GENDERED DYNAMICS IN DIGITAL MEDIA ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN GHANA: A STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCES OF DIGITAL MEDIA OWNERS BY GERTRUDE DZIFA AKOSUA ZEGBLA 10340727 THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MPHIL IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES DEGREE OCTOBER, 2022 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh i University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ii ABSTRACT Existing research has documented gender imbalances in traditional media particularly with regard to leadership and ownership. The rise of digital media was deemed by scholars as the long-awaited answer to correcting the absence of women in media management and ownership, and through that correcting other fault lines such as stereotypical and limited coverage of women’s issues. In this study, I explore how the digital space is opening up media ownership and management to women and compare the unique opportunities and challenges they and their male colleagues face. The study was guided by feminist media and the Feminist Political Economy of the Media logic, and relied on in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of men and women who have ventured into digital media ownership by starting commercialised news websites and YouTube channels. Findings show that men and women have economic motives for venturing into digital media entrepreneurship. Women are further driven by lower entry costs in contrast to men who draw other inspiration from the flexibility digital media offers for managing multiple digital media platforms. Other findings include the fact that in managing their digital media enterprises, men draw support from strangers and friends who believed in the quality of their work while women draw support heavily from family and friends. Key words: Digital media, Entrepreneurship, Gender, Motivations and experiences, News websites, YouTube University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my awesome God who has been with me throughout this graduate studies journey. I remember the many times I wanted to quit but the voice of the Sweet Holy Spirit kept saying, “My grace is sufficient for you”. Thank You, Abba Daddy! And to all the people He said it through, thank you, this is for you. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My supervisor and mentor, Dr Abena A Yeboah-Banin has been very instrumental in this thesis. I’m very grateful for every word of encouragement, every feedback, every small talk and every leadership role you gave me. Thank you can never be enough for all you’ve done for me. God bless you! My husband, Mr Ronald Osei Ahensa has supported me every step along the way. From the sleepless nights to the days I wanted to give up, thank you for reminding me that I cannot afford to give up. My father, Mr Prosper Zegbla and my mother, Mad. Rubby Anku, who are my biggest fans, your support has been massive. I can’t thank you enough. To my siblings, especially, Chelsea, you’re the best! I am also very grateful to Mr Benson Osei-Tutu for his selfless help he rendered to me. God bless you Sir. The 2020/2021 MPhil squad, I couldn’t have asked for better people in my circle. Thank you guys! Rev Victor Kattah, Ps Benji Amoah, Prophet Gabriel Odei-Boateng and all the pastors at Trinity Baptist church, Ghana, thank you for pushing me and letting me know that this is possible! God bless you!!!! University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION....................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION........................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ v LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Gender, Media and the Digital Space ........................................................................... 4 1.2 Gender, Digital Media and Ownership ........................................................................ 6 1.3 A Background on Ghana’s Digital Media Landscape ................................................ 7 1.4 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................................. 9 1.5 Research Objectives ..................................................................................................... 10 1.6 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 11 1.7 Significance of the study .............................................................................................. 11 1.8 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 12 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 13 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... 13 2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 13 2.1 Feminist Media Theory ................................................................................................ 13 2.2 Background ................................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Feminist Political Economy of the Media .................................................................. 16 2.3.1 Political Economy of the Media .............................................................................. 16 2.3.2 Feminist Political Economy of the Media ............................................................... 16 2.4 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 19 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 19 3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Gendered Media ........................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Gendered Media Leadership and Ownership ..................................................... 20 3.1.2 Newsroom culture .................................................................................................. 22 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vi 3.2 Gendered digital media divide .................................................................................... 23 3.3 Digital Media Entrepreneurship ................................................................................. 25 3.4 Experiences in the Digital Media Ownership Space ................................................. 27 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................. 31 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 31 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 31 4.1 Research Approach and Design .................................................................................. 31 4.2 Method........................................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Population and sampling ............................................................................................. 33 4.4 Data Collection Instrument ......................................................................................... 35 4.5 Data Collection Procedure........................................................................................... 36 4.6 Data Analysis Procedure ............................................................................................. 36 4.6.1 Familiarising with the data ................................................................................... 37 4.6.2 Generating Codes .................................................................................................. 37 4.6.3 Generating Initial Themes .................................................................................... 37 4.6.4 Reviewing Potential Themes ................................................................................. 38 4.6.5 Defining and Naming the Themes ........................................................................ 38 4.6.6 Producing the Report ............................................................................................ 38 4.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................... 40 FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................. 40 5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 40 5.1 Sample Code Allocation................................................................................................. 40 5.2 Findings ......................................................................................................................... 40 5.2.1 Motivations Towards Digital Media Ownership ................................................ 40 5.2.1.1 Flexibility of Digital Media ................................................................................ 40 5.2.1.2 Fulfilling Unmet Needs ....................................................................................... 43 5.2.1.3 Killing Time......................................................................................................... 44 5.2.1.4 Financial benefits ................................................................................................ 45 5.2.2 Experiences - Journey Through the Ownership Maze....................................... 46 5.2.2.1 Old Wine (Content) in new Wineskins ............................................................. 46 5.2.2.2 Different Management Experiences and Principles ........................................ 49 5.2.2.3 Reliance on Support systems ............................................................................. 55 5.2.2.4 Value Addition and Business Sustainability .................................................... 57 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vii 5.2.3 Opportunities in Digital Media Ownership......................................................... 61 5.2.3.1 Financial Gains ................................................................................................... 61 5.2.3.2 Recognition and access ....................................................................................... 63 5.2.4 Obstacles in the digital ownership space ............................................................. 64 5.2.4.1 Technical challenges ........................................................................................... 64 5.2.4.2 Solicitation and Cyberbullying .......................................................................... 66 5.2.4.3 Plagiarism and copyright concerns ................................................................... 68 5.2.4.4 Financial challenges ............................................................................................ 69 5.3 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 70 CHAPTER 6 ........................................................................................................................... 71 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS .............................................................................................. 71 6.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 71 6.1 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 78 CHAPTER SEVEN ................................................................................................................ 79 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................... 79 7.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 79 7.1 Summary of Key Findings ........................................................................................... 79 7.2 Study Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 82 7.3 Study Recommendations ............................................................................................. 83 7.3.1 Recommendations to Digital Media Owners ....................................................... 83 7.3.2 Recommendations to Media Development Organisations ................................. 83 7.4 Study Limitations to the Study and Suggestions for Future Research ................... 