The Integration of Old and New Media in Ghana: A Study of Public and Private Media Organisations

Abstract

This study examines the integration of the old and new media in Ghana \vith the aim to establish why the need for integration, their existing forms, and views of media organizations, impact and possible future scenarios of the integration. The following media houses: GTV, UNIIQ FM, JOY FM, TV3, DAILY GRAPHIC and DAILY GUIDE were selected because of their dominance of the Ghanaian media landscape. From these houses, twenty one (21) respondents were purposively sampled. They comprised of four (4) program managers, two (2) editors and fifteen (15) journalists. The rationale used in their selection was mainly due to their involvement in the use of new media in carrying out their work, the supervisory roles they played in terms of the work of journalists and the input they made in enhancing news stories or content. Interview guide was used for gathering data. The major findings are that, viewership and access to news is now mobile and forms the integration is taking are the use of Internet, Social media tools, SMS (Text Messaging) and Telephony in the media landscape. The integration is an enhancer rather than a threat to old media, helping broaden the frontiers of media houses with a future challenge of making available relevant stories that are not at the disposal of audience. This is so because the audience already has access to new media platforms.