.4 Economy: The significant campaign issue ……………………………………………113
6.5 Free Senior High School: The most contested issue……………………………...........115
6.6 Why the dominance of issues/policies framing?..................................................... ........116
6.7 Horse race framing: To what extent is it an issue? …………………………………......119
6.7.1 Horse race and two-party political system …………………………………………......121
6.8 Political party driven campaign coverage…………………………………………........123
6.9 Response to research question one……………………………………………………...126
6.10 The summary of the chapter…………………………………………………………......128
Chapter 7: Personalization of election campaigns in Ghana
7.1 Overview of the Chapter………………………………………………………...............129
7.2 Space allocations to candidates.…………………………………………………………135
7.3 The Ghanaian state-owned press and incumbency advantage ………………………….140
7.4 Press personalization in Ghana: some factors…….…...………………………..............142
7.5 Which candidate went pass the news gates more? ……………………………………...147
7.6 Did more coverage yield positive coverage for Nana Addo? …………………………..151
7.7 Comparison of negative framing of candidates………………………………………….158
7.8 Response to research question two………………………………………………………158
7.9 Summary of the chapter………………………………………………………………….161
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Chapter 8: Cash: Is it really defining Ghana’s election campaign journalism?
8.1 Overview of the chapter …………………………………………………………..........163
8.2 What constitutes ‘soli’ journalism? …………………………………………………….164
8.3 ‘Brown envelope’ journalism: Where did it come from?.................................................165
8.4 Election journalists and ‘soli’ ……………………………………………………… ….167
8.5 What accounts for ‘soli’ journalism?...........…………………………………………....173
8.6 ‘Soli’ journalism and ethical consideration………………………….…………………177
8.7 Global model of journalistic profession: Does it really matter?......................................181
8.8 News commercialization, ‘soli’ and the public interest in Ghana………………………183
8.8.1 Commercialization: Its effects on journalism practice in Ghana……………………185
8.9 Response to research question three………………… …………………………………186
8.10 Summary of the chapter ………………………………………………………………187
Chapter 9: Conclusion
9.1 Overview of findings…………………………………………………………………...191
9.2 Media framing of Ghana’s election campaigns: concluding discussion……………......191
9.3 Framing and gatekeeping practices: Implications for Ghana’s election coverage …… .192
9.3.1 Framing theory…………………………………………………………………….. ..193
9.3.2 Gatekeeping theory……………………………………………………………….......195
9.3.3 Agenda-Setting theory…...……………………………………………………… … .196
9.4 ‘Protocol journalism and election journalism in Ghana…….……………………...…..200
9.5 Rethinking the model of political communication………………………………….….201
9.6 Towards democratic culture in Ghana: Contribution of journalism……………….…..204
9.7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...205
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9.8 Contribution to knowledge…………………………………………………………. 206
9.9 Limitations of study………………………………………………………………….207
9.10 Future research directions…………………………………………………………..207
References…………………………………………………………………………….. .233
Appendix A: Code book
Appendix B: In-depth interview letters to editors
Appendix C: Question guide for editors
Appendix D: Samples of published election campaigns stories

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Dedication
To the memory of my mother, Yeboaba Ansah,
The source of my life and
To my father, Kojo Afful,

The source of my academic progress

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Acknowledgement
This PhD thesis would not have been a reality without the support and encouragement of many
gallant people. Many thanks to my incredible supervisors, Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Dr
Stephen Cushion, who read a number of my earlier revisions and assisted me to finally make some
sense out of the confusion. My thanks also goes to my wife, Christy, for her love and for enduring
this long process of absence with me. My children, Yeboaba, Fotwe and Edem, for their inspiration
and deep interest in the work and my brothers, sisters and Paakow, for their encouragement. Finally,
sincere thanks to my friends, for their support.

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Abstract
Political communication literature has documented various forms of framing election campaigns
although that on Ghana are few. These included issues, horse race, coverage tone and presidential
candidates’ media visibility leading to an incumbency advantage. These are normally attributed to
news values that reflect political power such as relevance and politicians’ elite status. Hence, this
study is intended to explore explanation for the trend of campaign coverage in Ghana, a developing
democracy, using four Ghanaian newspapers in 2008 and 2012. Through content analysis and in-
depth interviews, the thesis grounded in gatekeeping and framing theories, has demonstrated that:
(1) the state-owned newspapers did not give an incumbency advantage (2), the coverage was issues-
based (3), election stories were more positive in tone (4), there was media bias and (5) politicians
paid money (‘soli’) to journalists for coverage. These empirical findings show that during the
campaigns, gatekeeping and framing practices were driven more likely by the ‘soli’ norm rather
than the norm of objective and impartial journalism. Thus the study offers a new explanation why
there was no incumbency advantage, why the press bias, why coverage was largely positive in tone
and why issues-based framing. However, horse race appears to have the potential to dominate
Ghana’s elections coverage. The conclusions of this study, one argues, were as a result of interplay
between candidates’ desire not only to dominate the newspapers but also to be projected positively
and journalists’ desire to make money from politicians. Simply put: stories of elections published
by the newspapers were defined by ‘soli’ journalism which promoted ‘protocol’ journalism. This
means most election stories that reached electorates were from speeches of candidates. Therefore,
the stories lacked critical interpretation of campaign events raising issues of capacity of the press
in Ghana to function effectively as public sphere contributing to participatory democracy.

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