84 7.5 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 86 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 94 INTERVIEW GUIDE ........................................................................................................ 94 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Overview of Internet Users in Ghana .................................................................... 6 Figure 2 : 2020 Ranking of Top Websites in Ghana based on Traffic ................................ 9 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1 CHAPTER ONE Introduction Media is one of the most important tools every society needs for information dissemination (Eshiet, 2013). The media holds pride of place in shaping how individuals come to view their world and what they become ready to accommodate or challenge. Like most sectors in the world, the media is gendered (Geertsema‐Sligh, 2019). Across media organisations, existing scholarship suggests that gender disparities manifest in what men and women do, their aspirations and opportunities and their upward mobility (Robertson, Selva & Nielson, 2021; Yeboah-Banin, Gadzekpo & Fofie, 2020; GMMP, 2020; Harbert, 2020). These disparities do not only manifest in leadership and management of media but also in the news sources, content, salaries, privileges and ownership. With regard to news sources, for instance, men are most likely to be named as sources and subjects of news. As reported by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP, 2020, p. 1), “only 24% of news subjects – the people interviewed or whom the news is about – were female”. Globally, the overall allocation of beat assignments still revealed that a lot more men were assigned to cover hard stories and even with soft news, women reporters were still under- represented. For instance, the GMMP (2020) revealed that 65% of political and government related news were reported by men while 42% of gender and entertainment news were reported by women. According to Byerly and McGraw (2020), the GMMP has over the years, also observed persisting gender imbalance in news content, which still speaks primarily in a male voice and disproportionately emphasizes men's views, accomplishments, and analyses of current events. Regarding ownership and leadership roles, men and women are known to differ in the roles they occupy with women having less prestigious roles. Byerly and McGraw (2020, p. 191), University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2 posit that “women have waged a long struggle to gain equality in journalism and other media professions, particularly to attain policy- and decision-making roles where news is typically defined and stories are assigned”. Doeden, Gerlach and Steinberg, (2020) postulated that in the US, the number of women who graduate from journalism and other media related courses outnumbers that of their male counterparts. However, despite the gradual increase in the number of women in media, the culture remains masculine. Newsroom cultures often alienate women and become breeding grounds for sexism and discrimination against women (De Bruin & Ross, 2004; Gadzekpo, 2013; Franks, 2013; Geertsema‐Sligh, 2019). Djerf-Pierre and Edström (2020) added that women journalists around the world are increasingly concerned about sexual harassment, gender-based threats, and violence, both offline and online which would mean that women continue to face barriers to advancement into management positions. Statistics from selected countries in the world by Robertson et al., (2021), show that women occupy 24% of leadership positions in the media. When the same study was conducted by Andi et al. (2020), the statistics indicated that the number of women who occupied leadership positions in the media were 22%. This under-representation of the women in leadership positions has long-persisted as Byerly (2011) reported that women in the US owned less than 6% of radio and television stations. Further evidence from a report on the status of women in the Ghanaian media by Yeboah-Banin et al., (2020) corroborates this evidence of women’s limited access to decision making roles in media. The study revealed that, “few women occupy positions in the upper echelons of media organisations and tend to be in middle management rather than decision-making positions” (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020, p. 20). Across different reports on gender and the media, (see Robertson et al., 2021; Status of Women in the Ghanaian Media, 2020; GMMP, 2020; Andi et al., 2020) we find that globally and University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 3 locally, these gender disparities found in the media houses are mainly evident in the decision making positions, media content as well as media ownership. For example, a study conducted by the European Institute for Gender Equality found that, “women are under-represented in decision-making roles in European media industries, and also that gender inequality was significantly worse in the private sector than in the public sector” (European Union, 2018, p. 24). Evidence from the Status of Women in Ghanaian Media Report (2020) corroborate these findings from other countries. An earlier report by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA, 2017) revealed that out of 25 major media companies in Ghana, only two were owned by women. Earlier analysis of similar patterns by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO, 2008) presented evidence that, there were barriers that contributed to the limited levels of media ownership by women. These included lack of easy access to sufficient capital for financing the purchases of stations. These findings explain the huge gender imbalance not only in managerial positions but also in the ownership of media. Of particular interest to this study is the evidence on gendered patterns in media ownership. As reported, historically, media ownership and management has been largely male dominated. 25 years after the Beijing Platform for Action, there is still a gender balance struggle in the media. Given that media ownership plays a key role in the running of media organisations, this is a challenge. Media owners are known to decide what can and cannot be worthy of media practice (Gadzekpo & Akrofi-Quarcoo, 2005, Croteau & Hoynes, 2019). Media ownership, as documented by Sjøvaag and Ohlsson (2019, p. 1), is believed to have “an effect on news content, journalistic autonomy, freedom of expression, and organizational and professional practices”. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA, 2018) explained in the Media Ownership Monitor report for Ghana that media ownership has a strong influence on how media companies are run and the decisions that are made. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4 1.1 Gender, Media and the Digital Space In today’s digital world, literature on the relationship between gender, the internet and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is expansive. Across the different disciplines in the world, the internet and ICTs play a fundamental role in the ever evolving advancement of all industries and nations at large. Regardless of gender, persons with the knowledge on the use of ICTs could channel it into their work. This would mean that the internet and ICTs have the capacity to promote gender equality. However, research from the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW, 2005, p. 3) revealed the existence of a ‘gender divide’ which reflected the lower number of women accessing and using ICTs as compared to men. Statistics from UNESCO (n.d.) indicate that out of the 7 million people who work in the ICT sector, 30 % are women. It further added that a meagre 6% of CEOs of the top 100 global tech companies are women. In the European Union, as the number of ICT specialists increased, men managed to get more than 8 out of 10 ICT jobs (EIGE, 2018). Noticeably, a lot of the media giants in the industry are owned by men. Further, none of the top digital media platforms listed (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok etc) is owned by a woman, which corroborates the findings from UNDAW. Locally, the facts are not different. Research from the World Wide Web Foundation and the MFWA (2016) has revealed that women in Ghana are at a disadvantage when it comes to the use of the internet and its digital platforms. One of their key findings was that less than 20% of women in Ghana have access to the internet (MFWA, 2016). Though over the years, there has been some progress in gendered digital access in Ghana, a report from the Africa Eye Report (2020) indicated that a number of barriers perpetuate inequalities. These barriers include digital skills and affordable internet connection. The report asserts that, out of all the people living in University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5 urban areas, 43% of women who are not online explained that they do not use the internet because they do not know how, compared with just 27% of men in urban areas. Yet, the emergence of digital media brought hope of closing the gender gap in media industries (GMMP, 2015; European Union, 2018). The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW, 2005, p. 3) asserted that “ICT can be a powerful catalyst for political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality.” Digital media gives the opportunity for men and women in the media industry to do more than they originally did in the traditional media work setting because of the lower costs involved in using and managing digital media platforms (Ajina, 2019; Kamberidou, 2020). Many media business owners have over the years had to switch fully to digital media platforms to cut costs and maintain their businesses (Olorunyomi, 2018, p. 43). However new reports (see Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 2017; GMMP 2020; MFWA, 2020) suggest that digital media may not be totally successful in bridging the gender imbalance in the media industries despite its far- reaching properties and cost-effectiveness. Margaret Gallagher, a GMMP pioneer, commented on the preliminary findings of the 2020 GMMP report and said, “given the increasing importance and reach of online news, it is quite astonishing that in almost every world region women’s relative absence is even more marked online (Internet and Twitter news) than in legacy media (newspapers, radio, TV).” Globally, the number of internet users as at January 2021 were 4.66 billion which put the global internet penetration at 59.5% (Datareportal.com). Focusing on Ghana, data from the Datareportal website puts the number of internet users at 15.70 million as at January 2021. (See Fig. 1) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6 Figure 1: Overview of Internet Users in Ghana These statistics emphasize the growth of digital media use globally and among Ghanaians. In the fast-paced, digitally evolving world, it is evident that technological advancements are transforming lives, including work. 1.2 Gender, Digital Media and Ownership According to WACC (2013), in media industries, ownership and control are critical. The people who own a particular media industry, get to control the overall running of that industry. Studies and reports (Andi et al., 2020; Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020; Robertson et al., 2021) have already established the fact that media work and media ownership are gendered with males having the upper hand. As argued by Sandoval (2020, p.2), “diversity in media ownership contributes to diffusion of control for which reason a lot of media industries should have an equal blend of men and women.” However, this has proven difficult to achieve with traditional media as extant scholarship demonstrates (Gadzekpo, 2016; Campuzano, 2019; Geertsema‐ Sligh, 2019; Djerf-Pierre & Edström, 2020). