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Introduction to Development Communication
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Unit I
Chapter 1
SOCIETAL PROBLEMS
I t is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

In the 1960s, the need to address pervasive
problems in countries with post-colonial
backgrounds prompted the evolution of
development com-munication as a professional and
scientific discipline. Perhaps an unstated goal of
development communication is to render itself
irrelevant through the solution of these societal
problems. Some say, however, that these problems
will always be there, or at least, the tendency for
them to recur is always present. Be that as it may,
the existence of these problems in its various forms
and permuta-tions provides the major argument for
development communica-
tion.
Objectives
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Enumerate the social problems
associated with under-development;
2. Describe these problem conditions; and
3. Establish trends when appropriate.
4 Introduction to Development Communication
A Third World Legacy
Although the term “Third World” is no longer in

vogue after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe,
the problems and conditions represented by this
phrase have not disappeared nor, in fact, dimin-
ished. The problems that our generation of baby
boomers attempted to solve 30 years ago are still
as virulent as ever.
Living in a developing country, you must have

encountered these conditions on a daily basis.
There is a strong tendency for us to become
insensitive or desensitized to these problems. As
students of development communication it is
important for us to resist this tendency. An
unrelenting awareness and consciousness of
these problems provides the impetus for our
practice.
Third World Problems
Development sociologists would tell us that

problems such as the ones described in the
Prologue are pervasive in the Third World and
hence associated with underdevelopment.
Decades of devel-opment experience prove that
they come in clusters, occurring and recurring
with alarming consistency and tenacity like a
collective nightmare that refuses to pass. These
problems persistently nag the conscience of rich
nations. The virulent nature of these problems
has desensitized our society. What is more
alarming is the apathetic attitude adopted by
many of us.
The Dev Com Response
Development communication grew in response to

these societal problems. One of its underlying
assumptions is that these prob-lems may be
traced to root causes and these root causes may
in turn be remedied by information and
communication.
Problems
What exactly are the problems that plague developing societies?

How grave, how profound are their imprints on our lives?
Unit I Chapter 1 5
Poverty
The most menacing of these problems is poverty.

How many live in absolute poverty? Consider
these figures: 350 million in India; 195 million in
China; 93.2 million in Bangladesh; 72.4 million in
Brazil; 47.8 million in Indonesia; 46.4 in Nigeria;
37.6 million in Vietnam; 35.2 million in the
Philippines; and 157 million more in other parts
of the developing world.
Poverty is a problem that brings with it a host of

other virulent problems, such as societal instability,
vices and diseases. Consider, for instance, the
argument of the parents of sexually abused chil-
dren in Pagsanjan, a tourist town in Southern
Luzon. They would gladly “lend” their children to
pedophile tourists since these for-eigners would
spend for their children’s education and upkeep.
Consider, too, the justification of the parents of the

exploited Muro Ami boys. That it is only because of
extreme poverty that they allow their sons to dive,
work the fishing nets and risk their lives.
Then there are the public school teachers who
would gladly give up their teaching jobs to
become domestic helpers in Italy. Not to mention
the dentists and accountants who apply for
menial jobs in the US Navy. We hear about the
young ladies who are forced to sacrifice their
morals for a stint in Japan as japayukis. And who
is not familiar with the barrio lasses whose
highest aspiration is to become mail order brides
for aging males in the Australian outback. It is all
because of poverty or the unrelenting threat of it
in a devel-oping country.
Six out of 10 Filipinos are poor. This estimate is

based on optimis-tic figures of the National
Census and Statistics Office. If we base our
figures on current poverty indices of organiza-
tions such as the University of Asia and the
Pacific, we estimate that eight out of 10 Filipinos
are below the poverty line.
Being poor means being unable to eat properly, clothe

yourself prop-erly, purchase medicine for your
ailments, or dwell in a safe, com-
fortable shelter. It means being unable to get an

education because of the lack of money. It means
not being able to support your family or
adequately provide them with basic necessities. It
means being eternally in debt.
We are not even writing strictly of slum dwellers

or marginal farm-ers here. Many professionals fit
the description given above.
Unemployment
You are unemployed when you do not earn a living.

