Abstract:
The study investigated social media use by two radio stations in Accra (Peace FM
and Citi FM), employing cyber ethnography, interviews and documents analysis as
well as the Technology Acceptance and Technology Appropriation models. The
research revealed that social media has been useful in enhancing journalistic tasks of
news gathering, sourcing, news reporting, news editing, and public engagement or
interactivity. However, the point of departure in terms of the appropriation of social
media by the two radio stations lies in the area of news dissemination. The study also
found that the incorporation of social media into radio news production has not
subverted traditional patterns of news production and distribution. Rather, social
media complements radio news production, with the resultant effect being the
evolution of a radio-social media news ecology. Members of the ecology (radio
stations, social media and audience) inter-relate and interdepend on one another in
the area of content production and usage. What is, however, significant is that the
two radio stations do not have any documented policies to help tackle credibility
issues associated with some social media content.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Communication and Media
Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages Education and
Communication, submitted to the School of Graduate
Studies, University of Education, Winneba, in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master
of Philosophy (Media Studies Degree).
JULY, 2017
