Global flows, media and developing democracies: The Ghanaian case

This article presents a combination of factors as a framework for examining how globalization and media impact developing democracies in the Global South. In particular, it pays attention to the interplay of changing technologies, regulatory regimes and local entrepreneurs with global expertise (obtained primarily through education overseas) and their combined impact on the media ecology in such countries. Using a historical analysis of the trends that started in the early 1990s, the article shows how countries like Ghana took advantage of key changes in globalization to create a vibrant media ecology that directly impacts the role of citizens. Specifically, the author posits that in Ghana the liberalization of the broadcast industry, the expertise of glocal entrepreneurs, and the explosion of new communication technologies like the Internet and mobile phones have led to a reconstitution of the public sphere and the creation of a new cultural elite.