Abstract:
This study examines the prominence given to crime news stories in two of Ghana’s
foremost newspapers, the Daily Graphic and Daily Guide, because literature has
established dearth of studies on coverage of crime news in Ghana. Therefore with
insights from the agenda setting and the gender theories, this study seeks to examine
and investigate prominence given to crime stories, the types of crime and gender of
perpetrators in the crime news stories covered in the selected newspapers in 2019. The
study employs qualitative approach and qualitative content design to carry out content
analysis of 159 crime news stories within the period study. Thematic analysis of
findings reveals that the Daily Guide gave more prominence to crime news stories
than the Daily Graphic. Again, the study established that violent crimes were the
dominant nature of crimes covered by the newspapers, whereas political crimes were
the least covered within the study period. The study further discloses a variance in the
gender patterns of perpetrators of crime news stories that presents males as being
more prone to crimes in general, and violent crimes in particular, than females. The
study recommends that newspapers should aim at fair representation of crime news as
against other news items covered in their editions. The fairness should manifest in the
frequency of reportage, as well as the prominence in the placement of crime news
stories in editions of the newspapers.
Description:
dissertation in the Department of Development Communication, School of
Communication and Media Studies, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies,
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for award of the
Master of Philosophy
(Development Communication)
In University of Education, Winneba.
NOVEMBER, 2022
