Democracy, the public sphere, and power elites: examining the Ghanaian private media’s role in political corruption

ABSTRACT

Can media liberalization and freedoms make the private media a powerful anti-corruption force in developing countries such as Ghana? Contrary to the popular view that media freedom, pluralism, and competition can help tackle corruption, I argue that democratic freedoms are not adequate safeguards for private media to fight political corruption. In doing so, I use primary data and media reports, Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, and Mills’s theory of power elites. Despite Ghana’s prevailing democratic freedoms, this study indicates that Ghanaian private media actively contribute to political corruption through biased reporting, propaganda peddling, indulgence in corruption, weak investigative journalism, and limited follow-up reporting. By examining whether Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and Mills’s theory of the power elites apply to the African context, this article makes significant contributions to both the theoretical and empirical literature. Policy and future research implications are presented in the conclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Corruption
• democracy
• media
• public sphere
• power elites
• Ghana

Acknowledgment

I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. I thank the editor, Dr. Mia Consalvo, for the time spent reading the manuscript and finding reviewers.

Notes on contributor

Dr. Joseph Yaw Asomah, who holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Saskatchewan, is an Assistant Professor at St. Thomas University, Canada. His research interests generally focus on the sociology of the media, political sociology, international development, and criminology. Dr. Asomah has published in both reputable Canadian and International Journals. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Notes

1 All names used are pseudonyms. To protect their identity, I have withheld names of institutions where participants, including academics and media personnel, work.

2 It is an investigative organization run by Anas Aremeyaw Anas.