Examining second level of agenda setting: News frames of newspapers on the political campaign on the Ghanaian general election in 2012

Following the ground-breaking study by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972 which looked at the role of the media in 1968 presidential campaigning in Chapel Hill which birthed the Agenda-Setting theory, Communication Scholars have not only confirmed how the media coverage on campaigns influence voters on political issues but have futher broadened this theory. However, most of the research referred to in the international literature is done in the US, Spain, Sweden, Britain. Therefore, the question regarding the link between this theory and the voters in Ghana needs to be asked. The study examined second level of agenda settıng: news frames of newspapers on the campaıgn and advertısements about the ghanaıan general electıons ın 2012 Perpusive sampling was used to select the only two state newspapers which are considered not only to be Ghana's respectable and non-political newspaper but are arguably the best in terms of professionalism and nuetrality. They are relied on by the larger Ghanaians populace. That is, the stories published by this newspapers have the propensity to inform people about politics and political campaigns thereby directly or indirectly setting the public agenda . The study first of it's kind in Ghana is relevant in that, in examining the content of the The Daily Graphic and The Ghanaian Times, further uses 4 framing issues to evaluate the morality, emotions, conflict and economy concerning the two biggest political candidates. The rate at which media covered political/campaign related issues, the nature of the news reports, could shape how the public perceive not only the issues but the salience of issues in the public agenda. The study found out that, the Daily Graphic had a lot of publications than the Ghanaian Times indicating that, the Daily Graphic is a preference to the Ghanaian Times among the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The New Patriotic Party (NPP) did not even advertise on the Ghanaian Times newspaper. Although the news coverage favoured the (NDC), the incumbent political party more than the opposition, in terms of coverage and tone, but there is no overall bias toward the (NPP) political party. Personality coverage has gained grounds in Ghana just like how it is in the United States as well as in Europe, bu the news coverage placed emphasis on policies and issues, as compared to coverages from scandals as it is in some of the Western countries. Keywords: Agenda Setting, Framing, Second-level, Political Campaign, Newspaper, Political party.