Media, Markets and Messages
 
 
 
 
 
MEDIA, MARKETS AND MESSAGES:
GHANA'S RADIO FORCED TO MAKE CHOICES
 
Janice Windborne, ABD
 
School of Telecommunications
Ohio University
P.O. Box 1021
Athens, Ohio 45701
(740) 593 5776
[log in to unmask]
 
 
 
ABSTRACT
Until Structural Adjustment, Ghana had an extensive, state-run broadcast system
oriented toward education and development.  Now, forced to privatize its media,
the country is faced with the competition between fostering consumer culture
among the growing urban elite class and fostering development of the rural
majority of the country.  Development messages are particularly relevant to
women who generally have less education and fewer resources than men.
Conflicting interests and consequent problems are examined.
 
Presented for consideration to the James W. Markham Award Competition,
Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for the Annual
Convention in Baltimore, August 5-8, 1998.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MEDIA, MARKETS AND MESSAGES:
GHANA'S RADIO FORCED TO MAKE CHOICES
 
     This research examines the ways in which radio is used to encourage
development among women in Ghana.  Ghana has one of the oldest and most
extensive media systems in Africa, and has used radio--and later,
television--for education, information and development from the beginning.
However, Ghana's broadcast media system is in the process of revolutionary
change.  The system, once totally under government control, is becoming
privatized and more profit-oriented.
     "Development" is a controversial topic in many circles.  Who, for example,
defines development, the development professionals or the people being
"developed?"  Who decides who should be/become developed?  Who determines the
success or failure of development projects?  While acknowledging the legitimacy
of these questions, this paper does not explore definitions of development, but
rather allows Ghanaian professionals to define what is appropriate for their
people.  After numerous interviews with experts on women and development in
Ghana, I am convinced that the government's current efforts are based on an
in-depth analysis of the needs of poor Ghanaian women that is informed by a long
history of development successes and failures.  As part of its development
agenda, the government is concentrating on the education of women, helping them
to increase their economic potential, and improve the quality of their daily
lives.  Radio is a part of that effort.
 
Research Questions
     In what ways is radio being used to foster development, particularly among
women?
     Are women receiving the messages?
     Are the messages useful and helpful to women?
     Do the competing agendas of privatization of the media for profit versus
the use of media for development and education have implications for women?
Ghana's media
     Until the 1990s, the government-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC)
and affiliated stations in rural areas were the only broadcast media in the
country.  Then,  in the early 1980s, the international lending agencies--the
IMF, World Bank and many donor nations--declared that countries who wanted to
continue to receive loans from them must restructure their economies for more
efficient operation.  Included in that economic restructuring (which became
known as Structural Adjustment)[1] was privatization of most state-run
industries.
     Ghana is in the process of complying with the mandates of Structural
Adjustment.  In the realm of media, new licenses for private radio and
television stations have been issued, and since 1995, several private radio
stations have been broadcasting in the capital city, Accra, and more recently in
Kumasi, the nation's second largest city.  In December 1997, the first private
television service went on air in Accra.
     International satellite services also have their corporate eye on Africa,
and on Ghana in particular.  Plans to beam television and new digital radio into
Africa are moving ahead at a rapid pace.  World Space, an international
partnership of communications moguls who plan to make digital radio available
around the world, has an office in Accra and an agreement with GBC for future
business.  World Space plans to launch its first digital satellite over Africa.
That is scheduled to happen in June 1998.[2]
 