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 7 At its onset, digital media - any digital platform, digitized content and service that are accessed through digital devices - was believed to be the game changer that will open up the space for more women to own media and control the day-to-day running of the media industry (Harbert, 2018; Robertson et al, 2021). Digital media began to expand due to its ease of use and its ability to reach a lot more people (MFWA, 2018). There is evidence that users of digital media have leveraged them to explore new media ownership pathways including blogs, citizen journalism, and news websites among others (Malik, 2017; European Union, 2018; GMMP, 2020; Kamberidou, 2020). This trend towards digital media ownership and entrepreneurship - the creation and ownership of a media industry or enterprise - calls for scholarly examination. The concept of entrepreneurship in general has been researched and discussed extensively across literature (Robson, Haugh & Obeng, 2009; Kwami, 2015; Kamberidou, 2020). The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM, 2002, p. 7) established a link between age, gender and entrepreneurship, asserting that, “men are twice as likely to be involved as women” in all types of entrepreneurial activity. This shows that men and women act differently when it comes to entrepreneurship. Yet, Kamberidou (2020) has argued that in terms of innovation, vision, risk- taking, competitive skills, persistence, goal setting and leadership, women entrepreneurs are similar to their male counterparts. However, comparable evidence from media industries shows that women are generally absent in the digital media entrepreneurial space (Lee, 2011; Datareportal, 2021). 1.3 A Background on Ghana’s Digital Media Landscape Re-democratization in Ghana has significantly changed the face of the Ghanaian media (Gadzekpo, 2007). According to the National Communications Authority (NCA, 2020), 428 radio stations and 102 TV stations were operational in Ghana as at June, 2020. These are University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 8 complemented by over 100 newspapers and magazines, most of which are privately owned (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020). Besides these, there isn’t data available on the total number of digital media platforms in Ghana. However, it is estimated that there are about 60 frequently visited digital news websites (Feedspot.com, 2021). Hugely embedded in Ghana’s digital media space are social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, visual digital media such as YouTube and literary digital media or digital information media such as news websites. Data from the Datareportal on Ghana shows that the number of digital media users are 15.70 million users (see Fig. 2). The emergence of flexibility of digital media in Ghana is gradually shaping up Ghana’s media landscape. Research from the DW Akademie (2018) illustrated that a lot of media houses are under pressure to adapt to digitization. Digitization has also sprouted quite a number of media start-ups which might be the reason for which traditional media industries are forced to adapt to digitization. Most Ghanaians use the internet primarily to find information and keep up to date with news and events. Others also use the internet to visit entertainment-based websites and apps for various reasons. These reasons are corroborated in the findings of Datareportal on the most visited websites in Ghana (see Fig. 2). A quick scan through the data reveals that majority of the websites that appeared there are news and information-based websites which is followed by entertainment-based websites. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 9 Figure 2 : 2020 Ranking of Top Websites in Ghana based on Traffic 1.4 Statement of the Problem Historically, researchers have found the media to be gendered and a site for imbalances between men and women. Sites for these imbalances include content, roles, decision making and ownership. Particularly when it comes to media ownership, different scholars and reports have cited persisting patterns of under-representation of women (Trappel, 2019; Djerf-Pierre & Edström, 2020; Byerly & McGraw, 2020). Some reasons adduced for women’s absence in media ownership include high entry costs and the stereotypical gender roles ascribed to men and women when it comes to leadership, among others (Rodriguez, 2021). With the coming of digital media, expectations were high that they will even out the scale a bit for more women to come into the space and own media (European Union, 2018; GMMP, 2020). It is believed that digital media has significantly evolved and democratised the media environment as lower start-up costs and openness to user generated content (reducing the cost University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 10 burden of news production) have paved the way for more people, particularly women to own their media (Ajina, 2019; Kamberidou, 2020). According to Van Leuven et al. (2018, p. 803), while the “increasing use of online sources has impacted journalism practices, it has not drastically changed all aspects of journalistic news production”. There is evidence that the digital space has been a mixed blessing, raising questions about its anticipated benefits for media ownership (MFWA, 2018; Trappel, 2019; EIGE, 2020). The European Institute for Gender Equality (2020, p. 1) reported that “although the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) has made gains, many of the challenges identified in 1995 remain relevant today (such as the gender pay gap, unequal distribution of unpaid work or experiences of gender-based violence).” It therefore raises concerns about the ability of digital media to close the gender imbalance gap in media practice and ownership. Ghana’s media which has been known to be gendered, is evolving with the coming of digital media. Many media houses are now heavily reliant on technology in their media practice. (Gadzekpo & Akrofi- Quarcoo, 2005; Yeboah, 2010; Yeboah & Kimani, 2013; Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020). This study therefore is interested in the fact that, the new pathways for owning media have not been adequately addressed in the Ghanaian media, leaving pertinent questions regarding the gendered dynamics at play in the ownership of digital media unanswered. This study attempts answers to these questions by probing the motivations, experiences, opportunities and challenges of individual digital media owners in order to draw out the gendered patterns evident in their line of work. 1.5 Research Objectives The overall aim of this study was to explore how gender is shaping the media ownership landscape in Ghana, particular as relate to digital media. The objectives are University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 11 - to explore the motivations for men and women who go into digital media ownership in Ghana. - to document the gendered experiences of digital media owners in Ghana. - to explore the challenges and opportunities for digital media owners in Ghana and ascertain the ways in which they are gendered. 1.6 Research Questions This research was guided by the following research questions to achieve the set objectives. RQ. 1. What factors drive men and women into digital media entrepreneurship in Ghana and in what ways are these gendered? RQ. 2. In what ways are the lived experiences of digital media owners in Ghana gendered? RQ. 3. What unique opportunities attend men and women’s digital media ownership? RQ. 4. What unique challenges stem from men and women’s digital media ownership? 1.7 Significance of the study The Ghanaian media have evolved constantly in practice and ownership. In recent times, digital media has become one of the necessary ways that information is passed on from one user to the other. The nature and use of digital media platforms have opened up the media space for more people to navigate their way through and own their own digital media platforms. However, this evolution is not without fragments of gender imbalance and disparities. It is therefore extremely important to explore digital media ownership in Ghana. This study is positioned to address this and in so doing makes a number of scholarly and practical contributions to knowledge. First, there is a growing body of literature on the ownership scope of digital media, this research is positioned to contribute a gendered perspective to this corpus of knowledge on the digital media ownership landscape. However, there is limited data on the University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 12 nature of the digital media ownership and its dynamics in Ghana. This study, in particular, throws light on the factors shaping men and, especially, women’s entry into new media ownership endeavours. Secondly, scholars have argued about the ability of digital media to allow more women into the digital media space. The concern however is if the injustices done women in media are corrected by digital media. By exploring the unique experiences, opportunities and challenges, this study contributes evidence to the ways in which digital media may be evening out and/or reproducing or perpetuating gender imbalances in ownership as known in the literature to pertain to traditional media. Again, the study serves as a guide to media practitioners, media development organizations and gender advocacy groups on the nature of digital media ownership in Ghana, thereby aiding their advocacy efforts towards gender equality in the Ghanaian media. 1.8 Chapter Summary This chapter broadly introduced the concept of digital media ownership in Ghana. The media in Ghana has been known to be gendered in almost all aspects. The chapter cited some studies and reports that have evidence of the gender imbalance in the media especially when it comes to ownership in traditional media. It presented the research problem and objectives and questions that guide the study. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 13 CHAPTER TWO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.0 Introduction This chapter looks at the theories that underpin the study. Byerly and Hill (2012, p. 5) define a theory as an abstract statement that explains any social phenomenon that is problematic in some way. Miller (2001, pp. 22-23) adds that in communication scholarship, “theories solve conceptual, empirical and practical problems that are related to human communication.” In order to understand the gendered dynamics that are at play in this study, the feminist media theory and the feminist political economy of the media were adopted. Feminist media scholarship is an umbrella concept that refers to a variety of “practices that theorize about the status of women and the nature of gender in mediated messages and practices” (Loke & Bachmann, 2018, p. 3). The feminist political economy of the media is also believed to complement the feminist media theory on issues relating to access, resources and opportunities. These theories have different aspects and concepts that address the different objectives that the study sought to achieve for which reason they were chosen as the most appropriate theories. 2.1 Feminist Media Theory Feminist media theory generally relies on feminist theories and applies philosophies, logics and concepts that enunciate feminist principles and concepts to media processes (Steiner, 2014). That is to say that it analyses gender imbalance in media. According to Minić (2007) feminist media theories are therefore interested in the deficient representation of women in media as well as how they are treated as workers of that media culture. The study relies on Linda Steiner and Liesbet van Zoonen’ perspectives within this scholarship. