Development Communication

Communicating begins even prior to infancy.  A simple eyelash flutter of a baby brings joy even to the most sullen faces. With advance of time, both child and its communication grow into maturity. From visual gestures to illogical babble to some sense making simple words, parents are the sole proprietor of witnessing this wonderful transformation. This transformation quite reminds us of how humans in general have historically developed into present day communication. A homo sapiens today would wonder at the science of fire as he had used fire to communicate some basic needs required by the time.

Media draws its sustenance from society and does not exist in isolation. Society’s survival and growth depends on a number of factors among which a system of communication is crucial, as people in a society get information, education and entertainment through communication. A society can be defined as a community of people living in a particular region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations. A society however, can be either homogeneous or heterogeneous. The Chinese and the Japanese are good examples of the homogenous cultures; whereas the USA and India epitomize diverse cultures. Communication is the basic link among various echelons in a society. With the coming of mass media, one finds the society’s reflection in news and entertainment programs. At a micro level, one learns about various groups divided by caste, custom, religion or creed either through interpersonal interaction or through media programming.

Media plays an important role in development communication through circulation of knowledge, providing forum for discussion of issues, teach ideas, skills for a better life and create a base of consensus for stability of the state. 

Development communication is a type of communication which primarily focuses on the issues related to development. There are two important words here: Development and communication. The concept of development is recent phenomena as it gained ground in the early nineties. After the end of World War-II, many countries were freed from the bond of colonization. These included countries such as Canada, India, China and some of the African and Latin American countries. These countries were both eager and anxious to prove their independent worth in the world. These countries had lack of proper infrastructure, poorly managed agriculture and industries. Issues of poverty and hunger were rampant especially in Asian countries like India and Pakistan. What these newly freed nations wanted was significant amount of capital investment. 

United States (US) had established itself as the almighty of the world by the end of the WW-II as England was exhausted financially its political significance decreased. Dollar became the standard monetary unit for world trade. The under-developed countries heavily borrowed money from the World Bank and other important international institutes like UN. For theses nations, the development and food independence were prerequisite. For instance, India had to rely on US food import as there was not enough food production to supply the whole big population of the nation and the storage capacity was low.

On the other hand the social evils like low education in women, untouchability, feudalism, old agriculture methods, all these issues hindered the progress of the nations. The biggest challenge before the newly elected governments were to introduce the confidence into the mass that this government can better manage the affaires of the country than their predecessor. With this objective in mind, the use of the word development communication started. There are some important definitions of development communications.

Edward (1993) understands the word development as much about the enrichment of the lives of all the people in the society (p.80). Communication on the other hand is the transmission of messages from the source to the receiver through a medium.

Nora Quebral (1971) defines the concept of developing communication in the following words. " Development communication is the art and science of human communication applied to the speedy transformation of a country and the mass of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth that makes possible greater social equality and the larger fulfillment of the human potential.

Mass communication expert Everett Rogers “Development communication refers to the uses to which communication are put in order to further development.” F. Rosario Braid on the other hand is of the opinion that development communication is “an element of the management process in the overall planning and implementation of the developmental programs”.

Another scholar Servaes (2002) defines development communication as the "sharing of knowledge aimed at reaching a consensus for action that takes into account the interests, needs and capacities for all concerned" (p.4). Another attempt to define development communication concludes that it is the purposive and strategic use of interpersonal, participatory and mediated channels to support positive change among individuals and societies at the micro (community) and macro (national) levels (Melkote & Steaves, 2001). The United Nations (UN) on the other hand, offers a much broader definition of communication for development. The UN defines it as a "process that allows communities to speak out, express their aspirations and concerns, and participate in the decisions that relate to their development" (General Assembly Resolution 5/172, article 6)."

Therefore, development communication can simply be understood as a participatory communication activity that focuses on the needs of the people at different levels, taking into account their concerns, acceptance and input toward achieving complete cooperation and support for efforts aimed at improving their lives.

Indian governments had soon realized the importance of development communication. To meet the demands of food sufficiency the government implemented the variety of agricultural technology imported from the US. To make this initiative reach to the mass audience, the government used radio. The service of television started in 1959. The history of development communication in India can be traced to 1940’s when radio broadcast was done in different languages to promote development communication through various programs, like—Programs for Rural Audience, Educational Programs and Family Welfare Programs. Today television in our country is also used as a medium for social education, weapon against ignorance and awareness among the people, through is difference programs like Educational Television (ETV), Countrywide Classroom (CWC), Teleconferencing etc.

Development communication thus can be said to have two primary roles, i.e., (a) transforming role, as it seeks social changes for a higher quality of life. (b) Socializing role, by seeking to maintain some of the established values of the society. The role can be discussed as following:

1. Development communication is used for transforming role by bringing in social change in a way that will bring a higher quality of life. Here communication acts as an instrument to achieve these objectives.

2. Development communication also tries to maintain the established values of the society by playing a socializing role. In playing these roles, development communication seeks to create an atmosphere for change as well as providing innovation through which society may change.

For a successful development communication policy it is necessary to identify the core areas of development. The core areas of development are Agriculture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Food, Security, Communication, Irrigation, Public works, Employment, Environment, Ecology and Education.

Implementation of development communication through media:

Mass media and technology should be extensively and tactfully used for development purpose. It should be kept in mind that it is a weapon in the hands of the government for positive developmental purpose. When the media is used for developmental purpose, develop communicator has to keep in mind that the usage should be extensive. And for this purpose the mass media structure should be planned and efforts should be made to reach out to maximum number of people every time. Daniel Lerner in 1958, while discussing the relation of development with that of any mass media said that: ―the greater the communication facilities, the greater or even faster is modernization.

According to Wilbur Schramm, the role of media in development can be divided into three parts i.e. (i) to inform

(ii) to instruct

 and (iii) to participate.