The colonializing structure, even in its most extreme

manifestations might not be the only explanation for Africa's present day marginality.  Perhaps this marginality could, more essentially, be

understood from the perspective of wider hypotheses about the

classification of beings and societies.

V.Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa[1]

Mytton[2] asserts that in developing countries, communication exists primarily to propagate national sentiment. Mcluhan[3] puts a direct link between the advent of the electronic media and quality of life and participation.

" It is the speed of electric involvement that creates the integral whole of both private and public awareness. We live today in the Age of Information and of Communication because electric media instantly and constantly create a total field of interacting events in which all men participate " 

If it is accepted that the enlightenment ideal is not only for public service but also for all electronic media, then it is important to find out how this features in the stations aim and vision.

Tv3 CEO Mr Nyantakyi in an interview explained to me

" Although our main aims are to offer choice, erase monopoly and bring in innovations; these aims are being carried against the backdrop of diversity, choice and competition help foster development. The media helps the nation develop." (18^th April 2003)

A sentiment echoed by Mr Kofi Owusu, News Editor from Joy fm. He sees it as the duty of all media to do its bit; be it exposing or  weeding out corruption (his outfit has been responsible for exposing the rot in many establishments). This accountability exercise deters would be corrupt people and helps the nation move forward.

Interviewees also collectively agreed that this is the main reason why most of the news and current affairs programmes are on developmental projects like roads being built, electrification projects etc. This fosters national sentiment and gives the public a sense of progress. This means though that if the programme content or broadcasting in general undergoes little change or development, national development will undergo little change. To cite Pye[4]

" Without a network capable of enlarging and magnifying the words and choices of individuals, there could be no politics capable of spanning the nation. "

Education, especially girls' education has benefited from exposure by the broadcast media. The media policy stipulates that the dignity and honour of women be respected and to their credit, the broadcast media has helped create awareness in this particular drive.

Media and Language

Of the programmes on national television, over 75% is in English while the remaining 25% is divided unequally among the other five languages with the Akan language taking the largest share. The main local languages used, mainly because of their popularity and reach, are: Twi, Ga, Hausa, Ewe, Dagarti and Nzema, (the only justification for the inclusion of the Nzema language seems to be the fact that the first Prime Minister, Nkrumah was an Nzema and insisted on its inclusion). Hausa, although not a native Ghanaian language, is included because it is a Nigerian trade language that is very popular among Moslems and the people of the northern people of Ghana. Using it means that people from about 8 different tribes from the northern part of Ghana can understand it .It is the estimation of the GBC that this language division adequately caters for the whole population.

The illiteracy rate in Ghana has been pegged at 29.8% with men at 20.5% and women at 38.8%[5]. This means that almost 30% of the people do not understand what is on television or on the airwaves three quarters of the time (more if they speak only one local language). This is more worrying when one considers that 61% of the population live in the rural areas where the illiteracy rate is highest (as much as 80% in some areas). One cannot help but raise questions about this issue and the broadcasters' diversity and enlightenment charter.

A heterogeneous society is difficult to handle communication wise, it requires specific measures to be able to deal with specific situations and this is no different in the case of Ghana. Interviewers conceded that this language division seems to be simply because it has always been the norm and path dependency has set in over the years.

"it is simply a matter of the norm, that is how it has always been done " (reporter, Joy FM, 24th April 2003), another agreed saying " it is a bit odd but its always been that way, changing it will mean going as far back as the training schools to change curriculum " (editor,TV3,21th April 2003)

Changing this set-up will require considerable change and will be expensive. Also, the audience has grown used to it and any change might not be welcome. The language problem also goes further with tribal connotations, as any tribe slighted in a revamp will accuse the broadcasters of being tribalistic.

Interviewees however did not think this situation was cause for concern claiming that the extensive use of English would have external benefits and help the government's literacy drive and may actually fall in line with public service ideals.

Metro and Joy fm do have at least 70% of its programmes in English, the rest are however mainly in Akan (Twi). The case is worse in TV3 where almost all programmes (with the exception of a few films and music and the odd local interview) are in English.

