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Framing of Political News Coverage: a Case Study of the 2016 General Election Campaign Coverage in Ghana International Journal of Creative Research and Studies Volume-2 Issue-7, July-2018 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CREATIVE RESEARCH AND STUDIES www.ijcrs.org ISSN-0249-4655 Framing of Political News Coverage: A Case Study of the 2016 General Election Campaign Coverage in Ghana Collins Clancy Atta Opoku*, Asuamah Adade – Yeboah & Nancy Adu Bediako Department of Communication Studies, Christian Service University College Kumasi, Ghana *Corresponding Author Abstract This study examined how the Ghanaian news media framed their coverage of the 2016 general election campaign in Ghana. The theory of framing, drawn upon with examples from Western European and United States of America democracies was used to conduct the study. Political communication literature has documented various forms of framing election campaigns but those on Ghana are few. The state of the media in Ghana is widely considered the most improved and thriving institution. The media is free and vibrant as criminal libel laws are non-existent in their laws (Gyimah-Boadi, 2012). This study delved into the political and media development of Ghana’s media finding out how they framed their coverage of the 2016 presidential election campaign. A total of 199 news articles were analysed from two online news sites for this study. The findings revealed that, the most visible parties mentioned in the coverage were the ruling National Democratic Congress and the main opposition New Patriotic Party. Deploying a quantitative content analysis, it emerged that the Ghanaian news media covered the 2016 election campaign in an issue frame manner instead of a horserace manner, fulfilling their primary normative responsibility of informing the citizenry of the options available to them prior to casting their vote. The study further revealed that the Ghanaian news media framed their elections campaign coverage in a more conflicting manner. The findings are discussed in the light of extant knowledge about media framing of election campaigns in a conflict, horse race and or issue frame manner. Keywords: Horse race, media framing, democracy, schemata, conceptual, criminal libel. www.ijcrs.org Page | 65 International Journal of Creative Research and Studies ISSN-0249-4655 1.0 Introduction The 2016 Presidential elections in Ghana was the seventh democratic election held since Ghana introduced the new constitution and multi-party democracy in 1992. According to Lindberg, (2006) presidential campaigns and elections are vital as they determine who is elected as the head of state and to whom the majority of people would entrust with their sovereignty. In a report by the European Union Election Observation Mission, it stated that, the political environment prior to the 2016 elections was more challenging in comparison to 2012, with heightened political tension. NPP challenged the results of the 2012 presidential elections in the Supreme Court, but the court, while acknowledging a number of shortcomings in the process, ruled against the complaint. Partly as a consequence of this, these elections were characterised by a high level of scrutiny and some mistrust of the process by the opposition, as well as a higher level of political tension and public apprehension overall. It was the third presidential attempt for the NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo, who lost to John Atta Mills in 2008 and to John Mahama in 2012. At the same time, President John Mahama, was strongly committed to securing his second full elected term in office. The media as a mouthpiece of the people perform a crucial role in a competitive democratic world. A competitive democratic world refers to “the democratic system which has an institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of competitive struggle for the people’s vote”(Schumpeter, 1975). One key feature of democracy is elections and normatively the media is expected to provide the citizenry with requisite information for the evaluation of leaders and making of electoral choices (Strömbäck, 2008) in every democracy. It is based on this expectation that the media is usually assessed on how well they play their role of providing the electorate with the information they require to assess their leaders and alternatives available to them (Opoku,2016). According to Mughan and Gunther (2000), democratic citizens everywhere mostly depend on the media and less on family, community and other intermediary institutions as a primary source of political information. Online news websites has become crucial and common and therefore it is worth exploring whether its landscape changed the media coverage of the 2016 election (Opoku, 2016). Moreover this study aims to determine if the media is performing their normative responsibility by giving the citizens the accurate information they need or if they are covering election campaign news in an increasingly dramatized or conflict manner. To do so, the study analyses media content from two comprehensive news websites to find out how they framed election campaign news, the tone of their coverage and the focus of their coverage; whether it was conflict based. The study seeks, therefore, to answer the following research question: RQ: How did the Ghanaian news media cover the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign? 2.0 The Media and Elections in a Democracy According to Gutman, (2000) an election is the process by which citizens elect the people they want to run their government at all levels. An election itself is a formal act of collective decision that occurs in a stream of connected antecedent and subsequent behaviour (Key, 1955). A democratic election is impossible without media. A free and fair election is not only about the freedom to vote and the knowledge of how to cast a vote, but also about a participatory process where voters engage in public debate and have adequate information about parties, policies, candidates and the election process itself in order to make informed choices (Vanessa, Nellika, Andy, Bronwen, Ann & Abdullahi, 2012). In today’s ever changing technological world, the media’s ability to reach citizens far and wide has made it a key component of not only the information dissemination process but, also the democratic system of every country (Pavlik, 2000). The basic role of the media is to enlighten and educate the public and present their content and platform as neutral and objective for the free debate and consumption of all diverse views (Vanessa et al, 2012). One key concept in understanding the role of the media in the transformation www.ijcrs.org Page | 66 International Journal of Creative Research and Studies Volume-2 Issue-7, July-2018 of established democracies is mediatization, which has also been described as a meta-process on a par with other transformative social change processes such as globalization and individualization (Hjarvard, 2013; Kriesi et al., 2013; Krotz, 2007, 2009). The term “mediatization” refers to a social change process in which media have become increasingly influential in and deeply integrated into different spheres of society (Asp, 1986; Strömbäck, 2008). Mazzoleni (2008a) thus defines the mediatization of society as indicating “the extension of the influence of the media (considered as both a cultural technology and as an organization) into all spheres of society and social life”, while Hjarvard (2008) defines mediatization as “the process whereby society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and their logic”. This situation has seen the media turning out to be the most important source of political information for the electorate, media practices being governed by media logic rather than political logic and, political practices governed by media logic rather than political logic (Strömbäck, 2008). The media as a mouthpiece of the people perform specific roles of the competitive democratic world. A competitive democratic world refers to “the democratic system which has an institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of competitive struggle for the people’s vote”(Schumpeter, 1975). 3.0 Framing Theory Framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition. The Agenda setting theory together with the media framing theory has become increasingly popular in news analysis and the effective way in which the media shape public opinion. This is done by using frame events that select aspects of perceive reality and make them more salient in communication text according to Entman, (1993). Framing is based on the assumption that how an issue is characterized in news reports can have an influence on how it is understood by audiences (Akortia, 2015).The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning. Goffman (1974) propounded framing theory when he wrote about ‘frame analysis’. According to (Cissel, 2012) Goffman was the first to concentrate on framing as a form of communication and defined “framing” as a “schemata of interpretation” that enables individuals to “locate, perceive, identify and label” occurrences or life experiences (Goffman, 1974). To Entman, (1993) framing is a process in which some aspects of reality are selected, and given greater emphasis or importance, so that the problem is defined, its causes are diagnosed, moral judgments are suggested and appropriate solutions and actions are proposed whilst Gamson and Modigliani (1989) refer to framing as ‘interpretative packages’ that give meaning to an issue. According to Gamson and Modigliani (1989), framing is a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events, weaving a connection among them. The frame suggests what the controversy is, [offering information] about the essence of the issue" (p. 143). Framing is thus the process by which politicians and journalists jockey to highlight certain aspects of issues or events in an effort to simplify them or connect them with the larger political world (Cappella and Jamieson1997). Framing makes an issue or event stand out.
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