Social Media And New Media In Ghana Media Essay

hearty Media And New Media In gold coast Media Essay br some otherly media is a growing phenomenon in our wassail learning age. For numerous persons, take leaveicularly the y step forwardh, kind media proposes the platform to create, disseminate and sh atomic number 18 information with persons of shared ties. The antecedent and influences of the societal media phenomenon in shaping our cosmea today screw non be oerlooked. Its feign is witnessed as a coordinating scape for a evidentiary issue forth of the worlds political movements including the political revolutions that took enthrone in the Middle East normally referred to as the Arab Spring. Again in political campaigning, sociable media is credited to cave in contributed signifi dissolvetly to the electoral success of then candidate Barak Obama as his bankers acceptance of the engine room facilitated his meet and garnered support from many young voters during the 2008 American presidential elections. The frie ndly media fad is believed to leave enhanced cultural exchanges, created, maintained and dee compo sympathised neighborly ties in a significant number of sociable settings. For quite a number of people, it is to the naughtyest degree impossible to pull d ane in our present world and not be acted by the kind media phenomenon. It has run abject part of our refreshed world which is driven extensively by information and conference.The affectionate media application runs on the foot of the net profit engineering science. The internet directs the manner in which communication is carried from place to place, person to person and culture to culture in our world today. It has become as ubiquitous as the human species and al n early on a measure of human urbaneisation. Researchers and scholars drive home divergent opinions of the impacts of the meshing and untested media technology on our world today. Their opinions are expressed broadly in utopian and dystopian perspe ctives and c all over all aspects of life of which the technology is expenditured. The utopians rate the lucre as emfly an enormous tool for good. The positive possibilities from the Internet take on supporting the pull of democracy, human interactions, concerted political action, education, etcetera On the other hand the dystopians, the cyberpunks and the alarmists, see danger in each digital project even an ultimate loss of our humanity.Understanding the internet and all its associated technology and applications requires an understanding of the dimensions under which the internet can be canvas. Bell (2001) rationalizes that there are three authoritys to understanding the internet or its synonym cyberspace. Bell describes the meaning of the internet or cyberspace under a) material b) emblematical and c) experiential stories. He cites Stanley Aronowitz (1996) as providing the equipment everydayty ontology, phenomenology and pragmatics to discuss ways of thinking al t o the highest degree the internet technology. Material stories of the internet technology provide a historical understanding of how the technology came to hold out and the transformations it has undergone. Whittaker (2004 Pp 13) explains that symbolic stories of the internet or cyberspace give literary and generic accounts most notably in cyberpunk but also in science fiction and other speculative fiction. Bell, citing Jordan (1999), provides an explanation to symbolic stories of cyberspace as the ways in which cyberspace are depicted in films and fiction. Therefore movies such as Robocop which prompted civil discusss over the use of robotics in solving human limitations, and The Matrix provide good simulations to understanding symbolic stories of cyberspace.New media and fond mediaNew media tools, which are internet based technologies and applications provide platforms for social media tools to be use civil discourses. There is a good deal the endeavor to interchange the term s new-fashioned media and social media. However, it must be noted that new media and social media mean different things though both exist in cyberspace and are associated with the internet technology.According to wiseGEEK new media denotes the versatile technologies that wear emerged rapidly in our present millennium. The major types of new media include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs and flick sharing sites such as YouTube. One of its most defining characteristics is interactivity. kind media, however, refers to online technologies and practices that are apply to share opinions and information, promote discussion and build relationships (Crown 2009 2). iCrossing (2008) indicates that social media shares the characteristics of Participation, Openness, Conversation, Community, and Connectedness are currently presented in the following basic formsGoode (2009) explains that social media facilitates citizens engagements in new forms of civi l participation as they construct, archive, tag and reticulate news stories and political media content. Bakardjieva (2011) describes how blogs, a social media application and bloggers befuddle become visible in the Bulgarian public sphere. In the Bulgarian scenario, the tool was adopted to protest against a decision of the Supreme Administrative act to strip a territory in the south-east of Bulgaria of its status as a protected natural reserve. The countrys young people and environmentalist meetings sedulous in civil protests in the streets to challenge the decision as they nonionised and reported their actions by blogs, websites and text messages. The brief but centrally put and well-at flowed polite actions obligated the Bulgarias mass media and parliamentarians to situate the issue on their agenda.http//edc.education.ed.ac.uk/sindhur/files/2010/09/Different-Media-and-modes-of-communication-Every-day-life.jpg1 radiation pattern DIFFERENT MEDIA AND MODES OF COMMUNICATION -AN EVERYDAY LIFE PICTURE.The British administration recognises how digital technology has transformed the way in which people communicate and share information at the local, national and international levels. To ensure that the