By: Messan Mawugbe (PhD).
The Context:
Diplomatic missions in Ghana are not just the physical structures dotted around but a
tapestry of critical human development and contributions to society. Unfortunately,
anytime diplomatic missions come to the fore, skeptical remarks follow. No matter how
those skeptical positions may be, I am of the view, that many skeptics fail to appreciate
diplomatic missions through the lenses of human development and partnerships.
Historically, the United States diplomatic relations dated before Ghana’s Independence but its diplomatic mission was established in Ghana in 1957 after Ghana’s independence.
Remarkably, United States describes its relationship with Ghana as ‘strong’ and a “people to-people level” (www.gh.usembassy.gov) type of international relationship. It is against
the backdrop of the ‘people to people’ relation that this ongoing embassies in Ghana’s
news auditing reports is crafted to measure how the media projects diplomatic missions
as ‘people to people’ or human to human relations-partnership. Also, to categorize the
thematic areas of support as the embassy embarks on their developmental initiatives in
their local catchment area. The Embassies Media VisibilityAuditing Reports-2024 (EMVAR2024)is an ongoing media research focusing on how Embassies in Ghana are framedby the media and projected to the Ghanaian and global community.
The report act as a lens for appreciating how the media constructs mental pictures about the Embassies and to map out the Thematic Contexts and Frames underpinning them. Furthermore, the research seeks to strengthen ‘people to people’ relationships between diplomatic missions and their local partners by eroding misinformation.
This study analysed 56 news headlines relating to United States Embassy-Ghana from the
1st of January to the 30th of June, 2024. News content analysismethodology was
employed with inter-coder reliability agreement at 85%.
US Embassy Ghana: The ‘Family, Mother, Parent to a Nation’ – Label
The US Embassy Ghana news headlines analysis in (Fig A) revealed 12 major
thematic areas coverage rankings in the following order: degree of coverage – Policy
and Laws 14%, Education, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) 13%, Health 11%,
VISA 11%, Human Rights 11%, Education 9%, NGOs 9%, Media 7%, Food and
Agriculture 5%, Energy 5%, Security and Public Safety 4%, Military and Defense 2%.
In terms of the media-portals coverage (Fig B) of the United States embassy-Ghana,
20 online portals projected the embassy with US Embassy.gov online portal topping
with 45% of the projection followed by myjoyonline 11%, and Ghanaweb 7%.
It is not a coincidence for this study to tag the US Embassy Ghana as‘family, mother,
parent’ as its contribution to Ghana’s development initiatives revealed through the
news headlines analysis from the 1st of January to the 30th of June, 2024 (Fig C). The
US Embassy Ghana supported Ghana with a total of USD$ 159, 894,546.00 in the
following developmental categories distributions: Environmental Pollution, Health
Services Improvement, Marine and Fisheries, Health-Vaccines Related, Education
with focus on Schools Supplies, and Education support towards School Licensing
and Inspectorate. It must however be emphasized that, the total amount USD$ 159,
894,546.00 as presented by this study is only limited to developmental
expenditures as reported by the online news headlines during the period of analysis
and may not reflect other expenditure support not available to this study.
Environmental pollution received the highest financial support of 63%, Health
Services improvements 16%, Marine Support for the promotion of sustainable
fisheries 15%, Malaria prevention support 4% and followed by Vaccines and other
categories.
Fig. A: The US Embassy Ghana: Online News Headlines Thematic Analysis
Fig. B: The US Embassy Ghana: Online News Portal Publication Ranking
Fig. C: Analysis of the US Embassy Ghana: Development Activity Dashboard
This news content auditing reportsuggest that diplomatic missions are partnerships
institution with an ethical instinct of ‘people to people level’ approach to
developments as expressed by US Embassy Ghana’s initiative towards the
community of the Oti region in Ghana with a boat, known as the “Health Voyager,”
(21st March, 2024, US Embassy.gov) to serve 30 percent of the entire population in
the Oti region and more than 230,000 people across 185 island communities in four
districts. Long Live Ghana’s Diplomatic Partnerships.
About The Author:
Messan Mawugbe (PhD)
The Managing Consultant
Institute of Brands Narrative Analysis (IBNA)
Email: mawugbe@ibnareports.org
Tel: 0544 700638