The Inter-Media Agenda-Setting Influence of Twitter on Traditional Media in Ghana During The 2016 Ghanaian Elections

Abstract

The growing popularity of social media such as Twitter and Facebook in Ghana may be the catalyst for a shift in the inter-media agenda-setting relationships between new and old media. With only a few studies focusing on inter-media agenda-setting of any kind in Ghana, this study employed a mixed-method approach to its enquiry into the evolving Ghanaian media landscape in an attempt to find out what possible influences social media may have on the agendas of traditional media. Following an analysis of content from Twitter, four newspapers (Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, Daily Guide, The Chronicle), and two radio stations (Joy FM and Citi FM), the study compared rank-ordered topical agendas across the selected media within a two-week period preceding the 2016 Ghanaian elections. Results of cross-lagged correlation analyses revealed influence of Twitter on traditional media issue and attribute agendas during the period. Significant evidence of reciprocity was also found. Responses from interviews conducted with media practitioners in three Ghanaian news organisations supported the results of the quantitative analyses as respondents revealed a reliance on social media as primary sources for news leads. Findings pointed to an increasing agenda-setting power of social media in the Ghanaian media environment, which has traditionally been dominated by legacy media. Further research is, therefore, needed to scrutinise the singular agenda-setting power of various social media platforms to fully understand the nature and extent of the agenda-setting power of the media in Ghana.