Chapter Two

In conducting a review of the literature consulted for this paper, I will look at writings on this topic or the lack thereof and also attempt to establish the theoretical frameworks under which this subject has been studied and the common themes characteristic to this subject. This study draws on literature on modernization and dependency, which have informed communication research in recent times and literature on Africa and the different communication climates.

Studies conducted on broadcasting in African countries usually focus on the impact of foreign programmes on local television. Scholars usually echo the assertion of imperialism studies, as Akin Fatoyinbo[1] bluntly puts it "The TV channels in Africa have literally been taken over by foreign broadcasters. This is compounded by the fact that many of the programmes broadcast by national television come from foreign TV studios." Traditionally Africa is not a major continent in terms of communication studies, the West, being a pacesetter in communication both in practice and technology wise, is far more significant). Asia's relevance stems from its large population and what the capture of the Asian market means financially for broadcasting companies. The Latin American states are important in communication due to their own unique brand of soap operas; the Telenovelas and are also an important example on the influence of language, in this case the Spanish language, on broadcasting and these have made them the subject of many researches and case studies.[2] Africa has not got anything special to speak of in this vein and any mention of Africa in communication literature is usually as an afterthought.[3]. To quote The Journal Of International Affairs,[4] It is always difficult to talk about Africa: It is tantamount to trying to take a still picture of a moving object ; Africa is still a continent in transition, things change ever so often and even though great strides have been made in the political and communication areas, a lot still remains to be done, making the writings on Africa from even the 80s not as obsolete as it would have been expected to be. Of the few writings concentrating on communication in West Africa and Ghana in particular that were found, most deal with the print media and issues of democracy, press freedom and the role of the media in these countries.[5] It is almost as if in the midst of seemingly more important communication issues, what is shown on television screens isn't of paramount importance. Kwesi Yankah's[6] look at communication in Ghana centres on free speech and the impact of technological advancement for the print media. Ansu Kyeremeh's[7] look at the indigenous versus the modern in the communication sector is in a way not unlike Yankah's. PAV Ansah and Koomson's writings were looked at .The works of Isaac Blankson on audiences response to pluralistic broadcasting and foreign influence in Ghana also proved useful. There are definitive books on broadcasting in other African countries but this paper is reluctant to work on the assumption that individual African societies are the same.

As a developing country with communication still a developing field, major issues raised about broadcasting in Ghana and indeed in Sub-Saharan Africa include issues on privatisation of the media, its prospects and feasibility[8]; Policy and technology conflicts are also often raised in journals and writings. The bulk of African mention in communication studies comes from cultural and anthropological studies and it is from this end that we begin the review of the literature.

Mass media, that is the electronic media [television, film, radio] and the print media [magazines, books and newspapers] can be looked at in the cultural studies sense, as institutions, as workplaces, as communicative practices, as cultural products, as social activities as aesthetic forms and historical developments.[9]

Cultural studies looks at how media shapes and forms social life and interaction. One enduring concern is the power of the media and their roles as vehicles of culture. The Birmingham school[10] led by Stuart Hall encapsulates this theory. In resonance with Anderson's[11] theory of imagined communities as a mass mediated community where people may not know each other but share common ideas, Hall posits that;

(The mass media) have progressively colonised the cultural and ideological sphere. As social groups and classes live increasingly fragmented lives the mass media are more and more responsible for (a) providing the basis on which other groups construct an image of their lives, meaning, practises and values of other groups and classes, (b) for providing the images, representations and ideas around which the social reality, composed of all these separate and fragmented pieces can be coherently grasped as a whole.[12]

This dependency thesis is one that, as earlier mentioned pervades communication literature on Africa.

Imperialism theorists, most drawing from Marxism, have long alleged that Western Superpowers have in place a conscious process for the continued domination of second and third world countries. An examination of the international communication literature will reveal terms such as "media imperialism. Boyd-Barrett, [13] defines media imperialism as:

The process whereby the ownership, structure, distribution, or the content of the media in any country are singly or together subject to substantial external pressures from the media interests of any other country or countries, without proportionate reciprocation of influence by the country so affected.