     While all of this new technology is perhaps a sign that Ghana (and some of
the rest of Africa) is leapfrogging into the telecommunications revolution, the
reality is that most people won't have access to the new media because they are
too rural and too poor to afford them.  Ghana's new radio and television
stations, along with the other telecommunications services are, at this point,
part of a budding consumer culture that is still based in the urban centers of
Accra and Kumasi.
     Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) consists of a television service and
three radio channels.  The GBC radio system includes two short-wave
services--GBC 1 and GBC 2--and an FM station, Radio GAR.  GBC 1 broadcasts in
six Ghanaian languages (Hausa, Dagbani, Ewe, Ga, Akan, Fanti) and English in a
complex programming schedule of language blocks.  Included with the daily
schedule is the national and international news in English.  Historically, GBC 1
has had entertainment, information, and educational programs, including formal
classes, as well as development-oriented messages  (Ansah in Karikari, 1994, p.
23).  GBC 2 is an English-only service of entertainment, information and some
educational programming, including classes in speaking better English.  Radio
GAR (Greater Accra) is a commercial FM station whose signal can be heard in the
urban area and surroundings of Accra.  This station airs news, public affairs
and entertainment mostly in English, with an occasional foray into Twi or other
language during call-in shows.
    In 1995, the government issued the first private license to JOY-FM in Accra.
JOY's big, urban, hip sound is similar to those found at many US urban stations.
Several other stations have also been granted licenses to operate.  The dynamic
programming mix on the airwaves in Accra has so challenged GBC's monopoly over
the audience and advertisers that GBC has been forced to change its approach
from a somewhat pedantic and plodding style to a more lively fare.[3]
     JOY-FM's call-in public affairs shows have dominated Accra's morning
air-waves.  In taxis, buses, shops and most public spaces, JOY's popular AM DJ
pushes the agenda of a budding consumer market--insurance, home furnishings,
"Levi's jeans," and even home security systems--things most Ghanaians couldn't
hope to afford, if they could imagine their use at all.  At the same time, the
disc jockey sends a subtle entreaty to his listeners to join the regular
schedule of an industrialized work-force by chiding them to get out of bed for
work.  Talking to callers in a fluid combination of Twi and English, the two
most common languages in the Accra area, private stations occasionally challenge
the actions of government officials, more often focus on personal relationships,
consumer items, or famous personalities.  The success of the call-in shows on
JOY, and to a lesser extent on the other stations, is all the more startling
when one considers how few people have telephones, even in Accra, and how
unreliable the phone system is.  Radio GAR and the other private stations have
similar programming to JOY-FM's, with varying degrees of imitation and skill.
When the talk shows end, an energetic mix of domestic and world music rocks the
day with public affairs discussion programs interspersed here and there, the
schedule depending on the station.
     On all of the stations, there is a healthy dose of religion.  Stations
begin and end the day with prayers, most include a sermon from a local preacher.
During the day, programmers frequently mention churches and religious
themes--usually Christian--and much of the advertising is paid for by churches.
Churches buy not only "spots" of 30- or 60- seconds, but whole program blocks.
One producer at GBC, Gertrude Opere-Addo,[4] told me the new, private FM
stations had influenced GBC policy on religious programs.  The previous director
of GBC had forbidden religious advertising and programming on GBC because, he
said, the country has so many religious groups and there is room for
misunderstanding about favoritism.  However, when the private FM stations began
to air religious commercials, the new director changed the policy to allow
religious broadcasts as long as they were sponsored.  Opere-Addo saw this as a
very positive change.  She immediately began a series of programs sponsored by a
local church group for which she received added income, allowable under GBC
rules.  The programs air on GAR and GBC 2 on weekends.
     The advertising from churches is all the more important to GBC since the
central government declared that the system would have to become more
self-supporting.  At this point, the government pays for GBC salaries, but the
corporation has to pay for the rest of its operations.  This new policy has
caused GBC management to devise a number of cost-cutting schemes, including a
plan to pass fiscal and managment responsibilities for running the rural
stations on to the District Assemblies (elected local government bodies) of the
communities in which the stations are located.  The District Assemblies receive
money from the central government from which they allocate funds for civic
maintenance and improvement, including schools, sanitation, water, the operation
of the markets, local police, etc.  The portion of funds given to each activity
depends on the decisions of each community's District Assembly.[5]
 
Community Stations
     In 1964, Ghana was selected by UNESCO as an experimental training site for
using rural radio to foster development .  Since then, a number of rural radio
stations have been built.  They offer "education in the broadest possible sense
of the word" (Ansah in Karikari, 1994, p. 23) in the local languages with the
high quality sound of FM.  Although the definitions of education, information
and development often have included pro-government propaganda , the content of
the rural stations has, for the most part, contained at least some
development-oriented fare .
 
