Setting the Agenda on Development: A Content Analysis of How Senegalese Newspapers Report on Local and Foreign Aid

Abstract

The debate on the effectiveness of foreign aid in the economies of sub-Saharan Africa often overlooks how the local journalists of a region report on aid. This study is a quantitative content analysis assessing how newspapers in Senegal write about different forms of aid received within the country, using papers from 2014 and 2015. The purpose of this study is to examine how the print journalists of Senegal set the agenda on Senegal's structural adjustment plan (Plan Senegal Émergent), foreign donations to entities in Senegal, and five other forms of economic and agricultural aid. Results are analysed in SPSS using a Crosstabs analysis, to understand if journalists are writing favourably or unfavourably about each variable. The study also uses excerpts pulled from articles on aid (translated from French into English), which create a supplementary qualitative picture of how journalists are subjectively choosing to write about aid. Findings show Senegalese newspapers devote large amounts of the newshole to stories of development, but are largely uncritical of the country's acceptance of foreign loans, international donations and other forms of international development.

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