History of Development Communication:
Development [1] Communications are organized efforts to use communication processes and media to bring social and economic improvements, generally in developing countries. The field emerged in the late 1950’s amid high hopes that radio and television could be put to use in worlds most disadvantage countries to bring about dramatic progress. Early communication theorists like Wilbur Schramn and Daniel Lerner based their high expectation upon the apparent success of World War II propaganda, to which academia and Hollywood had contributed.
Also with world war II came dozens of new, very poor, countries, left by their former colonial overseers with little infrastructure, education, or political stability. It was widely accepted that mass media could bring education, essential skills, social unity, and a desire to “modernize”. Walt Rostow theorized that society’s progress through specific stages of development in their way to modernity, what he termed “the age of high mass consumption”. Lerner suggested that exposure to Western Media would create “Empathy” for modern culture, and a desire to move from traditional to modern ways. Warly development communication, especially that sponsored by the U.S. government, was also seen as means of “winning heart and minds” over to a capitalist way of life.
These early approaches made a number of erroneous assumptions, and have been largely forsaken in contemporary approaches to development. Obstacles to development were naively seen as rooted in developing countries, not as products of international relationships. Modernization was presumed to equate to Westernization, and to be a necessary prerequisite to meeting human needs, development was seen as a top-down process, whereby centralized mass media could bring about widespread change, Producers of development media often failed to as if the audience can receive the message (television penetration n in developing countries is minimal and radio penetration in the early days of development communication was light), understand the message (a problem in countries with dozens of languages and dialects), act upon the message (with the necessary tools or other forms of structural support), and want to act upon message. And because it was based upon a propaganda model, development communication efforts were often seen as propaganda and distrusted.
Projects embodying these philosophies have enjoyed little success. In the 1970s and 1980s , a new paradigm of development communication emerged which better recognized the process of deliberate underdevelopment as a function of colonialism, the great diversity of the culture involved, the differences between elite versus popular goals for social change, the considerable political and ideological constraints to change and the endless varieties of ways different cultures coummunicate.
But in some instances mass media technologies , including television, have been “magic multipliers” of development benefits. Educational television has been used effectively to supplement the work of teachers in classrooms in the teaching of literacy and other skills, but only in well designed programs which are integrated with other educational efforts. Consumer video equipment and VCRs have been used to supplement communications efforts in some small projects.
Some developing countries have demonstrated success in using satellite television to provide useful information to portions of their populations out of reach of terrestrial broadcasting. In 1975 and 1976, an experimental satellite communications project called SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) was used to bring informational television programs to rural India. Some changes in beliefs and behaviors did occur, but there is little indication that satellite television was the best means to that end. The project did lead Indian development of its own satellite network. China has also embarked on ambitious program of satellite use for development, clamming substantial success in rural education. When television has succeeded as an education tool in developing countries, it is only when very pecific viewing conditions are met. For Example, programs are best viewed in small groups with a teacher to introduce them and to lead a discussion afterwards.
A variety of types of organizations work with local governments to develop communications projects. The United Nations provides multi-lateral aid to governments. Non-profit Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) conduct development projects worldwide using U.N., government, or private funding. And government agencies, such as the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID) Provide assistance to developing countries, but with political strings attached, there are three common types of development campaigns: Persuasion, Changing what people do; Education, changing social values; and informing, empowering people to change by increasing knowledge. This third approach is now perceived as the most useful. Instead of attempting to modernize people, contemporary efforts attempt to reduce inequality by targeting the poorest segments of society, involving people in their won development, giving them independence from central authority, and employing “small” and “appropriate” technologies. The emphasis has shifted from economic growth to meeting basic needs.
In this new view of development communication becomes an important catalyst for change but not its cause. Local folk media, for example, is employed to reduces medias bias toward literacy and provide information in a traditional, familiar from. Development journalism provides people with information on change in their society, works at the local level to advocate change. Where mass media is now employed in developing societies, communication newspapers and radio prove far more accessible and useful than television. The rapid spread of entertainment television the developing world is providing to be more a disruption to traditional social structures than an agent of progress. One emerging genre of television does show promise for contributing to development. The telenovela, pioneered in Brazil, has demonstrated some success in disseminating “pro-social” messages. Such programs are now being evaluated in many countries for effectiveness in contributing to population control, health-education, and other development goals.
There are some schools of Development Communication. In which describe and define a brief history of Development Communication. Few of them are describe below.