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 14 2.2 Background Historically, the media has represented gender, and especially women, in stereotyped ways that are largely at a disadvantage to women. Many feminist media theorists like Lana Rakow, Micky Lee, Liesbet van Zoonen and Linda Steiner, have come up with alternatives to tell the woman’s story by women. The challenge these alternatives raised was the fact that the system created a lot of barriers to women trying to change their narrative. This blockade is largely attributed to the leaders of the media industry who are predominantly men (van Zoonen, 1994). Different studies and reports (Zilliacus-Tikkanen, 1997; Robinson, 2005; GMMP, 2010, 2015, 2020; Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020) over the years that have mapped women’s employment in media organizations have shown that women do make their way into these organizations and rise through the ranks but somehow, fail to make it to senior management level. As a result, feminist media theory extends beyond advocating for women’s rights, and instead focuses on issues of power, ownership, culture, hierarchy, voice, agency and representation in media practices and discourses (Cirksena and Cuklanz, 1992; Van Zoonen, 1994; Harp, 2008; Donovan, 2012; Loke et al., 2017) The main assumption of this theory is that, “if women controlled media production, the content would be different and better” (Steiner, 2014, p. 362). That is to say that if women run media industries, they would create better, diverse and more creative representations of women through better management styles. Feminist scholars are primarily concerned with three broad assumptions which are: the fact that women are oppressed, there is the need for change and that women in media are part of the solution. Guided by the theory, this study sought to focus the lens on digital media. These assumptions so far have been tailored to traditional news organizations hence the need to ascertain whether these arguments still hold for digital media. Once there is the possibility for a lot more women to enter the digital media ownership space, University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 15 will the concerns of the feminist media theory still hold or will they be faced with new concerns? The solution however, is not necessarily in recruiting more women into the media. Arthur (1994, p. 100) argued that “more women in the [televisual] industry is not enough: there need to be more women with a politicized understanding of the ways in which women’s subordination is currently reproduced and with the will to change it.” This highlights the importance of women in top management positions which would be seen when the media culture, values and priorities are changed. Byerly and Ross, (2008, p. 91) suggested that women’s limited access to the higher ranks of management, “requires strategies for changing gender relations in ownership, control, and funding of media organizations”. One of the characteristics of digital media that would be beneficial to women is the fact that there are fewer gate-kept doors. In traditional media, gatekeepers exist to filter what news goes out at what time and what news is given prominence (Ross, 2002). The gatekeeper therefore decides whose story is published and whose is not published. In digital media, the owner has the sole responsibility of his or her stories and therefore, the study sought to confirm whether the issues of disparities still hold after the digital media owner publishes her own stories. Van Zoonen (1994) admits that the media illustrates stereotypical images of women and this portrayal buttresses societal opinions of views. The male controlled media does this because of the belief that it is sharing dominant socio-cultural values. However in digital media, the media women are free to decide what type of news they want to discuss on their platforms. In this study, it is imperative to see if men and women digital media owners still discuss issues that promote patriarchy or feminist concerns or if they solely discuss a merger of issues. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 16 2.3 Feminist Political Economy of the Media The small percentage of women in high positions in the media, including film, satellite, and even new media, demonstrates that the problem is not "only" with news media, but with the entire media business (Byerly & Ross, 2008). Van Zoonen (2003) has also argued that the relationship between gender and communication is primarily, but not exclusively, a cultural one, involving a negotiation of meanings and values that influence whole ways of life and is, in turn, informed by existing ways of life, with power dynamics and economic imbalances playing a crucial role. Some scholars like Byerly (2011) are interested in intersecting the different aspects of communication with gender to make sense out of the growing body of literature on media as it evolves. One of such theory mergers is that between feminism and political economy of the media. 2.3.1 Political Economy of the Media Political economy of the media is an aspect of media studies that has gained a lot of research attention over the years. It is dedicated especially to “production, distribution, and consumption of media resources, with a primary focus on ownership and power relations” (Jin, 2018, p.1). Initially premised on the ideas of Marxism, political economy of the media primarily fights against capitalism and how corporate ownership and media control create some prejudices that affect people’s perception of the world as a whole (McChesney, 2008; Wasko et al., 2011). 2.3.2 Feminist Political Economy of the Media According to Riordan (2002, p.7), feminist political economy deviates from the traditional focus of political economy on "only looking at labor or class relations" to investigate how media structures produce and reproduce gendered capitalism that is harmful to, and reproduced by, females. Meehan and Riordan, (2002) emphasized that feminist political economy looks at how political and economic concerns intersect with gender, arguing that gender is a variable in and of itself that deserves to be studied. Simply put, there is the need for a feminist stance on University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 17 how the newsroom culture affects their well-being and the possibility to rectify it as it presents itself in digital media. As Lee (2011) explained, feminist political economy’s fundamental purpose is to fathom why women are impoverished and why wealth redistribution is critical to women’s position in the media. Women in media have historically not benefitted economically from the traditional media work they do due to workplace barriers and workplace cultures they adhere to. It is believed that once they manage to get to ownership and top management positions, they will redirect the distribution of wealth fairly for themselves and their employees. Lee (2011) quickly added that poverty is much more than money. It also includes the “lack of opportunities and the feeling of hopelessness, inadequacy, and self-insufficiency” (Lee, 2011, p. 84). Therefore digital media is believed to hold the key to these gendered inequalities that women have suffered in traditional media. Management practices will definitely change to politically and economically benefit women in the digital media economy and this is part of what this study sought to establish. There are two main concerns when dealing with the feminist political economy of the media as reported by Wyatt (2002, p. 161) - “how gender enters into commercial arrangements and functions as a commodity within the marketplace, and how social structures impact the construction of media texts.” That is to say that feminist political economy of the media analyses capitalism's gendered structure, how it intersects with patriarchy, and how the female gender functions within such institutions (Riordan, 2002). Gallagher (2002) disclosed that historically, men retain a firm grip on the power to set media policy and control the character and direction of media content. Even when women do manage to make it into the media boardroom, they struggle every step of the way, and once there, they are subjected to a constant barrage of sexist attacks from male colleagues trying to keep their positions of power (Ross, 2002). As Kwami (2020) puts it, disparities even in the digital media space are primarily a University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 18 power issue because it determines who profits from and shapes the development, use, and content of ICTs. Lee (2011, p. 84) has acclaimed “ICTs and telecommunications as the solution to women’s poverty” and this study sought to confirm the changes digital media has done for women in media. Digital media’s characteristics allow the owners to make up their own rules to run their companies as there are no rigid hierarchies and rules to follow. This study’s interest in how differently women harness the commercial opportunities and shape a working structure that will eliminate the injustices women experience in traditional media cultures, makes this lens relevant. 2.4 Chapter Summary This chapter discussed the different aspects of the feminist media theory and feminist political economy of the media that underpinned this study. Central to the theory and this study is the assumption that if women controlled the media, operations and content in the media would be more balanced because the current representation of women in the media is narrow and unrealistic according to the scholars discussed in the chapter. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 19 CHAPTER THREE LITERATURE REVIEW 3.0 Introduction The chapter encapsulates a review of relevant literature on themes emerging from gender and digital media entrepreneurship. Across the world, media organizations are quickly evolving not only in practice but also in management and ownership with the advent of the internet. Scholars have contributed to different aspects of literature regarding digital media, media ownership and its relation to gender in the media industry. For the purpose of this study, the literature reviewed gave room for the following themes to emerge: 3.1 Gendered Media The media is a powerful tool for socialization (Malik, 2017). All over the world, reports (GMMP 2020; BBC guide for Journalists; Global Gender Gap report, 2021) and studies (Clayman, Elliott, Heritage & Beckett, 2012; Ross, 2002; Minić, 2014; Sarathchandra, Haltinner, Lichtenberg & Tracy, 2018) have reported that many sectors are male dominated and the media are not excluded. Scholars (Byerly & Ross, 2006; Adomako Ampofo & Boateng, 2007; Yeboah & Thompson, 2015; Campuzano, 2019) have explained that historically, our socialization at home and at work are the breeding grounds for the different stereotypes we experience in society. Traditionally, people have been socialised to accept as normal, the gendered stereotypes first from home, and then from the workplaces and the community as a whole. For example, Adomako Ampofo and Boateng (2007) explained that, Ghanaian boys have internalized beliefs of what boys and girls should do or not do in the performance of their acceptable gender roles in the family as early as their teenage years. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 20 Building on this example, Yeboah and Thompson (2015) added that women's expectations were frequently related to household chores and taking care of the family, whereas men's expectations were more focused on financial and leadership roles. This orientation is often translated to a glaring gender imbalance in many media industries and newsrooms with regard to their duties, their representations, their privileges, their remunerations and leadership (van Zoonen, 1994; Gallagher, 2002; Byerly & Ross, 2006; Robinson, 2015; Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020). Male-dominated organizations and occupations are especially vulnerable to perpetuating damaging stereotypes and generating unfavourable situations that make it much harder for women to succeed (Berdahl, Cooper, Glick, Livingston & Williams, 2018; Campuzano, 2019). This blatant male dominated power scheme emanates from the top leadership and ownership which are also largely male dominated. As already established by scholars such as van Zoonen (1994) and Byerly and Hill (2012), because the majority of media proprietors are men, the newsroom culture is skewed toward the male gender. According to van Zoonen (1994), approaches to undo the gender imbalance in the newsroom were to fight patriarchy that is dispersed through the media by male owners and producers. 3.1.1 Gendered Media Leadership and Ownership Despite the diversity of women's lives and the varied contributions they keep making to society in a changing world, the media continues to perpetuate their traditional stereotypes (Byerly, 2011; Byerly & McGraw, 2020). The presence of women in decision making positions in the media has been almost invisible not only in Ghana but also in many other countries across the world (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020; Ross, Marloes & Tobias, 2020; Robertson et al., 2020). Globally, since 1995 and at five yearly intervals, the GMMP has shown that news paints a picture of a world in which women, in proportion to men, are dramatically under-represented and made invisible at decision- making levels as well (GMMP 2020). This invisibility, as earlier established, did not just emerge but has travelled down generations. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 21 In Ghana’s media history for example, Gadzekpo (2005) in her study on the History of Women in Ghanaian Print Culture, traced the history of the entry of women into the Ghanaian print media to Mabel Dove-Danquah, who presided over a women's column in the Times of West Africa beginning in 1931. Dove- Danquah's four-decade career saw her break free from the gendered confines in which women were frequently constrained to, as she wrote for many Ghanaian and African newspapers and eventually become an editor of Accra Evening News. Akrofi-Quarcoo (2006) also recounted that the entry of women into the Ghanaian broadcast media dates back to 1952, which is approximately 17 years after radio had been introduced into the country. However, in this sector, none of the women made it into the management position but were mostly working as presenters on music programmes. After Ghana’s independence in 1957, women's status in the media, steadily increased. Gadzekpo (2013) narrated how these women used their writings to frequently challenge the status quo by highlighting gender disparities and the lack of opportunities available to women in society. She cited Edith Wuver as an example of a female journalist who covered the war in Congo in the early 1960s. Akrofi-Quarcoo (2006) similarly detailed how more women got the opportunities to move into radio production and continuity work. Susie Laryea became the first woman in the 1960s to take over a British male boss at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) while Shirley Graham-Du Bois was appointed as director for TV in 1965. Abbam (1975) first conducted research on the status on media women in GBC. According to the findings, there was a high concentration of women at the bottom of the corporate ladder, with only a few in middle management, let alone top management. In print media as well, a similar trend occurred years after Abbam’s research findings. A study conducted by the Association of Women in Media (ASWIM) revealed that women made up less than 10% of top University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 22 management in the state media, which was the country's main media system at the time (ASWIN, 1991). Consequently, the state of the Ghanaian media’s ownership make up is also largely male- dominated as established by a report by Reporters without Borders and MFWA (2017). In this report, it was revealed that, out of 25 monitored media owners, only 2 were women. Wistfully, the report also revealed that in top management, the men still outnumbered the women by 67%. Therefore, it is not surprising that policies in the media houses that should be set to favour both genders, only favour the men. Yeboah-Banin et al. (2020) for example, corroborate this finding in their report as it was revealed that 94% of media organisations in Ghana have no baby friendly facilities for nursing mothers in the industry. 3.1.2 Newsroom culture “Gender equality in media organisations and professions entails gender balance in the journalist profession, balance at decision-making levels, and gender equality in work and working conditions” (Djerf-Pierre & Edström, 2020, pp. 13-14). As a result of the lack of policies that would correct the gender imbalance in the newsroom, there is the evidence of unfair treatment in assignments as well (Steiner, 2014). A division of beat assignments into hard news and soft news reinforces the gender stereotypes from the home and society. Historically, a lot of male media practitioners have also reported on hard news beats such politics and crime. The women on the other hand are given soft beats such as entertainment and gender. Others have no specific beats and are not able to become experts on the job. Recent statistics on the global level (GMMP, 2020) revealed a gradual blur in beat assignments with an increase in the number of women who are reporting hard news. That is, 35% of hard news – politics and Government related stories were reported by women (GMMP, 2020). In Ghana, Yeboah-Banin et al. (2020, p. 6), reported that many of the female journalists do not have clearly defined beats they report on however, “women have made in-roads into the ‘male dominated’ domains of so-called hard University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 23 news beats, such as politics and business. Although many are still confined to so-called soft news beats (e.g. social, health, entertainment, sanitation and gender)”. Studies on remuneration and privileges in the newsroom also lean favourably towards the male gender (Steiner, 2014). Yeboah-Banin et al. (2020) added that most women do not stay long enough in the media industry to be eligible for certain privileges and promotions. Steiner (2014, p. 364) also added that “women have difficulty in combining family and work” which accounted for the lower number of women in management positions. With regard to representation, studies have shown that the number of women in the media is gradually increasing. However, women journalists in Kenya, according to Ochieng's (2017) research, are more likely to be rated by audiences and male colleagues based on their beauty and personality qualities than on their professional accomplishments. Although male journalists still outnumber female journalists in most newsrooms, the media's expansion has been accompanied by growing female participation (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020). 3.2 Gendered digital media divide Over the years, scholars have studied and defined digital media differently mainly because it rapidly evolves (Asadi, 2017; Taylor, 2019; Watson 2016). Digital media can be defined as any upgraded form of traditional media that uses digital data to digital devices in the form of videos, audios, texts and more. According to Creeder and Martin (2019, p.2) digital media has wide access and this gives it better recognition as it is “associated with technological transformations in communication”. It exceeds traditional media in terms of speed, quality and performance. As already discussed, digital media can be seen as an upgrade of traditional media in many ways including evolving the modus operandi of media practitioners. Studies have discussed University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 24 how it is no longer surprising to see traditional media houses migrate to and form new digital landscapes (Olorumyomi, 2018). In Ghana, traditional media groups like Multimedia Group Ltd. do not only run broadcast media but also run digital news websites. Rieh and Hilligoss (2008) add that one of the reasons people go to digital media is to assess information. The fast paced nature of digital media (Creeder & Martin 2019) makes it more convenient for people to go there for information. People differ in the kind of information they seek on digital media. While adults look for more credible information, the youth are more interested in what is new (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Across the world the picture drawn on the representation of gender in the media is skewed hugely towards men. The GMMP 2020 reported that the only region and topic in which gender parity in subjects and sources has been attained is in North American digital social & legal news. Edström and Facht, (2018) shared that corporate websites show that men dominate the top 100 media organizations, with women holding only 6% of CEO roles, 17% of top management positions, and 20% of board of director seats. The glaring invisibility of women in traditional media has found its way into digital media. The growth of digital media and online news hasn't changed the trend – women are still under- represented in news on Twitter and online in the GMMP, just as they are in traditional news media (Djerf-Pierre & Edström, 2020). As media owners make the decision to incorporate digital media into their modus operandi, the existing culture in the newsroom migrated onto the digital media newsroom culture as well (Djerf-Pierre, 2020). The role of women as sources, experts, presenters still abysmally remain low (GMMP, 2020). The proverbial glass ceiling still remains despite the slow progress of women in digital media. The move from a traditional to an industrial – and then to a post-industrial – society entails cultural shifts that underpin structural and institutional changes that support gender equality to a considerable extent (Djerf- Pierre, 2020). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 25 However, other scholars and reports (Haraway, 2006; Macharia, 2015; Regueira, 2020; DW Akademie, 2020) have latched on the flexibility feature of digital media to reveal that many people do not only participate on digital media but also own it. This is evident in the number of citizen journalists present today especially on social media. The GMMP (2020, p. 8) summarised an excerpt from the New York Declaration, (2017) and explained the replication of gendered imbalances from the traditional media into digital media. Women's exclusion and ghettoization are reproduced in online media contents, both in the media product and in the comments and responses of new interactive audiences who become co-authors of the process of promoting and legitimizing misogyny as public discourse; informational-communicational technologies do not change inequalities, but they are positioned within social relations mapped by unequal and unjust economic, cultural, and political power relationships of men and women. 