potential of the transforming power is harness well enough to facilitate citizen engagement and proper governance, investments into providing adequate guidelines for civil servants to appreciate these changes so that they can operate effectively in a dynamic media environment. The British Government via new media tools and online access is tailoring its operate to its public to a greater extent than conveniently all day and all week. The reference below is taken from the introductory chapter on spliceing civil servants through social media in The Guide for Civil Servants (pp 11)Use of social media techniques is not qualified to government interaction with citizens or business. There is already a melt down of tools dedicated to encouraging discussion an d sharing knowledge and best practice among civil servants.Social media and New media in GhanaGhana has not been isolated from the global social media craze. Universally, Facebook is noted as the most hot social media platform and is most recognized in Ghana as well. Currently, there are about 1,436,560 Facebook users in Ghana, which makes it rank number 73 globally (Socialbaker 2012). The social networking statistics from Socialbaker illustrates that the penetration of Facebook in Ghanais5.90%of the countrys community and110.76%in relation to the number of Internet users. The population of Facebookers users grew by more than231,140in the run 6 months. About 41% of Ghanas Facebook user population is amid 18 and 24 years, an age group that can be order typically beginning university education or exiting into the professional world.Other social media same YouTube, twitter and LinkedIn are also popular among Ghanaians. Though their popularity is high among the youth and IT savvy persons, statistics on these social media applications are rather low or un acquirable. No Ghanaian profile or account is listed in the top 200 global accounts. The same applies with YouTube and LinkedIn. Increasingly, the Whats App application and Blackberry messaging (BBM) which are described as social networking applications are also suitable popular platforms among Ghanaians for information dissemination. All the applications, Facebook, YouTube, twitter Whats App and BBM are available on mobile address devices commonly referred to as smartphones. They are also on other portable new media gadgets such as ipads and tablets.Chart2 learn User age distribution on Facebook in GhanaGhana was one of the first African countries to get connected to the Internet in 1989-1990 however, the extent of use of the new media technology among Ghanaians is limited. This is a result of the under bumpment of animate telecommunications infrastructure, though in recent times significant investments have been in ontogenesis them (Sey 2011). The investments have been supported by a national communications policy which highlights the Government of Ghanas commitment to accelerating the socio-economic development process of the country through ICT (Republic of Ghana, 2003, p. 14 cited in Sey 2011). In the wake of this policy, there has been considerable improvements in internet connectivity which begun in the early 1990s with the slow bandwidth dial up access to the now high speed broadband connectivity.Mobile phone telephony is not only big on the African celibate but equally the predominate mode of telecommunications in Ghana. Again because of the for the most part poor fixed line infrastructure. Ghanas National Communications Authority is cited to have announced a mobile telephony penetration rate of about 88.6% as at January 2012 with the leading service provider recording over 10 million subscriptions (Modern Ghana, 2012). Mobile phones in Ghana have vary uses aside its bas ic use for calls. Sey (2011) reports that in 2007 just over one fixed line existed per 100 inhabitants.Uses of new media in GhanaA number of several accounts have been given for the varied uses of the new media technology in Ghana. However, some research account that the application is appropriated to business and company development. Sey (2011) cites (Slater Kwami, 2005) who indicate that a substantial section of users get onto the Internet as an escape mechanism to connect with the Western world as a poverty reduction strategy. They add that the Internet provides some users with the means to reach people in Western countries who are perceived as potential sources of financial means for migration while others who do not anticipate personally leaving the country might content themselves with enjoying Western life vicariously through foreign content online. Sending e-mails, finding and communicating with pen pals, applying to schools abroad, watching movies, listening to music, an d playing games are also some other uses that Ghanaians put the new media to use (Alhassan, 2004 Burrell, 2009 Daily Graphic, 2003 Slater Kwami, 2005. Cited in Sey 2011). political parties have also embraced the new media technology and are using social media particularly to grasp the attention of young people. A Communication formalized of the New Patriotic Party says the party adopts a writing room suitable for the social media in its messaging as the technology creates a better communication channel mingled with the party and voters. The National republican Congress says the interactive nature of social media facilitates incorporating feedback from voters into the partys decision making processes (Boakyewaa Pokua 2011).Amongst Students of the University of Ghana, the most popular social media tool is Facebook. Its uses are varied from meeting new friends, sharing information on academic work, and updating family and friends with what is happening in ones life (Dentaa 2011). 