1st Edition
Communicative Perspectives on COVID-19 in Ghana At the Intersection of Culture, Science, Religion and Politics
This collection explores the communicative dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, redressing the absence of perspectives from Africa and the Global South in pandemic discourses and highlighting the importance of considering the impact of local contexts in global crises.
The volume critically reflects on the significance of communicative dimensions, understood here as the effects of communication on bidirectional flows between senders and receivers, on many different aspects of the coronavirus pandemic. Grounded in transnational and interdisciplinary perspectives and drawing on data from the Ghanian experience, the book showcases how important it is for local factors to be taken into account by governments, medical professionals, social commentators, and everyday people in communicating during a pandemic, when local cultures, histories, and infrastructures all play a role in shaping communication and the dissemination of knowledge. Chapter examines such topics as the role of metaphor, the use of social media in disinformation, and the range of strategies and channels employed by stakeholders. This volume centers the pandemic experience in a Global South context, demonstrating the importance of a greater focus on local contexts in understanding communication in a time of pandemic.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in intercultural communication, crisis communication, health communication, discourse analysis, and African studies.
Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction: Kairotic archiving of a pandemic
Part 1: Religion and Phenomenology
1. Living in a post-Covid-19 society: Symbolic communication of face masking in Ghana – Wincharles Coker
2. Living the corporeal plague in Ghana: A phenomenological explanation of metaphors used by President Akufo-Addo – Fredrica M. Eduaful and Alfred L. Owusu-Ansah
3. “Countries have locked down, but heaven’s gate is still open”: Religious rhetoric in Ghana in an era of Covid-19 pandemic – Charles Prempeh
4. Crisis communication among religious organizations: An analysis of messages from the Church of Pentecost to members during the first phase of the Covid-19 outbreak in Ghana – Rebecca Baah-Ofori and Denise D. Duncan
5. 5. The deities must hear: Embodied rituals in Ghana’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic – Philip K. Boafo
Part 2: Discourse of Local and Transnational Institutions and Publics
6. “Protect the human and you are now killing the human. Why?!”: A materialist-rhetorical reading of Black racial precarity under Covid-19 – Nancy Henaku
7. Deploying discourse as a two-pronged instrument: A critical linguistic analysis of John Mahama’s (alternative) political rhetoric on Covid-19 – Mark Nartey
8. Presidential discourse and language deficit in Ghana’s enhanced response to the Coronavirus pandemic – Nancy Achiaa Frimpong
9. Using community radio to communicate Covid-19 among marginalized communities: A case study of Radio Peace in Ghana – Emmanuel Essel, Eliza Govender and Sarah Gibson
10. Access to sign language interpretation during Covid-19 – Mary Edward, Marco S. Nyarko and Esther Akrasi-Sarpon
11. “What dey happen for Ghana?”: Reflections of mediated transnationality during the global pandemic – Nii Kotei Nikoi
Part 3: Digital Technology, Humor and Multimodality
12. The representation of Covid-19 in Akosua cartoons in the Daily Guide's Akosua Cartoons: A multimodal discourse analysis – Kweku Rockson
13. Communicating in the new normal: An examination of discourses surrounding Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana – Donné S. Novieto, Stella A.M. Yegblemenawo and Doreen E.E. Yegblemenawo
1 14. “Kwabena-19” and “Sohyia Deskansere”: An analysis of humour on the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana – Victoria Ofori, Christiana Hammond, Nicholas Obeng Agyekum, Esther Nana Anima Wiafe-Akenten
15. A content analysis of government agencies’ communication on Covid-19 in Ghana – Diana Sebbie, Jade Ampomah Baah and Daniel Ampofo Adjei
Afterword Health as determined by social determinants: Insights from the Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana – Andrews Nartey
Index
Biography
Nancy Henaku is Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Ghana, Ghana.
G. Edzordzi Agbozo is Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA.
Mark Nartey is Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England, UK.
