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Higher Education institutions (HEIs) exist within technological and social contexts worldwide. Universities have invested in technology and built the capacities of their staff for the improvement of faculty scholarship. Social media platforms such as social media that were initially designed and used for social interactions now have a considerable stake in higher education. University faculty members use social media platforms in their academic research. This study investigates the motivations for social media platform usage by university faculty members in Ghanaian universities and how the user can affect their academic productivity. This study adopted online questionnaires to collect the needed data from university faculty members. To have closer insights into the study’s subject matter. The researcher investigated the issue from 301 university lecturers, 5 randomly selected universities and 13 academic departments. Some key findings of this study indicate that the specific social media platforms used by faculty members are: WhatsApp, Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, and Research Gate, with (57.1%) faculty members using WhatsApp to aid them in teaching and research. Faculty members also use social media to network with other scholars to share knowledge in their fields of expertise. Based on our findings, it can be concluded that the use of social media platforms enhances the faculty member’s academic productivity.

Since mid-March 2020, educational systems worldwide and particularly Ghana were under increasing pressure to use the new Digital Technologies (DTs) and mobile applications (apps) to assist teachers in guiding students to continue with online learning activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is aimed at assessing the utilization of DTs and apps tools by students during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those technologies have affected online learning in institutions of higher education in Ghana. The researcher adopted an online survey and exploratory-based design that utilized quantitative and qualitative approaches to purposively collect data from N=784 students from three major public universities in Ghana. Also, the study applied Uses and Gratification as the theoretical basis in understanding the utilization of DTs and their possible limitations for remote learning during the peak of COVID-19 in Ghana. This study reported that the specific DMTs and mobile apps used by students in higher education for online learning are smarts phones and apps such as Class In, Zoom, Skype, and Instagram live stream. This study also revealed that Personal Learning Network (PLN) such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter were also actively used by students for remote online learning. Again, the study shows that 77.1% of students in the sampled three universities were fully aware of the DTs and apps utilized for online learning during COVID-19. Also, the findings from this study report that students in higher institutions identified unstable electricity for continuous online learning, especially for those students in rural areas, unreliable internet service, poor WiFi connections, expensive smartphones / laptops, and high cost of inter bundle as key challenges of using DMTs and mobile apps for online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, on the perceived usefulness of DTs and mobile apps among students for online learning in higher educational institutions, the findings from this study suggest that DMT’s and apps were of great benefit to students for remote online learning.

Speech acts as an important element during communication, because it explains the thoughts of the speaker(s). A speech act is more about what is performed when uttering words and not about individual words or sentences that are known to form the basic elements of human communication. An attempt to do something through speaking is what is known as a speech act and a lot of things can be done through speaking. A speech act is studied under speech act theory and is found in the domain of pragmatics. Using a qualitative research design, the key objective of this study is to analyze the types of speech acts adopted in the inaugural address of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo as the President of the Republic of Ghana for his second term on the 7th January 2021. This study analyzed the Inaugural Address using Searle’s theory of speech act as a theoretical framework with emphasis on Searle’s five categories of speech act. The study showed that out of a total of 74 locutionary / Statements in the inaugural address,assertive acts are 40.5% of the utterances, commissive acts are 25.6%, while directive, expressive and declarative have small portions, of 13.5%, 12.2%, and 8.2% respectively.

Video and audio fake news formats distributed on Facebook in the form of dis/misinformation have caused so much fear, and panic, and received unpleasant reactions among users. This study adopted a comparative experimental design to test the hypotheses by varying the valence, thus types of formats or modalities, the educational levels, credibility, and sharing intentions of the participants, thus, 2 (video vs audio formats) ×2 (credibility vs sharing intentions) × 2 (literate vs. illiterate) to predict the specific media format(s) that influence the spread of fake news on Facebook among users in Ghana. The participants (N = 340) for this study were recruited from the three municipalities in Accra the national capital of Ghana. The research design regarding data sources was carried out in the form of a street intercept survey method. The findings show that users of Facebook believed and shared video formatted fake news than audio formatted. Further analyses indicate that the educational levels (literacy and illiteracy) variables that influence the spread of fake news on Facebook were not consistent. Besides, an in-depth theoretical explanation for modality effects when viewed from the perspective of mobile media, the study has proposed some theoretical and practical implications.

