Research Priorities/or Development 
in SubSaharan Africa: 
Breaking More Communication 
Bottlenecks Than Creating Them 
by Cornelius B. Pratt* 
Abstract 
This paper proposes a conceptual framework of agenda dynamics 
that will guide communication research priorities on the 
designing and implementation of reoriented development 
programmes in the African context. The framework consists of 
three agendas - group, traditional/urban media, and public policy. 
The paper advocates the integration of all three agendas into a 
unified, coherent strategy. The advantages of such an integrated 
strategy include a demonstrated effort by the development 
specialist to maximize the inputs of rural residents into 
development programmes early on, and a narrowing of the gaps 
among policy-makers, traditional/urban media institutions and 
the target groups. Such linkages also permit the identification of 
communication research priorities for a continuing programme of 
development, the coordination of such research among all three 
agendas, and the coordination of development elforts among 
change agencies. 
Risume 
Cet article propose un cadre conceptuel des dynamiques de programmes 
qui gulderait les priorites de recherches en matiere de communication 
pour la conception et l'execution de programmes de developpement 
rebrientds dans le contexte africain. Le cadre comporte trois volets-groupe 
traditionnel media urbaln et politique ge'ne'rale. L'article preconise 
linte'gration de ces trois volets en une strate'gie unifieeet coherente. Les 
a vantages d'une telle strate'gie inte'gr^'comprennent les efforts m^hes par 
les sp&ialltes du developpement en vue de maximiser les contributions 
des residents des zones rurales aux programmes de d^veloppement et la 
reduction du fosse"entre les decideurs, les intitutions de meidia urbainnes 
et traditionnelles et les groupes cibles. De tels liens permettent e'galement 
Identification des priorites de recherche en matiere de communication, 
pour un programme de de'veloppement suivi, la coordination de ces 
recherches sur les trois violets ainsi que la coordination des efforts de 
developpement entre les agences. 
'Dr. Cornelius B. Pratt is a Nigerian associate professor at the Department of 
Communication Studies, Virginia Polytechnic and State University Blacksburg, 
Virginia. USA 
32
In 1985 and in 1986, three major events of significance to 
Africa's development went on record. First, in July 1985, African 
heads of state and government of the OAU adopted Africa's Priority 
Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER), a five-year plan that 
will "pave the way for national and collective self-reliant and selfsustained 
growth and development" in the continent. Second, in 
May 1986, parliamentarians from 29 African countries met in 
Harare, Zimbabwe, for the first All-Africa Parliamentary 
Conference on Population and Development. They stressed the 
need for "balance between the needs and opportunities of our 
people on the one hand and available resources on the other." 
Finally, also in May 1986, for the first time in the 40-year history of 
the United Nations, the General Assembly devoted a special session 
to the rehabilitation and development of African countries. On 
June 1, 1986, the Assembly adopted the United Nations 
Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and 
Development 1986-1990, which details a recovery plan that 
includes policy changes by African governments and increased 
support from the international community. 
Within the past decade, similar measures have been adopted to 
promote economic recovery and development on the continent 
Most notable are the OALTs Monrovia Strategy for the Development 
of Africa and the Lagos Plan of Action for Economic Development of 
Africa. Others are the 1984 Kilimanjaro Objectives on Population, 
the United Nations Industrial Development Decade for Africa, the 
United Nations Transportation and Communications Decade for 
Africa, the Harare Declaration on the Food Crisis in Africa, and the 
UNESCO recommendations on communication research and 
planning made during its 1981 Nairobi conference. 
Taken together, these bold declarations indicate a new resolve by 
Africans and members of the international community to respond 
differently to the bleak economic situation in the world's poorest 
continent. The Nairobi conference, for example, recommended that 
communication research in Africa be self-reliant and that it be 
geared toward rural audiences (Ugboajah, 1985a). Toward that 
end, this paper outlines the directions of such research priorities 
by examining the characteristics of three unified agendas as a 
prelude toward developing communication strategies for 
development. This paper, in effect, takes the position that 
researches on agenda dynamics in the African context are 
ingredients that shape the development strategies of the 
continent. Or, stated another way, the research perspectives 
33
proposed in this paper enable development agents to rethink their 
strategies, thereby breaking more communication bottlenecks 
than creating them. 
