. Africa Media ReviewVol 1 No. 1. 1986. 
© Atrican Council on Communication Education. 
Preparing Agencies to Receive Media 
Messages on Rural Development 
by Sybil L. James* 
Abstract 
This article draws attention to the cognitive need of the communication 
receiver, and to the competence and intellectual skills that ought to be 
acquired if the target audience in rural development communication is to 
derive maximum benefit from their positive mental state and readiness for 
learning. It examines the concept of development in the African context, 
the cognitive abilities required for reading, listening and responding, and 
how these relate to development. It suggests instructional goals for 
curricula aimed at preparing message receivers for effective participation 
in rural development programmes. 
Resume 
Cet article attire l'attention sur le besoin cognitif du recepteur, les 
competences ainsi que les capacites intellectuelles qui sont necessaires dans le 
demaine de la communication pour le developpement rural pour l'audience 
visee tire profit de leur etat de connaissance et de leur aptitude a apprendre. 
L'auteur analyse le concept du developpement dans une perspective de 
contexte africain, les capacites intellectuelles requises pour lire, ecouter et 
regair. II examine egalement comment ils sont lies au developpement. II 
suggere enfin les buts pedagogiques pour la mise au point des programmes en 
vue de preparer les recepteurs a une participation effectuer aux programmes de 
developpement rural. 
'Sybil L. James is Head of the Department of Language Arts, University of Ibadan, 
Ibadan, Nigeria. 
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The question of the quality and type of preparation an audience requires, 
in order to receive media messages efficiently, should be a major concern of 
communication educators. This paper draws attention to the cognitive 
needs of the message receiver. It discusses the capabilities and intellectual 
skills that ought to he acquired for the target audiences to derive maximum 
benefit from their mental alertness and their readiness for learning. 
Underlying this discussion are three basic assumptions. These are: 
(a) Intellectual processing of the media message is indispensable to 
successful communication. 
(b) The demands placed on the receptive communication skills (listening 
and reading) by transmitted and projected media are different from 
those required by the print media. 
(c) Judging from the overwhelming research evidence highlighting 
deficiencies in reading and listening skills at all levels of the formal 
education system, it is reasonable to assume that a similar deficiency 
exists in non-formal education environments. 
Tliis paper will therefore: 
1. Examine the concept of development within the African environment. 
2. Discuss the cognitive abilities required for reading, listening and 
responding and the extent to which these abilities facilitate development. 
3. Suggest instructional goals lor curricula aimed at preparing message 
receivers for Hlertive participation in rural development programmes. 
The Concept of Development within 
the African Environment 
Development is a socio-political concept, the interpretation of which 
varies with the political leanings of the interpreter. In practical terms and 
for the purpose of this paper, it is a condition that is tied to the state of 
the society. Sears (1970), for example, provides us with the westernized 
view of this concept when he says that it is characterised by increased 
economic output in all sectors of the economy, and the distribution of this 
output in a fashion that would enhance the quality of life of the mass of the 
population. Rodney(1982),on the other hand, sees development in terms of 
the cognitive and affective growth of the individual (a growth which will, 
in turn, lead to his material well-being), and the same time in terms of the 
social and political self-sufficiency of the group. He says: 
At the level of the individual development, it implies increased skill and 
capacity, greater freedom, creativity and self-discipline, responsibility 
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and material well-being At the group level, it implies increasing 
capacity to regulate both internal and external relationships (pp. 9-10). 
The development goals set by any country, therefore, and the strategies 
employed for attaining these are determined by the concept of development 
leld by the recognised change agents in the society. 
In the context of the developing countries in Africa where poverty, 
limited literacy and political instability are major factors impeding social 
economic development, it seems to me that a structuralist approach to the 
| problem is needed. The structualists (Dehrendoff,1939; Heilbroner 1963; 
"Veblack, 1970) recognise that social organizations are constantly in a 
process of change. The direction of this change is determined by one 
[intervening force or another. These forces normally have conflicting 
(interests and are coercive in nature. Under these circumstances, the 
survival of the society is made possible by institutional constraints and the 
{coercion of some by others. 
Since conflict itself could be a creative force, the educationally well 
[equipped would be able to use it to their advantage and thus enhance their 
own well-being and that of the entire society. Education in general and 
communication education in particular must shoulder the responsibility of 
equipping the target population with the materials to overcome the 
constraints as well as the conflicts. 
Ironically, both the conflicting and constraining elements use the mass 
media as their channel of communication. All segments of the community 
will therefore be affected for good or evil. But there are channels other than 
the mass media involved in the diffusion of knowledge and the influencing 
of human behaviour. It is, therefore, necessary to examine these other 
agents of information diffusion and human communication. 