Development communication and community radio media outlets have been described as the most effective way of ensuring political inclusion and political engagement in emerging democracies such as Gh...

The 21st century is best described by many as the Digital Age. The digital revolution at the beginning of the century has witnessed the introduction of social media platforms. About two decades now, globally, the are several questions on the effects of social media on the new production. While a section of media and communication experts view that social media has positively promoted news production, other scholars strongly see the negative side of social media in news production, especially with the context of the propaganda model. The objective of this article is to offer insightful review literature on the effects of social media on news production, within the context of the propaganda model to improve the reader’s understanding of the role of social media news production. The review is divided into two sections; the first part gives us much insight into what the propaganda model is all about, and the second section critically looks at the net effects of social media in news making via the propaganda model.

Ghana currently has over 25 registered political parties. The two key political parties in Ghana are the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC). Before the introduction of social media, especially Facebook, political parties in Ghana employed traditional communication strategies, such as TV, Radio, and News Papers, to execute political communication. However, since 2012 political parties in Ghana have deployed and relied heavily on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, as a political communication tool to disseminate their political manifestoes to the electorates in order to clinch political power. This article adopted a purely descriptive approach with an emphasis on document analysis to review relevant information and literature for the study. Hence literature is sourced from secondary sources like a pool of online libraries, political party’s websites/Facebook pages, and other scholarly research related to the subject under investigation. The objective of this paper is to carefully explore political parties on Facebook, emphasizing the two main Political parties in Ghana, thus the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Social media has provided the best source of information about the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. Updates are received via social media, and people encourage keep-up with public health measures to stay safe. Using best practices in crisis communication theory as the theoretical framework; this article investigates how social media is used in informing people during the COVID-19 pandemic and its possible impact. This study employed an online survey to investigate whether social media platforms helped to educate and prevent the COVID-19 pandemic or have instead caused panic among the Ghanaian migrants in Beijing, China. The statistical population of this study consisted of the entire 472 members of the WeChat groups of Ghanaian migrants while purposive sampling was used to select 460 Ghanaian migrants. The findings from this study indicated that the utilization of social media has dramatically caused panic among the Ghanaian Migrant community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public educations regarding pandemics are done through social media; therefore, there is a need to monitor social media usage. From a critical search of the literature on studies on social media and COVID-19, this article happens to be among the very few papers on how many social media has caused panic during the COVID-19 global public health crisis. Also, this study will contribute to both academia and policymaker’s knowledge of how information disseminates on similar future public health crises.

Ghana has deployed high-speed technology and digital initiatives for the daily management of all the sectors of the country under the theme ‘’Ghana Go Digital Agenda’’ policy initiative. These digital governance initiatives include the electronic or digital-health care systems, e-justice system paperless clearing of goods at port-banking, and other online services. Paramount among the many digital initiatives is the introduction of drones for emergency digital health delivery. Access to medical supplies in Ghana has been hindered by the difficulty of getting the supplies from the central points to other areas that are remotely located to enable the patients who need the services to get them. To overcome this challenge and deliver affordable and accessible health care services to the Ghanaian populace, the Government of Ghana engaged a US-based company Zipline Technology to use Drones in the supply of medical supplies for emergencies and hard-to-reach areas of the country. Since the introduction of this initiative in 2019, it has attracted mix-reactions from various stakeholders on the relevance of the drone technology project on health delivery in Ghana. This study used the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess drone technology’s impact on Ghana’s emergency health delivery system. The study utilized an online survey questionnaire to solicit data from participants. From the hundred (100) health facilities, located within the operational zone of the drone, twenty (20) were purposively sampled. Out of 550 questionnaires distributed, a total of 533 health workers (participants) validly responded to the online questionnaire. One key finding of our study indicates that the introduction of drone technology for medical supplies in Ghana has significantly impacted positively on the emergency health delivery system in Ghana.