You are under-employed when your job requires
skills that are way below what you trained for.
Consequently, you are paid way below your worth.
Our national economic experts believe that our

unemployment rates are decreasing, painting a
rosy picture of the utilization of our hu-man
resources. However, what does your experience
tell you? Are unemployment and
underemployment really improving?
High Population Growth
World population has reached the 6 billion mark

and is rapidly in-creasing. Reflect for a moment that
at the end of the 18th century, there were only 900
million people in the entire world. This nearly
doubled a century later with 1.6 billion. Today,
however, after an-other hundred years, this figure
ballooned almost four times. Is the dire Malthusian
prediction coming to pass in our time?
Seven out of the 10 most highly populated

nations are developing countries. These countries
have youthful populations, and thus have a
staggering potential for even greater population
growth rates. Considering a world where
resources are limited, this becomes a critical
concern not only of developing countries but also
of West-ern countries with low populations as
well. In fact, the United Na-tions considers it as
one of the biggest problems facing the world
today.
Unit I Chapter 1 7
Inequality
Contrary to myth, all men are not created equal.

Some are born rich, others are born poor. Some are
born healthy; others are born with the specter of
disease continually haunting them. Some are born
in industrialized countries; others are born in
develop-ing coun-tries. However, everyone should
be equally provided with the op-portunity to
develop, to realize his or her full potential.
In developing countries, such a condition is but a
dream. Consider, for instance, the fact that 10
percent of the population in the Phil-ippines
controls 90 percent of its economic resources. For a
poor country, it is strange to find people literally
wal-lowing in wealth.
Is the situation any better globally?
In 1998, the United Nations Development Program reported

that:
1. The wealth of the world’s three richest

individuals is more than the total GDP of 48
nations.
2. The wealth of the world’s 15 richest people is
more than the total GDP of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
3. The wealth of the world’s 32 richest people is
more than the total GDP of South Asia
4. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen
Little has changes since then.
Environmental Degradation
and the Loss of Arable Land
The Philippines should not be poor. It is very rich

in natural re-sources. Being in the tropical zone,
it is also very rich in genetic resources.
Biodiversity is one of the hallmarks of all its
major eco-systems— upland, lowland, and
coastal. Yet these ecosystems are surely being
degraded at an alarming rate.
In the past 50 years, 70 percent of our primary

forests have been logged-over. Our agricultural
lands are rapidly being transformed into
industrial parks and residential subdivisions. This
loss of ar-able land poses not only environmental
problems but food security problems as well.
Furthermore, our cities and inland waters suffer

from unabated in-dustrial pollution that causes an
ever-widening range of pervasive skin and
respiratory ailments, cancers, nervous disorders,
neuro-logical diseases, and brain damage. What is
even more disturbing is the threat to our coastal
and marine environment, which is the most
genetically diverse in the entire world.
By nature, marine ecosystems are more delicate

than upland and lowland ecosystems. A sudden
drop or increase in temperature could spell the
death of many organisms. A carelessly dropped
anchor could physically damage coral reefs and
subsequently contribute to depleted fish catch.
Consider that more than 50 percent of our
protein intake comes from our coastal resources.
Malnutrition
Two decades ago, it was estimated that 68

percent of our popula-tion lived below the so-
called borderline between nutrition and
malnutrition. Seventy-five percent suffer from
Vitamin A deficiency. Seventy percent of our
children are anemic. An equivalent percent-age
has internal parasites.
However, our technocrats are optimistic. By 1997, a

researcher from the Department of Science and
Technology believed that the mal-nutrition rate
would slow down by 40 percent. UNICEF figures
belie this projection. The organization estimates
that 160,000 chil-dren die each year because of
malnutrition. Seventeen children go blind each day
because of Vitamin A deficiency.
Unit I Chapter 1 9
Furthermore, we should note that, as food policy

researchers Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph
Collins have stressed, malnutrition wears two
faces: UNDERNUTRITION and OVERNUTRITION.
Underdeveloped countries are cursed with the
former while the latter is preva-lent in the West
where the poor, who cannot afford gyms and diet
pro-grams, are obese.
Ethnic Conflict
Contemporary wars are not being waged by

