Beyond "Charity and handouts": A framing analysis of President Nana Akufo-Addo's 2021 Speech to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly

Abstract

Abstract

This study examined Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo’s speech to the United Nations (UN) from a framing perspective. The study’s key objective was to critically interrogate major frames embedded in the President’s speech and how they were constructed. Communication is central to examining and understanding events on the world stage. This study makes an important contribution to studying contemporary international communication and research. Employing framing analysis as the methodological approach, the study found four dominant frames in the President’s speech: (a) post-dependency and self-sufficiency, (b) inadequate global structure/global inequality, (c) new global cooperation, and (d) problems/challenges. Above all, the President’s speech centered around the imbalance in international cooperation, which he constructed from a socially, culturally, and politically situated context as a leader from the Global South. The analysis fills a major scholarly gap, as speeches from developing or periphery nations such as Ghana at the United Nations, have hardly been the focus of academic research. The present application of framing furthers our understanding of the discursive role of political actors in shaping global reality.