CHAPTER 10: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION(S) & RECOMMENDATIONS 199-208
4.14 Limitations
There are a total of 466 print publications in Ghana (IREX, 2010), of which 120 are newspapers published in the landscape (Commerce Ghana, 2012). From this number, twenty newspapers from four media outlets were used for content analysis to draw conclusions on media independence in Ghana under the fourth republic from the perspective of funding and editorial framing/agenda-setting. Moreover, the state-owned newspapers appear to have more pages compared to the privately-owned so there seems to be an imbalance prior to conducting the content analysis with respect to the total number of advert placements. Though all adverts were coded, philanthropic organisations such as religious entities, obituaries and classified were not
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included in the final analysis because the study placed emphasis on government and corporate adverts and moreover their input was negligible. The findings from this work are based on newspaper samples and interviews data obtained between the period spanning May-July 2014 and that changes in the media landscape after that data collection in the same year may not reflect.
The researcher had difficulty in collecting information on funding (prices of newspaper adverts based on the space they occupy) because most media outlets held back on giving data about finances. Booking interview schedules with some of the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and editors was a herculean task due to their tight schedules, but the researcher persisted once they had already given prior notice to granting the interview. Moreover, two interviewees declined to have their voices recorded so the researcher switched to a shorthand writing format which to some extent affected the smoothness of data collection process because the researcher had to struggle with posing questions, listening to responses given speedily and scribble down the responses concurrently. Electronic (computer) data lost or corrupt files is rampant in a project of this magnitude so frequent backups were run as well as hard copies kept of information throughout this work to arrest possible problems associated with data storage. Fortunately, no data was lost in the process of the project. Lastly, funding the entire project was difficult because the nature of the research demanded frequent trips to Ghana‟s capital city (Accra) where accommodation is expensive, as was and shuttling from one organisation to another.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the information collected has been deemed sufficient by the researcher and his supervisor to provide an insight into the financial workings of the Ghanaian press; and to offer concrete ideas on the interrelationship between funding, framing and media freedom in this part of Africa. The following chapters deal with these matters more explicitly.
114 CHAPTER FIVE
MEDIA FUNDING VERSUS AGENDA-SETTING / FRAMING: THE CONDUIT FOR MEDIA INDEPENDENCE
5.0 Introduction
Independence of the media is a precondition to strengthening the „watchdog‟ role of the media to enable them to become vigilant in relation to the powerful, particularly large businesses and government in any defined community (McQuail, 1994:142). Once this independence is attained, the media become a powerful tool to hinder corruption, enhance good governance (Petrova, 2011:790) and serve as the eyes of the governed on all matters. For instance, the benefits of investigative media reportage led to the exposures of the Watergate scandal, the Enron accounting irregularities and many more such revelations, all of which point to the fact that the media can do more (Gentzkow, Glaeser & Goldin, 2006:188) if it is given the freedom to operate. Thus, the media occupy such a strategic position that as an influential instrument of education, their nature and diversity significantly shape the collective values of society (Anderson & Gabszewicz, 2005:2). This, among other reasons, has stirred up organisations such as Thomson Reuters Foundation, World Bank Institute and the International Institute for Journalism to advance the cause of achieving independence of the media, thus culminating into a wide body of scholarly knowledge on the subject.
Tracking the history of advertising with respect to the media institutions (Starr, 2004:395–96; Baldasty, 1992:128–34; Smythe 2003, 49–70; Asquith, 1975:721) and applicable postulations (Besley and Prat 2006; Gentzkow, Glaeser & Goldin 2006; Petrova, 2011:805), it is evident that the growth of the advertising market is a crucial determinant of the development of media independence. This position is anchored on the notion that political control of newspapers is either lessened or even possibly quashed due to improved economic conditions for newspapers that have been triggered by high revenues from advertising. While this might be the case politically, “advertisers can also exert a direct influence by supporting media which offer a
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conducive environment for their products or politics, and withholding support from those who do not conform” (Curran, 2002:150). In the arena of funding of the print media and its repercussion(s) on the institution‟s independence, much is not known in Ghana, and in Africa in general.
This chapter investigates the impact of funding through advertising using content analysis of media by first establishing the funding patterns of print media by government on one hand, and private corporate/business entities on the other, in both government and privately-owned newspapers; it also analyses the extent to which these two funding streams generally impact on editorial independence through the lens of agenda-setting and framing. It is expected that with the identification of who funds the media most in Ghana [government or private corporate entities] and subsequently tracking this funding‟s impact on the autonomy of the media with respect to reporting, the findings would better inform future media independence policies.