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The Representation of Ruling and Opposition Parties in State-owned Newspapers in Contemporary Ghana

©2017 Textbook 117 Pages

Summary

This book has been written basically to analyse a typical phenomenon concerning the media/politics nexus in contemporary Ghana by exploring how the processes of Othering are linguistically embedded in the political discourses of the state-owned Ghanaian newspaper, the Daily Graphic, when representing the relation between the ruling and opposition parties in Ghana since 1992. Secondly, the aim of this book is to demonstrate how Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can be applied (or broadened) to alternative settings – here, alternative settings refer to contexts in which a conflict is not the topic of the discourse – and finally, to demonstrate that the scope of CDA can be broadened to include alternative settings.

Excerpt

Table Of Contents


iv
Contents
Acknowledgements ... i
Dedication ... ii
Introduction ... iii
Chapter One:
The Representation of the Other in Political News Discourse ... 1
Chapter Two:
Critical Discourse Perspective on Ghana Politics since 1992 ... 10
Chapter Three:
The Concepts of Mediated and Mediatized Politics ... 31
Chapter Four:
Case Study: An Analysis of Political News Articles in Ghana ... 34
Chapter Five:
Methodological Strategy ... 55
Chapter Six:
Analysis and Discussion ... 64
Chapter Seven:
Analysis and Discussion: News Articles One and Two ... 66
Chapter Eight:
Analysis and Discourse: News Articles Three and Four ... 73
Chapter Nine:
Analysis and Discourse: News Articles Five and Six ... 79
Chapter Ten:
Analysis and Discourse: News Article Seven and Eight ... 82

v
Chapter Eleven:
Analysis and Discourse: News Articles Nine and Ten ... 85
Chapter Twelve:
Conclusion: Drawing a Multi-faceted Conclusion on the Study ... 88
Bibliography ... 93
Appendix 1: Reflections/Analytical Commentary ... 97
Appendix 2: Discourse and Society Articles ... 103
Appendix 3: The Ten Political News Articles ... 104
Index ... 105


1
Chapter One
The Representation of the Other in Political News Discourses
Introduction
The representation of the Other in political news discourses in the world over is not a novel and
unprecedented phenomenon. On the contrary, beginning with, at least the latter part of the 20
th
century
1
, the representation of the Other in political news discourse has increasingly become
prominent, synchronised with demographic and political developments of individual countries in
the world as well as a trend towards a more globalised world order
2
. In this context, the quest for
exploring the weight and power of Other-representation in political news discourses, being
undertaken by this book, can be seen as challenging, and yet central in terms of generating
epistemological contribution.
Developed against the backdrop of the idea of Otherness and its implications for representation
in political news discourses this book aims at investigating whether news discourses on a
political or, in alternative terminology, not explicitly polarised issues, are reflective of unequal
power dynamics in the politics of Ghana. One of the main conceptions that would penetrating the
research and thus, a comprehensive analytical tool to consider these unequal power relations
dynamics with, is the theoretical and methodological dichotomy of Us versus (vs.) Them,
developed by a number of scholars and delineated in the subsequent chapters. In the framework
of this book, the differentiation between Us and Them becomes significant in the way it
empowers the objective (of the research) to uncover unequal power relations in political news
discourses in the politics of Ghana, thus sharpening the focus of the analysis. In general, it could
be argued that this conceptualisation is tailored for a dual application with CDA
3
, the approach
adopted in this research, since the latter too emphasise unequal power relations, and regards them
as maintained by discursive practices (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002: 64).
Naturally, one way in which my approach to CDA diverges from the mainstream, is in its shift in
attention towards exploring Otherness in alternative contexts (alternative to the contexts usually
depicted by CDA scholars). In this connection, I refer to the literature review of issues treated by
CDA analysts over a period of time. In my case, an epitome of an alternative setting, presented
as a case study in the book, has been the representation of the Other and in most cases, vice versa
in the politics of Ghana
4
, which have been covered extensively by Ghanaian ­ based state-owned
(or state-controlled) newspaper the Daily Graphic
5
1
Teun van Dijk (1988) among others reviewed the earlier studies of news discourses
2
For instance, see Stubbs and Underhill (eds.) 2006: Political Economy and the Changing Global Order
3
Critical Discourse Analysis is an inter-discipline approach to the study of discourses. It considers language to be a
form of social practice and focuses on how power relations are reproduced in, among others, text.
4
Political Parties participation in Ghana since 1992
5
A state-owned newspaper with outlets in all 10 administrative regions and the 138 districts of the country

2
In accordance with the terminology outlined above and given the theoretical framework of my
research on Us vs. Them, power relations are represented in this book by the ruling political party
in Ghana as Us and the political party in the opposition as Them. To make these ideas
operationalized and to illustrate my case study, a sample of the Daily Graphic of Ghana news
articles have been analysed, based on a theoretical framework adapted from the approaches of
CDA analysts Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk.
The analysis, presented in detail further in the study, shows that representation of the Other in
political news discourses on not explicitly polarised issues reflects a clear differentiation between
Us (the ruling party) and Them (opposition party) and this trend is reversed any time there is a
swing of political pendulum, instances, can be drawn from January 7, 2001 and January 7, 2009
respectively when there were change of governments in Ghana politics. This is enacted in the
text through different constructions based on negative other-presentation and positive self-
presentation. Hence, the negative characteristics of Them tend to be emphasised and fore-
grounded, while their positive features are usually de-emphasised and back-grounded. Us on the
hand, is predominantly implicitly constructed and presented in a sharp contrast to Them.
Although in modern democracies and based on globally shared notion of the press which
translate into the assumption that newspapers report political events and social developments
truthfully and thus control those in power, reflect the state of being in society and allow citizens
to understand and act appropriately to the socio-political complexities they found themselves.
But, in Ghana politics ideological biases are linguistically embedded in the written reports of the
ruling political parties in the Daily Graphic newspaper thus buttressing the assumption that the
state-owned newspaper provide a perspective that is far free from subjective interpretation of
events in Ghana politics, on the contrary, it tends to construct reality in a manner congruent with
underlying ideological and political functions.
And, the consequences of these biased coverage in Ghana politics are that the state-owned
newspapers discourses are biased, skewed in favour of the ruling political parties, even when the
opposition parties are given voice, they are not given the same speaking space and these reveal
the asymmetrical reproduction of unequal power relations between the political parties and
operation of Us vs. Them framework by the Daily Graphic when reporting political news event in
Ghana politics. Secondly, the actions of the state-owned newspaper any time or when there are
swings of political pendulum translate into the assumption that it did not give important and
correct information about matters of public interest to the Ghanaian citizens when reporting on
political events. Finally, the Daily Graphic is rather part of the problem of the unequal power
relations and the, Us vs. Them, polarisation than part of its solution in Ghana politics since 1992
due to its ideological and political functions.
Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the given texts reflect unequal power relations as
well as wider structural inequalities in general, leading to the overall conclusion that unequal
power relations are indeed identified in political news discourses on not explicitly polarised

