Ghanaian entertainment brokers: urban change, and 'Afro-cosmopolitanism', with neo-liberal reform

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Ghanaian entertainment brokers: urban change, and 'Afro-cosmopolitanism', with neo-liberal reform
Author:	Thalén, Oliver
Year:	2011
Periodical:	Journal of African Media Studies (ISSN 1751-7974)
Volume:	3
Issue:	2
Pages:	227-240
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	private enterprises performing arts television popular culture
Abstract:	This article deals with Ghanaian entertainment in the neo-liberal age. The key aim is to describe the emerging brokering practices of certain entrepreneurs within the entertainment industry in Ghana, and to explore the effects of these practices. On the one hand these entrepreneurs receive sponsorship from major transnational corporations, in order to produce reality TV shows and major entertainment events. The shows are meant to appeal to the target market of the corporate sponsors, and in this way these entrepreneurs fill the role of a power broker. On the other hand, the entrepreneurs also fill the role of a culture broker as they try to tune into a larger market by producing entertainment that is aimed to be popular not only in Ghana, but in a larger market across Africa. In this article the author refers to this shift in style of entertainment as a shift towards an Afro-cosmopolitan style of entertainment. The strategic epicentre for the fieldwork of this study is one of Ghana's major production houses, Charterhouse Productions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]