THE NEED FOR NEW RESEARCH DIRECTIONS 
Even though communication plays a significant role in national 
development (Lerner. 1964; Rogers, 1969;Golding, 1974; Schramm 
and Lemer, 1976; Katz, 1977;Teheranian.HakimzadehandVidale, 
1977; Bordenave 1977), there is still competitive squabbling over 
what development means and over how national governments and 
international agencies can better achieve development in the Third 
World (Vogeler and de Souza, 1980). Some arguments contend that 
development programs have overlooked the structural limitations 
of African communications systems (Haule, 1984; Boafo, 1985); 
others the core value boundaries of the African (Obeng-Quaidoo, 
1985). 
Furthermore, during the past decade, a fragile consensus has 
emerged, particularly among Third World development specialists, 
that the methods by which communications are used for 
development in the Third World are flawed and that new strategies 
are required (Beltran S, 1976; Bordenave, 1976; Ugboajah, 1985b; 
Haule, 1984; Boafo, 1985; Obeng-Quaidoo, 1985). Culture-specific 
communication strategies for development have, therefore, been 
advocated, based on the common agreement about the 
unsuitability of Western development models. Haule (1985) and 
Boafo (1985), on the one hand, call for a restructuring of 
communication in Africa Obeng-Quaidoo (1985), on the other, 
emphasizes the need for communications research methodologies 
to be linked to the core values of the African: the role of the Supreme 
God or Allah, the concept of time, the function of work as a 
necessity for survival, and the non-individuality of the African. 
Additionally, Ascroft (1981) identifies factors that pose serious 
problems to development. Such factors are the lack of an equitable 
system for delivering knowledge and skills and the lack of 
cooperation of the local people in the designing, planning, and 
implementation of development projects. 
The persistent failure of such programs reflects, among other 
things, the failure of policies to transform the structurally 
maladjusted African economies. As Adedeji (1986:5) notes, "a 
fundamental structural change is a sine qua non for putting 
34
Africa's economies on the road to growth and development." 
Perhaps this explains why Tanzania's much-touted 
"transformation approach" and the 1967 Arusha Declaration, by 
which it declared its indigenous development strategy that 
required a revamping of the country's institutions, failed to bring 
about an economic transformation (Coulson, 1982; Eicher, 1984). 
From the communication research perspective, Melkote and 
Babbili (1985) note that research on the diffusion of innovations, 
for example, fails to identify the (1) type of media messages the 
audience is exposed to; (2) degree to which the audience 
internalizes messages; (3) extent of the audience's knowledge 
before an exposure to innovations; and (4) receiver's "how-to" 
knowledge. 
Rather than addressing these failings, there has been an 
overwhelming interest among communication researchers in the 
socio-psychological factors of the receiver rather than in the 
characteristics of the development models. Consequently, Boafo 
(1985), on the one hand, suggests that a more appropriate strategy 
for development must start with research into developing 
communication structures. Myrdal CI973), Awa [1979], and 
Obeng-Quaidoo (1985), on the other, suggests that research be 
reconceptualized to address the cultural and political realities of 
the developing region. And the UNESCO-sponsored conference on 
communication research and national planning underscored, 
among other things, the need for regional self-reliance in the 
development of communication research (Ugboajah, 1985a). 
African countries have one key element in common: their lack of 
self-reliant and self-sustaining economies. Because of the sectoral 
importance of economic self-sufficiency to the other sectors of a 
society, and because of sectoral interdependence, economic 
underdevelopment in one sector results in a similar 
underdevelopment in other sectors. The obsession of African 
governments with development is underscored by their emphasis 
on development programs in their annual budgets. Consequently, 
sub-Saharan African governments have periodically implemented 
development programs that have used mass and traditional media 
to strut the strengths and benefits of such programs to their 
audiences. (Zambia is, for the first time, using the mass media to 
direct an education campaign on family life toward women and 
youth, who account for about 75% of its population. The campaign 
is supported by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.) 
This paper does not attempt to detail the shortcomings of models 
of development in sub-Saharan Africa, for it is increasingly 
35
becoming common knowledge why the various communication 
strategies for the development of the continent fall short of their 
objectives. Rather, it establishes the need for new research 
directions in the use of communications for development in Africa. 
And it outlines research priorities that focus on unified agendas 
that are rooted in the socio-cultural and socio-economic 
characteristics of the region. These agendas should be of interest to 
governmental and international agencies that are striving for the 
development of the continent. 