3
issues, which is the case with politics in Ghana. Furthermore, these discourses contribute to the
reproduction of unequal power relations since they, both, report and reflect on Us vs. Them
ideological polarisation. Nonetheless, at the same time, it should be emphasised that the analysis
also reveals that although the selected texts overwhelmingly draw on the Us vs. Them paradigm,
some of them reflect slightly different discursive tendencies, aiming at bridging the Us vs. Them
polarisation and emphasising solidarity and commonality, rather than difference, and negotiation
and consensus rather than conflict in Ghanaian politics
6
. Moreover, tendencies were detected in
the political news articles which would be geared towards accepting the possibility of a
meaningful social change and inclining towards diminishing social inequalities. With these
specificities in mind, I now turn to delineating my research area.
Motivation
The idea behind this book was an outcome of a desire to investigate how the media in Ghana,
represent political parties in opposition different from the ruling political parties, guided by the
question "do state-owned newspaper articles in Ghana, in their political reportage become
fraught with tribal/ethnic connotations and/or prejudicial statements when the subject in question
is in opposition?"
I was born in Ghana, a country that had experienced two most repressive and draconian military
dictatorship in 1979 (from June 4 to September 24, 1979) and from December 31, 1981 to
December 31,1992 all through the hands of one man, Flight Lieutenant (Flt. Lt.) Jerry John
Rawlings
7
. In those instances, political party activities were banned, constitutions suspended,
people, including three (3) former military head of states, were executed by firing squad and the
media were cowered to play a lapdog role for the fear of their live. Then on January 7, 1993
Ghana returned to constitutional democracy after international and domestic pressures were
brought to bear on the ruling military regime at that time and the country had ever since enjoyed
and experienced a peaceful changed of governments from one ruling political party to an
opposition party on two (2) occasions, live in an atmosphere of peace and the media are now
fulfilling its mandated role as watchdogs to the best of its ability.
In the past five years, I have spent a lot time debating and discussing a social canker, that is, the
representation of the Other in Ghana politics, which has the potential to derail the democratic
gains achieved so far, both for personal and also for intellect reasons. Even though I am talking
about the country of my birth and where I have spent almost all my life, I am puzzled and
alarmed about these tendencies because these are most of the justification used by power-hungry
Ghanaian soldier or soldiers to stage coup d'états
8
. Why are politicians representing their
6
This is based on the findings of the analysis
7
He attempted a coup on May 15, 1979 which he failed and was being court martialled when the June 4, 1979 was
staged. Rawlings.
8
Soldiers in Ghana had the tendency of overthrowing democratically elected government, even when they do not
have the basis for that action

4
opponents negatively? Where did, these negative representation of the Other for cheap political
gains come from?
9
And where are these negative tendencies leading us to as Ghanaians in our
political journey?
Based on the above, my motivation to write this book stems from two (2) basic notions about the
representation of the Other in the politics of Ghana. The first motivation involves the belief that
politics in the 21
st
century had become increasingly important in our globalised world, thus
becoming a catalyst of a better communication where democracy and rule of law prevail and
curbing or reducing tribal/ethnic tensions, which in most part of Africa had the tendencies of
resulting in civil or tribal wars, massacre or genocide. Examples can be drawn from Rwanda,
Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, La Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria, just to mention a
few.
The second motivation is related to the weight of communicative power of the media, in the
sense that the media have the power, resources and the ability to influence how individuals,
institutions and societies shape their political identities, and how to represent the Other, that is,
the opposition political parties different from the ruling political parties, mostly in the African
continent. This second motivation has its basis on an eagerness to learn about and explore the
possibilities of analysing language in use as it is conceptualised by the field of discourse
analysis.
Taking this as a point of departure, the study aims at investigating whether unequal power
relations can be traced in political news discourses about issues in Ghana politics, in which there
is no explicit polarisation of powers. The combination of the above stated motivations would
culminated in the interest in a particular school of discourse studies, where the main aim of
which would be to relate the study of language in use to its social implications in the
maintenance and reproduction of social and power inequalities: Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA).
Research Area
We live in a globalised society, which makes it difficulty either in the developed or developing
countries to live a life oriented solely towards one's own citizenship, religion, culture, economic
and political orientation. This is so because the economic, political and social dynamics of our
world are inserted into a complex matrix of relationships between individuals, organisations and
institutions originated in different politics in this 21
st
century.
However, it is clear that these dynamics involve relations of power in which inequality is usually
the rule, with some nations, organisations and institutions prevailing over others. In this context,
the representation of different political parties (or groups) within particular discourses ­ and,
9
It seems Ghanaian politicians, have not learn any hard lessons and come to terms with why the military always
take over since 1966

