Still the Dark Continent: A Content Analysis of Research About Africa and by African Scholars in 18 Major Communication-Related Journals

Abstract

Research about African communication and studies by African-affiliated authors remain scarce in the field of communication. To establish a comprehensive picture of the state of scholarship, 5,228 articles published in 18 top communication journals between 2004 and 2010 were reviewed. Articles were coded for topic nation, author affiliation, article type, category of communication studied, and research method. Thirty-nine Africa-focused articles including 25 authored by researchers from African institutions were found. Over half addressed health communication; most focused on Kenya and South Africa. Means are suggested by which the international scholarly community can partner to encourage African scholarship.

Keywords:

• Africa
• Scholarly Productivity
• Health Communication
• Scholarly Publication
• African Communication

Notes

[1] We should add, however, that personal communication with editors of two African journals indicates that they are often hard-pressed to get either adequate numbers of submissions or submissions of sufficient quality.