The Bretton Woods school
The "Bretton Woods school of development communication" is a term that has[2] been applied to the development communication approaches that arose with the economic strategies outlined in the Marshall Plan after World War two, and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1944. The descriptive term is not widely used in the field, but has been used to differentiate between different "schools" or approaches to development which have historically evolved, sometimes independently, at later points in history and in other parts of the world. Leading theorists under this school included Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm, and Everett Rogers. Due to his pioneering influence in the field, Rogers has often been termed the "father of development communication."
Originally, the paradigm involved production and planting of development in indigenous and uncivilized societies. This western approach to development communication was criticized early on, especially by Latin American researchers such as Lios Ramiro Beltan and Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, because it tended to locate the problem in the underdeveloped nation rather than its unequal relations with powerful economies. There was also an assumption that Western models of industrial capitalism are appropriate for all parts of the world. Many projects for development communication failed to address the real underlying problems in poor countries such as lack of access to land, agricultural credits and fair market prices for products.
Failure of many development projects in the 1960s led to it reconceptualizing its top-down methods.
(Manyozo, 2006) The school has reviewed its approaches over the years and has been the most dynamic in testing and adopting new approaches and methodologies.
The world bank currently defines development communication as the "integration of strategic communication in development projects" based on a clear understanding of indigenous realities.
Institutions associated with the Bretton Woods school include:
· the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
· Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
· the Rockefeller Foundation,
· the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, and
· the Ford Foundation.
Latin America
The Latin American School of Development traces its history back further than the[3] Bretton Woods school, emerging in the 1940s with the efforts of Colombia's Radio Sutatenza and Bolivia's Radios Mineras. These stations were the first to use participatory and educational rural radio approaches to empowering the marginalised. In effect, they have since served as the earliest models for participatory broadcasting efforts around the world.
In the 1960s Paolo Freire's theories of critical pedagogy and Miguel Sabido's enter-educate method became important elements of the Latin American development communication scene.
Other theorists who have influenced this school include Juan Diaz Bordenave, Luis Ramiro Beltran, and Alfonso Gumucio Dagron. (Mayonzo 2006, Mayonzo, 2005)
In the 1990s, technological advances facilitated social change and development – new media outlets began to emerge, cable TV signal coverage spread over more regions, and as the presence of communication firms grew so did an echoed global trend from major corporations.
India
The history of organised development communication in India can be traced to rural[4] radio broadcasts in the 1940s. As is logical, the broadcasts used indigenous languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada.
Independent India'ss earliest organized experiments in development communication started with Community Development projects initiated by the union government in the 1950s. The government, guided by socialistic ideals of its constitution and the first generation of politicians, started massive developmental programmes throughout the country. While field publicity was given due importance for person-to-person communication - also because the level of literacy was very low in rural areas - radio played an equally important role in reaching messages to the masses. Universities and other educational institutions - especially the agricultural universities, through their extension networks - and international organisations under the UN umbrella carried the dev-comm experiments further.
Development communication in India, a country of sub-continental proportions, acquires many connotations. On one end of the spectrum are the tools and techniques locally applied by charitable and not-for-profit organisations with very close inter-personal relations among the communicators and on the other end is the generic, far-off, one-way sort of communication emanating from the government.
The need for development communication continues since a large population, over 600 million, lives in rural areas and depends directly on agriculture. Poverty is reducing as percentage of population but still over 200 million are very poor as of 2009. They all, and the urban slum dwellers, need government support in different forms. Therefore, communication from the government remains highly relevant. In addition to the traditional ways, a new form of communication is being tried by the union government to support its developmental activities, though at a limited scale. Called Public Information Campaigns, public shows are organised in remote areas where information on social and developmental schemes is given, seminars and workshops are held, villagers and their children are engaged in competitions, messages are given through entertainment shows. In addition, government organisations and corporates involved in rural businesses display their wares and services in stalls lining the main exhibition area. This approach brings various implementing agencies and service / goods providers while the information providers encourage the visitors to make the best use of various schemes and services available. Some state [=provincial] governments have also adopted this model to take their development schemes to the masses.
Community radio is another new medium getting a foothold in rural India, though in patches. NGOs and educational institutions are given licence to set up a local community radio station to broadcast information, advisories and messages on developmental aspects. Participation of local community is encouraged. As community radio provides a platform to villagers to broadcast local issues, it has the potential to elicit positive action from local politicians and civil servants.