5
consequently, its study ­ have increasingly become significant. Many researchers concerned with
this matter argue that language plays an important role in the maintenance or rejection of state
affairs, or as Richardson puts, there are some features of language that make it particular relevant
to study power and social relations (2007: 10-14):
1. Language is social (ibid: 10): language represents social realities and contributes to the
production and reproduction of social reality or social life.
2. Language use enacts identity: people project themselves as a certain type of person, and
the identity that a person projects is related, partially, to the activities that they seek to
accomplish, including communicative activities. In other words, the understanding of a
communicative act is shaped, partially, by who is speaking or writing and the context in
which this occurs.
3. Language use is active: language use is always directed at doing something and the way
in which language achieves this activity is always related to the context in which it is
being used. In this way, language use should be regarded as an activity or as a social
activity.
4. Language use has power: this is not a democratic: some individuals' speech is more
powerful than others and, equally, some ways of communicating have more power than
others.
5. Language use is political (ibid: 13): this is the logical outcome of assuming that language
use is social and has power. Language is an instrument shaped according to material
circumstances and according to the purpose that I want it to serve. It is also a medium of
power that can be used to sediment inequalities of power and legitimate iniquitous social
relations by presenting facts in such a way that minimise the presence of inequalities.
The assumption that language (or discourse) plays a part in producing and reproducing social
inequalities comes from the recognition that language represents social realities, which has been
the main preoccupation of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) since its early stages. The overall
aim of CDA has been to link linguistic analysis to social analysis (ibid: 26) and its interest lies
particularly in relationships of disempowerment, dominance, prejudice and, or discrimination. In
short, CDA aims at uncovering the role of discursive practices in the maintenance of unequal
power relations. Another characteristics of CDA is its commitment to progressive social change,
in the way language acts in resistance to hegemonic ideologies.
The work of language in the maintenance of social and power inequalities is usually related to
how competing social groups manage ideologies in order to establish and maintain hegemony.
One aspect of the struggle for hegemony, as put by Hall (1997), is the process of stereotyping,
which leads to the classification of people and groups according to norms and constructs that
exclude the Other (those who diverge from the world view, value system and ideology of the
dominant group). The process of Othering implies a polarisation between Us (the dominant

6
group) and Them (the outsiders or those deviant from "normalcy"), which has received increased
interest from researchers working on the field of CDA.
Returning to the argument that language use has power and that this power is not democratically
distributed, I could also argue that journalism is a powerful genre of communication, meaning
that it can help shape social reality by shaping our views of social reality (Richardson 2007: 13).
Acceptance of this view, consequently, implies the recognition of the importance of studying the
discourse of journalism (as a type of media discourse) in order to uncover the power of
journalistic language to do things and the way that social power is indexed and represented in
journalistic language (Ibid).
This statement gains even more relevance when taking into consideration the view of one of the
main theorists of CDA, Norman Fairclough, according to which, the media industry is a highly
elite field, dominated by those who have economic, cultural or political power (Fairclough
1995a) and in Ghana the media with the highest patronage are state-owned; thus, media texts
tend to represent the world according to the status quo.
Many researchers have applied CDA with an aim to unravel the ideology behind media
discourse. However, by looking at the works of two (2) main theorists of CDA ­ Norman
Fairclough and Teun van Dijk ­ one can identify a tendency towards investigating the role of
language in contentious contexts, such as discourses about race and immigration (in the case of
Van Dijk) and politics and economy (especially related to the capitalist discourse; in the case of
Fairclough). This could be related to the fact that, inspired by social theory, CDA takes its point
of departure in the recognition of a social problem and then studies the role of language in the
maintenance and reproduction of this problem
10
.
My study does not seek to minimise the importance and relevance of such studies, nevertheless, I
would argue that a substantial amount of problematic (and ideological) uses of language in the
media have been disregarded by the field of CDA, with little attention given to issues in which it
is not possible to identify an explicit polarisation, such as representation of the Other in politics
by the media and other types of less politicised issues. In order to investigate whether this
perception corresponds to reality, I proceeded with a literature review focused on two important
scientific publications that deal with the matter of discourse, the journals: Discourse and Society
and Discourse Studies.
Literature Review
I conducted a thorough research and review on issues published by two journals which are bi-
monthly publications: (1) Discourse and Society ­ from January 2009 to November 2009 and (2)
Discourse Studies ­ from December 2008 to October 2009. Excluding book reviews, I examined
10
The aims and the framework of CDA will be discussed in depth as the project progresses

7
abstracts and key words in order to build a table of contents
11
in which I identified the title of the
articles, the authors and the main themes, including the methodological framework applied and
the context of the analysis. I have to point out that a full text was only examined when the
abstract and the key words were not clear or specific enough. In this way, I examined a lot of
articles however I narrowed down review to a few articles, which dealt specifically with CDA, to
this end other methodologies which appeared in a large number in the articles reviewed, such as
those on discourse analysis, conversation analysis and discursive psychology, did not receive
much and careful attention because CDA was not central in them. But, in those articles in which
CDA was central were categorised in terms of type of data source and themes addressed.
In terms of data source, I identified (five) 5 types and these include: qualitative interviews (1);
media ­ including television (TV) and image banks (12); internet forums (2); official ­
government or institutional ­ documents (4); and political speeches (2) while in terms of themes,
I identified 12 different themes and these are: political campaigns (2); race, including slavery (2);
gender (2); immigration/refugees (3); civil war (1); cultural conflicts (1); national identity (1);
disability (1); and environment (1). In the review of the articles, I identified that, in the majority
of them, the themes were analysed in a rather contentious contexts, in which there was an evident
conflict or polarisation,
12
nonetheless, I will illustrate the following examples to buttress the
point:
1. An article "Defending whiteness indirectly: a synthetic approach to race discourse
analysis" which appeared in the Discourse and Society journal, November 2009, deals
with the theme of race through interviews in which white college students are stimulated
to talk about race,
2. Another article "It's not a matter of inhumanity: a critical discourse analysis of an
apartment building circular on `homeless people' that appeared in the Discourse and
Society, May 2009, deals with the theme of social exclusion by analysing how an
apartment circular addresses the "problem" of homeless people living close to the
building,
3. The article which appeared in the Discourse and Society, March 2009 edition titled
"Press 1 for English: textual and ideological networks in newspaper debate on US
language policy" deals with the theme of race and immigration by analysing how
newspapers portrayed a debate about changes in language policy in the United States,
4. In January 2009 edition of the Discourse and Society "Telling-it-like-it-is: the de-
legitimation of the second Palestinian Intifada" deals with the theme of civil war, that is
the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, by analysing how columns by Thomas
Friedman in The New York Times represented the conflict,
5. Another article in Discourse and Society which appeared in January 2009 "Inter-
textuality and national identity: discourse of national conflicts in daily newspapers in the
11
Refer to Appendix 2.
12
This will be illustrated at the table of contents in the Appendix 2.

