Reality effect or media effect? Television's moulding of the environmental sanitation agenda in Ghana

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Reality effect or media effect? Television's moulding of the environmental sanitation agenda in Ghana
Author:	Ofori-Parku, S. Senyo
Year:	2014
Periodical:	Ecquid novi: African journalism studies (ISSN 1942-0773)
Volume:	35
Issue:	2
Pages:	40-57
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	mass media waste management sanitation public opinion
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560054.2014.919944
Abstract:	Mass media have a responsibility to popularize social and developmental issues. This is a central thesis of the normative view of mass media and development. Given the precarious nature of environmental sanitation in the West African country Ghana, what is the nature of media coverage on environmental sanitation? And how does media coverage relate to people's perceptions of and attitudes toward the problem? While it may be counterintuitive for people to rely on media as sources of information on an obtrusive problem such as environmental sanitation, using content/frame analysis and a survey, this article suggests the potential of mass media (television news) in Ghana to project particular worldviews relating to issues that audiences encounter in their daily lives, a mechanism the article refers to as agenda moulding. Thus, even for obtrusive social and development issues such as environmental sanitation, the nature and level of media coverage matters. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]