Browsing by Author "Gyasi, William Kodom"

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Exploring the Linguistic Landscape of Cape Coast: Are Our Indigenous Languages Safe in the Public Space?
(Journal of Communications, Media & Society, 2023-06-01) Gyasi, William Kodom; Dery, Marcelinus; Bangmarigu, Manasseh Jonah
The use of the English language as the official language in Ghana has had a toll on the representation of Ghanaian languages in the public space. Even though few studies in Ghana have investigated the linguistic landscape of towns such as Ajumako, Kejetia, and some others, there is no known study on the linguistic landscape of Cape Coast metropolis, the hub of education in Ghana. This study explored the linguistic landscape of Cape Coast Metropolis. The researchers selected forty (40) billboards from four strategic locations in the Cape Coast metropolis. Using Landry and Bourhis’ (1997) theory of linguistic landscape, and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) theory of Reading Images, the researchers analyzed the data gathered. The analysis revealed that Cape Coast is a multilingual town and the three languages used in the public space are English Language, Twi, and Fante. Further analysis revealed that the English language dominated the public space, followed by Twi, and lastly, Fante. Moreover, it was discovered that visuals in the billboards play a complementary role in communicating meaning to the audience. This study calls the attention of policymakers to consider revising the language policy towards promoting the use of Ghanaian languages in the public space as a strategy to sustain the culture of using our languages in the public space.
Readability and Corporate Communication: The Case of Four Banks in Ghana
(Journal of Communications, Media & Society, 2019-07) Gyasi, William Kodom
Financial reporting is a key communication tool used by banks to communicate with investors and regulators. It is thus expected that annual financial reports are made as readable as possible to enhance communication. In this paper, attention is given to the readability of annual financial reports of four Ghanaian banks. The objective is to evaluate the readability of these reports and to establish differences in readability across the reports of the four banks. Convenience sampling was employed to sample annual reports of four banks (GCB, ADB, Fidelity, and Unibank) covering the years 2013 to 2016. SMOG readability index was computed from these reports. Means, standard deviations, and independent sample t-test, with bootstrapping, were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that all four banks used difficult words and sentences to write their reports. In addition, it was established that banks on the GSE and those not on the GSE did not differ in terms of the readability of their annual reports. It is suggested that the banks revisit their writing styles in order to make their reports readable.