8
United States and China" also deals with the theme of national identity by analysing the
two newspapers, one American and the other Chinese, about two moments of conflicts
between the United States and China ­ the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in
Yugoslavia in May 1999 during the Kosovo war and the air collision between a US
military warplane and a Chinese jet-fighter in April 2001.
In the articles reviewed, only (three) 3 dealt with themes in contexts in which there were no
explicit conflict, and these are shown below:
1. The article "Language and ideology: gender stereotypes of female and male artists in
Taiwanese tabloids" which appeared in November 2009 edition of Discourse and Society
journal, deals with the theme of gender ­ specifically, gender stereotypes ­ by examining
how a gossip in a tabloid Taiwanese newspaper represented female and male artists,
2. In March 2009, the article "Entrepreneurial identities and the problematic of subjectivity
in media-mediated discourses" that appeared in the Discourse and Society journal also
deals with the theme of gender, but by focusing on how articles from Indian newspapers
and magazines portrayed women entrepreneurs in relation to discourses of patriarchy and
femininity,
3. In an article that appeared in the Discourse Studies journal in December 2008 "Visually
branding the environment: climate change as a marketing opportunity" deals with the
theme of the environment by analysing how the image bank Getty Images promotes its
archive of "green issues" through associating it with marketing opportunities.
If the introduction of my study is assessed, one could argue that the above three (3) articles aim
at revealing how unequal power relations are reflected and reproduced by discourses in which a
conflict is not the main theme, that is, discourses which draw on a setting in which a polarisation
is not explicit but still present, for instance, a polarisation between male and female in the first
two (2) articles and between an environmentalist discourse and a capitalist discourse in the third.
Notwithstanding that, one could also argue that these articles belong to a grey zone, in other
words, the way they differ from the usual approach of CDA is not easily conceptualised.
The literature review presented above, although, cannot be given quantitative importance and
does not allow extrapolations and further generalisations, I would argue that it gives an
indication of the main tendencies in CDA. Based on this consideration and also taking into
account the limitations of the articles cited above, I would like to point out that the three (3)
aforementioned articles are to a degree in line with my claim that CDA could profit from a
broadening of scope by focusing on less polarised discourses. As shown or illustrated by the
articles, discourses on not explicitly polarised issues could contribute significantly to analysis on
power relations, ideology and hegemony.
In order to crystallise the terminology which I would be employing throughout this book, it is
significant for me to outline that the expression "not explicitly polarised issues" would be used to

9
refer to issues in which there are no evident of polarisation, dichotomy or conflict between the
different competing or opposed groups, or group's ideologies, and more significantly, in
situations where polarisation, dichotomy or conflict is not the topic of the discourse or more
specifically, of the text in question.

10
Chapter Two
Critical Discourse Perspective on Ghana Politics since 1992
Introduction
This study is being undertaken in order to have a critical discourse perspective on Africa politics,
particular in the case of Ghana politics since 1992, how they evolved, their characteristics and
the relation between ruling political parties and their opponents in the opposition. This would be
developed as the study progresses against the backdrop of the idea of Otherness and its
implication for representation in political news discourses. This, I think, would allow
investigation to be conducted to see whether news discourses on politics or on not explicitly
polarised issues are reflective of unequal power dynamics in Ghana politics.
To unfold this, I would apply Van Dijk's (1998: 33) concept of the ideological square,
13
' which
is characterised by positive in-group description and negative out-group description in order to
have a plausible explanation for my analysis of the selected ten (10) newspaper articles from the
Daily Graphic of Ghana and I would also use the theoretical and methodological dichotomy of
Us and Them as the two (2) would empower the objective of the research to uncover whether
news discourses on politics or on not explicitly polarised issues are reflective of unequal power
relations in political news discourses in Ghana politics or not. It would also allow me to unearth
and conclude the study on the basis of the representation of the Other in Ghana politics since
1992.
Africa as a continent is made up of fifty-four (54) countries with diverse cultural, political,
economic and social backgrounds; and these characteristics always have the tendencies of
creating potential tension or social unrest, detrimental, one way or the other, to the people or
citizens in each of the 54 countries in the continent before and after independence. Also, the role
of political parties in today's democratic or political participation sweeping through the African
continent and the representation of the Other in Africa politics by political leaders of their
opponents in opposition, particularly, in Ghana politics cannot be over emphasized.
The late 1950s heralded what is described as the so-called years of African independence
14
,
because most African countries gained independence from their colonial masters, notably from
Britain, France, Portugal and Belgium, with prospects and high expectations by their citizens of
good life, provisions of social amenities, whetting up patriotism, fostering of national unity, good
governance and social cohesion. However, these independence came with their own problems as
most of the leaders whom fought for the independence became so power drunk that they turned
out not to abide by the dictates and the norms of constitution they sworn to up-hold, used every
means to hold on to power for life and to perpetuate their self interest, used divide and rule
13
This `ideological square' would be explained fully in subsequent pages
14
See Nugent, Paul (2004) talks about this in his book" Africa Since Independence"