Development through Non-Formal Education
     Two rural radio stations, in the cities of Tamale and Ho, were built by the
Department of Education's Non-Formal Education Division in the 1990s with
financial help from the World Bank.[6]  The stations were placed in the regional
capitals of under-served areas; Tamale in the Northern Region, and Ho in the
Volta Region in the southeast of the country.  Both stations are powerful FM
stations with signals that reach miles from the transmitter.  The station at Ho
is particularly strong.  Literacy House, as the Non-Formal headquarters is
known, has plans to build ten more stations.  Those stations would be small, low
powered stations (500 watts) run by local District Assemblies for very localized
audiences.[7]
     The Ho and Tamale stations were created to assist Literacy House in the
education of adults, specifically to reinforce basic literacy classes for women.
The classes use quasi-Freirean sessions that focus on the daily realities of the
learners not only to teach literacy, but to enhance development .  The
twenty-eight lessons include topics such as safe motherhood and child care,
nutrition, teen pregnancy, taxation, environmental hygiene, borrowing money for
work, and AIDS .
     The classes themselves are not aired on radio.  Instead, radio is supposed
to provide additional information about the issues in the primer, teaching tips
for facilitators, and up-dates on current government policies, e.g., changes in
the inheritance laws (Chapter 27 in the primer).  Radio is also supposed to
offer a forum for the participants in the classes to talk about their experience
with the literacy program .  Producers from GBC, and sometimes from the local
station, visit different classes, record the learners' comments, and play them
over the air.  GBC and the rural stations share some of this programming.
Facilitators are supposed to be given radios to bring to class.  Outside the
class, facilitators call attention to programs that address important issues,
turn on the radio in a public place, and encourage everyone to listen.[8]
     The Non-Formal program is the most specifically development-oriented radio
programming targeted toward women, but there are some other programs which
targeted women as well.  Those programs, for the most part, have a lighter, less
pointed fare.
 
 
Why women?
     The changes wrought by Structural Adjustment have made women's role in
national development all the more pressing.  Clark , Robertson  and others have
documented the important place of women in the Ghanaian economy.  Ghanaian women
grow most of the food for domestic consumption and sell most of the food and
household items used by the majority of the population .  Structural Adjustment
has forced the government to open its borders to foreign goods which are often
cheaper than domestic goods thus cutting into profits of local vendors, i.e.,
women, and to devaluate the currency that once protected Ghanaians from dire
poverty .  Women have borne the brunt of the resulting economic devastation.
Women assume almost total responsibility for child care  and have less access to
productive resources like land and credit (see, e.g., .
     Since Ester Boserup's famous book urging development professionals to
consider the role of women in communities that host their projects , much has
been written to support Boserup's claims that women hold up more than "half the
sky" in developing economies, particularly in Africa.  .  However, other writers
have pointed out that, in many cases, development projects have actually made
life more difficult for women.  Dolphyne writes that a number of development
projects have focused on women, but because they were designed and paid for by
foreign donors, non-governmental organizations, and others who weren't directly
involved in the final outcome, they have often been inappropriate for the
communities and people for whom they were designed .
     Ghana's First Lady, Nana Konadu Rawlings, has made women's development a
major priority.  Through the 31st December Women's Movement, she has overseen
and encouraged projects for women all over the country.  Mrs. Rawlings' timing
is reinforced by financial assistance from a number of foreign governments, the
United Nations, and the World Bank.[9]
 