Digital media, also called by many as “New Media,” is the use of computers and mobile devices (blogs, e-book, and video games) which are aided by internet to create and disseminate content as well as other physical embodiment such as flash memory sticks, hard drive among others. Some scholars prefer to define digital media in contrast to “analog”, “mass media” in relation to “new media” and so on. The history of digital media documents the move of computers from glorified calculators to devices that are transforming human communications, entertainment, and creative production, linking digital media to earlier interactive machines and media. Digitization and media convergence in Ghana are considered by many media experts as the gateway to the socio-economic development of Ghana. Since its introduction in the early 1990s, digital media and information and communication technology have shaped and continue to shape the media landscape of the good people of Ghana. In spite of the numerous opportunities presented by the digital media technologies developing country like Ghana, the challenges are still eminent which prevent the country from tapping the full potentials of digital media. This article starts with a review of literature on the concept of digital or new media in global, Africa and Ghana context, the Internet and new media production. The article closes on the opportunities, challenges and the way forward for the development of digital media technology use in Ghana. Sources of material for this article included published and unpublished academic articles, media reports, and personal and institutional blogs, as well as Web sites.

The activities of the anti-vaccine crusaders and conspiracy theorists on social media platforms have influenced billions of people across the globe on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines currently been used for immunizations. The increased social media mis/disinformation on the efficacies and safety of these vaccines developed have raised a global concern among all stakeholders. This study adopted a convenience sampling through an online survey to collect data from N=1800 participants (students) from five (5) public universities in Accra the national capital of Ghana, which is also the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine their perceptions on the overabundance COVID-19 pandemic information on social media and how these pieces information consumption impacts their trust/mistrust/distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines. The findings of our study indicate that there exist vital levels of COVID-19 vaccines “infodemic” on social media and these overabundances of COVID-19 vaccine information on social media has caused great levels of fear and panic among the students and the public. We also found that, the high exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media are associated with negative perceptions and higher levels of mistrust/distrust among the population. This study recommends that stakeholders such as WHO, policymakers, and accredited health institutions must embark on public health communication campaigns to educate the public on the credible sources of COVID-19 pandemic information on social media. © 2021 by authors;licensee OJCMT.

The first quarter of 2020 is a hard time for the global community. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemics swept through the world affected many aspects of human endeavour: from the decline in industrial production to the re-adjustments in the academic calendar of all educational institutions globally. Stakeholders and management of higher educational institutions have no other option but to make use of internet technology, thus online learning for the continuation of academic activities across all schools worldwide. This paper aims at assessing whether Ghanaian international students in China are satisfied with the ‘‘ mass’’ online learning in higher educational institutions in Beijing, China. Therefore, this study employed an online survey to investigate the level of satisfaction of online learning in higher educational institutions and how Ghanaian international students are coping with these ‘‘new initiatives’’. The findings from the study suggest that the implementation of online learning programs was a very great idea as the majority of the sampled students supported the initiative. The study also revealed that students have adequate knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another finding that came up during the research is the high cost of participating in online learning. However, our results showed that students outside China due to the COVID-19 spend so much money to buy internet data for online learning. Last but not least, the study discovered that internet connectivity was very slow for students leaving within the dormitories of various universities in China. The findings from this study will be of much benefit to university administrators and management in taking future emergency decisions concerning the implementation of online learning programs for student’s different backgrounds.

Many countries, including China, have declared online video gaming addictions among children and young adolescents as a public health emergency. With these growing concerns about the number of times children and young adolescents of school-going age spend time playing online video games, this study seeks to examine the adverse effects of online video gaming among young adolescents aged 13-17. This article drew on the theory of online gaming addiction and employed a qualitative research design through in-depth interviews. This study has collected data from 40 respondents in five public junior high schools in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, China. The data analysis was done through consolidated thematic analysis. This study finds that online video gaming platforms have significantly resulted in excessive addictions and negatively affected students' educational achievements, social relations, and physical and mental health. Keywords: online video games; addictions; young adolescents; China’s public junior high schools.