Can private media contribute to fighting political corruption in sub-Saharan Africa? Lessons from Ghana.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the private media are often considered corrupt and thus incapable of performing critical watchdog functions. Using the Ghanaian case, the objective of this study is to examine how the private media contribute to exposing political corruption and demanding accountability. Based...
| Publicado en: | Third World Quarterly Vol. 41; no. 12; pp. 2011 - 2030 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2020
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=147527088&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 147527088 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01436597 TWQ jtl: Third World Quarterly issn: 01436597 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Dec2020 vid: 41 iid: 12 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 147527088 10.1080/01436597.2020.1806707 ppf: 2011 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 147527088 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 147527088 tig: atl: Can private media contribute to fighting political corruption in sub-Saharan Africa? Lessons from Ghana. aug: au: Asomah, Joseph Yaw affil: Department of Sociology, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, Canada su: Ghana Freedom of the press Political corruption Social history Semi-structured interviews Ghanaian politics & government Social conditions in Africa sug: subj: Freedom of the press Political corruption Social history Ghana Semi-structured interviews Ghanaian politics & government Social conditions in Africa keyword: corruption democracy mass media sub-Saharan Africa corruption democracy mass media sub-Saharan Africa ab: In sub-Saharan Africa, the private media are often considered corrupt and thus incapable of performing critical watchdog functions. Using the Ghanaian case, the objective of this study is to examine how the private media contribute to exposing political corruption and demanding accountability. Based on the media-as-a-watchdog theory and on primary and secondary data, this article argues that private media outlets make significant contributions to the fight against political corruption. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to collect primary data in Ghana. Relevant secondary data from media reports and scholarly work supplement the primary data. The research findings show that Ghanaian private media address political corruption through investigative reporting, agenda-setting, providing a forum for anti-corruption discussions, and acting as a pressure group for institutional and legal reforms as well as political accountability. This article thus questions the popular claim that in sub-Saharan Africa, the private media cannot contribute meaningfully to combatting corruption involving influential political actors. Policy and future research implications are presented in the conclusions. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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