The Mentorship Behind my Story
Research Agenda: A Discursive Approach to Global Media Systems
My research addresses a fundamental theoretical gap in comparative media studies: the inability of existing models to account for the structural flux of societies where multiple institutional logics, such as Liberalism and Communitarianism, interact. Utilizing African Liberal Democracies (ALDs) as theoretical laboratories, I develop frameworks that redefine the structural and digital outlines of the global public sphere.
By leveraging a unique perspective—deeply embedded in African social systems yet etic to Western academic traditions—I use the specificities of the African experience to challenge universal media concepts through a global intercultural lens. Specifically, I investigate how media systems that constitute different cultures reconfigure global communication norms and cultures.
Research Pipeline: From Ontology to Digital Mechanics
- Ontological Foundations | New Dualism (Forthcoming, Communication Theory)
This foundational work addresses the “theoretical impasse” in comparative media studies scholarship which assumes that Western Liberal Journalism and African Communitarian Journalism are inherently incompatible. Based on insights from an African liberal democracy such as Ghana, I propose the New Dualism framework to establish the ontological possibility of their the coexistence of liberal and communitarian journalism. By introducing an axis of embeddedness, I theorize how media institutions move between “texture” (surface-level modern structures) and “substructure” (deep-seated cultural norms). I argue that the evolution of a media system depends on the interplay between Thrust, Resonance, and Time, determining whether these conflicting media logics achieve a dualism of accommodation or remain in social paralysis. This transforms the question of hybridity of media logics in postcolonial societies from a static pathology of failure into a dynamic process that requires ongoing empirical studies to resolve. The New Dualism framework offers the theoretical toolkit for that empirical exericse.
- Empirical Norms | The Doorkeeping Model (In Publication Process).
Building directly on the possibility of dualism, I identify how conflicting media logics that are culturally rooted are negotiated in practice. By analyzing metajournalistic discourse within Ghanaian civil society, I identify the “Doorkeeping” framework. This reveals a moderate communitarian logic where journalists function as autonomous professionals who are simultaneously architecturally ensconced within, and accountable to, communal welfare. This model offers a roadmap for studying professional identity in any society navigating the tension between individual rights and collective social cohesion.
- Computational Mechanics | The DIPM Framework (In Publication Process)
To scale these theories for a digital-first world, I developed the Discursive Institutional Power Model (DIPM). While the previous papers define the system and the roles, DIPM provides the engine to track power shifts in real-time. This multi-methodological tool integrates Network Analysis and Topic Modeling to observe how power moves between state actors, legacy media, and digital influencers. By analyzing discursive “shocks”—such as the #SikaMpeDede or #DropTheChamber movements in Ghana—I demonstrate how digital discourse can challenge or reinforce the institutional “substructures” identified in my earlier work.
Future Horizons: Global, Comparative, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
My research pipeline is built on a commitment to collaborative, interdisciplinary networks that bridge the Global North and South to produce reciprocal insights:
- Transatlantic Collaborations: Partnering with scholars in the West to re-evaluate concepts of hybridity and mediatization. By looking “back” at the West through the structural complexities of ALDs, we uncover how informal social structures influence formal political communication in all modern democracies.
- Global Computational Networks: Leading interdisciplinary projects that use the DIPM framework to analyze how digital affordances (like platform algorithms) are indigenized or resisted by Southern actors, providing a more accurate global map of digital hegemony and discursive struggle.
- Comparative Systems Theory: I am expanding my framework through cross-continental comparative projects that investigate how concepts like frame-building and journalism professionalism transform across different media systems. By collaborating with scholars from diverse national backgrounds, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of comparative media cultures, moving beyond methodological nationalism to establish a decolonial theory of media systems capable of capturing the global public sphere in an era of flux.