Black Propaganda or Solution-Oriented Journalism? Online News Portals Frame Construction of the Post-COVID-19 Depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi

Abstract

Through quantitative content analysis, the researchers deductively coded four negative and four constructive frames to examine critically how graphic.com; myjoyonline.com; 3news.com, and Ghanaweb.com have constructed their frames on the depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi using web scraping with Python the news articles retrieve articles. The study also analyzed the extent of occurrence of the phenomenon, as well as the tones and angle of reportage during the peak of the depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi (August, September, and October 2022) using Tone Analyzer by IBM. The findings show that graphic.com predominantly adopted constructive variables like “concern”, “solution-oriented”, “solidarity”, and “inclusiveness”, while myjoyonline.com, GhanaWeb.com, and 3news.com which have wide global access, and audiences reported negative frames such as “conflict”, “blame”, “denial”, and “sensationalism”. The analysis also showed that myjoyonline.com, GhanaWeb.com, and 3news.com adopted more blame attribution, and sensationalism frames, instead of concern, solution-oriented, and solidarity frames. The findings further suggest that there were changes in frame appearance such as concern, blame, and inclusiveness at different months of the post-COVID-19 depreciation of the cedi. This study again finds that inadequate robust online media regulatory frameworks in Ghana have led to ineffective and negative web portal reportage of issues related to the economy, especially post-COVID-19 era. In conclusion, the study recommends that the National Media Commission (NMC) and other regulatory institutions put in place strict online media regulatory frameworks to guide the operations of online media, especially web portals.