For the attention of African media scholars: An introduction to critical discourse analysis

Abstract

Contemporary communication research in Africa is heavily influenced by theories and methodologies developed in the West. There are several reasons for this. The first is the colonial relationship between African countries and their former European colonisers: most African countries were at some point colonised by Britain, France, Portugal and Italy and so their media systems were shaped by those of the former colonisers. Second, the contemporary educational system in African countries was established according to colonial models. Thirdly, media scholars in Africa were trained in Western universities, therefore transferring the theories and methodologies they learnt during their years of research in the West back to the continent. As discussed by Obeng-Quaidoo (1986), by the time African scholars return to the continent from the West, it takes them at least six years to digest the concepts and theories they have learnt and discover whether they are workable in the continent or not. The use of English, French, Portuguese and other foreign languages as the medium of instruction in universities is another factor that contributes to the domination of Western theories and methodologies in communication research.