Impact of online newsportals on the patronage of newspapers in Ghana

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Research, Studies, Enquiries, grade: 80.00, Ghana Institute of Journalism, language: English, abstract: The invention of the World Wide Web in the last decade has made information sharing very personal, convenient and easy. The growing trend of this new communication has facilitated the establishment of a medium through which news can be accessed without the purchase of a hardcopy newspaper, radio or television. Because of this, almost all television and radio stations as well as hardcopy newspapers in Ghana have an online representation of news.

Could the introduction of the internet and online news portals be taking over from the traditional media or these portals complement traditional media? Data collected and findings of the study indicated that online news portals directly have an impact on the patronage of newspapers in Ghana but have not totally displaced newspapers. This is because while most respondents heavily depended on online news portals for information and majority felt satisfied, few others relied on newspapers for specific information such as job advertisements.

Keywords: social media, online news, newspapers, news websites, newspaper patronage.