countries but by cul-tures.
The conflicts in Rwanda, Basque, Bosnia, Kosovo,

Chechnya, Af-ghanistan, Aceh, Maluku, East
Timur and Mindanao are not politi-cal struggles
but are cases of cultural and ethnic strife.
Political scientist and historian Samuel P.
Huntington refers to these con-flicts as the
beginnings of the CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS. More
appro-priate perhaps is the phrase, the CLASH OF
CULTURES.
Societal Priorities
Given the gravity and extent of our societal

problems, one would think that a concerted and
comprehensive effort to solve all these problems
would be conducted by the community of nations.
In-deed several initiatives have been formed,
particularly during the turn of the millennium.
The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992)
followed by the Johannesburg Summit (2002) has
crystallized the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals.
Yet, if we begin comparing the items of our
annual global expendi-tures, then we can only
conclude that these initiatives fall way be-low our
global list of priorities.
The United Nations Development Program made

such a compari-son in its 1998 Human
Development Report. The analysis showed that
during the late 1990s, the world spent US$ 780
billion on mili-tary hardware/software and US$
400 billion on drugs while allot-ting a mere US$ 8
billion on basic education. And to think that
military spending only serves to exacerbate
problems such as eth-nic conflict.
Europe alone spent US$ 105 billion on alcoholic

beverages and US$ 50 billion on cigarettes while
the entire world spent a measly US$ 13 billion on
basic health and nutrition. The Japanese spent an
average of US$ 35 billion per year on business
entertainment while the rest of the world had to
be satisfied with US$8 billion on water and
sanitation. Europe and the United States spent
US$ 17 billion on pet food and US$ 12 million on
perfumes while the rest of the world had merely
the same amount to spend on reproductive health
care.
Figure 1-1 gives the global annual spending in

the 1990s, a clear indication of our societal
priorities in spite of our societal prob-lems.
900
800 780
700
600
500
400
400
300
200
105
100 50 35
17 13 12 12
0 8
11
9 8.1
Pet Foods(EuropeandUSA)
ReproductiveHealthforWomen
Cigarettes(Europe)
Perfumes(EuropeandUSA)
Basic HealthandNutrition
Drugs
Water andSanitation
Cosmetics(USA)
Ice Cream(Europe)
BasicEducation
Alcohol(Europe)
BusEntertainment(Japan)
Military
Figure 1-1. Annual spending in US$ Billion
Unit I Chapter 1 11
Summary
This chapter enumerated problems associated with

underdevelop-ment. Your personal encounters with
these problems must have prompted you at one
time or another to actively engage yourself in
solving them. Their magnitude and complexity may
have, at times, given you a feeling of helplessness
and frustration. With the right tools, however,
everything is possible.
References
Hughes, J. (1995). The Larousse Desk Reference.

London: Larousse. United Nations Development
Program. 1998 Human Development
Report. New York.
Chapter 2
Underdevelopment Problematique
P roblems associated with underdevelopment

have exhibited a great degree of complexity.
Attempts to analyze these prob-lems often fail to
grasp the intricacy of the situation and occasion-
ally offer solutions that work for the short term but
are ineffective
in the long term.
This chapter gives the development

communication student a tech-nique to better
appreciate these problems and in so doing offer
sustainable solutions.
Objectives

1. Describe the “vicious cycle of poverty;”
2. Characterize problems associated with
underdevelop-ment;
3. Describe the problematique technique; and
4. Define subordinate and superordinate
influential fac-tors.
The Vicious Cycle of Poverty
In the mid-1960s, the noted policy scientist

