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- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper discusses the kind of mass communication research that is required in Africa. After a thorough review of the controversy between the adherents of the (American) administrative and (European) critical research schools, the author argues that as far as African mass communication research is concerned, the problem is not only that of conceptualization but also that of social research process and administration. The paper registers a general dissatisfaction with African social research based on foreign theoretical and methodological assumptions. It ends with a call for 'back to our roots', having outlined four major research agenda for African mass communication researchers.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper makes a case for the study of organizational communication as essential to development communication. It briefly traces the history of development communication and how mass media became synonymous with development communication. The assumptions underlying mass media's pre-eminence is revisited in order to make a case for organizational communication in an African environment. In the later sections, it describes a model for the study of development systems and organizational communication components.
- Date Issued:
- 1995-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This article outlines some of the recurring issues in mass communication research. Starting with a discussion of the perennial problem of defining the field of mass communication research, the article reviews the administrative-critical debate or the 'ferment' in mass communication research, and puts forward new concepts which seem to suggest new directions in the field. It finally suggests ways in which African communication scholars might contribute to the on-going debates in the field.
- Date Issued:
- 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Date Issued:
- 1986-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Economy
- Description:
- This paper argues the case for a philosophy of communication in Africa so as to give meaning and direction of African communication research. Observing that philosophy as an activity is not alien to Africa, the author contends that it is the absence of a philosophy of communication in Africa that accounts for the lack of theoretical orientation in African communication research. He reviews the major American mass communication theories, and demonstrates that each of them is based on some American philosophy or world view. He then argues that any appropriate philosophy of mass communication in Africa must originate from African philosophy, defined in a fairly broad manner.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This study examines the nature of communication research published in Africa Media Review, with particular reference to the subject areas of the published studies, and the extent to which the researchers have used some of the minimal scientific procedures in executing their studies. Since the AMR is the leading African communication journal which regularly publishes African communication research, it is an appropriate place to begin this process of empirical excursion into the present state of communication research on the continent.
- Date Issued:
- 1995-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper explores the nature of communication research going on in Africa The author argues that while the absence of a research tradition in Africa compels researchers on African affairs to adapt and replicate some American, European, and Soviet research strategies, there is a real need for communication researchers to take cognizance of the cultural context in which their research in Africa takes place. He singles out the "focus group' approach as being particularly suitable for data elicitation from Africans because it harmonizes well with their social-group orientation. This approach, he argues, has the merit of generating new hypotheses since it allows interviewees to respond or behave in unanticipated ways. The author, however, does not expect the approach to be problem-free and he makes useful suggestions as to how some of the anticipated problems may be overcome.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This article looks at mass communication research in the African cultural and traditional context and suggests some innovative approaches that would enhance local communication research endeavours. It examines how African peoples, cultures, institutions and communication environments impede or facilitate social research. The author calls for indigenous efforts in the construction of new theories and methodologies in communication research that would appropriately fit the African context of development.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review