Radio Programs for Women
     In addition to the Non-Formal education programs, there is a variety of
programs for women.  Research for this paper on the listening habits of women
was concentrated in Ho.  The following gives an overview of women's programs
from GBC as well as those from Ho.  Many women in Ho were able to listen to GBC
1 and GBC 2 from Accra, as well as Volta Star Radio in Ho, and didn't make a
distinction as to the source when asked about their favorite programs.  This was
further complicated by the fact that GBC programs are sometimes also played on
Volta Star Radio.
     GBC offers several programs in English, including Woman to Woman, Women's
World, and Women's Magazine, all of which offer advice on traditional women's
issues like health, education, nutrition and child maintenance.  Experts are
interviewed and occasionally sketches are used to reinforce new ideas.  Ideal
Woman is a personality-driven program featuring successful women who talk not
only about their work, but about their personal lives and favorite causes.
Ideal Woman is done in different languages depending upon the language of the
guest, the "ideal woman."[10]
     Gertrude Opere-Addo hosts Woman to Woman, a three-times-a-week advice
program that focuses on health, psychology and the law.  She has the same guest
for a block of time--several weeks--who will answer questions from phone calls
and letters.  Translators are available during the program to make it easier for
people to ask their questions and for the audience to understand them.
Opere-Addo is also the host of In Touch, a brief, 6-7 minute spot that airs on
Sunday.  Like the weekly show, In Touch also offers advice on social issues
related to women's domestic lives--health, parental roles, abortion, stress,
alcoholism, etc.--but solutions to problems are offered based on the teachings
of the Christian Bible.  Breaks in the program are filled with what Opere-Addo
calls "the encourager spot."  She begins the break with, "Let me introduce you
to somebody," then plays the song, "What a friend we have in Jesus."   In Touch
is sponsored by the Lutheran Media Ministry of Ghana which also pays Opere-Addo
to host the program.[11]
     A program called Housewives' Favorite airs on most stations around the
country in a variety of languages.  However, each program is not an exact
translation of an original, but rather a local language version that is unique
to the individual station where it is playing.  A particular program may or may
not feature the same subject as the Housewives' Favorite on another station.
     The above does not offer an all-inclusive compendium of women's radio
programs in Ghana.  Radio programming is fluid, as in most media environments,
with new programs being added and others being discontinued regularly.  The
above descriptions are intended to give the reader a sense of the kind of
programs targeting women.  Reactions to the programs by some of the women in Ho
are described below.
 
Methods
     This research was conducted for dissertation research on radio as a tool
for development among women in Ghana.  Research methods were qualitative with an
emphasis on interpretive ethnographic approaches using participant observation,
textual analysis and interviewing.  Archival research was also used.
     The research was conducted over a three-month period from October 1997 -
January 1998.  The project was begun at the University of Ghana, Legon, where
experts on women, development, and media policies were interviewed.
     Although I conducted extensive research on Ghana before leaving the US, I
found that a snowball approach to sources was helpful once I was in-country.
The list of authors and experts compiled in the US served as a guide, but there
were often more helpful individuals who held positions of power, or had
information that was essential to the study.  It was sometimes helpful to have a
letter of introduction from one influential person to another.  For example,
after visiting GBC four times, and sitting, waiting to be seen for long periods,
I found that a letter from a particular professor to a person in power finally
opened the gates to the big corporation.  It was only a fluke that I'd mentioned
my problems to the professor in the first place, but after allowing me entrance,
GBC management was very open and gracious.
     Management professionals from Ghana Broadcasting Corporation were
interviewed about past, present and future policies of the GBC, including
funding priorities, policy changes, and liaisons with other government agencies.
Audience research studies from 1978 through 1997 were also examined.  GBC's
rural radio reporters offered insight into their jobs and the communities they
serve, as well as the changes they have seen in policies and resources available
in recent years.  One reporter, Sawuratu Alhassan, accompanied me to Tamale
where we conducted interviews in several communities and Non-Formal education
classes.  Managers at local radio stations in the village of Apam and the city
of Ho were also interviewed.
     Management at the Department of Education's Non-Formal Education Division
was interviewed, including repeated interviews with the Deputy Director of Radio
about the use of radio for basic literacy classes and the relationship between
the Non-Formal Division, GBC, international donors like the World Bank, and the
rest of the central government.  Regional staff from the Non-Formal program also
were interviewed repeatedly.
     Facilitators (teachers) of the Non-Formal classes were interviewed, as were
participants (learners) of the classes.  The meetings with the literacy classes
were somewhat formal, as they were always set up by a third party and always
included the whole group.  In the North, I was assisted by staff from the
Non-Formal program and the 31st December Women's Movement, a national group
whose objective is to initiate and support development projects for women.  It
was on this trip that the GBC rural reporter mentioned above accompanied me.
  Because the groups were assembled by their facilitators and staff members from
the Non-Formal Division, I was concerned that answers to my questions might not
be totally candid.  The responses were generally enthusiastic about the
Non-Formal classes, but they were not without criticism.  So, while I accepted
at face value what the women said, I tried to phrase new questions to get a
sense of what was working for them and what was not.  I interviewed a number of
women outside the classes as well to get a more detached view.
     In Ho, the Non-Formal Division allowed me to visit, observe, and later
question the learning groups.  I was also allowed to observe facilitator
training in two locations, Akatsi and Kpandu.  At times, I was accompanied to
the literacy classes by a staff member of the Non-Formal Division, otherwise, a
staff member from the National Council on Women and Development in Ho assisted
me.  All of the encounters with the Non-Formal classes would more appropriately
be called group interviews than focus groups as they were free-flowing, but
slightly more formal than what is commonly described in the US as a focus group.
     Finally, women who work in the markets at Tamale, Ho and Akatsi were
interviewed in-depth, some more than once.  The market women represented a
variety of economic positions as some were illiterate and had virtually no
capital to work with, while others were very well educated.  In addition to
formal education, some of the women were fourth or fifth generation traders who
had learned the skills necessary for success in the marketplace almost from
birth.  Although there were wide disparities among women in terms of economics,
there were no defining factors that predicted success or failure, other than the
obvious:  women who started out with more, generally ended up with more.  The
"more" varied from reading and math skills to ownership of land to credit, etc.
etc.  I could find no direct correlation between a particular woman's economic
position and her reaction to specific radio programs.
     To speak with the Non-Formal classes and most of the women in the markets,
I required translators.  In the Tamale area where people speak Dagbani, the
reporter from GBC, S. Alhassan, along with two staff members from the Non-Formal
program, interpreted questions and answers, as well as offering useful
information about the day-to-day realities of the people in the communities we
visited.  Ms. Alhassan was also there to gather tape for stories she would
produce for GBC, and I found some of her questions were helpful as well.
     All of the interviews in the North were tape recorded.
     In addition, a young man accompanied me to the market and acted as an
on-the-spot translator for spontaneous questions to vendors.  Those questions
were not tape recorded.
     In Ho, the information gathering was more careful as that city became the
main focus of the research.  The same translator, Sitsofe Amegboe, accompanied
me every time interviews were done and interpreted for me and the Ewe-speaking
women of Ho.  All interviews were tape recorded and logged into the computer.
Later, a second translator re-interpreted the tapes and that information was
added to the data.  Most of the time, the translations were in agreement.
Occasional differences usually reflected the original translator's attempts to
clarify the responses of the interviewees by adding details she assumed I did
not know.
     In Akatsi, interviews were done in the marketplace as well.  However, a
different translator was employed.  The translations were insufficiently
detailed, so the interviews at Akatsi became less useful than those at Ho or
Tamale.
     Throughout the research process, observations were recorded daily, along
with supplemental information gleaned from casual conversations and reading.
Several radio programs from a variety of stations were also tape recorded and
when necessary, translated into English.  Texts were analyzed for their content,
messages, attitudes, and over-all approach to women as an audience.
 