Other Agents of Human Communication and their Relevance to 
| Rural Development 
For the purposes of this paper, two broad classifications will suffice: the 
I interpersonal and the institutional. Human beings consciously as well as 
unconsciously operate at these two levels with the one mode constantly 
reinforcing the other. Schramn (1971) lists the communication tasks 
and identifies the implementation code showing the specific facilitators 
within each category. He says that knowledge of one's environment is 
diffused at the interpersonal level by informed persons in the society and at 
the institutional level by the mass media; that socialization of new members 
is done by siblings, parents, teachers, and other professionals at the 
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interpersonal level, and by the school system, the educational media and the 
publishing house* at the institutional level. 
Persuasion, social and political control, or whipping up a consensus can 
be achieved through the efforts of influential leaders and agitators at the 
interpersonal level, and through government organizations and 
institutions with their media and propaganda machinery at the institutional 
level. Communication education, therefore, involves, the preparation of a 
given target audience to participate meaningfully in the act of sharing. Its 
goals should include helping the learner to become sophisticated message 
senders and receivers (Boyer 1978); to grow into sensitive designers of 
communication environments; and to become ableusersol a variety of 
communication media. 
An examination ol the course content of departments of 
communication in Nigeria, and ol books and other instructional materials 
reveals that writers, teachers and instructional practitioners locus upon 
how to win audience patronage, how to persuade the receiver to accept or 
not to accept a particular point of view; how to frame a message to capture 
audience imagination; how to block out "noise" so that the message may 
reach its target without interference. But there is.absence of similar type of 
literature or course content to teach the receiver how to protect him.-ell 
from the barrage of media messages trying to impinge on his consciousness; 
how to decide when it is in his interest to block out "noise"; how to resist 
the ploys of senders and their messages. 
My position is that despite the claims of scholars that communication is 
an act of sharing, in the contemporary media arena, the receiver is the 
junior partner, the Cinderella left at home while the other siblings go off to 
protect their own interest, often at her expense. 
If rural development is to be meaningful a new type ol partnership must 
be forged, one in which the message-receivers, like the message-senders, are 
equally equipped to pick, choose and refuse, to consciously select or leave 
alone, to accept or reject, to agree to participate or not to participate. These, 
to my mind, are communication skills that the receiver needs to protect 
himself from media exploitation. 
Message Senders and Receivers in Rural Communities: 
Rural communities in Africa have always had their indigenous 
interpersonal and institutional mediation channels. The town crier, for 
example, passed on important messages to the mass of the people. He was 
delegated to speak and therefore spoke with the voice of authority. In this 
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type of environment the inhabitants accepted without question, confident 
that their welfare and that of the community was being protected. One is 
tempted to argue, therefore, that people thus conditioned to accept without 
questioning will transfer this blind acceptance of media messages to the 
contemporary mass media arena where one must be able to discriminate if 
one is to survive. It is the responsibility of communication educators in 
Africa, therefore, to capture the spirit of the rural communities, focus upon 
their welfare and qualify like the town crier to be the voice of the 
community. Even more importantly, they must teach receivers to become 
not passive acceptors, but critical appraisers of media messages. This level 
of competence requires a number of cognitive skills. 
The target audience of rural development programmes: 
The inhabitants of rural communities in Africa could, for the sake^of 
convenience, be divided into two categories - the older group who are 
products of the oral tradition and the print culture, and the younger group, 
the productsof the video (audiovisual) culture. It is upon this latter group 
that the foundations for rural development should be laid. Carefully 
planned, formal education programmes are, therefore, of paramount 
importance. 
The children in these communities, isolated as they may seem, will be, if 
not the products, the victims of today's technological age. They must 
therefore be equipped to be competent communicators adaptable to 
changing circumstances and modes of communication. 
The older group comprises person who need either continuing 
education or functional education. Its members, being the product of an 
earlier age, will respond to strategies which were born out of that era. 
Communication educators should take this into consideration when 
planning rural development programmes. Other factors that should not be 
ignored when planning for this group are the traditional values and 
geographical location since it is assumed that one's exposure to 
contemporary values is related to the accessibility of his home to the urban 
centres. Though not yet supported by empirical data, I hold the view that 
many sensitive issues will not be readily accepted when presented through 
the mass media channels. Topics like family planning methods and female 
circumcision, for example, are too personal for the video channels. If they 
are viewed at all, affront and shock will cloud the issue and ruin the 
message. The slower, more systematic approach, would, I think, yield 
greater dividends among this older group. 
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In summary, therefore, the age of the target population, the extent of its 
exposure to contemporary society, and the norms of its own groups are 
factors that should be considered when choice of media channel is being 
de'termined. The gentle "unfreezing" of the community through interpersonal 
communication should precede attempts at communicating 
through the mass media. 