THE AGENDA-SETTING FRAMEWORK 
The seminal studies on media agenda-setting conducted by 
McCombs and Shaw (1972) and by Shaw and McCombs (1977) 
indicate that when the media emphasize political events, the 
degree of importance - that is, salience - U.S. publics ascribe to such 
events influences what they learn from the media. Similar findings 
on election and non-election issues have also been identified 
among audiences in other developed countries (Siune and Borne, 
1975; Soderlund et al., 1980; Black and Snow, 1982; Winter et al., 
1982; Gadir, 1972; and Asp, 1983). Even in a U.S. community with 
limited access to the mass media, the media also set the agendas for 
local issues during an off-election year (Williams and Larsen, 1977). 
Furthermore, media agenda-setting is also effective in the transfer 
of detailed information about a single, non-election issue to U.S. 
audiences (Atwater et al., 1985). 
Cobb and Elder (1972) also developed a similar perpective on 
agenda-building, that is, the process by which issues originate and 
become the focus of concern and interest for policy-makers and for 
the public. 
On the comparative effects of newspapers and television on 
agenda-setting, newspapers are generally more effective than 
television {Patterson and McLure, 1976; Williams and Larsen, 
1977), particularly at the subissue level (Benton and Frazier, 1976). 
On the agenda-setting influence of television, McCombs (1976) 
and Hill (1985) found that the power of television news is 
influenced by viewer characteristics and viewing traits. And Behr 
and Inyengar (1985) found that while the public agenda was 
indeed affected by what television journalists and editors chose, 
real-world conditions and events provided an independent 
impetus to the public's perceived importance of issues. 
But the casual relationship between media content and public 
agendas have been varied and inconclusive (Patterson and 
36
McClure. 1976). Additionally, major weaknesses of agenda-setting 
research have been identified, namely, its lack of a direction of 
causality between content and salience variables and the failure of 
researchers to recognize the effects of direct experience on 
individuals" political concerns (Iyengar, 1979; Lang and Lang, 
1981; Behr and Iyengar, 1985). 
Perhaps because the media agenda-setting hypothesis focuses 
on the mass media which are limited in sub-Saharan Africa, the 
hypothesis receives limited support in Africa. A test of the 
hypothesis in Ghana indeed showed a qualified support for it: 
influence was greater among Ghanian elites than among nonelites 
(Anokwa and Salwen, 1986). However, evidence shows that 
the interaction among mass media and interpersonal 
communication sources is more important for agricultural 
development projects than any one of the communication sources 
(Abbott and Leon, 1986). 
Given the limited availability of the mass media in sub-Saharan 
Africa and the recent evidence on media agenda-setting (Behr and 
Iyengar, 1985), and on communication sources for agricultural 
.development in a Third World nation (Abbott and DeLeon, 1986), it 
is important that communication researchers identify a research 
framework which will guide the implementation of Africa's 
development programs. 
THE AGENDA-SETTING FRAMEWORK FOR AFRICA 
What will such a research framework look like? Such a 
framework will be based on the model of agenda dynamics 
developed by Manheim (forthcoming) and modified by Manheim 
and Pratt (1986); it is a framework of integrated agendas that 
focuses on the internal dynamics of each agenda, as well as on the 
relationships among, and influences on, them. 
Admittedly, and as stated earlier, the agenda-setting concept is 
based on research conducted among U.S. audiences and widely 
applied to those of other developed countries. Also as already noted, 
this framework underscores the importance of the modern mass 
media in influencing what audiences in media-saturated 
countries know about, think about, and talk about. However, 
research on the news-dissemination pattern in sub-Saharan 
Africa has indicated that audiences use interpersonal and 
traditional media sources often than they use the modem mass 
media (Uche, 1985; Ugboajah, 1985c). This means that 
communication sources other than the mass media may indeed set 
37
the agenda in the Third World. Research in this area has just 
begun. But studies on news-and information-dissemination in 
Africa lead to a modified conceptualization of three major agendas 
whose characteristics are typical of the African environment. They 
are the group agenda, the traditional/urban media agenda, and the 
public policy agenda. 
