Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Journalism

Committee Chair

Kim Marks Malone

Committee Member

Joel Nichols

Committee Member

Robert Byrd

Abstract

ABSTRACT Presidential press encounters are landmark moments in political communication which, as a result of media mediation, significantly impact people's perception of leadership and governance. The paper examines the depiction of the first press meeting of John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana, during his second term by state-owned and independent media in Ghana. This study, with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Media Capture Theory as its theoretical frameworks, delves into how the language and institutional orientations influence the portrayal of the president's communication to the public by the media. By using a qualitative research design, the study decided on sixteen news articles through purposive sampling from Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Online, Daily Graphic, MyJoyOnline, and Citi Newsroom. The analysis was done using Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA framework. The research reveals that the discussions of state and independent media differ substantially. State media regularly portrayed the President as a capable and reform-driven leader by using technocratic and legitimizing narrative strategies. Whereas, the independent media concentrated on exposing the President on issues of accountability and governance through the use of critical and evaluative discourse. The conflicting framings reflect the ideological stances of Ghana's hybrid media system and also affect the democratic accountability and political communication landscape.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.”

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Open Access

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