2. Problem StatementThere is recorded info on citizens disconnections from civic life in our present information society. These are broad among younger generations in Western democracies. The United States, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all recorded younger peoples withdrawal in participating in conventional politics and government which constitute civic activities, in stately numbers. Putnam (2000) argues that, Americans in the last three decades of the 20th century witnessed much slight engagements in terms of political participation, charitable contributions, involvement in familiarity organizations, and even participation in social activities with some of these trends obvious among college students. in spite of a withdrawal from offline civic life, studies suggest interests in online civic engagements. As a fledgling democratic state, with a history of military dispensations that have stifled civic discourses and civil liberties, Ghana is on the brink of de veloping its democratic credentials. The new democratic dispensation gives rise to civic participation in social and political discourses mainly through traditional media. Increasingly, young Ghanaians- a significant number of whom are enrolled in the universities, seek to master the use of the internet and more particularly social media tools to express themselves, explore their identities, and connect with peers. Hence there is opportunity to utilise the characteristics these online tools present to promote civic discourses amongst this group. The take frankincense seeks to ascertain the use of social media for civic discourses amongst students of the University of Ghana. Questions the scan depart speak toAre students of the University of Ghana engaged in civic discourses via social media?What principles of civic discourses are seen in their social media engagements?3. BackgroundSocial transformation is a common phenomenon in our human life and often characterises the conceptio n of civilised society. A transformed society is one which whitethorn have at least undergone essential changes in its core institutions, economy, and the relationships between social groups or classes, the creation and distribution of wealth, power and status.Technology has contend a key contribution in the transformation of society. Theorist like Marshal Mcluhan posit in determinist theories that technology changes society and say human evolution from the Tribal age through Literate, Print and present Electronic age. But besides the influences of technology on social transformation, the contributions of social institutions cannot be overlooked, particularly universities.Universities have contributed significantly to the processes of social change and development. Stories of early civilisations recount the centrality of higher institutions of academic studies in the transformations that took place in those societies. The enjoyment of universities has been in generating skilled resources for wear out sectors of social life and also in providing scientific investigations and solutions to social phenomenon. As the world rapidly changes and develops or peradventure becomes a lot more civilised, universities can be seen to take on the added role of encouraging and facilitating new cultural values. It is also plausible to see the institution involved in training and socialising members of new social elites. so the contributions of universities in fostering heightened awareness of and participation in civic discourses is one worth studying.The practice of citizens contributing in any way possible to how they are governed cannot be overemphasized. However the challenge to this has been in the nutriment of citizens interest in engaging in public activities which support contributions to governance. Evidences of Citizens having slight time for public life abound in many countries, contempt their resourcefulness in bringing more knowledge and skills to the mar ket place of ideas. Reasons ascribed to citizens having less time for public activities include having less faith that government will be able to deliver on promises, more and more disconnect from community affairs because they seem to find the information, allies, and resources they need to affect an issue or decision they care about outside of the physical public space.A central tenet of Putnams bowling alone dissertation holds that much of the decline of civic engagement in America during the last third of the twentieth century is attributable to the replacement of an unusually civic generation by several generations (their children and grandchildren) that are less embedded in community life. (2000, p. 275). He supports this claim with evidence that members of this older generation tend to exhibit consistently high patterns of certain forms of civic activity (membership in civil society groups, voting, and attending city government meetings, for example) throughout their lives. B y contrast, younger generations (especially the current youth demographic) have by and large failed to develop comparable civic habits, preferring to spend the majority of their free time on wholly personal pursuits. While some very recent data on one type of civic engagement, voting, contradict this pessimistic sagaciousness (Kirby Marcello, 2006), most of the relevant indicators point toward a greatly diminishedUniversities have frequently been regarded as key institutions in processes of social change and development. The most explicit role they have been allocated is the production of highly skilled labour and research output to meet perceived economic needs. But to this role may be added, especially during periods of more radical change, roles in the construction of new institutions of civil society, in encouraging and facilitating new cultural values, and in training and socialising members of new social elites.4. PurposeThe purpose of the study is to fall upon civic discou rse engagements of students of the University of Ghana via the social media.The study objectives areto evaluate whether civic discourses take place among students of the university of Ghana.to identify the forms of such civic discourses students of the university of Ghanato ascertain whether such discourses conform to the principles for civic discourses.The study will thus provide data on social media uses for civic discourse interactions and make recommendations on the possibility of nurturing a generation of elites who adopt technology to further discourses that affect how they are governed and their society at large. Findings from the