THE GROUP AGENDA 
The group agenda is composed of those issues about which rural 
residents indicate some concern. Such issues do not necessarily 
have to be directly related to development. This agenda has three 
dimensions: familiarity, that is, group awareness of a given issue; 
group salience, that is, perceived relevance of an issue to the wellbeing 
of a group; and favourability, that is, group evaluation of a 
specific issue or issues (Manheim and Pratt, 1986). The rationale 
for this agenda is the tendency for rural Africans to organize their 
daily activities in group settings. Thus, employing the core value 
boundary of the group, this agenda is primarily an explanatory, 
problem-solving one. The researcher may seek answers to 
questions posed to rural groups: 
• What are the most important issues facing a group, and how 
familiar are group members with these issues? 
• To what extent are such issues perceived as salient by the 
group? 
• What are the group's preferences for development issues and 
themes? 
• How can the group best respond to these issues? 
• Has the group been exposed to development programs? For 
how long? And how was such exposure received? 
The researcher, therefore, studies the group, identifying group 
issues with some implications for development. Thus group 
agenda studies development as a problem-solving activity and 
makes development an endogenous effort. In other words, the 
recipients of the benefits and costs of development are also 
instrumental in shaping the development effort. 
Let me illustrate how the group agenda can possibly be applied to 
development programs on food and nutrition and on population 
issues. First, some background. The top priority of the Lagos Plan 
of Action, iterated in the Addis Ababa economic declaration, is 
responding to food and agricultural problems in Africa. Sub- 
Saharan Africa, which has one of the world's fastest population 
growth rates, has a significant share of nutritional problems. It is 
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the only region in the developing world, for example, where 
nutrition has worsened in recent years (World Bank: 1984). Of the 
10 countries with the highest calorie deficits per capita in 1983, 
seven were in sub-Saharan Africa (Murphy, 1985). Nutrition 
programs, therefore, have potential benefits for the African (Berg, 
1973). Such benefits include increased adult work productivity 
through better health, resistance to infection, improved receptivity 
of children to education, reduction in child mortality rate, and 
improved family income and social well-being. There is also a 
substantial amount of savings on medical costs. It is estimated 
that more than $6 billion can be saved through nutritional 
improvement. Nutrition programs designed to improve the 
nutritional status of populations can extend the working years of 
individuals, and decrease the countries' dependency ratio. (In sub- 
Saharan Africa, except in Gabon and South Africa, at least 45% ol 
all children are younger than 15years(Goliber, 1985), and there are 
about 76 dependents per 100 persons of working age (Berg, 1973).] 
Lower dependency ratios brought about by improved nutritional 
status means an increase in per capita income. A reduction in 
adult mortality rate through improved nutrition also adds years to 
income-generating lives. 
Given the importance of nutrition to national development, it Is 
important that nutrition information be communicated with 
targeted audiences to bring about improvements in their 
nutritional status. 
The basic unit of social arrangement in the sub-Saharan region 
is the small, cultural group. The small groups are structured along 
kinship roles and social institutions and are closely integrated into 
various village or kinship groups. Most communication, therefore, 
is based on face-to-face relationships. Additionally, mass 
communication Is not fully developed in sub-Saharan Africa, 
resulting in a majority of its audiences remaining untouched by 
any mass medium. 
Thus, researchers can observe the group agenda dynamics and 
the culture-specific patterns of food habits which can be 
incorporated into a nutrition education program. Given the 
obstacle in the use of survey research in the developing countries 
(Bulmer and Warwick, 1983), such an observation can be effectively 
done by using ethnographic methods of the social anthropologist 
to identigy and explain a wide range of sociological phenomena 
which are intrinsically Inaccessible to statistical investigations of 
any kind (Leach, 1977:77). Selected cultural food habits will be 
integrated into communication programs based on the empirical 
40
perception of such habits in affecting the nutritional health of 
residents one way or another. 
Research is also required to identify, at the local leveLculturally 
acceptable institutions which will encourage a broadened access 
to, and a direct participation in, a nutrition program. Too much 
time and too many resources are wasted on top-heavy public 
institutions whose selection has hitherto been based on gut 
feelings, rather than on empirical evidence of their support of the 
feasibility aspects in development programs. 
