Keeping the Port of Tema afloat during COVID-19: Media responses to user informational and conversational needs

Martin Arvad Nicolaisen, Casper Andersen, Phillip Stenmann Baun, Jonas Nii Ayi Aryee, Annette Skovsted Hansen

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avisTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

Abstract

Two different media platforms played a key role in keeping Tema Port in Ghana afloat during the period immediately leading up to and during the three-week COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown in late March–April of 2020. The one media platform, Eye on Port, is a weekly broadcast television show by the port’s authorities, which caters primarily to external commercial stakeholders of the port. The other platform is a closed WhatsApp forum used by stakeholders working at the operational level of the port. Both platforms served specific needs among their users, who had been restricted in their mobility but had to keep the port operational. Combining ‘scalable sociality’ with the concept of polymedia, we identify how the two media functioned to meet the different informational and conversational needs of their respective users. We argue that either medium alone could not fulfil the communicative needs necessary to keep the port operational during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftJournal of African Media Studies
Vol/bind16
Nummer1
Sider (fra-til)89-105
Antal sider17
ISSN2040-199X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 1 mar. 2024

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