Findings
     1. Do the competing agendas of privatization of the media for profit, and
the use of media for development and education have implications for women?
     If the rural stations are to be the main source of media for development in
Ghana, the competition for funds within local communities must be considered.
As mentioned above, local District Assemblies are faced with competing interests
and problems which must be addressed with limited funds from the government and
whatever other sources of income the Assemblies can create.  Advertising from
churches and local businesses may work in larger communities, but in some of the
smaller communities, there are not enough businesses to support local radio
stations.  Although many of the people who were interviewed for this research
said they believed the District Assemblies would "find the money," no one was
able to say where that money would come from beyond the operating funds given to
the Assemblies by the central government.[12]  It appears likely that
Assemblies, faced with limited funds, may feel supporting a radio station is not
as important as, for example, community sanitation or children's education.  In
such a situation, the government's commitment to women's development radio will
be challenged.
     An examination of GBC audience research from 1978 to 1997 shows a
surprising lack of data about women's reaction to programming.  In the earliest
days, "programming councils" in each region were appointed by the government.
The councils were totally or almost totally comprised of men whose job it was to
rubber stamp GBC policies.  Later research included overwhelming majorities of
male respondents.  In 1996, 91.3% respondents were male.  In one survey in 1995,
72 men and 5 women responded, while in a second survey that year, 84 men and 2
women responded.  In 1993, 100 men and 50 women responded.  In 1991, 98 men and
3 women.
     In a 1997 survey of listeners of the women's program, Woman to Woman, 64
men and 144 women responded.  Director of Research, Hamidu Chodi, told me that
the 1997 survey represented a new policy of equality in research.  In future
research projects, for every two men, at least one woman had to be
interviewed.[13]
     At the same time, women are not totally unrepresented at GBC.  Most of the
rural radio producers are women.  Gertrude Opere-Addo, mentioned above, is in a
management position, and there are several other women in positions of some
power.  At the rural stations, this does not appear to be the case.  Management
at the three stations I visited--Ho, Tamale, and the village of Apam--were all
men.
 