Also, development programs in most Third World nations have, 
for example, utilized group fantasy events, that is, playing out 
dramatic situations, real or fictitious, in a lively, animated and 
boisterous tone in order to fulfill a group's basic needs. But there is 
hardly any significant inventory or research data on group 
fantasies dealing with events that actually happened to the group, 
that were the focus of the traditional/urban media agenda, or that 
were part of the community folklore. What will be the systematic 
applications of such group fantasies to nutrition and population 
issues? What local actors will command instant reverence among 
audiences? And, what is the process by which the fantasy events 
establish new population or nutritional "nodes" (that is, foci 
around which a great deal of attention is centered), which can 
influence attitudes toward nutritional health and family size? 
Answers to these questions will make development programs rely 
on scientific notions about a wide range of socio-cultural 
phenomena and group dynamics. 
TRADITIONAL/URL AN MEDIA AGENDA 
The agenda dynamic model, as applied in the developed 
countries, places overwhelming emphasis on the mass media as 
sources of influence. The media agenda has three dimensions: 
visibility, that is, amount of media coverage of development news; 
group salience, that is, the relevance of media content to group 
needs, and valence, that is, the portrayal of development news as 
favourable, neutral, or, unfavourable (Mariheim and Pratt, 1986). 
The effects of the urban media agenda are generally moderate in 
the developing countries, as research on Ghanaian (Anokwa and 
Salwen, 1986) and Dominican (Abbott and de Leon, 1986) 
audiences.indicates. The dynamics of the urban media are also far 
from being fully investigated. What, for example, are the dominant 
characteristics of the urban media agenda for development news? 
Is such an agenda salient only to the urban elite? Fair's (1986) 
41
preliminary findings on the neglect ol the "basic needs 
Information" and of the explanative dimensions of development 
communication by the Daily Times of Nigeria, a largely 
government-owned newspaper, and the Fratemite-Martin of Cdte 
d'lvoire. a government-owned newspaper, point to a paradox. 
Sub-Sahara n African governments official statements portend a 
reliance on the mass media to support development programs, yet 
it is such a patron-client relationship that may be responsible for 
the media's neglect of development communication. The reason is 
clear. In general. African governments adhere to the "development 
theory of the media, which means the dissemination of positive 
news and the suppression of negative news. Because the 
government is the media's largest beat media reliance on 
government news sources perpetuates a patron-client relationship 
that undermines the significance of critical media presentation 
and evaluation of development news. Are the (urban) journalistic 
perceptions of development, therefore, consistent with or different 
from those of the rural masses? What independent variables 
explain such perceptions? How do such perceptions perpetuate 
patron-client ties, and with what costs to development? Finally, 
with the advent of sophisticated communication infrastructures 
in the region, what changes can be expected in the media agenda? 
Will there be a continued emphasis on the interests of the urban 
elite? A balance between the interests of urban and rural 
residents? Or will such technologies create more exclusive media 
"haves" and "have-nots"? 
Even though traditional media are commonly used, research on 
their dynamics is minuscule. Ordinarily, folklore, drama, puppetry 
and cultural artifacts have been used in the delivery of development 
information. (In most urban centers, television drama is the 
medium for such information.) But many research questions 
remain unanswered: What development themes can most 
effectively be used in delivering development information? What 
cultural artifacts are also more effective? Which are "turn-offs"? 
Are there any cultural preferences among traditional audiences? 
Are such preferences related to message themes? What are the 
Independent effects of traditional media in setting the agenda on 
development? 
The study by Anokwa and Salwen (1986) indicates significant 
relationships between urban media agenda and the agenda of the 
Ghanaian elite, but not of the non-elite. Is there, therefore, a 
journalistic preference for the interests of the elite? Are such 
interests inconsistent with those whose stakes in the fruits of 
42
development are high? If so, is the slack picked up by the 
traditional media? If not, why not? 
PUBUC POLICY AGENDA 
Policy agenda comprises those items which decision-makers 
have formally accepted for serious consideration (Cobb, et al., 
1976). Its dimensions are the freedom of action available to policymakers, 
the likelihood that policy-makers will take any action, and 
the degree of positive or negative support for those with interests in 
the action. 
African governments have, since attaining independence from 
colonial administrations, deliberated on development strategies 
for the region. Such deliberations have, in some parts, included the 
urban elite and the urban mass media. Cases in point are the 
heated debates on the nature of the Nigerian civilian government, 
following the daparture of the Obasanjo administration in 1979. 
Even in the current military administrations of Uganda, Nigeria, 
Ghana and Liberia, such debates are extant. 
