Opening the Black Box of Media: An Assessment of Ghanaian Parents' Cultural Capital and Their Socialisation Practices

Abstract

Raising children in contemporary times has become increasingly challenging as parents compete with new media, particularly social media, for their children's attention. Though new media provides valuable communication channels, it can also draw children into excessive online engagement with potentially adverse consequences. For effective childhood socialisation, parents' ability to mitigate these risks are crucial, particularly during the transmission of value systems. Accordingly, understanding ways in which parents interact with new media and mediate its effect, is paramount to the process. The paper examines how parents navigate media environments and the underlying reasons for their actions, using qualitative in-depth interviews with parents living in Ghana. It frames the work within Giddens' concept of dualities together with Bourdieu's theory of capitals. The study finds that Ghanaian parents' engagement with media particularly new media in their homes, is closely tied to their levels of cultural capital. The paper concludes that parents who have recently acquired wealth, tend to overindulge their children's media use, thereby amplifying risks associated with heightened online presence. Consequently, the study recommends the establishment of structured parent support groups through Parent Teacher Associations to guide and moderate parents' media-related decisions.