Africa
The African[5] school of development communication sprang from the continent's post-colonial and communist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Development communication in Anglophone Africa saw the use of Radio and theatre for community education, adult literacy, health and agricultural education.
In 1994 the FAO project "Communication for Development in Southern Africa" was a pioneer in supporting and enhancing development projects and programs through the use of participatory communication approaches. The FAO project, placed under SADC, developed an innovative methodology known as PRCA - Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal, which combined participatory tools and techniques with a strong communication focus needed to design strategies enhancing projects' results and sustainability. FAO and SADC published a handbook on PRCA and this methodology is still widely used today in various projects around the world.
Meanwhile, radio was being developed as a means of promoting rural development in Francophone Africa, with sponsorship from the Bretton Woods school institutions. (Kamlongera, 1983, Mlama, 1971, Mayonzo 2006, Mayonzo, 2005)
University of the Philippines Los Baños
The systematic [6]study and practice of Development Communication in the Philippines began in the 1970s with the pioneering work of Nora C. Quebral, who, in 1972 became the first to come up with the term "Development Communication." In at least some circles within the field, it is Quebral who is recognized as the "Mother" of Development Communication.
Quebral's work with the University of the Philippines Los Baños' Office of Extension and Publications evolved into today's College of Development Communication, which in 1971 became the first to offer degree programs at the Doctorate, Masteral's and Undergraduate degree levels.
Aspects of development communication which the CDC has extensively explored include Development Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Development Journalism, Educational Communication, Science Communication, Strategic Communication, and Health Communication.
Reference:
Difference between mass communication, development communication, development journalism and development support communication. Caravan Mass Communication by Farrukh Ahmad Awan, p.345-347
2. communication curriculum, "New Dimensions, Bold Decisions". Continuing Education Center, UP Los Baños: Department of Science Communication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños. pp. 15–28.
3. Manyozo, Linje (March 2006). "Manifesto for Development Communication: Nora C. Quebral and the Los Baños School of Development Communication". Asian Journal of Communication 16 (1): 79–99.
4. "CFSC Pioneer: Honouring Nora Quebral".
5. Arvind Singhal, Everett M. Rogers (1999). Entertainment-education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
6. Arvind Singhal, Michael J. Cody, Everett M. Rogers, Miguel Sabido (2004). Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Development [1] Communications are organized efforts to use communication processes and media to bring social and economic improvements, generally in developing countries. The field emerged in the late 1950’s amid high hopes that radio and television could be put to use in worlds most disadvantage countries to bring about dramatic progress. Early communication theorists like Wilbur Schramn and Daniel Lerner based their high expectation upon the apparent success of World War II propaganda, to which academia and Hollywood had contributed.
Also with world war II came dozens of new, very poor, countries, left by their former colonial overseers with little infrastructure, education, or political stability. It was widely accepted that mass media could bring education, essential skills, social unity, and a desire to “modernize”. Walt Rostow theorized that society’s progress through specific stages of development in their way to modernity, what he termed “the age of high mass consumption”. Lerner suggested that exposure to Western Media would create “Empathy” for modern culture, and a desire to move from traditional to modern ways. Warly development communication, especially that sponsored by the U.S. government, was also seen as means of “winning heart and minds” over to a capitalist way of life.
These early approaches made a number of erroneous assumptions, and have been largely forsaken in contemporary approaches to development. Obstacles to development were naively seen as rooted in developing countries, not as products of international relationships. Modernization was presumed to equate to Westernization, and to be a necessary prerequisite to meeting human needs, development was seen as a top-down process, whereby centralized mass media could bring about widespread change, Producers of development media often failed to as if the audience can receive the message (television penetration n in developing countries is minimal and radio penetration in the early days of development communication was light), understand the message (a problem in countries with dozens of languages and dialects), act upon the message (with the necessary tools or other forms of structural support), and want to act upon message. And because it was based upon a propaganda model, development communication efforts were often seen as propaganda and distrusted.
Projects embodying these philosophies have enjoyed little success. In the 1970s and 1980s , a new paradigm of development communication emerged which better recognized the process of deliberate underdevelopment as a function of colonialism, the great diversity of the culture involved, the differences between elite versus popular goals for social change, the considerable political and ideological constraints to change and the endless varieties of ways different cultures coummunicate.
But in some instances mass media technologies , including television, have been “magic multipliers” of development benefits. Educational television has been used effectively to supplement the work of teachers in classrooms in the teaching of literacy and other skills, but only in well designed programs which are integrated with other educational efforts. Consumer video equipment and VCRs have been used to supplement communications efforts in some small projects.