     2.  In what ways is radio being used for women's development?
     As mentioned above, development-oriented programs for women are found in
the programs for the Non-Formal education and in what could be called regular
women's programs.  However, there are reasons to question the government's
long-term commitment to the use of radio for education.  The Non-Formal
education system is running out of money.[14]  The system was funded with loans
from the World Bank beginning in 1989 and was designed to last until 2000 with
"virtual eradication of illiteracy" by that year (Facilitator's Manual, 1992, p.
14).  However, the program spent more than was expected with fewer results.  As
of October 1997, a highly critical independent report was being produced about
the Non-Formal program.[15]  Staff from Literacy House were in the process of
requesting additional funds from the Bank to continue the program.
     Reinforcement tools are already becoming scarce.  Many of the classes in
the North had no radios.  Sanyo, the company that has made the radios for the
classes for many years, has become reluctant to manufacture any new ones.[16]
     In Ho, the Non-Formal education program would seem to contradict what was
going on at the main headquarters in Accra.  As late as December, groups of new
facilitators were being trained--a minimum 18-month commitment--to lead classes
all around the region.
     Volta Star Radio, the FM station in Ho, is owned by the Non-Formal program.
Unlike most of the other rural stations, it is not formally scheduled to be
passed on to the local District Assembly.  The Assembly Chief at Ho, George
Forjoe, acknowledged that eventually the station would become the Assembly's
responsibility, but as of December 1997, he had no knowledge of when.[17]  The
considerable expenses of that station were still being paid for by the central
government through GBC and the Ministry of Education.
     Even with support from Literacy House, Volta Star Radio did not always air
the programs from the Non-Formal education, even though they were scheduled.
When I attempted to monitor and record Non-Formal programs for this research, I
found that they were replaced with religious programming--which was sponsored by
a church--and, on other occasions, by music.   Based on the interviews done with
women, it is safe to say that this rescheduling does not always occur, but based
on my own experience, it is also clear that the Non-Formal programs are not as
sacrosanct as one might expect considering the ownership of the station.  When
asked about the discrepancy between the scheduled programs and the actual
programming, station management said my lack of comprehension of the Ewe
language probably led to a misinterpretation of what I was hearing, but, in
fact, a native speaker translated the programs and came to the same conclusions
as I.
 
