Journalists' perceptions of ‘the audience’ and the logics of participatory development/communication: A contributory note

摘要

This article furthers the discussion on the role of mediated communication in participatory development by critically examining the perception of audiences on the part of some journalists in Cameroon, and how these relate to the central logics of participatory development and participatory communication. It is argued that both theoretically and empirically, to appropriately understand and outline the role of mediated communication in participatory development, we need to extend scholarship in these fields principally by going multidisciplinary and beyond the examination of the 'technical' possibilities of participation offered by the media, to critically interrogate the conception of 'the audience' by communicators. This, it is argued, presents an opportunity to give us valuable insights into the extent to which mediated communication can contribute to, or forestall, participatory development.