It relates the financial domination of a country by another through global media industries and powerful multi-national corporations that control the flow of information and distribution of media products. These global media industries bring about a materialistic capitalist consumer society. The accusation has been the capacity of this phenomenon to destroy or belittle local cultures. They are captive recipients of capitalist values transmitted through the media[14]. Similar theories include Drake[15] Information imperialism theory and Galtung's[16] "Structural imperialism theory. This examines the role of Third world elites in their respective countries and their relationship to First world elites. He is of the view that elites do not have much in common with non elites, therefore third world elites have more in common with First world elites than their own people and vice versa. These Third world elites are being used to help First world elites in sustaining Neo colonialism.

Neo colonialism itself is a theory advanced in post independence Africa and Asia that seeks to disprove any real independence and to accuse Western countries of indirect rule through International Legislation, coerced compliance and to a large extent through the influx of foreign goods and culture. In neo-colonialism, foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism therefore increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world. "Cultural dependency and domination"[1]; "cultural synchronization"[2]; "electronic colonialism" [3],"ideological imperialism", and "economic imperialism"[4] are other theories all relating to the same basic notion of imperialism.

Dependency theory emerged in Latin America in the 1960s when it was realised the development theory[5] had failed. It was also to criticise modernization theorists and formed the basis of the NWICO[6] (a third world pressure group from the 80's formed to encourage the free flow of information, at international as well as national levels, to promote the wider and better balanced dissemination of information, without any obstacle to freedom of expression, and to strengthen communication capacities in the developing countries in order to increase their participation in the communication process[7]). These theorists assert that the cause of the under development in less economically developed countries (third world countries) is their reliance and dependence on the more economically developed countries of the First world. This is because the surplus that they produce is siphoned off by the First world under the guise of multinational corporations. There is, as such, no profit left for reinvestment and development. This is what Gunder Frank[8] termed the development of underdevelopment. The way out, according to dependency theorists is for underdeveloped countries to severe relations with the first world and become truly independent both politically, social and economically. This is closely related to the imperialism theory of Herbert Schiller and brings us back to the imperialism theories. Schiller defines cultural imperialism thus:

The sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system and how it's dominating stratum is attracted pressured, forced and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to or even promote, the values and structures of the dominant centre of the system. [9].

Schiller's primary concern was the erosion of cultural identities and the creation of dependency on communication hardware and software in developing countries.

Regulation

Communication regulation and censorship was also an important topic in this research. The media has always been covertly or overtly a means of propaganda by the government, especially during the world wars. In May 1991, the United Nations calling for an independent and pluralistic media passed the Windhoek Declaration[10]; it was hoped that with the proclamation of press freedom the African press would be free to criticise and investigate the government and is the case for the press in the western world. In Africa however, the notion of the freedom of the press is not yet a complete one. Because freedom of the press is the bedrock of democracy and most African governments have for a long time been undemocratic regimes, the concept is nonexistent in many countries or at best, new. It is claimed that in African countries including Ghana, though it may be subtle, the government and corporate bodies intimidate journalists and prevent them from doing their duties[11]. It is acknowledged that Ghana represents one of the few cases of a free press in Africa[12] .The veracity of this claim will be ascertained specifically to determine whether the issues of press freedom pertain as much to broadcast media as it does to print.

Imperialism theories have been severely criticised as being a conspiracy theory, intimating that the trend of communication flow is intentional. Critics also contend that audiences, the economy, governmental policies and technology all figure in the determination of the direction of information flow, to blame it all on foreign influence is not right. Servaes[13] argues against cultural imperialism thinking and argues that there is no universal path to development- it is an integral, multidimensional, and dialectic processes that can differ from one society to another.

Media and Language

Another theory this paper is concerned with is that of communication and language. Concerns of the saturation of the English language as a media language has been raised. Importation of programmes from the U.S and Britain means most of these programmes are in English and are only subtitled. Where imperialists have alleged this is a deliberate attempt to recolonise the world through the language, cultural studies lament the loss of identity and pride in native languages, its erasure being replaced by English. This is termed creolization of cultures[14]. Creolization appears in writings on globalisation and postmodernity as a synonym of hybridity and syncretism to portray the mixtures occurring amongst societies in an age of migration and communications. This will be looked at in two ways: first, is the importation of programmes bringing about creolization and secondly, what difference does Ghana being a multi lingual society make to the situation. Other literature consulted has the following common themes. First the notion that natives prefer local programmes to foreign ones appear in scholastic writings such as that of Servaes[15] and Straubhaar[16] who terms it cultural proximity. According to Straubhaar;

Audiences will tend to prefer that programming which is closest or most proximate to their own culture [i.e.] national programming if it can be supported by the local economy.

