New dualism: rethinking the ontology of media systems through the lens of African liberal democracies

This article draws attention to the emergence of African liberal democracies as a challenge to the existing ontological assumptions within comparative media studies. Using Ghana as an illustrative case, the article argues that the widely understood bifurcation of African media systems can be better construed in the new context of African liberal democracies as a dualism of accommodation of liberal and communitarian normative spheres. This dualism of accommodation becomes a theoretical paradox, when contrasted with ontological assumptions within African media system scholarship that portray liberal and communitarian normative spheres of journalism as incompatible. To resolve this paradox, the article advances “New Dualism” as a new theoretical framework for ontologically incorporating the coexistence of liberal and communitarian journalism institutions in a single media system. The goal is to advance a framework and set a research agenda for conceptualizing the media systems of consolidated democracies in Africa.