3.3 Digital Media Entrepreneurship Men and women in media have been socialised differently and their socializations manifest in their workplace culture in connection to their assignments and practices. Yet the desire to be autonomous, recognised as an achieved entrepreneur and working with flexible systems all come together to motivate media practitioners to move into the entrepreneurial space (Dubini & Campana, 2010). Ahl (2006) acknowledged that men and women have different approaches to business with some of these variations reflecting in their lifestyle choices. Despite the differences in socialization, starting a new business venture is not an easy task (Dubini & Campana, 2010). Men and women have to be resilient and persevere through different challenges when starting and taking decisions to maintain their businesses. Africa’s women are an important economic force when it comes to entrepreneurship, accounting for about a third University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 26 of business ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa (Kwami, 2015). In Ghana, a lot of women entrepreneurs are found in the informal sector with social capital as a contributing factor to the success of their businesses. According to Kwami (2015), social capital encompasses support from family and friends in the form of start-up capital, network connections and different trainings. Digital media and the rapid spread of ICTs have given women entrepreneurs an added advantage in conducting their businesses of which the media space is no exception. Regueira (2020) in addressing the representation and participation of women on YouTube in Spain, explained that the flexibility of digital media has opened up the media space for individuals to overcome obstacles like access that were originally there. However, issues of stereotypes in the society and in traditional media are largely evident on digital media. Citron (2009) added that these stereotypes are sometimes so damaging that it largely connected to cyber gender harassment. The fear of this form of harassment has prevented quite a number of women from starting their digital media businesses. Thus “cyber gender harassment discourages them from writing and earning a living online and interferes with their professional lives” (Citron 2009, 375). This finding was confirmed by Wotanis and McMillan’s similar study on gender in the YouTube space, (2014) where they posited that online harassment is likely to deter women from producing video content for YouTube, thereby suppressing voices that could benefit others. Wotanis and McMillan (2014) also described digital media spaces such as YouTube as one of the most flexible platforms that allows non-professionals to manage their accounts and share content that traditional media put limitations on. This extended liberty to use the digital media platforms accounts for the gradual increase in the number of people who start their businesses there. Kamberidou, (2013) added from her study that a lot of female entrepreneurs have relied on this flexibility to achieve the much-desired work-life balance. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 27 Gómez-Zúñiga et al. (2012) in their study on medical patient YouTubers found that their interviewees started their YouTube channels not only to make money but mainly because of the gross absence of any form of information about what they were going through online. This motivation helped the interviewees foster a great sense of community as they consistently shared their stories online with millions of marginalised people like them out there. Dubini and Campana (2010) also added that experiences in previous organizations play a role in motivating individuals to start their own enterprises. They reported that these experiences provide entrepreneurs with the necessary training that they can immediately apply to new ventures, allowing them to successfully enter new markets with innovative products and technology. In another study specific to women, Tran (2014) found that even though digital media businesses took off the financial burdens of the participants, they disclosed that the paramount reason they started their businesses were not primarily financially motivated but rather emotionally motivated. 3.4 Experiences in the Digital Media Ownership Space Evidence (Dubini & Campana, 2010; Byerly, 2011; GMMP, 2020) has shown that men and women experience different treatments at the workplace that even shapes the way they go about their work. In the digital world, there is the dilemma of the capability of digital media to facilitate the work for its users and a bit of apprehension of digital media to make work easier for those who hold the shorter end of the stick in the media industries. Kepler and Shane (2007) have discovered that in the US for example, male entrepreneurs are usually concerned about making money and expanding their businesses while the females prefer to reduce risks in the businesses as much as possible. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 28 One of the growing concerns of people especially the women in media is the ability of digital media to clear barriers that prohibit their uprising progress in media and open up more possibilities for them. Scholars like Wotanis and McMillan (2014) and Macharia (2015) have discovered that in the digital media space, physical barriers to women’s progress like access and scope do not exist but there are sizeable traces of stereotypes that hinder their work experiences. Therefore, women have the opportunity to build a business venture online and create schedules that are tailored to their individual lifestyles (Kamberidou, 2013). Digital media exhibit evidence of democratization and autonomy, but they do not alter the media's patriarchal nature (Macharia, 2015). In the digital media business, studies (Wotanis & McMillan, 2014) have also shown that YouTube channel owners get supporting comments from their subscribers on their content and personalities which boost their desire to put up more content to keep their channels running. In the same way, other subscribers use that as a platform to cyber bully the YouTube channel owners with offensive comments about their appearance, content or race, thereby propagating stereotypical barriers (Walker, 2021). In fact, Yeboah-Banin et al. (2020), reported that media women in Ghana confirmed body shaming comments as one of the unfortunate experiences they encounter in their line of work. This finding would indicate that on the whole, female YouTubers receive more critical feedback than males thereby mirroring the same experiences in traditional media (Molyneaux et al., 2008; Newsom & Congdon, 2011; Wotanis & McMillan, 2014). However, Döring and Mohseni (2017) disclosed that their research did not agree with the claim that women YouTubers received more abusive comments than their male counterparts. They were of the view that women YouTubers only attract more negative comments if they display their sexuality or address feminist issues, and not if they conform to stereotypical gender role expectations. In response to these abusive comments from University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 29 subscribers, YouTube channel owners have had to learn resilience on the job (Wotanis & McMillan, 2014). Molyneaux et al. (2008) in exploring the gender divide among YouTubers found that the women concentrated more on soft content such as sharing their personal life experiences online as opposed to the men who had a variety of content – technological, entertainment, business and public related news – where they shared opinions and information. Wegener, Prommer and Linke (2020) in a similar study in Germany found that male YouTube channel owners focused more a wider variety of genres like sports, technology, games and music. The female YouTube channel owners on the other hand focused on entertainment and stereotypical ‘how-to’ content – beauty, food, fashion and relationships. While doing this, men articulate their professional abilities, while women talk about their passions (Wegener et al., 2020). García-Jiménez, García, and López-De-Ayala (2016) posited that one of the benefits digital media platforms such as YouTube offered its users was allowing them to profit financially from the audience levels generated by their creations. Further, Lopez (2009, p. 742) revealed that a group of mothers that had monetised their blogs, shared that the opportunities they enjoyed the most from their blogging careers were “the sense of community and the connection with other people”. This finding was corroborated by Kamberidou, (2013) who argued that when it comes to teamwork, group communication skills, and social media, women have a slight advantage over their male counterparts. Scholarship (Kamberidou & Fabry, 2011; Kamberidou, 2013) also discusses some challenges that male entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs and especially those from marginalised groups usually go through. Specialised challenges for the men in the entrepreneurship grounds include, limited access to funding and support, inadequate business and language barriers. The women on the other hand are increasingly faced with one of the recurring barriers – gender University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 30 based violence (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2020; Walker, 2021) and suffer multiple levels of stress in what Kamberidou (2020, p. 10) calls a multitasking whirlpool – “the results and consequences of social expectations and gender role ideologies that have led to the women- doing-it-all pattern (or being pulled in every direction): managing professional, social and family responsibilities/obligations”. 3.5 Chapter Summary This chapter reviewed relevant literature in connection with gender and digital media entrepreneurship. The literature revealed that, the genesis of gender dynamics in media culture is the socialization at home and subsequently, socio-cultural stereotypes in the communities. These practices easily translate into workplace culture, putting the men at the top and leaving the women at the bottom of the leadership ladder. However, recent studies show an increase in female participation as a result of the emergence of the digital media. While there are a lot of benefits that digital media brings media women such as access and space on the leadership and ownership table, it is not without stereotypical challenges. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 31 CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY 4.0 Introduction This chapter discusses the approach and design of the study. It describes the population of the study, the sampling technique used, the data collection procedure and finally, the method used to analyse the data. 4.1 Research Approach and Design Historically, ontological stances have shown that our personal perceptions and interpretations of the actual world around us constitute reality (Moon & Blackman, 2017). As a result, different people can see the same event in diverse manners (Hirokawa, 2005). This stance would explain that men and women indeed journey through their ownership experiences differently hence the need to capture their individual experiences. This quest therefore led this research to adopt a qualitative research approach. The qualitative approach was employed in order to explore the nature and experiences of digital media owners in Ghana with a gendered lens. According to Bhattacherjee (2012, p. 5), exploratory research is done to “investigate and find out the magnitude and, to get initial ideas about the research problem and to test the viability of conducting a more extensive study regarding that research problem.” In this study, I sought to become familiar with the basic facts of how gendered the unique experiences of digital media owners – news website owners and YouTube channel owners – are. Knowledge of digital media ownership in Ghana is still in its elementary stage and one needs to grope to find out more information about it. This would require exploring to capture the unique perspectives of its nature in Ghana. Neuman (2014) explained that exploratory research is done when the researcher wants to know what the phenomenon is really about. This University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 32 exploration would lead to taking an interpretivist lens as the philosophical underpinning for the study. Interpretivism is a school of thought that believes that what is there only exists as observed by an involved observer. Social reality exists as “people experience it and assign meaning to it” (Neuman, 2014, p. 104). Nel (2016, p.2) in his article, Research paradigms: Interpretivism emphasises that “social reality is viewed and interpreted by the individual according to the ideological positions that she or he holds and therefore, knowledge is personally experienced.” Interpretivism therefore uses a more subjective approach to interpret data. One approach to interpretivism which is essential to this study is phenomenology, which focuses on the experiences of the people directly affected by the phenomenon (Nel, 2016). The phenomenon of gendered dynamics in digital media only exists because there are people who experience some different forms of treatment and interpret them as gendered. Phenomenological research is originally traced to Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – however Edmund Husserl is regarded as the “fountainhead of phenomenology in the twentieth century” (Groenewald, 2004, p. 43). Husserl argued that objects in the external world do not exist independently and therefore to arrive at certainty, “anything outside immediate experience must be ignored.” Groenewald (2004, p. 44) disclosed that phenomenologists are “concerned with understanding social and psychological phenomena from the perspectives of the people involved.” Therefore, in a study such as this one interested in the gendered experiences of digital media owners, it is important to explore the experiences of men and women who have ventured into the digital media ownership to be able to catalogue any gendered dynamics with regard to their entry, management, opportunities and challenges. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 33 4.2 Method The nature of this study requires a method that would allow the researcher to probe into the nature of the phenomenon and find answers to the study. For this reason, the study employed a phenomenological in-depth interview approach. Boyce and Neale (2006) recommended in- depth interviews for intensively exploring new phenomenon. It has already been established that digital media entrepreneurship is in its elementary stage in Ghana and it was therefore necessary to grope and discover all sorts of information that will help to understand the phenomenon from the points of view of the people involved. An in-depth interview, as defined by Boyce and Neale (2006, p. 3), is a form of “qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation.” In-depth interviews allow the flexibility of critically probing further to gain a better understanding of the responses of the interviewees. In addition, the probe focused primarily on the experiences of the digital media owners sampled and interviewed in order to identify instances where gender pops up in their motivations, challenges and opportunities (See Appendix – Interview Guide). As Groenewald (2004, p. 47) puts it, “at the root of phenomenology is the intent to provide a description of human experience as it is experienced by the person.” For this reason there was the need to delve deeper into the accounts or the stories of these digital media owners under investigation. 4.3 Population and sampling Neuman (2014, p. 247) defines a population as “the abstract idea of a large group of many cases from which a researcher draws a sample and to which results from a sample are generalized.” In this study, the population is made up of men and women digital news website University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 34 owners and monetised YouTube channel owners in Ghana. Datareportal (2021) disclosed that YouTube is the most used visual digital media platform. News websites are one of the best alternatives to quickly access news content online and can be easily found through search engines (Engelmann & Wendelin, 2017). Because the study aims to document gendered experiences of digital media owners, the population is made up Ghanaian men and women who run digital news and entertainment media such as news websites and YouTube channels. According to Wimmer and Dominic (2011, p. 87), a sample is a “subset of the population that is representative of the entire population”. Ideally, the entire population is studied in order to describe it. However, many times a smaller size is selected and studied to represent the entire population and that smaller size becomes the sample of the study. In a qualitative research, smaller samples are studied because the researcher is not interested in generalizing the findings over the population. The sample size for this study was not pre-defined as the phenomenon is now emerging and therefore the researcher had to probe to find the scope of individuals who fit the criteria until a point of saturation was reached. When the point of saturation was reached, a total of 18 Ghanaian men and women who own digital media had been interviewed. For the YouTube channel owners, a total of eight people were interviewed. These eight were made up of four females and four males from different parts of the country. These YouTubers had owned, monetized and run their channels for between a year and five years. Ten news website owners (five males and five females) were also interviewed. Digital media owners were purposively sampled. Purposive sampling which is otherwise known as judgmental sampling is defined by Neuman (2014, p. 273) as a “non-random sample in which the researcher uses a wide range of methods to locate all possible cases of a highly specific and difficult-to reach population.” Neuman further explained that purposive sampling is appropriate to choose specific cases that are informative and very useful in exploratory research. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 35 In this study, interviewees were chosen purposively because the study requires individuals who have ventured into digital media ownership. They were purposively chosen mainly because the study requires them to have had some experience relating to the phenomenon in order to share relevant insights. To identify individuals who meet this purposiveness criterion, the researcher had to deliberately seek others who have had personal experiences of the phenomenon under investigation in another sampling technique – snowballing. This technique allows the researcher to trace additional participants through referrals. Snowballing is a sampling technique that is used when the members of the population under study are “difficult to locate” (Babbie, 2010 p.193). The researcher first collects data on the few known participants in the study and then asks the participants for referrals on others who fit the criteria for the population of the research. Babbie (2010, p. 193) recommends snowballing for exploratory research. The data on digital media owners of news websites is almost non-existent and therefore, this additional sampling technique enabled the study find other participants that fit into the criteria. The participants that were initially interviewed, had information on others like themselves, the sharing of which aided in gathering and revealing a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon. Before data was collected, the interviewees were contacted via phone calls to schedule appointments for the interviews. 4.4 Data Collection Instrument A semi-structured interview guide was used. The interview guide was structured in a way that allows deeper probes into the experiences of each interviewee (See Appendix – Interview Guide). The questions in the interview guide were open-ended to allow the interviewees give additional responses that are key to understanding the phenomenon. Questions covered aspects University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 36 of their experiences such as their motivations for starting or running such digital media websites and YouTube channels, their opportunities as well as their challenges. 4.5 Data Collection Procedure Interviewees were first contacted by phone to negotiate their participation. Some opted for a virtual meeting while the others preferred a physical meeting. The interviewees’ consents were sought for the interviews to be recorded before the interviews began. Notes were also taken to capture other gestures that spoke about their feelings and beliefs as they shared their stories. Each interview lasted for approximately forty minutes. 4.6 Data Analysis Procedure All the recordings from the interviews were transcribed for analysis and this analysis was done thematically. The transcripts were analysed to identify, describe and organise the emerging themes in data collected from the lived experiences of the samples interviewed. Thematic analysis has been established to be a useful method for summarizing key features of a dataset (Nowell et al., 2017, p.2). Braun and Clarke (2006, as cited in Nowell et al., 2017, p.2) also argued that thematic analysis is used to examine the perspectives of different research participants, highlighting similarities and differences, and generating unanticipated insights. In this study, data from the lived experiences of the different digital media owners interviewed, were grouped into themes and explicated into a final report. Braun and Clarke recommended six phases in thematic analysis. These are familiarising with the data, generating codes, generating initial themes, reviewing initial themes, defining and naming themes and finally, producing the report. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 37 4.6.1 Familiarising with the data This stage requires reading through each data set individually until you become familiar with the data set (Byrne, 2021). After all the interviews were recorded, I listened carefully and transcribed the data. When the transcriptions were done, I read through each data set to become familiar with it. I read through the data actively, analytically and critically in order not to miss anything. It is also important to make notes at this phase. Below is an example of a note I made while reading through the transcripts: The male interviewees became defensive when I asked questions that relate to gendered disparities in their experiences. This is probably because they do not want to be seen as enjoying certain privileges because of their gender. 4.6.2 Generating Codes Braun and Clarke (2006) define a code as a label that captures what is interesting about a data set. In this phase, it is advisable to avoid one word codes. The codes must also be related to the research questions. I began my coding by highlighting comments that speak to the codes that were generated in the comment section of each word document transcription of the interview. I gave each code a colour based on the four sections of my research: motivations (yellow), experiences (green), highlights and opportunities (purple) and finally, challenges (ash). 4.6.3 Generating Initial Themes This is an active process that requires organising the codes into potential themes. The coded data is reviewed at this point to see how many codes can be merged into themes or sub-themes. There are instances where one code can be promoted to sub-theme or theme after review (Braun & Clarke, 2012). At this stage in my analysis, I merged similar codes under a possible theme University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 38 for each section. For some of the codes, I did not use anymore because they did not fit in the overall analysis. 