     3.  Are women receiving the messages?  Are the messages useful and helpful
to women?
     In the Non-Formal classes where radio was used as a supplementary tool,
women remembered quite clearly which programs they had heard, not only subject
matter but details of the subject.  They were delighted when they heard other
learners on-air, although I did not meet any group who had been on the air
themselves.  Several said they'd invited the local rural producer to visit their
class, but so far, she/he had not come.  Learners said they had learned a lot
from the radio, although they seemed to merge the lessons of the class and
primer with the lessons from the radio, which is the ideal.  Only a few learners
from the Non-Formal classes said they had radio in their own houses, but when
they did, they listened in the evenings after the day's chores were done, and on
Sunday mornings before church.
     In addition to the Non-Formal education programs, the programs for women
concentrate almost exclusively on domestic issues.  The question of whether
women are receiving the messages could be answered in a number of ways.
     It must first be acknowledged that only about half of the women I
interviewed (more than 60 in total) had any access to radio.  Of those who did,
not all owned the radios themselves.  A few women said that their husbands or
other men (sons, brothers) owned the radio in the house, so when he was home
playing the radio, they heard it.  When he was not home, the radio was often
locked up in his room.  To understand why a man might lock up his radio, it's
necessary to consider the way property is divided between men and women in
Ghana.  It is not necessarily communal.  Husbands and wives often live in
separate houses, and when they live together, each has a separate room or
section of the house.  This separation of economies carries over to material
goods like radios.  Many rural houses have no electricity which means the radios
use batteries.  The cost of batteries in proportion to incomes is so high that
it represents a hardship to buy new ones.  A woman may not consider replacing
the batteries in a radio that is not hers.  A man may be unwilling to buy
batteries for someone else.
     Other women said they had no time to listen to radio.  This was especially
true of market women whose days begin at 4:30 AM and don't end until well after
dark.  Many women's programs are scheduled during the day which is inconvenient
for market women unless there is a radio playing in the marketplace.  In one
small cantina, I interviewed eight women.  While the women worked together in a
closed space which one radio would easily accommodate, each woman wanted her own
radio.  One woman did have a radio in her stall, but none of the others
acknowledged hearing it.
     This was consistent with another confusing detail of the research findings.
While it might be assumed that women who are together all day would, at least
occasionally, discuss things they hear on the radio, questions about whether
they did, in fact, discuss things heard on the radio elicited blank looks.  This
does not necessarily mean women do not discuss such things, but that, perhaps
they don't see themselves in such discussions, or they don't connect the subject
matter of their conversations with the source of the information.
     Many women in Ghana speak no English, or their comprehension is minimal.
For them, programs in Ghanaian languages are obviously more relevant.  Some
market women speak three or four languages and listen to the same information on
the radio in several languages.  Others only benefit from programming in their
own language.  Some said they speak no English, but they listen to and claim to
understand radio in English.
     The women who did listen to radio programs were, for the most part, unable
to differentiate between GBC and Volta Star Radio programs, despite the fact
that they needed to switch from FM to short wave or vice versa to hear
particular programs.  At the same time, most of the listeners named Housewives'
Favorite as a favorite program and could discuss issues they had heard on that
program.  Also popular were religious programs which many women listen to on
Sundays, and sometimes on Saturday afternoons.
     The women, for the most part, said they were satisfied with the overall
program content, although on further discussion, I learned that some women were
mentioning programs they had heard years ago.  Many women mentioned the
religious programs as favorites.  One Muslim woman mentioned Opere-Addo's In
Touch, the religious program which uses the Bible as a foundation for its
advice.  I asked her why she liked it, given that she is a Muslim.  She replied
that the Bible is a good book for anyone.
      Women had a difficult time answering the question:  Are there any things
you'd like to hear on the radio?  or a variation:  Can you think of any ways
radio could help you?  It was quite obvious no one had thought of radio as
something on which she could have any impact.  The few who were able to re-think
the possibilities most often named income-generation and credit as the things
they most needed help with.  (There was very little of such pragmatic
programming content.)  A few others named program topics they'd already heard.
The most innovative answer came from a weaver in Kpetoe, a village known for its
weavers.  She said she would like the radio to feature the products from her
village so that people "around the world" would come and buy their work.  She
may not have understood the limits of individual radio stations, but she
instinctively knew the value of advertising.
     Upon being asked whether they ever listened to the programs for the
Non-Formal education, only a few women outside the classes said they listened.
Most of the literate respondents answered curtly that they knew how to read; the
programs were not for them.
     Finally, many women complained that they would like very much to listen to
the radio, but they had no access to it.  A few market women in Ho pointed out
that, at one time, there were public speakers in the market and in other places,
and everyone could listen to the radio then.  No one could remember when the
speakers had been removed, or why.
 