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11
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12
Colonel Emeka Ojukwu proclaimed the independence of the new state of Biafra, thus the
name "Biafra War." (Meredith 2005: 193-205).
2. Again in Rwanda it was the representation of the Other between the Hutus and the Tutsi
that sparked the civil war in 1990 and ended up with unprecedented genocide, which
began on April 4, 1994, in the history of Africa (Meredith 2005: 485-523).
3. In Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), it was the representation of the Other that disintegrated
into a civil war after a failed coup d'état on September 12, 2002, and this, has since,
divided the country with 2 parallel governments (Nugent 2004: 478-480)
15
.
4. Also it was the representation of the Other in Liberia between the ruling class (the freed
slaves from America) and the indigenous that led to the first military coup d'état in 1980,
and the protracted civil war
16
which was a conflict in Liberia from 1989 to 1996
(Meredith 2004: 467-471).
5. In Sudan, it was the representation of the Other between the South and the North that
sparked the decades of armed conflict between the Sudanese People Liberation Army
(SPLA) and the Khartoum government (the 1st was from 1955 to 1972 and the 2nd was
from 1983 to 2005), which accounts for one of the highest civilian death of any war since
World War 2 (Nugent 2004: 445-448).
6. And in Ghana, all the military coup d'états in which the armed forces and the police
staged successfully (in February 24, 1966; January 13, 1972; June 4, 1979; and December
31, 1981) which suspended the various republican constitutions and abrogated the rule of
law were all due to the representation of the "Other" (Meredith 2004: 211-216 and
Nugent 2004: 218-219), despite reasons given by the coup leaders.
For the purpose of this book, I would limit myself to the representation of the Other in the
politics of Ghana since the return of democratic rule in 1992 after years of brutal, repressive and
the longest military rule; but I would start with its geographical position, history, political
agitations during colonial period or before independence and after independence and the role of
the media, particularly, the state-owned mass media.
The History of Ghana
The official country name is the Republic of Ghana. Ghana means the Warrior King (Jackson
2001: 201) and was derived from and was the title accorded to the Kings of the medieval West
Africa (Stearns (ed.): 2001: 813; 1050). The Republic of Ghana before independence from the
United Kingdom was called the Gold Coast, a name given by the British merchants because of
the gold resources they found when they started to trade in the area by the middle of 17
th
century.
It is a country located in West Africa and is bordered by Cote d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso
to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. Geographically, it covers an
15
Even the just conducted election (2010) had compounded the division and the political problem further as two
parallel Presidents have been sworn in
16
Also known in West Africa as Charles Taylor's civil war

13
area of 238, 538 square kilometres (92, 100 square millimetres) and is only a few degrees north
of the Equator.
The climate in Ghana is tropical. The eastern coastal belt is warm and comparatively dry; the
southwest corner is hot and humid; and the north is hot and dry. There are two (2) distinct rainy
seasons in the south of the country, that is, from May to June and August to September, and in
the north, the rainy seasons tend to merge. A dry, north eastern wind, called the Harmattan,
blows in January and February every year and the annual rainfall in the coastal zone averages 83
centimetres - 33 inches (Bureau of African Affairs: 2010).
Ghana is divided into ten (10) administrative regions and sub-divided into a total of 138 districts,
each with its own District Assembly. The regions with their capitals are as follows: (1) Upper
West-capital-Wa; (2) Upper East-capital-Bolgatanga; (3) Northern-capital-Tamale; (4) Brong-
Ahafo-capital-Sunyani; (5) Ashanti-capital-Kumasi; (6) Western-capital-Sekondi-Takoradi; (7)
Central-capital-Cape Coast; (8) Eastern-capital-Koforidua; (9) Greater Accra-capital-Accra; and
(10) Volta-capital-Ho. Below the district are various types of councils, including 58 towns; 108
zonal councils, 626 area councils and 16,000 unit committees on the lowest level. Ghana is also
home to Lake Volta the largest artificial or man-made lake in the world by surface area built in
1965 to generate electricity, provide inland transportation and is a potential valuable resource for
irrigation and fish farming (Ghana News Agency, Accra, Ghana).
Ghana has a population of twenty-four (24) million (according to 2010 estimate by the Ghana
Statistical Service) and the population is concentrated along the coast and the principal cities of
Accra (the capital) and Kumasi. Ghana is divided into small groups speaking more than fifty (50)
languages and dialects. Among the more important groups are the Akans, which include the
Fantis along the coast, the Ashantis in the forest region north of the coast, the Akyems and the
Akwapims on the eastern coast, the Guans on the plains of the Volta River, the Ga and Ewe
speaking peoples of the south and southeast, and the Moshi and Dagomba speaking tribes of the
northern and upper regions of the country. Notwithstanding that English is the official language,
taught in all the schools and it pre-dominates government and business/commercial affairs.
Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa after in the world and it remains one of the
world's top gold producers. Other exports such as timber, electricity, bauxite, manganese and
diamond are another source of foreign exchange for the country. An oilfield which is reported to
contain up to 3 billion barrels (480,000,000m3) of light oil was discovered in 2007
17
and this is
expected to bring in tremendous inflow of capital into the economy begin the last quarter of 2010
when the country starts producing to be sold through licensed counter-parts in commercial
quantities. An Accra based radio station, Citi (Frequency Modulation) FM, broadcasted on
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 that officially Ghana has become oil producing nation after the
President, John Evans Atta Mills turned the valve to pump the first oil in one of the world's
17
Ghana leader: Oil reserves at 3B barrels-Yahoo! News

14
biggest recent oil-field discovery. The Jubilee oil field's production is pegged at 120,000 barrels
per day according to the FM station
The Map of Ghana