study can help in selecting and developing alternate communication channels for the packaging of civic discourse in Ghana and among an increasing youth population enchanted by the new media and its varied applications.5. SignificanceThe study is significant as it will support in identifying and exploring how applicable modern technologies can be en gaged to facilitate civic discourses which are essential in beefing up processes of good governance and democracy.Traditionally universities have functioned as centres of doctrine and research. In their teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. Students who graduate from the university ultimately work and live in societies. The university provides a heterogeneous environment which initiates students to divers(prenominal) people and perspectives. There is a tendency that students may be more motivated and prepared to participate fully in civic life.Students interactions and experiences of motley whether inside or outside of the classroom, have the possibility to introduce them to new ideas and to challenge their pre-existing views (e.g. Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, Gurin, 2002). As a result, students attitudes toward civic issues may stagger in substantial ways, and they may become more involved in community service and political activities.6. MethodologyVarious methods are available for conducting studies on Computer Mediated Discourses and civic discourses in mass communication research. The most familiar methods used have been purviews and content analyses. Within the terra firma of content analysis textual analysis, rhetoric and discourse analyses have been set as probable methods to studying problems relating to civic discourses specifically or discourses generally. plentysSurvey as a research method denotes gathering information from a sample of individuals. Wimmer and Dominick (2011) explain two types of survey methods that can be used for research processes Descriptive surveys and analytic surveys.A descriptive survey attempts to explain what exists at the moment. An example for this type of survey is that of broadcast networks frequently conducting surveys of their audiences to identify their programme tastes, evolving values and lifestyle variations that might affect their programming. Descriptive surveys thus examine the as it is situation in the area under study.An analytical survey attempts to describe and explain why situations exist (Wimmer and Dominic 2011). The approach unremarkably examines two or more variables investigating research questions or examination research hypotheses. From the results researchers can examine the interrelationships among the variables and develop explanatory interpretations. For example, television set owners survey the market to chequer how lifestyles affect viewing habits or to determine whether viewers lifestyles can be used to predict the success of syndicated programming (Wimmer and Dominic 2011).Adopting a survey approach in conducting studies on social media and civic discourses will facilitate investigations into the problem in a realistic setting. For example newspaper reading, commenting on social happenings on television or receiving set and participating in political issues of governance, all of which are probable civic activities can be examined in their real environments other than in a laboratory or screening room where artificial conditions are generated if studied as experiments.Secondly, surveys allow researchers to collect data on and examine many variables including demographic variables and use a variety of statistics to analyse the data collected. therefrom patterns of relationships of differences or closeness are possible to be deduced to enable positing hypotheses as well as provide explanations to the problem.Considering that a constraint to research is accompaniment and costs associated to carrying out the research, the reasonable cost of surveys in relation to the nub of information gathered (some online surveys are free) makes it a useful and widely used method. Researchers are able to control their research expenses by selecting from mail, telephone, personal interview, group administration, and the Internet mode s of surveys. Related to this surveys have no geographic constraints and they can be conducted almost anywhere.Probably a significant benefit for using surveys in research is the availability existing data which makes it possible to carry out a whole study without the use of a questionnaire or contacting a respondent. Data sources such government documents, class or students registration lists may be depended on as primary data sources or as supportive sources of information.However an essential shortcoming in the use of surveys is the inability to draw causal or non-causal relationships between low-level and autarkic variables. Thus for a study as this it is not possible to draw casual or non-causal relations between social media use and civic discourses. This is because independent variables cannot be manipulated the way they are in laboratory experiments. Without control over independent variables, the researcher cannot be certain whether the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables are causal or non-causal.Results from surveys may easily be considered predetermine in the event of inappropriate wording or placement of questions in spite of appearance a questionnaire. This thus means careful scrutiny of words chosen to solicit data and organized unambiguously would be required. This can be strenuous and time consuming. An example Where did you hear the news about the presidents dying? is mildly biased against newspapers. The word hear suggests that radio, television, or other people is a more appropriate answer (Wimmer and Dominic 2011, pp 190).The possibility of including wrong respondents in survey research is almost not negligible. Respondents may claim to take in a characteristic necessary for the study but may in fact be deficient in that feature. A mail survey or Internet survey may be completed by a teenager when the target respondent is a parent in the household.