Marginality and otherness: the discursive construction of LGBT issues/people in the Ghanaian news media

Abstract

In recent years, LGBT issues have received substantial media attention and engendered heated public debate in Ghana. This paper analyzes the prejudiced construction of LGBT issues in the Ghanaian news media and how this contributes to a discriminatory discourse that demeans LGBT people and puts them at the periphery of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and a dataset of 385 articles, comprising news reports, op-ed pieces, and editorials. The analysis reveals that news content on LGBT issues is biased and inflammatory, and it frames LGBT people as expendables and undesirables. This is realized by exploiting three discourses, or forms of othering, that culminate into the (re)production and naturalization of moral panic: a discourse of amorality/immorality and societal destruction, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of medicalization or pathologization. The paper concludes with a call for a more balanced and ethically/socially responsible news reporting, especially since LGBT issues in Ghana hold implications for national cohesion and security.