15
Historical Development of Political Parties in Ghana
In August 1947, two years after the Second World War, the first political party in the Gold Coast
(now Ghana) was formed and it was named the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Its
motto or slogan was "self government within the shortest possible time" and the leaders invited
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah home after 12 years of study and radical politics in the USA and Britain to
become the full-time General-Secretary of the party. The UGCC which awakened fervent
national consciousness in the Gold Coast was what might be described as a liberal group and this
attitude did not please Dr. Nkrumah, so following disagreement of ideologies, Dr. Nkrumah left
the UGCC and formed a radical and nationalist party ­ Convention People's Party (CPP) on June
12, 1949 with its slogan self government now (History of Ghana: 2010).
After all the disagreement over form of government that independent Gold Coast needed to
fashion, it turned out that the choice of Dr. Nkrumah and the CPP for a unitary administration, as
opposed to ethno-regionalism or federation in 1956
18
(by the opposition) was more efficacious
for the size and population of the Gold Coast and the British accepted. Also, on the road to
independence the CPP, led by Dr. Nkrumah won national elections in 1951, 1954 and in 1956 ­
in which CPP won 71 out of the 104 contested seats. The British Togoland was part of a former
German colony administered by the United Kingdom from Accra, Ghana as a League of Nations
mandate after 1922. In December 1946, British Togoland became a United Nations (UN) Trust
Territory, and in March 6, 1957, following a plebiscite, the UN agreed that the territory would
become part of Ghana when the Gold Coast achieved independence (now the Volta Region of
Ghana). This action opened the way for Ghana's independence and on the March 6, 1957, thus
becoming the first country in Africa, south of the Sahara to gain independence. Ghana however
became a republic on July 1, 1960 with Dr. Nkrumah becoming the first president (ibid: 2010).
To varying degrees political parties up to date expressed different identities, especially, in the
transition from colonial rule to independent nationhood. Some of the political parties were
formed to express sub-national or ethnic, for example, the opposition National Liberation
Movement (NLM) which was ethno-based party that argued for secession and announced the
idea on November 20, 1956; regional, religious or supra-national identities, for example the CPP
of Dr. Nkrumah, which advocated for total liberation of Africa else the independence of Ghana
was meaningless
19
. Invariably however, all of them were guided by a single dynamic logic:
namely, the burning desires to exercise the democratic rights which people all over the world
cherish: namely, the right to free choice, to self-determination, to association, and the right to
associate freely.
18
This action of the opposition-National Liberation Movement (NLM) and the subsequent announcement of
succession idea at a political really in Kumasi in November 20, 1956 in the pre-independence of Gold Coast plunged
the country into chaos and violence unprecedented in the political history of the country
19
This statement was made by Dr. Nkrumah at his independence speech at Old Polo Ground in Accra

16
Invariably also, the emergence of political parties was linked to elections through which the core
values of democracy were affirmed. That is, the struggle for the franchise was linked closely to
the struggle for political and civil rights ­ of freedom and self-determination (Ninsin: 2006).
Reasons for Military Take-overs/Coup d'états in Ghana
About half of Ghana's life as independent country has been spent under military rule (through
coup d'états) and during those periods: 1966 ­ 1969; 1972 ­ 1979 and 1981 ­ 1992, suspension
of republican constitutions, encroachment of fundamental human rights of the citizens and
banning of political activities always come with them. There are factors that always led to these
coup d'états in Ghana and to put them into right perspective I would start with the first coup in
Ghana. In 1958, Dr. Nkrumah used the Prevention Detention Act, which provided for detention
without trial for up to five (5) years (later extended to 10 years) to silence the voice and imprison
the opposition leaders due to their alleged political tactics.
In August 1960, Dr. Nkrumah was given authority by the Legislative Assembly to scrutinise
newspapers and other publications before publication and this political evolution continued into
the early 1964 when a constitutional referendum changed the country to a one-party state and
subsequently declared him a Life President. Thus, on February 24, 1966, while he was in Beijing
on his way to Hanoi, vainly attempting to mediate in the Vietnam War (Meredith 2005: 192), the
Ghanaian Armed Forces and the Police overthrew him, The new military regime ­ the National
Liberation Council (NLC) ­ headed by Lieutenant General (Lt. Gen.) J. A. Ankrah, cited Dr.
Nkrumah's flagrant abuse of individual rights and liberties, corruption, oppression, dictatorial
practices and the rapidly deteriorating economy as the principle reasons or justification for its
action.
Ghana returned to civilian rule under the Second Republic in October 1969 after a parliamentary
election in which the Progress Party (PP)
20
led by Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia won. Dr. Busia
government's problems started when his economic management was called into question when
trade liberalisation policy he introduced led to a flood of imports and a foreign exchange
squeeze; his attempt to impose austerity measures did not go down well with urban workers and,
following a head-on confrontation, his government dissolved both the Trade Union Congress
(TUC) and the National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS), although he had always
presented himself as a committed democrat, gradually revealed an unexpected willingness to
transgress the rules of the democracy.
Thus, following a decision to dismiss over 550 civil servants in 1970 (a disproportionate number
of whom were alleged to be Ewes (from the Volta Region) he launched an ill-considered attack
20
A party from the Danquah tradition: Dr. J. B. Danquah was one the prominent founders of UGCC and stood
against Dr. Nkrumah in 1960 as a presidential candidate and lost

