Market valorization in broadcasting policy in Ghana: abandoning the quest for media democratization

Abstract

Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) policies have inaugurated a new paradigm in postcolonial governance that is characterized by a predilection for market instrumentality in policy articulation. A review of colonial and, indeed, early post-colonial communication policies demonstrates that the state had always resisted the lure of the market because of the quest to democratize media access. The early postcolonial state thought of national resources as to be regulated more by the requirements of national community need than by the rules of exchange-value. This article puts the development of broadcasting policy in Ghana into historical perspective and shows how commodification has been resisted until the implementation of SAP policies in the last two decades. It argues that the state’s abandonment of responsibility in relation to the business of broadcasting will come at a heavy price of a non-democratized electronic media, as rural areas remain unattractive to broadcasting-for-profit enterprises.

Television in Botswana: Development and Policy Perspectives

“…Likewise colonial governments used the media as a war propaganda tool, and the new selfruling governments of post-colonial states adapted the same approach to spread their own ideologies (Alhassan, 2005;Bourgault, 1995;Oon, 2006). In the case of Botswana, radio was used during independence to mobilise the public to support the newly independent Botswana state (Republic of Botswana, 1966).…”

“…Neo-liberal policies are said to have facilitated this decline, for example, in parts of Asia such as Singapore and India (Athique, 2009;Thussu, 2000) and the Caribbean (Storr, 2011 (Alhassan, 2005). However, examples from Ghana (Alhassan, 2005) and India (Fürsich & Shrikhande, 2007;Straubhaar, 2007) demonstrate that commercial objectives can prevail over equally important social objectives of local content central to the developmental needs of these developing states by securing revenue through increased advertising, scheduling popular programs to attract audiences and competing for audiences with commercial broadcasters.…”

“…However, examples from Ghana (Alhassan, 2005) and India (Fürsich & Shrikhande, 2007;Straubhaar, 2007) demonstrate that commercial objectives can prevail over equally important social objectives of local content central to the developmental needs of these developing states by securing revenue through increased advertising, scheduling popular programs to attract audiences and competing for audiences with commercial broadcasters. Due to commercial pressure, the managers of India's state broadcaster have turned into "capitalists" (Pashupati, Sun, & McDowell, 2003) or "imitators" (Fürsich & Shrikhande, 2007).…”

“…Previous research indicates that the origins of national television broadcasting in many African contexts date back to the 1960s when television stations were either inherited from colonial governments, or hastily introduced to coincide with some important national events (Alhassan, 2005;Bourgault, 1995;Katz & Wedell, 1977). However, in Botswana, unlike radio and print media that were introduced by the British Colonial Government as part of war propaganda tools (Zaffiro, 1991), national television was only introduced in 2000, thirty-four years after Botswana's independence.…”

“…In other countries, the preponderance of state broadcasters to attract audiences and consequently advertisers has compromised the scheduling of development-oriented content (Alhassan, 2005;Rodrigues, 2006;Storr, 2011).…”