Portrayal of Women Parliamentary Candidates During the 2012 Elections by the Daily Graphic, Daily Guide and the Enquirer

Abstract

This study is a quantitative content analysis of media coverage of female parliamentary candidates by the Daily Graphic, the Daily Guide and The Enquirer in the 2012 general elections in Ghana. The principal goal of the study was to determine the nature and extent of coverage afforded the female candidates in comparison to the male candidates and to establish whether gender played a role in coverage by the three newspapers. The research specificallysought to find out whether the coverage discriminated against women by according prominence to men and thereby maintaining the status quo of socially constructed roles. The entire universe of 138 production days of each of the three newspapers was considered for the study and the focus was all political stories that had coverage of parliamentarians including female parliamentary candidates. The study period was from 1st October to the 6th of December 2012, a day before the elections. The study employed the liberal feminists’ theory, the agenda-setting theory and the framing theory. The evidence provided from the study showed that the overall coverage by the Daily Graphic, Daily Guide and The Enquirer favoured the male parliamentary candidates. But tone and enhancement of coverage favoured the female candidates substantially. The findings also showed that male reporters covered more male parliamentary candidates whiles female reporters also covered more female parliamentary candidates. Furthermore, the findings showed that comparatively the newspapers focused substantially on issues even though there were persistent personality traits, albeit marginal.