Daniel Lerner intro-duced the phrase “vicious
cycle of poverty” to development jar-gon. It
characterized a situation wherein:
...no sustained economic growth is possible

because each specific advance is rapidly
checked by some counter-ten-dency in the
social system. The most important of such
counter tendencies is excessive population
growth. Any sig-nificant economic progress
tends to prolong life by reduc-ing famine
and pesti-lence. When death rates decrease
more rapidly than birth rates—often,
indeed, while birth rates are increasing—
then rapid population growth occurs. In
poor countries population growth tends to
“lead” economic growth by setting rates of
increase that must be at-tained so that the
society can stay at its existing levels of
poverty. No surpluses can be generated,
hence no “leap forward” is possible.
We can summarize the dominant features of the

vicious cycle in the following diagram.
low productivity
lack of technology not enough food
low savings and investments malnutrition
low-income poor education
unequal wealth distribution high birth rate
unemployment and
underemployment
Figure 2-1. The vicious cycle of poverty
Unit I Chapter 2 15
Lerner’s analysis points to excessive population

growth as the most critical counter-tendency in
the development process. But is it re-ally? If we
reduce population growth to zero (ZPG) in the
Philip-pines, will we solve our country’s problems
and crises?
Without undermining its originality and

importance, we must point out a flaw in Lerner’s
analysis: he assumed that these problems or so-
called dominant features come individually and
sequentially. However, it has been perennially
observed that the problems asso-ciated with
underdevelopment:
1. are pervasive;
2. are interrelated;
3. come in clusters; and
4. have an innate tendency to recur.
Development planners in the 1990s are faced with

the same prob-lems as their counterparts in the
1950s and 1960s. The situation has prompted
development agencies to focus on a new concept,
namely “sustainable development” (as in
sustainable agriculture). It is along this line that we
introduce the following topic.
The Problematique Method
In the late 1970s, two communication scientists

from Indiana Uni-versity, Michael Molenda and
Anthony Di Paolo, observed a cer-tain tendency for
problems in communication systems to come in
clusters and recur. They referred to the presence of
this type of problems as a “problematique”
situation. Since then, the word “problematique” has
come to mean a complex cluster of problems that
are so virulent in nature that they recur every so
often.
Molenda and Di Paolo also developed an
innovative yet simple way of solving the
problematique by tracing and differentiating
between symptoms which they called
“subordinate influential factors” and root causes
which they referred to as “superordinate
influential fac-tors.”
They argued that in any given system, problems

are usually interre-lated, one being the cause or
the effect of another. Decision mak-ers usually fall
into the trap of mistaking a symptom for the root
cause. Hence, any attempt at remedying the
symptom will only suc-ceed temporarily since
these are merely palliatives. Until the root cause
is identified and eradicated, the cluster of
problems will al-ways recur. The important thing
is to identify the superordinate influential factors
through a series of unstructured, open-ended
interviews. This procedure is known as the
“problematique” tech-nique.
The Problematique Map
How is the problematique technique done?
First, identify a problem situation. For purposes

of example, let us pick a personal, not a societal
problem and assume that our biggest problem is
“not enough cash.” Now, proceed drafting what
Librero (1993) calls a problematique map. Get
a piece of paper and write down this problem at
the bottom of the page. Enclose this prob-lem in a
box.
The figure would look like this:
I don’t have enough income

Figure 2-2. The not enough cash problematique map
Unit I Chapter 2 17
Next, ask “Why?” In other words, ask yourself,

“Why don’t I have enough cash?” List down the
reasons that directly cause this situa-tion of not
having enough money. Again, for purposes of
example, let us say that the following reasons
contribute to our cash flow problem:
1. low income; and

2. high cost of living.
In a diagram, link these reasons to the problem

situation with a line and an arrowhead pointing
towards the problem to establish cau-sality. Our
diagram would now look like this:
Not enough opportunities
Low salary
Low returns on investments
High cost of living
Figure 2-3. The not enough cash problematique map
Now, go over these reasons one by one and ask yourself,

“Why?”
1. Why is my income low?

