Includes references ( 102-116 p.)

'ABSTRACT The emergence of Ghana as a stable and one of the fastest developing countries in Africa cannot be mentioned without the mention of the immense role the media has played over the years in this process. The freedom of the press has been highly upheld and has been of benefit to Ghana as a nation. The question is most times raised about the performance of the media as it has been accused on many occasions of not being objective, very partisan and sometimes reckless in the performance of their duty especially during electoral periods. This research hence further tries investigating this belief to ascertain if it is true or if these accusations have been mere rhetoric. This thesis makes an exploration into the editorial publications of two major newspapers in Ghana namely: the Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide. This was done in order to ascertain if these media houses adhered to the Ghana journalists' code of conduct in the performance of their duty or had been biased. Editorial articles were selected from the month of June through to December 2016 and these articles were later grouped taking into consideration the dominant themes of their messages. These categorisations were; balanced and neutral journalism, advocacy and civic journalism, responsible journalism and peace advocacy, unsupported allegations, journalism of personal attacks, gender stereotyping, attacks on state institutions, unsupported allegations and biased political journalism. It was revealed through the study that the state-owned newspaper which is perceived by Ghanaians of being a propagandist tool of the government was very professional in their work and made important contributions towards the electoral process. The private media was found to be partisan and, on most times, created an atmosphere of gloom which was found to be unproductive towards realising peaceful and fair elections. Key words: Ghana, Objectivity, Bias, Media, Critical Discourse Analysis, Editorials.'