17
on the judiciary when it ruled against him (Nugent 2004: 213). His government doom was sealed
when he tried to impose austerity on the Armed Forces which the army saw as a step too far, thus
on January 13, 1972, the military intervened for the second time ­ on this occasion without the
assistant of the police. The new military regime the National Redemption Council (NRC) and
later Supreme Military Council (headed by Colonel/General I. K. Acheampong justified the coup
d'état on various grounds: authoritarianism of the PP government, its mismanagement of the
economy, blatant tribalism and, most disarmingly of all, the complaint that Busia was removing
the `few small amenities' which the officer corps had enjoyed (ibid: 213).
By 1975, corruption was on high ascendency and life was becoming unbearable for Ghanaians,
thus, students of the country universities were the first to Gen. Acheampong's bluff and the
various campuses were raided, attacked and closed over 1975 ­ 1976; then the Ghana Bar
Association demanded a rapid return to civilian rule in September, 1976; the next to follow suit
in June 1976 was the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies (ARPB) which went a step
further by openly criticised the corruption and mismanagement of the SMC and gave the regime
until July 1, 1976 to resign ­ this ultimatum was followed by a strike.
On June 4, 1979, the SMC was overthrown and an Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC) was set up under the chairmanship of Flt. Lt. Rawlings. The AFRC carried out a house
cleaning exercise (Hasty 2001:350) in the armed forces and the society at large, resulting in the
execution of 8 senior officers, including three (3) former head of states, namely: Gen. Akuffo,
Acheampong, and Gen. Afrifa, by firing squad, while restoring a sense of moral responsibility
and the principle of accountability and probity in public life. True to their words, elections were
conducted, in the parliamentary elections and on September 24, 1979, Ghana was ushered into
the Third Republic and Dr. Hilla Limann of the People's National Party (PNP) was sworn in as
President.
The issues that faced his administration were the economy, inflation, which already exceedingly
high when he took office and more than doubled during his term in office and coupled with sharp
decline in the value of the Ghanaian currency, the cedi and the growing national debt, led to the
slowing of the economy. These factors crippled his administration's ability to deliver on its
promises and by early 1980, the first ripples of discontent started to become apparent when
students and workers began to strike, and in extreme cases, riot. The final blow that his
administration received was a condemnation of its performance, when for the first time in
Ghana's history, a government's proposed budget failed to gain parliament approval. The
opposition PFP slammed the budget, calling it out as unsatisfactory to curb the country's urgent
economic problems. Also, based on official bribery and corruption in the government circles and
Flt. Lt. Rawlings's continued political activities doomed the Limann government. On December
31, 1981, Flt. Lt. Rawlings overthrown the government, becoming the Chairman of the
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) (ibid: 350).

18
The Role of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana Politics
He suppressed sectarianism and ethno/tribalism in Ghana, brought a sense of national unity
among Ghanaians and infused the spirit of oneness and pride into Ghanaians and within ten years
of his government was able to undertake developmental projects such as building of schools,
hospitals/clinics, a harbour and a modern city, new international airport, ironically, named after
one of the coup leaders who overthrew him (Kotoka International Airport, Accra), established
free qualitative education, free medical service of the highest standard to every Ghanaian, etc,
unequal by any of his predecessors. Thus, one can argued that it was due to his "good fortune"
(Barreca (afterword) 2008: 10) which he has no controlled over as said by Machiavelli and for a
better historical reputation for posterity that the February 23, 1966 coup d'état occurred so as not
obliterate his achievements, else he could have, maybe, ended up like Idi Amin of Uganda and
Mugabe of Zimbabwe whom people, debatably, despise.
He has now become large-than-life and towers above every politician even in death; Kwame
Nkrumah Memorial Park (a historical park), which houses Nkrumah Mausoleum and a Museum,
has been built in Accra as tourist centre and as a honour to him; secondly, his birthday
(September 21) has been instituted as Founder's Day by parliament and celebrated as a national
holiday; thirdly, one of the two universities he built has been renamed after him ­ Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi; fourthly, in a British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) Listeners' polls conducted in December 1999 to select the Greatest African
of the 20
th
century and Africa's Man of the Millennium listeners voted for Dr. Nkrumah; and,
finally, in September 2010 as a part of activities to 50 years of African Independence, BBC
African Services decided to conduct a poll and 50 African personalities, including Dr. Nkrumah,
were chosen as the continent's Most Iconic Figures/Personalities, just to mention a few, all for
his role in the formation of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) today called the African
Union (AU) in 1963 (Ghana News Agency, Accra).
Political Party Systems under the 1992 Constitution
The 1992 Constitution under which democratic rule was restored guarantees various political and
civil rights, including the right to form political associations, speak freely, choose who to govern
the country, and the right to participate in the government of the country in other forms. Like
their predecessors, the political parties that currently exist have been driven by the core values of
democracy. The country's history of military dictatorship and abuse of human rights were
compelling reasons for insisting on the freedom to form political parties which, from experience,
are regarded as the embodiment of the basic freedoms that are core to democratic political
practice. Thus, since the restoration of democracy and the introduction of the 1992 constitution
Ghana has maintained continuous progress towards strengthening fundamental freedoms and
rights and developing a multi-party democracy (1992 Constitution of Ghana).

19
A highly competitive political environment and an electoral commission with strong reputation
and a good track record in organising elections provided the backdrop to all the presidential and
parliamentary elections. Elections are held for president, who is elected head of state for a
maximum of two-year terms and two hundred and thirty (230) parliamentary members in which
the parliamentarians are popularly elected for a four-year term in a single seat constituencies
using the first-past-the-post election system. Periodic general elections have taken place since
1992 to date ­ the last held one was in December 2008 (Electoral Commission of Ghana).
Hence, between May 1992 (Ninsin: 2006), when the ban on political parties was lifted and
November of the same year, thirteen (13) political parties were registered, but the two largest
political parties that dominate contemporary politics in Ghana are the National Democratic
Congress (NDC), founded by Flt. Lt. Rawlings and the National Patriotic Party (NPP).
Political Ideologies of the Two Largest Political Parties in Contemporary Ghana
Whilst the two (2) largest political parties the NPP and NDC claim to have divergent ideological
or political views, their manifestos for all the elections when scrutinised closely are
fundamentally similar with little to differentiate the two parties in terms of policy directions. The
NPP, presently the party in opposition, had emerged from an old political tradition dating back to
UGCC (of the Danquah-Busia tradition), hence regarding itself as a liberal party. NPP as a
political party claims credentials as epitome of liberalism among the political parties; emphasizes
its dogmatic attachment to free enterprise as the foundation of social progress, thus adopting the
private sector is the engine of growth as its economic policy slogan. For the NPP, the overriding
economic policy objective is to achieve macro-economic stability through fiscal prudence, low
inflation rate, low bank interest rate, and so on.
In general, it believes that creating the enabling environment for the private sector to flourish is
the only way to encourage the growth of a dynamic private sector, and create wealth; because it
is only the private sector that can create wealth and engineer national progress and prosperity
(NPP Manifesto:2008). On the other hand, the NDC, presently the governing party, claims to be
a social democratic party (social democrats), the same ideology espoused by Dr. Nkrumah's
Convention People's Party (CPP). Based on its manifesto (NDC Manifesto: 2008), it seeks,
according to its ideology, to harness the power of the free market in order to protect workers'
rights and reduce poverty, while supporting the rule of law and up-holding basic human rights.
These ideological labels notwithstanding, the differences in terms practical policies are minimal.
The NDC, which was in power from 1993 to 2000 originated from the PNDC, the military
regime at the period which was headed by Flt. Lt. (later President) Rawlings for 11 solid years.
In fact, the NDC was formed in 1992, and led by Rawlings and his supporters when the ban on
party politics was lifted to win both the presidential and parliamentary elections of 1992 and

