DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATIO

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WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION?

This describes an approach to communication which provides communities with information they can use in bettering their lives, which aims at making public programmes and policies real, meaningful and sustainable.

Such information must be applied in some way as part of community development but it must also address information needs which communities themselves identified.

The outcome of this approach, in short, is to make a difference in the quality of life of communities.

Nora Quebral (1971) defines development communication as follows:

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.

COMPARISON OF DIFFUSION AND PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES

The diffusion model assumes that a proper combination of mass-mediated and interpersonal communication strategies can move individuals from poor to not-poor via a process starting with awareness (of a new technology or practice) through interest, evaluation, trial and finally to adoption of the technology or practice that is assumed to lead to improved livelihoods.

SUMMARY OF DIFFUSION APPROACH

Definition of communication: information transfer - vertical

Definition of development communication: information dissemination via mass media

Problem: lack of information Solution: information transfer:

Knowledge - Attitudes - Practice Goal: outcome oriented: behavior

change

PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

The participatory approach is made effective by a number of factors. Among these factors

are: creating a participatory communication

environment that not only gives room for the expression of diverse ideas on societal developmental concerns, but also facilitates grassroots-level interaction;

strengthening the flow of public information and opportunities of public dialogue on development policies and programmes;

producing and disseminating information content that reflects as well as responds to the local values and information needs of the people at the grassroots level;

using community communication-access points, especially community radio

harnessing the strengths of traditional media (drama, dance, songs, story-telling, etc.) and combining them with new information and communication technologies;

PARTICIPATORY MODEL

Definition of communication: information exchange/dialogue - horizontal

Definition of development communication: grassroots participation via group interaction

Problem: structural inequalities/local knowledge ignored

Solution: information exchange/ participation

Goal: process-oriented: empowerment, equity, community

USE OF VARIOUS MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

The two main techniques adopted in the use of various media in development communication is social marketing and its subset education entertainment.,

SOCIAL MARKETINGDEFINITION

The use of established advertising techniques to promote development goals via media such as TV, radio, newspapers and billboards etc, is termed social marketing

Social marketing has adopted not only the forms of marketing, but also its tools: consumer research, pretesting, and audience segmentation

EDUCATION ENTERTAINMENTDEFINITION

A subset of social marketing is entertainment-education, which has been defined by leading U.S. proponents in classic diffusion terms as “the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, and change overt behavior”

Entertainment education messages may be carried by, for example, a soap opera or popular song specifically written for that purpose,

“[e]ntertainment –through television, radio and music– is one of the most effective communication strategies for reaching the public to promote family planning and other public health issues.”

  For example, an examination of a radio soap opera in Zambia designed to disseminate information about AIDS found changes over time in some behaviors, in a family planning campaign .

Media exposure leads to increased knowledge and attitude change. For example, farmers basically utilize mass media for entertainment, relaxation, to escape from problems and to enliven their houses, so the use of a new herbicide can be promoted, for example, through television or radio.

SOME OF THE VARIOUS MEDIA THAT CAN BE USED IN SOCIAL MARKETING AND EDUCATION ENTERTAINMENT ARE:

Electronic media television and radio broadcasts The programme may comprise of interviews with experts, officials and farmers, folk songs and information about weather, market rates, availability of improved seeds

and implements, etc

RADIO FORUMS

Live broadcasts or programming for the developing community on the intervention concerned. This can take many forms, for example, the form of a studio panel discussing a relevant topic, where communities can phone or write in, where possible.

PRINT MEDIA

newspapers/local magazines, etc.

Written articles for national programming can be featured in newspapers or local magazines where the national broadcaster has specific programme which are developmental in nature.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Folk drama/Street theatre Telling community stories or events in this

medium is one good way of handling sensitive things which people may not openly talk about…after all, it is the characters talking! This could be done through humorous skits and plays through which the importance of literacy, hygiene etc. are enacted.

development communication using various media is possible only with the active involvement of the following:

(i) Development agencies like departments of agriculture.

(ii) Voluntary organizations(iii) Concerned citizens(iv) Non governmental organizations (NGOs) These groups help the government in

implementing development programmes.