Educational Objectives and Competencies Required: 
The aspect of communication education which focuses on the receiver 
should include among its objectives, the following: 
(a) Providing the learners with the techniques and experiences which will 
enable them to become appraisers of ideas. 
(b) Creating the environment which will encourage learners to seek out 
the message source. 
(c) Providing learners with skills which will enable them analyse the 
consent of the message. 
(d) Providing the opportunities for them to make appropriate responses, 
within the framework of their own goals and those of the community. 
Competencies required of the message receiver 
Print by its nature has a certain permanency; messages passed on 
through this medium are received at a much slower rate than those sent 
through the video or audio media. Print messages, therefore, tend to be 
considered more enduring and hence more important. Messages passed on 
through the audiovisual media, on the other hand, are more fleeting and less 
valued. Development planners, therefore, mindful of the constraints of 
time, cost, size of population, and distance, should utilise what is best in 
both types of media. 
Efficient receiving of printed messages calls for much more than 
functional literacy. It requires the higher level reading skills of interpreting, 
evaluating, synthesizing, applying, and making personal 
judgements. Since the reader, through the printed page is in direct contact 
with the author, he is able to store the message, retrieve it at later time, and 
study it at his leisure. The likelihood of his making an appropriate response 
is therefore much greater. The video and audio media, on the other hand, 
call for listening literacy which involves the ability to discriminate between 
form and content presenter and author, content and presenter, and make 
appropriate responses to each of these variables. 
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Often, especially in the video presentations, the receiver is distanced 
from the author by a barrage of media technologists and thus denied the 
opportunity of making his interpretation of the author's message. Boyer 
(1978) expresses this concern rather succinctly when he says: 
To educate our students wisely, we need courses in how to undeceive 
ourselves; on ways to spot stereotypes; on ways to recognise a premise, 
isolate a cliche; on ways to analyse fact from propaganda, analysis from 
banter; and to sort out important news from "coverage." In a time 
when the "novelization" of the show sells more than the novel on which 
the show was based, we must educate our students on how to sort out 
and evaluate the messages they receive . 
One of the major goals of communication education for the receiver, 
therefore, should be to malce the message receiver not merely a target of 
thoughts, but an appraiser of ideas; not a sponge soaking up onions but a 
detective able and willing to trace the source of the message. This 
accomplished, he would then be able to apply the same critical evaluation 
skills used in the reading of print. 
Communication acts to which the receiver must respond include 
accusing, asserting, denying, describing, explaining, expressing, insisting, 
questioning and threatening. The competencies required to respond 
adequately to these are outlined in Table 1 below. 
Whether the mass media or interpersonal channels are used, message 
receivers who possess the requisite competencies will be in a position to 
make intelligent responses and shoulder part of the responsibility for their 
social and economic progress. 
Summary 
Communication is "an act of sharing" in which the receiver is not a 
passive decoder of information, but one whose psychological, sociological, 
socio-political, and economic make-up determines the extent to which he is 
able to participate meaningfully in the communication act. The perceptual 
field of the receiver, according to Anderson and Barry (1970) includes 
communication skills, attitudes, knowledge of the socio-cultural system, 
needs and other skills, but more specifically on the receptive skills of 
listening and reading as they pertain to listening literacy. Educational 
objectives have been suggested and the skills and competencies required for 
the attainment of these have been listed. The paper also recognises the need 
for empirical data on the relationship between the type of media used, the 
nature of the topic being discussed,and receiver response. 
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Competencies required of message receivers 
Competency 
Isolating the content 
from the form of the message or 
the style of the presenter. 
Understanding the content. 
Evaluation the content. 
Evaluating the style (form) 
of the message. 
Evaluating the motives of 
the sender. 
Table 1 
Related Skills 
identifying the topic/subject of the 
message. 
recognising the specific aspects of the 
topic being singled out for discussion. 
identifying ( where appropriate) the 
setting within which the message is 
placed. 
• determining the originator of the 
message. 
• noting facts and details 
• grasping the main idea or central 
thought. 
• following instructions and 
directions. 
• distinguishing between ideas and 
facts. 
• recognising relationships, e.g. 
cause-effect; whole-part 
comparison-contrast 
sequence or chronology. 
• distinguishing fact from opinion 
information from persuation 
news from propaganda 
analysis from banter. 
• identifying the following thinking 
processes: 
theorizing; generalizing 
classifying; predicting; 
concluding; evaluating. 
• recognise attempts to 
arouse the imagination; coerce; 
control; incite; inform; persuade; 
prevaricate; propagandize. 
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