 
Conclusions
     Although women are being targeted somewhat, the government's commitment to
women's development programs, particularly the use of radio to reinforce those
programs, appears very limited.  The de-funding of the Non-Formal program, the
competition within the districts for funds, and the need of GBC to become
self-sustaining seem likely to leave the country's poorest women left out of the
media in the future.
     Based on discussions with many women outside the Non-Formal classes, it is
apparent that the interests of literate women, both poor and middle-class (for
lack of a better descriptive term), already have been set aside for programming
that encourages urban consumerism, traditional domesticity, and the woman's
responsibilities in the home.  Programs for women frequently use a monophonic
lecture mode, usually with a man as expert, and appear to this outsider to
ignore whatever knowledge or problems women have in daily life.  When women are
brought onto the radio as experts, they are frequently experts on recipes, child
care or nutrition.  This orientation is consistent with Ghanaian feminism, which
reiterates the importance of women's responsibilities in the home (see, e.g.,
but it ignores the burden most women face of having to support the family
financially as well as taking full responsibility for child care, and the
maintenance of the home.
     It could be argued, as many have before, that most of women's problems in
Ghana come from the irresponsibility of men, particularly toward child care and
the household.  There are many historic, traditional, political and economic
forces coming into play in the domestic and financial relations between men and
women, but within that complex framework, radio offers no entreaty to men to
help make women's lives easier.  While there are many programs to help women be
better wives and mothers, I could find none that encouraged men to be better
husbands or more responsible fathers.
     Religious programs typically offer spiritual advice for material problems.
In one program on family difficulties, for example, the preacher said, "Those
who find themselves drinking, who have marital problems...Don't drink too much
because you'll regret the situation you find yourself in."  There was no further
advice on how to stop drinking, only a promise of hope.[18]  While there may be
nothing inherently wrong with a spiritual entity giving spiritual advice, the
increasing role of the churches on the air may mean less and less assistance for
women in terms of material programming content.  The large number of women who
spoke of a need for increased cash and credit are unlikely to find new
information on how to obtain those resources if churches control most of the
non-music program blocks.
     In programming for women, it appears that Ghana has seen them as a resource
more than as a group of individuals whose lives could be made easier.  Radio is
being used with varying rates of success to reinforce new ideas and information,
but the daily hardships women face are not being challenged.  While elite women
advise the government on how to address women's development, including teaching
them to read, the voices of the recipients seem to be silent.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
REFERENCES
 
1.
 
[1]  Structural Adjustment has become a proper noun which implies a similar
pattern for most lender countries:  devaluation of currency, opening up domestic
markets to foreign goods, lowering or revoking protective tariffs, cut-backs on
government expenditures for social services and employment, large-scale
privatization of state-run industries.
[2]  B. GyeKye Tanob, Director, Research/Marketing, World Space, Accra, personal
conversation, October 15, 1997;  Chris Tackie, Director and Personal Assistant
to the Director General, GBC, personal conversation, November 4, 1997.
[3]  Chris Tackie, Director and Personal Assistant to the Director General,
personal conversation, November 11, 1997.
[4]  Gertrude Opere-Addo, producer of Woman to Woman, a talk show for women that
played three times a week, 2:05 - 3:00 PM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
personal conversation, November 4, 1997.
[5]  C. Tackie, November 4, 1997.
[6]  Each of the local stations was created at a different time with different
funding sources, different mandates and different agreements with GBC.  For
purposes of simplicity, this discussion will focus on the stations at Tamale and
Ho, where the bulk of the research was done.
[7]  Kwami Ansre, Deputy Director of Radio, Ministry of Education, personal
conversation, October 22, 1997.
[8]  "Pre-sets" as they are called, are battery operated radios.  They are
pre-set to the short-wave frequencies of GBC 1 and GBC 2.  The listener can
click the knob from one to the other.  The more modern version of the pre-set
also has an additional tunable FM dial.
[9]  A brief trip in the Tamale area revealed projects for women funded by the
governments of Iran, Japan, Canada, Denmark, and the US.  The radio stations in
Tamale and Ho were built with World Bank loans while the proposal for the
preliminary work on the ten new stations was sent to a Japanese agency.
[10]  Group interview with GBC rural producers, November 4, 1997.
[11]  Gertrude Opere-Addo, personal conversation, November 4, 1997.
[12]  E.g., C. Tackie, November 4, 1997; K. Ansu-Kyeremeh, Professor
Communications, University of Ghana, Legon, personal conversation, October 23,
1997.
[13]  Hamidu Chodi, Director of Research, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation,
personal conversation, November 5, 1997.
[14]  Indira Tettegah, Director of Research, Non-Formal Division, Ministry of
Education, personal conversation, October 23, 1997.
[15]  Tettegah.  The report, done by Professor David Korboe from the University
of Science and Technology in Kumasi, was not available when the interview was
done.
[16]  K. Ansre, Deputy Director Radio, Non-Formal Division, Ministry of
Education, October 17, 1997.
[17]  George Forjoe, Chief Executive Officer, District Assembly at Ho, personal
conversation, December 17, 1997.
[18]  Program from Redeem Evangelistic Church in Ho, Saturday morning, November
1, 1997.