Communication policies have also been developed in 
international forums. For example, the 1980 UNESCO-sponsored 
Intergovernmental Conference on Communication Policies (which 
produced the Yaounde Declaration) affirmed to strengthen the 
identity and independence of communications in Africa. In 1981, a 
similar UNESCO-sponsored conference in Nairobi resolved to 
achieve regional self-reliance in communication research, among 
other things. 
But communication researchers would do well to contentanalyze 
such policy deliberations and identify how well they are 
borne out in reality. As Ugboajah (1985a) observes, perhaps only 
Ghana and Nigeria, among West African countries, show some 
progress toward achieving some of the objectives of the Yaounde 
Declaration. In addition, Adedeji (1985) describes the five-year 
progress toward the implementation of the Lagos Plan of Action as 
slow. Communication research within the policy agenda 
framework will ascertain the possible role of communication in the 
implementation of policies on development, that is, the extent to 
which the media offer alternative policies and debate policy 
changes. 
43
LINKAGES AND PRIMARY INFLUENCES 
Answers to the research questions posed by each agenda cannot 
in and out of themselves, provide comprehensive guidelines for 
development The group agenda, for example, has little significance 
for the communication researcher unless it is integrated with the 
other two. This simply means that the findings of group agenda 
research, for example, should come to bear on research findings on 
the (1) editorial processes of the urban media vis-a-vis agendasetting; 
(2) folklore-selection process of the traditional media vis-avis 
agenda-setting; and (3) public policy agenda among decisionmakers. 
By the same token, research on public policy agenda 
should relate directly on the group and media agendas. As Fair 
(1986) note, patron-client relationships between the media and the 
powers-that-be undermine the extent to which two African media 
set the agenda for development issues. Therefore, Ugboajah 
(1985a) suggests that a collaboration among international 
agencies in communication research could narrow the gaping 
chasm between communication research and policy-making. 
Beyond these linkages, each agenda may be influenced 
independently of the other two. The essential argument here is that 
the dynamics of the group agenda may be influenced primarily by 
development campaign programs. But such an influence will be 
effective to the extent that the dynamics of the group agenda allow. 
That is to say, group agenda dynamics are not entirely passive and 
will mitigate against any eternal influences that are perceived as 
threatening. 
The traditional media agenda responds to external influences in 
much the same manner as the group agenda; however, the urban 
media agenda does not exist independently - at least in those media 
systems in Africa that are "authoritarian-tending." Fair's (1986) 
findings on patron-client relationships in Africa further 
underscore this possibility. Also, in the United States, the media 
agendas have been shown to be susceptible to those of social 
groups, local institutions, and public officials (Cobb and Elder, 
1972; Weaver and Elliott, 1985; Berkowitz, 1986). This means that 
a prominent news source can have a major influence on the 
subsequent media agenda, but that journalists also play a 
significant part in shaping this agenda. 
Entry into such policy-making agenda (that is, outside of the 
linkages) poses the greatest challenge*to the communication 
researcher and development agent inasmuch as the decisionmakers 
demonstrate a high degree of insensitivity to public 
44
interests as represented in the group and traditional/urban media 
agendas. The Nigerian urban media during the Buhari 
administration and those of single-party states in Africa provide 
illustrations of this phenomenon. The extent to which entry into 
this agenda can be made is, therefore, a function of the extent to 
which the state encourages political competition and skeins of 
alternative viewpoints on public policies. 
This agenda research framework has several advantages. First, it 
identifies, without being country-specific, the research priorities 
for the development of one of the world's least developed regions, 
and underscores the significance of research and fact-finding as a 
forerunner of any long-range development activity. With the dearth 
of information on rural residents, their traditional information 
sources, their relationships and perceptions of urban institutions, 
and their attitudes toward development, it behoves the researcher 
to understand the agenda dynamics in order to more effectively 
fulfill his or her role in the development process. 
