Perceived Incompetent? The Annihilation of Women in Critical National Discourse in the Ghanaian Media

Abstract

Media reflects and reinforces gender-based disparities. In Ghana, these inequalities exist in the media space. Despite the greater media freedom enjoyed by the Ghanaian media today, the male-dominated nature of media programming and placements has remained relatively unchanged from its experiences under the restricted media era in post-democratic Ghana. This research focuses on gender representations in media programming and placements in the Ghanaian media. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of news data collected over six weeks (July 4th - August 16th, 2022) from five primary Ghanaian TV channels: TV3, Joy News, Citi TV, GhOne, and UTV. Our findings reveal an epistemic injustice toward women, stemming from the overrepresentation of male expertise in media programs. While women appear slightly more often as program hosts, indicating greater on-screen visibility, their expertise is not utilized to the same extent as that of men. We discussed the impact of culture, media objectification, and commodification as factors influencing women\u27s presence in the Ghanaian media. Keywords: Presumed incompetence, gender, Ghanaian media, underrepresentation, content analysi