Newspaper Coverage of Cocaine Crime Issues in Ghana: A Content Analysis of Daily Graphic and Daily Guide

Abstract

Newspapers play an important surveillance role in exposing all activities in society and bringing them to the attention of their patrons. In turn, public attention to these exposures and representations become the subject matter of public discussion and determination of issue salience within society. This study examined newspaper coverage of cocaine issues in Ghana by content analyzing sampled editions of the Daily Graphic and the Daily Guide in 2014. The study set out to examine the view that the structure of ownership of a medium determines the content it turns out. Specifically, it tested the view that a state-owned newspaper such as the Daily Graphic was likely to give more coverage to social issues such as cocaine and crime, than a private newspaper such as the Daily Guide. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative content analysis research methods in the collection and analysis of data from 144 selected editions of the two newspapers. Themes/categories were coded and analyzed. The findings of the study revealed that cocaine-related issues generally received high coverage and prominence from the Daily Guide newspaper. The results of the study also showed that even though the Daily Guide published more stories on cocaine and crime issues than Daily Graphic, further examination of the seven main categories revealed that the two dailies covered cocaine and crime in a similar fashion. The statistical test results from the findings did not support the view that the content of a medium often tend to reflect the interest of its owners or financiers