Second, the framework is premised on Africans "playing a home 
game," and on the willingness of the communication researcher to 
relate to the wisdom of community groups, rather than to ignore it; 
to work with rural residents, rather than for them; and to 
communicate with them, rather than to them. Thus, the 
researcher uses an ethnographic strategy by utilizing "grassroots" 
organizations and rural groups to provide research evidence 
on various facets of the environment. One of the shortcomings of 
Third World development planning has been that government 
investment policies have been dictated by a preferential treatment 
for the needs of the urban elite over those of the rural populations 
(Lipton, 1977; Eicher, 1984). Research on the group agenda 
dynamics addresses such a weakness. In other words, the real 
targets of development programs - the rural residents - are not 
ignored early on, making the consequenses of such development 
an indigenous collective effort. Such a method is consistent with 
the so-called "greenhouse" approach which focuses on using 
factors that help local efforts grow on their own, rather than on 
organizing people for purposes beyond their comprehension and 
interest (Hyden, 1986). 
Furthermore, this framework builds an inventory of empirical 
evidence that can be systematically applied over time to similar 
development projects. Yet another advantage of the framework is 
that it emphasized linkages and feedback among the three 
agendas. Such linkages have three further advantages. First, they 
reduce the possibility for excessive agenda (or institutional) self- 
45
focus, thereby narrowing the gaps among policy-makers, 
traditional and urban media institutions and the target groups. 
The payoff will be a translation of research findings into policies 
and of policies into programs of action. Second, they continually 
refocus institutions and audiences in each agenda on the value of 
the total development program to the other agendas - a situation 
that augurs well for coordinatijig development efforts at different 
institutional levels. Third, they provide a rationale for studying 
other perceptions thaf characterize such linkages. 
Finally, even though this framework is conceptually framed 
largely within a framework developed in the developed societies, it 
raises focal questions for research that strike at the heart of the 
continuing problems of development in the region. Taken together, 
these advantages provide a meaningful configuration of agenda 
characteristics from which will be generated development-oriented 
communication research priorities. 
INSTITUTIONAL ROLE 
One of the responsibilities of the ACCE is that it is a clearing 
house of information on various communication issues on the 
continent The ACCE should, therefore, more effectively reduce 
waste created by the duplication of research and consultancy 
efforts by encouraging long-term collaboration between it and 
similar institutions on the continent and elsewhere. The ACCE 
Institute for Communication Research and Development 
documentation centre and other communication research centres 
in Africa and foreign universities, as well as those in other 
institutions, should be encouraged to fund demonstration projects 
that could be conducted or coordinated by the ACCE. (One such 
possible joint project between the ACCE and the Johns Hopkins 
University Population Communication Services may identify 
population issues that merit priority concern in select countries in 
sub-Saharan Africa.) Academics from such research centres can 
make their expertise available to the ACCE on an ad hoc, if not on a 
continuing, basis. The ACCE should also use research forums to 
interface with academic and professional groups on the one hand, 
and with its many publics on the other. Finally, the ACCE can 
independently fund research projects whose results may be 
published in professional and academic journals, and have such 
funding appended to such articles. 
46
CONCLUSIONS 
The inherent weaknesses in the application of development 
strategies in sub-Saharan Africa have nudged international and 
governmental agencis into rethinking Africa's development crises. 
This paper proposes the use of agenda dynamics as a framework 
for identifying research priorities for the development of the sub- 
Saharan African region. Research questions that will guide the 
region's development programs are posed. Communication 
research of any kind in Africa is minuscule. Beyond that, the 
dependence on research perspectives that do little to understand 
the dynamics of the African environment will result in a slowdown 
in the region's development and in the creation of more 
communication bottlenecks. It is, therefore, important that the 
lessons from group dynamics guide not only the communication 
researcher but the policy-maker, the traditional/urban media 
institution, the recipient of the development, and the change 
agency as well. 
Given sub-Saharan Africa's worsening economy - increasing 
unemployment, inflation and foreign debts, declining gross 
domestic product, and scarcity of basic commodities - such 
impoverished nations now live on the edge of a dream that has been 
deeply shadowed by recurrent economic crisis. It is important that 
the region's institutions of higher learning, with the support of 
international and governmental agencies, encourage long-term 
communication research geared toward charting and 
coordinating the development efforts of agencies. Forums and 
institutions have had their field days deliberating on the need for 
communication research. And this paper has provided an outline 
of such research priorities. The dangers of a continuing delay in 
bringing development programs to a larger segment of the growing 
population will result in an increasing vulnerability of the rural 
poor to starvation, malnutrition and low-living standards. Sub- 
Saharan African governments and development agencies must, 
therefore, hasten to lend their support to communication research 
in the African context. 
47
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