The Press and Political Culture in Ghana

Book excerpt: In The Press and Political Culture in Ghana, Jennifer Hasty looks at the practices of journalism and newsmaking at privately owned and state-operated daily newspapers in Ghana. Hasty decodes the styles and uncovers the strategies that characterize Ghana's major printed news media, focusing on the differences between news generated by the state and news that comes from private sources. Not only are the angles radically different, but so are ways of gathering the news, assigning beats, using sources, and writing articles. For all its differences in presentation, however, Hasty shows that the news in Ghana projects a unified voice that is the result of a contentious and multifarious process that joins Ghanaians in global, national, and local debates. An important engagement with the production of news and news media, this book also explores questions about the relationship of popular culture to state politics, the expression of civic culture, and the role of the media in constituting national and cultural identities.