Children's Television in Ghana: History, Policy, Diversity, and Prospects in a Changing Media Environment examines children's television in Ghana with the aim of exploring the different factors influencing the diversity and market structure of the industry. In order to better understand the diversity of children's television in Ghana Bryant's (2007) children's television community; Industrial Organization Model (Scherer and Ross, 1990); and government and market failure theory (Weisbrod, 1975, 1977) are adapted as the theoretical foundations needed to navigate the answers to the research questions the dissertation sets out to answer. The three theoretical frameworks provide a direction for exploring the political and economic factors influencing the diversity of television programs forchildren in Ghana.
The dissertation utilizes three methods to obtain and analyze information and data for the dissertation. Content analysis was used to obtain children's television data from television schedules for the three largest television stations in the capital of Ghana. The schedules for the three television stations are published in Radio & TV Guide which is a monthly entertainment magazine published in Ghana. One-on-one semi-structured interviews with a number of core open-ended questions based on the functions of interviewees were used with station managers, media professionals, government organization officials, content creators and non-government organization officials. Finally secondary sources such as relevant industry documents from broadcasting stations,nongovernmental organizations, and government sources were reviewed to gain data on the provision of children's television programs and to corroborate information gained from the interviewees and content analysis data. In order to obtain both an objective and subjective determination of the diversity of children's television in Ghana it was important to use multiple methods.
Findings from the dissertation showed that there was significant diversity in the offerings of children's content on television in the industry in Ghana. In addition the three stations provision of significant amounts programming hours for children's television was very comparable to the amount of programming provided for children in other countries.
Within the four year period studied the three free to air television stations together provided a total of 6267 hours of programming for children. The three television stations provided both educational and entertainment programs and together targeted the different age-groups of children in Ghana.
There were very clear distinctions and differences between the three stations in their efforts to provide television programming for children in Ghana. However, there were clear signs of declines in the amount of programming on television for children with all three stations by the end of the study period. Future studies of the children's television industry in Ghana may reflect results different from what this dissertation reveals. This is because the industry under the direction of the national television station began taking steps in 2005 to revamp the industry with the aim of improving the quality of children's television. Children's television in Ghana has always enjoyed a strong history with its provision of quality programming for children and continues to explore ways to strengthen itself as reflected in the outcome of the dissertation.