Interrogating Dominant Ideology in Media Representations of Witchcraft-Related Gendered Violence: The Case of Mariama Akua Denteh

Authors

  • Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed Assistant Professor, Entertainment and Media Studies, University of Georgia Research Associate, Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State - QwaQwa Campus

Keywords:

African feminisms, Akua Denteh, feminist journalism, intersectionality, representation, patriarchy, witchcraft accusations

Abstract

Media studies scholarship in Ghana has disproportionately focused on political communication and press freedom, with few studies taking a feminist approach to understanding the representation of marginalized people in media narratives. Existing scholarship has examined the representation of Ghanaian women in film and music. This study examines the way that women are represented in news media, focusing on one specific incident as a case study. Through framing theory guided by an intersectional African feminist lens, I examine the way that mainstream media represented the lynching of Mariama Akua Denteh. I argue that although news media purport to be objective in news reportage, the patriarchal systems within which media organizations are situated shape the ways in which they report narratives that focus on marginalized communities. I demonstrate how the news frames on the lynching of Madam Denteh demonstrate the marginal position that Ghanaian women occupy and how that can guide us toward deconstructing how intersecting oppressions are treated in narrativizing news stories that focus on marginalized women.

Author Biography

Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Assistant Professor, Entertainment and Media Studies, University of Georgia Research Associate, Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State - QwaQwa Campus

Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed is an assistant professor of global media at the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She is a research associate in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State. She is co-editor of the book, African Women in Digital Spaces: Redefining Social Movements on the Continent and in the Diaspora (forthcoming 2023). She has won top paper awards at the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Her research which focuses on feminisms, global media, and social movements have appeared in Communication Theory, Feminist Media Studies, Review of Communication, and the Howard Journal of Communications. 

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Published

2023-07-14

Issue

Vol. 17 (2023)

Section

Articles

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