In developing countries especially, the educated are usually among the wealthiest, it seems then that education and wealth usually go hand in hand[6]. Advertisers who provide the bulk of commercial broadcasters revenue do so with the aim of attracting people with money to spend and will therefore advertise on stations and programmes thought to have the right audience (example young to middle aged men for breweries). Stations respond to this by targeting the audience thought to be the most profitable advertising wise and this invariably turns out to be the literate. It will seem then that there are no ready plans at the moment to change anything with regards to language on the airwaves as far as broadcasting is concerned.

Another question this study put to researchers was the foreign versus local programme content. It is acknowledged that comparatively Ghana is one of the countries with a low percentage of foreign programmes content. But 25% is still a considerable number especially when one considers that only 6% is from Africa with the rest from Europe and the Americas. These include American Soap operas like The Bold And The Beautiful, The Young And The Restless, Days Of Our Lives and series like Friends, Home Improvement, and Fresh Prince Of Bel Air etc. Latin American telenovelas like L'ursupadora, Rosalinda etc. Many broadcasters interviewed insisted these were just screen fillers and used for economic reasons. Foreign producers virtually give them these programmes for free and compared to the exorbitant cost of locally produced soap opera, they really do not have a choice but to put them on air. To quote an interviewee,

" Telenova gives us programmes like L'ursupadora and The bold and the beautiful for free, compare that to how expensive it is make programmes of our own and you see that we have no choice really " (programmes director, GBC, 11TH April 2003) This reason was given especially in the newsroom where at least 2 hours of Deutsche Welle, VOA or CNN is aired everyday. No specific reason is given for the lack of programmes from other African countries.

The umbrella body for broadcasters in Africa, URTNA (Union of Radio and Television Organisations of Africa) is a professional body with more than 48 active member organizations committed to the development of all aspects of broadcasting in Africa. It encourages the exchange of indigenous programming via satellite and video cassette; strives to obtain preferential satellite tariffs to facilitate news and program exchange; represents the African point of view on legal matters such as conventions and agreements; and works with the ITU as an advisor for the PANAFTEL project.[7] URTNA has tried to encourage the exchange of programmes among African broadcasters in a bid to lower the western programme content to no avail. It created Afrovision to foster programme exchange. Created in 1991, this centre, based in Algiers (Algeria) started up its exchange activities with an initial group of eight African countries.  In the framework of Afro vision, thousands of programmes are exchanged, that cover the political, economical, cultural, athletic domains. The news exchange foundation of Afrovision, with a current participation of twelve (12) countries, are prepared by African television journalists for the Africans and the remainder of the world and can be received by 36 members African of URTNA as well as members of the affiliated sister broadcasting unions. Although a laudable idea, the execution has been poor; the vision of Afrovision has encountered several difficulties and seems to have ground to a halt, at least where Ghana is concerned.

Almost 90% of African content on Ghanaian television is in the form of Nigerian films. Nigeria seems to be taking advantage its position as the only other English speaking country near Ghana. The spill over from Nigeria is better received than Western films; call it cultural proximity. This influx has sparked controversy about the quality and the fact that this trend threatens local infant film industries.

Broadcasters interviewed conceded the public likes to see more foreign programming only because it is better packaged and have a higher quality. Local ones that are not of mediocre quality have proven to be bigger hits than foreign ones (Examples are Taxi Driver and Ultimate Paradise).

Programming in general tends to be urban oriented not only because of the language used but also in terms of references, issues and its target audience. A question was put to the interviewees as to whether they believed that the time had come for multi channelling to suit the heterogeneous nature of the audience. This was generally agreed to. Broadcasters however spoke of the difficulty in setting up this venture (both financially and logistically.) They also questioned the profitability of such a venture. At present the GBC receives only meagre subvention from the government and monies accrued from licensing and advertising is hardly enough. Multi-channelling is not an option commercial broadcasters will look at because they aim for niche markets and not for diversity.

