Publication Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Semati, Mehdi

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Communication

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Ghana’s media system (newspapers, radio, TV, and online news)works and compares it to Hallin and Mancini’s 2004 influential model, “Comparing Media Systems”. Their study mainly focused on Western countries like the United States and Europe. This paper tests its applicability to Ghana, located in West Africa. The paper examines four main areas of Ghana’s media: how media industries are set up and run, journalistic professionalism, how closely media outlets are connected to political parties, and how much the government controls or influences the media. The research found that Ghana’s media system has unique characteristics that differs from the established models. At the end of the research, the observations were that newspapers are not widely read and mainly serve the elite class, radio is very popular across the country. Many media outlets are closely linked to political parties, especially the two main parties (NPP and NDC). Although Ghana has schools to train journalists and organizations to support them, journalists often face challenges like low pay and political pressure. The government has given more freedom to media since 1992, but still influences them through advertising money and control of state-owned media outlets. The paper concludes that while Hallin and Mancini’s model of studying media systems is helpful, it needs to be further explored to better understand African media systems.

Extent

90 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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Communication Commons

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