4.6.4 Reviewing Potential Themes At this stage, Braun and Clarke (2020) advise to identify the nature of the potential theme. There is the possibility that the theme might not provide relevant information that answers the research question. I had to modify and review the quality of each theme to find out which of the themes worked well with the entire data set. In the Experiences section of the data for example, I had to settle for management skills as a theme in contrast to self-taught/media- taught as a theme that describes the media culture that the participants make use of in running the enterprises. 4.6.5 Defining and Naming the Themes According to Braun & Clarke (2006, p. 92), this is the final stage of refining the themes and its purpose is to “identify the ‘essence’ of what each theme is about.” Data extracts might be presented in two ways: illustratively, presenting a surface-level summary of what participants said, or analytically, questioning what has been seen as relevant about what participants said and contextualizing this interpretation in connection to the literature (Braun & Clarke, 2013). I finalised the definition for the selected themes in order to help with the final report. 4.6.6 Producing the Report Though similar, phase 6 and 5 are two entirely different but inclusive phases. In this phase, the reporter connects the themes in a coherent manner to tell the narrative. It is also important to relate the analysis in this phase to research questions and literature reviewed. I used compelling University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 39 examples from the data set to report the findings while making the connection between the literature and the themes generated. 4.7 Chapter Summary This chapter looked at all the processes involved in executing this exploration into the experiences of news website and YouTube channel owners. This study used the qualitative research approach in order to explore the phenomenon of the gendered nature of the experiences of the digital media owners sampled. Phenomenological research allowed the researcher to probe into the lived experiences of the research participants to find any emerging gender imbalance in the line of their work. The chapter also discussed the method used to do the probing, the population and the techniques used to derive at the sample. This study combined the purposive and snowball sampling techniques to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon from the perspectives of the research participants. Finally, the data collection instrument and the data analysis procedure were discussed. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 40 CHAPTER FIVE FINDINGS 5.0 Introduction The aim of this study was to find evidence of gendered undertones in the lived experiences of digital media owners in Ghana. Through in-depth interviews the study investigated the experiences of the female digital media owners versus that of their male counterparts to find the differences and similarities that arise. This chapter presents the findings of the study. 5.1 Sample Code Allocation This study deemed it relevant to talk to selected news website owners and YouTube channel owners who had monetized their digital media platforms and made businesses of them. 18 Ghanaian men and women who own digital media in total were interviewed. In order to ensure anonymity, codes were assigned to interviewees. YouTube interviewee codes were YM1, YM2, YM3, YM4, YF1, YF2, YF3 and YF4 while website interviewee codes were WM1, WM2, WM3, WM4, WM5, WF1, WF2, WF3, WF4 and WF5. 5.2 Findings 5.2.1 Motivations Towards Digital Media Ownership This section of the study presents findings regarding the factors that drove individuals to start their careers in digital media ownership. This included the professional and /or personal events that led to the pursuance of this career. Four core motivations were found to have driven the start of these digital media entrepreneurship ventures: flexibility, fulfilling unmet needs, killing time and making money. 5.2.1.1 Flexibility of Digital Media The findings revealed that unlike traditional media, digital media gave the interviewees the opportunity to combine the management of their platforms (YouTube channel or news website) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 41 with their other jobs (often corporate). While traditional media requires a more rigid structure for management, digital media ownership allows the pliancy of combining other jobs. As the study found, interviewees have other preoccupations and tend to run their digital media businesses as ‘side gigs’ as shown by YF2, Presently I work with Andrew Mellon Foundation as …, here at the University of Ghana and I'm a YouTuber or content creator on YouTube. So, yeah, that's what I do on the side. WF2 corroborates this as according to her, the flexibility of digital media allowed her to school, work and manage her website. Before my master's I got a job at GRA, so that's why I couldn't go to any radio station or any journalism house or something to work that’s why I chose to do blogging. Some interviewees also chose to ply the route of the digital media for its flexibility in balancing their responsibilities at home and tasks at work. Findings indicated that both married men and women were enthused about the opportunity to perform their duties at home and at work perfectly with the digital media platforms. One of them is WM4 who shared that: The key thing for me was knowing that, I don’t have to be that daddy was always waking up at dawn to beat traffic to get to work and after work gets back late so that my kids hardly see me. Naah, I am as actively involved in their upbringing as my wife and that was why I choose to push my skills and experience to start the website. WF1 also shared that her fear of not being able to combine work and family was alleviated when she was introduced to the digital media platforms. I had actually discussed it with my husband and a few friends. Initially I thought I wouldn’t be able to combine taking care of my family and my work because work in Accra is just stressful. But after thinking it through I University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 42 realised I could wake up early, prepare my son for school and after that, I have a lot of productive time on my hands. Digital media’s flexibility also allowed novice media owners to learn on the job while managing the entire business as well. This feature has helped both men and women with no media education or prior training as well as those with a form of media training and education. An example is YM2, who translated his experience in film-making to running the business of YouTube without any formal media training. I don’t have any formal training in film making, I am a self-taught film maker. I have never sat in film class before in my life and I have been doing this close to 14 years so when I started the YouTube, I relied on the same YouTube who shares the ideas of how to become a film maker, both the technicalities and the business side of the craft. YF1 also shares a similar experience that she had never had any formal media training and yet was determined to start a YouTube career and therefore she had to go through the same medium to get her own training on how to manage her channel. Four months of starting, I was watching a lot of videos on how to start a YouTube channel, how to grow a channel the things to do when you're posting a video, how to edit, stuff like that. So I basically trained myself by watching YouTube videos on how to grow my channel. The flexible nature of digital media also allows its owners to also own multiple channels. While in traditional media, huge entry costs may limit this opportunity, it appears digital media allows more room. YM1 for example, explained that: After the YouTube when I got a lot of people on my YouTube channel, I decided to set up the website because most of the stories that I had, I was picking it from other people's websites like [name of news website] and all those things. So I had to set up my own platform, so that when that story University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 43 come, I'll get people to write on it, then I'll pick it and put it on my YouTube. Rather than reading it and giving them credit. These findings have implied that both men and women were influenced by the flexibility factor of digital media platforms as a motivation to begin their businesses in this sector. 5.2.1.2 Fulfilling Unmet Needs The interviewees shared their frustrations in finding information on specialised topics as driving the birth of their enterprises. Some indicated that the lack of information on the internet forced them to start their businesses to solve those issues. YF2 shared this as her motivation: So I just wanted to go and see what people have said already on YouTube. And I went, there was nothing. Nothing. Nothing on National Service. On YouTube. So I decided to be the first to start a channel on National Service. Some others also discussed the unavailability of information that is tailored toward the Ghanaian market for which reason they created the channels to help the Ghanaian community. Among such people are YM2, YF4 and YF1. YM2 shared: One major challenge I kept finding was that anytime I find a material, it was much geared or tuned towards the white societies or the things that they can find there. That is why I started my YouTube channel. Let’s say for example, you see how they do a visual effect on how to cut off someone’s head in the film and you see a Canadian tutorial, they will be talking about using latex foam using certain materials that you cannot find as African and they are not even close to so you so if you watch such kind of tutorial what happens, someone just gives up and leave it there and walks away but I find a way when I see that thing, what are the qualities of the materials that are used to do this then I try to look within the African setting to see if I can replicate that. This finding is not only tailored to male digital media entrepreneurs. Female digital media entrepreneurs also discovered that no Ghanaian had created content that is specifically related University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 44 to certain aspects of their wellbeing on YouTube. YF1 shared that it encouraged her to start a business in that regard. I was watching a lot of YouTube videos about pregnancy, pregnancy symptoms, what other pregnant women were going through labour and delivery but all of the videos I was watching with people outside, I never really found any Ghanaian sharing their journey, their experiences and I thought that that would be the best route to take. These findings indicate that men and women often desire to satisfy unique information needs. In the case of the interviewees, their unique needs for information and the absence of it, drove them to start their digital media careers, thereby eliminating any evidence of gendering. 5.2.1.3 Killing Time The interviewees hinted that the extra time they had on their hands pushed them to start their websites and YouTube channels. It appears that some men and women venture into digital media ownership not as a matter of deliberate planning, but as a result of finding something to while away excess time they had. As the evidence below shows, sometimes, unemployment and the resulting free time can be an impetus as seen from YF4 who shared how she started the channel to kill the extra time she had on her hands. Shortly before the lockdown I had broken up with my boyfriend then the following week, lockdown. I could cry to myself saa, because I was alone and didn’t know what to do with all that time. Then I realised that if I don’t find something productive to do with my time, depression wo