2. Why is the cost of living high?
Let us assume that you have two sources of

income: your salary and your investments. Let us
assume further that your salary is small and that
the returns on your investment are also small.
Moreover your salary is pegged to the minimum
because of the lack of an advanced degree.
Similarly, the low ROI and the high cost of liv-ing
may be a function of unsound economic
policies. In the dia-gram (see Figure 2-4), link
these factors to the respective situations to
establish causality.
Our diagram would now look like this:
Lack of advanced degree
Not enough opportunities Unsound economic policies
Low salary
Low returns on investments
High cost of living
Figure 2-4. The not enough income problematic map
We may continue this process by again asking

“Why?” for each reason identified until this
question can no longer be answered. The
problematique itself, however, shares the
boundaries of the system under study. In other
words, the factor identified should not go beyond
the system.
Let us assume that such is the case in our

example. The lack of an advanced degree could
no longer be attributed to any other factor and
the unsound economic policy goes beyond the
system under study, i.e., our personal
circumstances.
Figure 2-2 gives us an example of the

problematique map, the problematique tech-
nique’s basic tool for analysis. The bold-bor-dered
box is the condition under study. The boxes with
arrows point-ing towards them are the
subordinate influential factors or the symp-toms
of the root causes. The blocks with no arrows
pointing to-wards them are the super-ordinate
influential factors or the root causes.
Unit I Chapter 2 19
The problematique condition may be described in

the following manner: The root causes of our
poor cash flow are the lack of an advanced deg-
ree and the poor economic policy environment.
Symp-toms or subordinate influential factors of
this problem situation are: the high cost of living
and low income, which in turn is caused by low
salary and low returns on investments.
Does it make sense to you?
References
Lerner, D. (1963). Toward a communication

theory of moderniza-tion in Communication
and Political Development. Lucien Pye (ed.),
pp 346-347.
Librero, F. (1993). Towards a methodology for
problematique analy-sis: A Philippine
experience. Asian Journal of Communication
3(1), 84-102. Singapore: AMIC.
Molenda, M. and Di Paolo, A. (1978). An analysis
of problems and possibilities of the audio-
visual general department. USAID.
Chapter 3
What is Development?
W hat is development? For a time, many equated

development with new roads and tall buildings. These
were the observable signs of an increasing gross
national product, the gauge of a nation’s
wealth. It didn’t take long for them to realize that
an increase in GNP didn’t exactly mean
development.
That was in the 1960s. Since then, many theories,

many definitions, and many measures of
development have been forwarded. These
theories, definitions, and measures have their
own individual mer-its. From a development
communication perspective, however, the true
measure of development is man.
Objectives

1. Define development;
2. Describe the “Three Development Decades”;
3. Enumerate the conditions necessary for
development as given by Dudley Seers;
and
4. Enumerate and describe the measures
and indicators of development.
A Poem on Development
As we look at all the roads,

schools,
hospitals,
wells,
tractors,
that are appearing here and there
and all the fuss made about them,
we may wonder,
is this development?
If this is not, then what is?
A village gets a tractor or builds a well.
Many people rejoice,
here comes development,
the productive forces are expanding!
But someone says,

development of people, not of things!
Ten years of well digging,
road building,
tractor importing,
give no guarantee against
ten following years of indolence,
corruption,
injustice and
stagnation.
Unit I Chapter 3 23
Development, if any, is to be found behind the well;

the way it was decided and built,
how credit was fought for,
in the discussions that went on
during its construction.
The tractor: behind its shiny exterior,

surrounded by smiling villagers
and illustrious potentates.
Does it represent
growing indigenous capacity for production and organization or
growing desire and ability to get what one needs from
the Government or other agencies
with the least effort and
at the sacrifice of independent thought?
The tractor could represent

many lies told
and as many truths withheld.
To judge how much development a thing represents,
We have to look at
the people who brought the thing about, and how and why.
– G. Belkin
Canadian Hunger Foundation Report
ASIA FOCUS, Volume VIII, Number 1,
First Quarter, 1973, pp. 40-41
Definitions and Measures
The First Development Decade
Much has been said, much has been written

about development and many scholars feel that
this much is enough. There is no longer any need
to belabor it some more. However, it was only
after the Second World War when people began
applying the term “devel-opment” in the context
of nations and societies. In fact, before John
Maynard Keynes the term was more frequently
applied in bi-ology than in economics.
Among the first to employ it were economists