Another important notion is that which states that local media tend to imitate foreign media. Here I cite Hamelink[17]

Local programmes are produced according to U.S and U.K formats. Even small networks in poor countries unquestioningly follow the western example of broadcasting.

Kikuvuru[18] echoes this when he says

"Medial professionalism eagerly agrees to modelling indigenous cultural productions according to exogenous patterns."

Having identified the dearth of literature and research on the topic of this thesis, I set out to study and document the workings of the broadcast industry in Ghana. I aimed to identify problems if any and to find out how it has been dealt with. The findings of this paper will be useful to anyone interested in studying broadcasting in Africa for its own sake, not in relation to any other country and for a general understanding of the specificity of the Ghanaian media especially the broadcast sector. I also aim to bring to attention issues in Broadcasting in Ghana in the hope that it will inform any research in this sector. This study falls under the broader area of communication in developing countries and adds to the debate on communication for liberation and emancipation and the enablement of the countries under development.

This research was carried out using the qualitative critical ethnographic research method. This research method was chosen because ethnography is a research form that focuses on the sociology of meaning through close field observation of the research interest that is usually socio-cultural. For this study, interviewees were interviewed several times, using information from previous interviewees to seek illumination. This was done to reveal common knowledge related to the issue being researched. I spent three weeks at various broadcasting houses in Ghana in April 2003. The research was carried out mainly through interviews, literature review and also by non-participatory observation (attending editorial meetings, spending three weeks at the stations). This is because, as already mentioned, the lack of literature meant more than one method had to be employed. Interviews were recorded, and transcripts produced, these were then analysed and corresponding theories were analysed, although it must be mentioned that some of the theories were put forward by the interviewees themselves and were thus looked into to check their veracity. Findings will be based on comprehensive knowledge of the issues and knowledge acquired from the interviews. I am aware, in using this method, of its pitfalls[19] (including introduction of bias towards the perspectives of the interviewee because of my knowledge of the culture) and have tried to avoid this situation.

Individuals interviewed were deemed appropriate to the research. This was based on their experience in the industry and their availability, they also suggested people worthy of interviewing until I attained what I believe to be a fair sample of industry people, covering all aspects of broadcasting, that is television and radio, in particular news sections, management, experienced broadcasters etc. Experienced broadcasters were essential because it was my aim also to trace change or its lack thereof and to look at the pace of development of the communication sector.

The research was carried out at the then only three television stations and two of the over seventy radio stations (one private, one public).

Thirty people were interviewed in all, five of them more than once and they are:

[1] Downing, J., Mohammadi, A., and Sreberny-Mohammadi, A. (eds.). (1995). Questioning the media: A critical introduction. London: Sage

[2] Hamelink, C.J. (1983). Cultural autonomy in global communications. New York: Longman

[3] McPhail, T.L. (1987). Electronic colonialism: The future of international broadcasting and communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

[4] Mattleart, A. (1994). Mapping world communication. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

[5]Pieterse J, N (2001) Development Theory: Deconstructions/Reconstructions London, Sage

[6] New World Information and Communication order-New communication strategy adopted at the 25^thUN annual general conference 1989

[8] Gunder Frank (1969) as cited in Thussu (2000) International Communication, Arnold; London

[9] Schiller, H. J. (1976). Communication and Cultural Domination. White Plains, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press.

[10] The Windhoek Declaration, May 1991 http://www.misanet.org/charters/windhoek.html

36AmnestyInternational http://news.amnesty.org/MAVP/news.nsf/0/1720B47042B8284E80256BFF0047CBDC?Opendocument

[13] Servaes, J 1999 Communication for development- One World, Multiple Cultures, NJ Hampton Press

[14] Hannerz, U., the periphery in creolization in Benyon J and Dunkerly D (eds.) 2000 Globalisation: the reader London, Athlone

[15] Servaes, J 1999 Communication for development- One World, Multiple Cultures, NJ Hampton Press

[16] Straubhaar, J, D 2000 Culture Capital, Language and cultural proximity in the globalisation of television

[17] Hamelink, C.J 1983 Cultural Autonomy in Global Communications: Planning National Information Policy New York, Longman

[18] Kikuvuru, U 1993 Peripheral mass communication: Rich in contradictions in K. Nordenstreng and Schiller H (eds.) beyond national sovereignty: international communication in the 1990s p161)

[19] http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/ethno.htm