Some developing countries have demonstrated success in using satellite television to provide useful information to portions of their populations out of reach of terrestrial broadcasting. In 1975 and 1976, an experimental satellite communications project called SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) was used to bring informational television programs to rural India. Some changes in beliefs and behaviors did occur, but there is little indication that satellite television was the best means to that end. The project did lead Indian development of its own satellite network. China has also embarked on ambitious program of satellite use for development, clamming substantial success in rural education. When television has succeeded as an education tool in developing countries, it is only when very pecific viewing conditions are met. For Example, programs are best viewed in small groups with a teacher to introduce them and to lead a discussion afterwards.
A variety of types of organizations work with local governments to develop communications projects. The United Nations provides multi-lateral aid to governments. Non-profit Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) conduct development projects worldwide using U.N., government, or private funding. And government agencies, such as the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID) Provide assistance to developing countries, but with political strings attached, there are three common types of development campaigns: Persuasion, Changing what people do; Education, changing social values; and informing, empowering people to change by increasing knowledge. This third approach is now perceived as the most useful. Instead of attempting to modernize people, contemporary efforts attempt to reduce inequality by targeting the poorest segments of society, involving people in their won development, giving them independence from central authority, and employing “small” and “appropriate” technologies. The emphasis has shifted from economic growth to meeting basic needs.
In this new view of development communication becomes an important catalyst for change but not its cause. Local folk media, for example, is employed to reduces medias bias toward literacy and provide information in a traditional, familiar from. Development journalism provides people with information on change in their society, works at the local level to advocate change. Where mass media is now employed in developing societies, communication newspapers and radio prove far more accessible and useful than television. The rapid spread of entertainment television the developing world is providing to be more a disruption to traditional social structures than an agent of progress. One emerging genre of television does show promise for contributing to development. The telenovela, pioneered in Brazil, has demonstrated some success in disseminating “pro-social” messages. Such programs are now being evaluated in many countries for effectiveness in contributing to population control, health-education, and other development goals.
There are some schools of Development Communication. In which describe and define a brief history of Development Communication. Few of them are describe below.
The Bretton Woods school
The "Bretton Woods school of development communication" is a term that has[2] been applied to the development communication approaches that arose with the economic strategies outlined in the Marshall Plan after World War two, and the establishment of the Bretton Woods system and of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1944. The descriptive term is not widely used in the field, but has been used to differentiate between different "schools" or approaches to development which have historically evolved, sometimes independently, at later points in history and in other parts of the world. Leading theorists under this school included Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm, and Everett Rogers. Due to his pioneering influence in the field, Rogers has often been termed the "father of development communication."
Originally, the paradigm involved production and planting of development in indigenous and uncivilized societies. This western approach to development communication was criticized early on, especially by Latin American researchers such as Lios Ramiro Beltan and Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, because it tended to locate the problem in the underdeveloped nation rather than its unequal relations with powerful economies. There was also an assumption that Western models of industrial capitalism are appropriate for all parts of the world. Many projects for development communication failed to address the real underlying problems in poor countries such as lack of access to land, agricultural credits and fair market prices for products.
Failure of many development projects in the 1960s led to it reconceptualizing its top-down methods.
(Manyozo, 2006) The school has reviewed its approaches over the years and has been the most dynamic in testing and adopting new approaches and methodologies.
The world bank currently defines development communication as the "integration of strategic communication in development projects" based on a clear understanding of indigenous realities.
Institutions associated with the Bretton Woods school include:
· the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
· Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
· the Rockefeller Foundation,
· the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, and
· the Ford Foundation.
Latin America
The Latin American School of Development traces its history back further than the[3] Bretton Woods school, emerging in the 1940s with the efforts of Colombia's Radio Sutatenza and Bolivia's Radios Mineras. These stations were the first to use participatory and educational rural radio approaches to empowering the marginalised. In effect, they have since served as the earliest models for participatory broadcasting efforts around the world.
In the 1960s Paolo Freire's theories of critical pedagogy and Miguel Sabido's enter-educate method became important elements of the Latin American development communication scene.
Other theorists who have influenced this school include Juan Diaz Bordenave, Luis Ramiro Beltran, and Alfonso Gumucio Dagron. (Mayonzo 2006, Mayonzo, 2005)
In the 1990s, technological advances facilitated social change and development – new media outlets began to emerge, cable TV signal coverage spread over more regions, and as the presence of communication firms grew so did an echoed global trend from major corporations.