20
1996. When the party was launched in 1992 it declared its resolve to continue the policies of the
PNDC. Therefore from January 1993 to January 2001, the NDC followed the neo-liberal
economic policies implemented by the PNDC from 1983 to January 1993 under the dictate of the
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the donor community (Ninsin 2006).
It is significant to note that, during election campaigns in Ghana, none of these two leading
political parties, the NPP and NDC, espouses economic policies or strategies that reject the neo-
liberal policy framework dictated by the IFIs and the development partners. In fact they hardly
campaign around policy issues. The only economic issue that distinguishes one from the other is
the success or failure of the neo-liberal economic policies in eradicating the harsh economic
conditions of the masses of the people when one or the other is in power. The non-ideological
posture and the non-issue election campaigns of the political parties explain why Ghanaian
voters are most likely to succumb to irrational and material factors used as bait for their vote.
What then encourages these political parties to present themselves in two contrasting ideological
terms? The difference between the NDC and NPP - the two parties that have alternated in the
exercise of state power since January 7, 1993 ­ is indeed marginal. It is a question of the degree
to which one or the other political party has implemented the neo-liberal prescriptions of the IFIs
(ibid. 2006).
The NPP may be described as doctrinaire in implementing neo-liberal economic policies. For it,
getting the price right or getting the economic fundamentals right is the ultimate attribute of
successful free market reforms. The end justifies the means. Therefore the social implications of
public policy are secondary to the achievement of the objectives of free market reforms. In
contrast, even though the NDC implemented the same economic policy package when it was in
power it was more inclined to balance the pursuit of tough macro-economic stabilization policies
with social concerns: it pursued human-centred market reforms. This was dictated by its populist
past which was firmly rooted in the politics of the military PNDC government.
The Electoral System
The 1992 Constitution and the Electoral Commission Act of 1993 (Act 451) establish the
Electoral Commission as an independent body with responsibility for the conduct, management
and supervision of all public elections in Ghana and in accordance with Article 43 of the
Constitution a board of seven (7) commissioners is responsible for oversight of the Electoral
Commission's work in all the ten (10) regions. The body is comprised of a chairman, two (2)
deputy chairmen and 4 non-executive members. Each of the executive members of the Electoral
Commission is responsible for elections in 2 of the 10 regions of Ghana and non-executive
members' one (1) region each. The President on the advice of the Council of State
21
appoints the
21
A Presidential appointed consultative body of 23 members required by the 1992 Constitution

21
members of the Electoral Commission for an unspecified period in accordance with Article 70 of
the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
The Electoral Commission is organised into 2 main departments; first, the Operations and
Finance and the second is Administration. At the pinnacle of the decision making structure are
the Chairman and the 2 Deputy Chairmen while the 2 departments undertake a range of activities
including accounts, information technology and data control, voter registration, public affairs and
education, research, evaluation and training. The Electoral Commission also has regional and
district electoral representatives and executive officers and all 10 regional capitals are managed
by directors and the 166 district offices are headed by district electoral officers. These district
electoral officers are largely responsible for organising elections on the district level (Electoral
Commission of Ghana).
For each parliamentary constituency the district electoral officer of the Electoral Commission
appoints a returning officer and 2 deputy returning officers; a point to note is that the position of
returning officer is a temporary post and positions are filled from applicants responding to public
advertisement for these posts and individuals can challenge these appointments at the Electoral
Commission on grounds of suitability. Presiding officers are also appointed by the Electoral
Commission to supervise individual polling stations/centres. The Electoral Commission has an
estimated 1,000 permanent staff and approximately 110,000 temporary staff complementing
these during presidential and parliamentary elections period. The 230 returning officers are
responsible, under the direction of the district electoral officers, for the single member
constituency based parliamentary election while the Chairman of the Electoral Commission is
the returning officer for the presidential election (ibid).
The president is elected by popular vote in a single national constituency and to be elected
president a candidate must receive 50 per cent (50%) of valid votes cast and in the event that any
single candidate fails to receive the number of votes to cross this threshold in the first round
election, which by law is held on December 7 every four years, a second round presidential run-
off election is called by the Electoral Commission between the two candidates whom received
the largest of votes cast in the first round of the elections. The parliament of Ghana is unicameral
and has 230 members plus a speaker, elected for a four year term in single seat constituencies
(1992 Constitution of Ghana). In pursuant to Article 47 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana the
Electoral Commission has responsibility for the demarcation of constituency boundaries and
exercised this power by increasing the number of constituencies from 200 to 230,
22
which
entered into force for the 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections (1992 Constitution of
Ghana).
22
See Representation of the People (Parliamentary Constituencies) Instrument (C. I. 46), 2004)

Details

Pages
Type of Edition
Erstausgabe
Year
2017
ISBN (PDF)
9783960676331
ISBN (Softcover)
9783960671336
File size
9.4 MB
Language
English
Publication date
2017 (May)
Keywords
The Other Political/Media Nexus Critical Discourse Analysis Political News Article Politics in Ghana Case Study Mediated and Mediatized Politics Political News Discourse Othering Daily Graphic
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Title: The Representation of Ruling and Opposition Parties in State-owned Newspapers in Contemporary Ghana
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