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The Importance Of Word-of-Mouth Communication And Opinion Leaders In Ghana

It is essential to focus on the role of person-to-person communication in gathering, sharing and assessing information—regardless of the information’s original source. The survey provides an in-depth look at the word-of-mouth communication habits of Ghanaians (Click on the links to the left to see word-of-mouth’s role for gathering information on particular development topics—personal finance, health and agriculture).

Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed say they discuss general news and information with other people in their community at least once a week; around three-quarters say they do so at least monthly (Chart 1). Among the specific development topics addressed later in this report, financial issues appear to be the least widely discussed, echoing the results of the survey question mentioned previously about relative interest in various news topics.

Chart 1
       

The vast majority of survey respondents who said they get news from “friends and family” or “other members of the community” also said the information they receive by word-of-mouth is trustworthy (Charts 2 and 3).

Chart 2
                    

Chart 3
                    

Rural residents, in particular, said word-of-mouth sources provide trustworthy information—98 percent of rural residents who receive news/information from friends and family trust that information, compared to 86 percent in urban areas. Similarly, 94 percent of rural residents who receive news/information from people in their communities other than friends and family say the information is “somewhat” or “very” trustworthy, compared to 74 percent in urban areas. This may reflect the more close-knit nature of rural communities or an increased reliance on word-of-mouth networks in the absence of other information sources that are more widely available to urban residents.

            
      

Although women are as likely as men to say they use friends, family, or other community members as sources of information (see Communication and Gender in Ghana here), they are less likely to say they discuss information with these people often or very often (Charts 4 and 5, other choices were “occasionally,” “rarely” and “never”). This implies women are listening to word-of-mouth information as a source, but not necessarily passing on that information to others.

Chart 4
           

Chart 5