Media Pluralism, Regulators, and Transactional Instrumentalism in Ghana

Using a “transactional instrumentalism” framework, the chapter argues that the neo-liberal regulatory environment and neopatrimonialism have combined with hyper-partisanship, party-media parallelism, and narrow market imperatives to erode the trust imperative and obligations envisaged for the media by the Constitution. A restoration of that trust and critical media literacy are necessary to stem media capture and sustain democratic consolidation.