The issue of LAFA[8] (locally acquired foreign accents) was raised. Presenters are seen to try and sound American or British; interviewees thought this was an indication of how all things western are deemed to be good. It was condemned summarily condemned by all those interviewed with a reporter declaring

 "it is one thing to study and copy good journalists, but trying to speak with their accent, is taken it too far" (GBC, 22^ND April 2003)

Change in the Media Industry

In researching the broadcast industry, the attempt has been to ascertain whether things have changed over the years. Interviewees generally agreed that there had been some change as is naturally to be expected. It is not necessarily for the better though. Certainly there have been positive changes since its inception in 1935 in terms of infrastructure and policy. These changes are invariably linked to the change of political climate, (thus is the close tie between the broadcast media and the various governments over the years). Change has also occurred in conformity to worldwide practises and standards. Modernisation has ensured the renewing of methods and work procedure .As mentioned earlier, press freedom means journalists are freer to go about their duties. What one interviewee who has been with GBC for 34 years termed years of deterioration mars what would have been a good outlook. He went on to say that:

The GBC that I joined 34 years ago was a highly respected institution, what we have now is a mere shadow of it, an apology of a national institution that is dogged by red tape, political interference, brain drain, less and less logistics and ever weakening morale of its workers. It is no surprise that most of the young people only see it as a stepping-stone and not a career. Even though statistically we are supposed to be doing well, the reality on the ground is the complete opposite.  (Senior editor, 22nd April 2003)

This was collaborated by other interviewees, and even those who are relatively new (between 10 and 20 years) lamented the deterioration of the institution.

The other stations were too young for change to be properly assessed but even they expressed misgivings at the way things were going down Complaints at the private media houses included the low profitability of the business, lack of advertising as a result of saturation in the case of radio. In the case of television, strict policy that decreases profit margins (foreign partnership percentage) was mentioned as a problem. Some blamed globalisation for this turn of events, according to them, the influx of alternative media like cable (most of them showing over 90% foreign material), and video means television is in competition with these media. As a second market, global media companies are able to practically give these away, further threatening the television industry.

CONCLUSION

It is hoped that this research has been able to draw attention to the peculiarities of broadcasting in Ghana. Although it typifies the pattern of broadcasting in developing countries and typically in Africa, it needs to be emphasised that regardless of been broadly grouped as being a developing country, such countries manage to maintain their individuality and peculiarities arising from social, cultural, political and even historical backgrounds and as such this study should not be taken as a research into the media practices of developing countries as a whole.

It is hoped that this study has managed to show the similarities as well as the differences in media practices around the world. Similarities are mainly based on the patterns of media broadcasts which has been found to be because the lack of resources both in terms of logistics and finances has resulted in low innovation in developing countries who therefore resort to copying the format of media broadcasts from developed countries irrespective of whether it will be good for their own countries in terms of content and language.

I have also tried to present the case for or against the theories discussed in the literature review as found in this study. I do not seek to align my  findings towards any particular theory, if there was one thing this study found, it was that no meta theory would get the African and indeed Ghanaian situation absolutely right. Rather we witness snippets of truth in some hypothesis whiles others are found not to hold. At least in the case of Ghana, this study can say the influence on the West cannot be underestimated. Standardisation has come to reinforce conformity with western ways and although it is not a bad thing in itself, it can be expensive and conflict with certain societal practices. It also effectively removes less developed countries from any meaningful leadership role in this field, destined to be a follower. Compared to other countries the state of broadcasting in Ghana is not so bleak, but it is not exactly healthy either, it basically has poverty going against it and it is difficult to compete with poverty.

Dani Rodrik[9] asserts that emerging-market nations must participate in the world on their own terms, not the terms dictated by global markets and multilateral institutions. The pursuit of so-called international competitiveness has too often crowded out traditional development concerns related to industrialization and poverty in many emerging economies. The lesson of history is that ultimately all successful countries develop their own brands and Ghana seems to be on this path, it does have a long way to go though.