India
The history of organised development communication in India can be traced to rural[4] radio broadcasts in the 1940s. As is logical, the broadcasts used indigenous languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kannada.
Independent India'ss earliest organized experiments in development communication started with Community Development projects initiated by the union government in the 1950s. The government, guided by socialistic ideals of its constitution and the first generation of politicians, started massive developmental programmes throughout the country. While field publicity was given due importance for person-to-person communication - also because the level of literacy was very low in rural areas - radio played an equally important role in reaching messages to the masses. Universities and other educational institutions - especially the agricultural universities, through their extension networks - and international organisations under the UN umbrella carried the dev-comm experiments further.
Development communication in India, a country of sub-continental proportions, acquires many connotations. On one end of the spectrum are the tools and techniques locally applied by charitable and not-for-profit organisations with very close inter-personal relations among the communicators and on the other end is the generic, far-off, one-way sort of communication emanating from the government.
The need for development communication continues since a large population, over 600 million, lives in rural areas and depends directly on agriculture. Poverty is reducing as percentage of population but still over 200 million are very poor as of 2009. They all, and the urban slum dwellers, need government support in different forms. Therefore, communication from the government remains highly relevant. In addition to the traditional ways, a new form of communication is being tried by the union government to support its developmental activities, though at a limited scale. Called Public Information Campaigns, public shows are organised in remote areas where information on social and developmental schemes is given, seminars and workshops are held, villagers and their children are engaged in competitions, messages are given through entertainment shows. In addition, government organisations and corporates involved in rural businesses display their wares and services in stalls lining the main exhibition area. This approach brings various implementing agencies and service / goods providers while the information providers encourage the visitors to make the best use of various schemes and services available. Some state [=provincial] governments have also adopted this model to take their development schemes to the masses.
Community radio is another new medium getting a foothold in rural India, though in patches. NGOs and educational institutions are given licence to set up a local community radio station to broadcast information, advisories and messages on developmental aspects. Participation of local community is encouraged. As community radio provides a platform to villagers to broadcast local issues, it has the potential to elicit positive action from local politicians and civil servants.
Africa
The African[5] school of development communication sprang from the continent's post-colonial and communist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Development communication in Anglophone Africa saw the use of Radio and theatre for community education, adult literacy, health and agricultural education.
In 1994 the FAO project "Communication for Development in Southern Africa" was a pioneer in supporting and enhancing development projects and programs through the use of participatory communication approaches. The FAO project, placed under SADC, developed an innovative methodology known as PRCA - Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal, which combined participatory tools and techniques with a strong communication focus needed to design strategies enhancing projects' results and sustainability. FAO and SADC published a handbook on PRCA and this methodology is still widely used today in various projects around the world.
Meanwhile, radio was being developed as a means of promoting rural development in Francophone Africa, with sponsorship from the Bretton Woods school institutions. (Kamlongera, 1983, Mlama, 1971, Mayonzo 2006, Mayonzo, 2005)
University of the Philippines Los Baños
The systematic [6]study and practice of Development Communication in the Philippines began in the 1970s with the pioneering work of Nora C. Quebral, who, in 1972 became the first to come up with the term "Development Communication." In at least some circles within the field, it is Quebral who is recognized as the "Mother" of Development Communication.
Quebral's work with the University of the Philippines Los Baños' Office of Extension and Publications evolved into today's College of Development Communication, which in 1971 became the first to offer degree programs at the Doctorate, Masteral's and Undergraduate degree levels.
Aspects of development communication which the CDC has extensively explored include Development Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Development Journalism, Educational Communication, Science Communication, Strategic Communication, and Health Communication.
Reference:
Difference between mass communication, development communication, development journalism and development support communication. Caravan Mass Communication by Farrukh Ahmad Awan, p.345-347
2. communication curriculum, "New Dimensions, Bold Decisions". Continuing Education Center, UP Los Baños: Department of Science Communication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños. pp. 15–28.
3. Manyozo, Linje (March 2006). "Manifesto for Development Communication: Nora C. Quebral and the Los Baños School of Development Communication". Asian Journal of Communication 16 (1): 79–99.
4. "CFSC Pioneer: Honouring Nora Quebral".
5. Arvind Singhal, Everett M. Rogers (1999). Entertainment-education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
6. Arvind Singhal, Michael J. Cody, Everett M. Rogers, Miguel Sabido (2004). Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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