from the victorious Allied countries, dons from
Oxford and Harvard who, along with political
scientists and strategists, were engaged by their
respective governments to establish the
foundations of a post-war interna-tional economic
order. Development was the desired goal or end-
state for countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America, all with agri-culture-based economies
and post-colonial histories, some of which were
ravaged by the war.
The term soon became a buzz word for diplomats,

planners, and policymakers. It was institutionalized
as a fashionable adjunct to the newly-formed
national and international agencies such as the
United States Agency for International
Development and the United Nations Development
Programme. A surge of activity promot-ing
development soon ensued internationally with the
Western nations as the donors and countries in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America as the beneficiaries.
These focused on infrastructure and agricultural
productivity. The 1960s became the First Develop-
ment Decade.
There was no question about the so-called

yardstick for develop-ment in the 1960s. The
most accurate measure of development was the
gross national product (GNP), the total money
value of the goods and services produced by a
country in a given year. Econo-mists argued that
there was a direct correlation between develop-
ment and the growth of the GNP.
In the 1960s, a country such as the Philippines

whose GNP was increasing by five percent and
above was undeniably on its way to development. It
was during this decade that the word underdevel-
oped was substituted by its more acceptable
euphemism, develop-ing. Henceforth,
underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa, and South
America became known as developing countries.
It was also during this decade that international
financial institutions such as the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development or the World
Bank and the Asian Development Bank began
investing heavily in development programs in the
developing world.
Unit I Chapter 3 25
During the First Development Decade, several

feasibility studies which formed part of technical
assistance grants for World Bank loans were
conducted. Many of these studies concluded that
it was as feasible to invest in human resource
development or in educa-tion as in infrastructure
in developing countries. In fact, it was pro-jected
be more profitable in the long term.
Another enhancement was the involvement of multi-

disciplinary teams of engineers, economists, and
sociologists in these studies. It became quite
apparent to the latter, particularly during field
visits, that in spite of recorded increases in GNP
there seemed to be very little improvement among
the poor. If the GNP was divided by the country’s
total population, then the resulting number, an
increasing per capita income, gave a misleading
picture since the majority of the developing
country’s population remained poor. Economists
argued that, eventually, a trickle down effect
would spread the benefits of economic development
to every stratum of human so-ciety including the
“poorest of the poor.”
In the international arena, the debate

subsequently assumed a po-litical flavor with the
unavoidable comparison of the Western aid model
of development to the Chinese model, which
became a com-munist showcase in Asia during
the 1960s. The latter boasted of equal
distribution of wealth, participation, and agrarian
reform, al-though in hindsight, the Chinese
themselves began having secret misgivings about
their model. These debates, however, sparked a
serious rethinking of the use of the GNP as a
single aggregate yardstick for development.
Towards the end of the 1960s, the development and

underdevelop-ment dichotomy gave way to a three-
way categorization. To distin-guish the communist
countries (or countries with centrally planned
economies) from the developed or industrial-
commercial countries, the latter became known as
the First World and the former as the Second
World. The developing countries from Asia, Africa,
and South America made up the Third World.
The Second Development Decade
Thus, the 1970s ushered in what the United

Nations calls the Sec-ond Development Decade
with an obvious paradigm shift in per-spective
from the economic to the humanistic.
Development was no longer defined as economic
growth measured by the gross na-tional product.
The term began to assume a deeper meaning, the
improvement of the quality of life of the
individual. Man him-self became the measure of
development.
Foremost among the new development thinkers was

a German named E.F. Schumacher and an
Englishman named Dudley Seers. Schumacher, an
economist by profession, was deeply influenced by
Buddhist philosophy. His unique brand of Buddhist
economics became the subject of a very influential
book in the mid-1970s entitled Small is Beautiful:
Economics as if People Mattered.
Seers, on the other hand, was the Director of the

Institute of De-velopment Studies at the
University of Sussex. Like Ghandi, he believed
that development should provide the necessary
conditions for “the realization of the potential of
human personality.” The presence of these
conditions determines whether a country is
developed or not. The following conditions should
serve as indicators for devel-opment:
1. enough food, clothing, footwear, and shelter

2. meaningful employment
3. equality
4. education
Hence, the relevant questions to ask according to

Seers are: Is the supply of food increasing? Is the
employment rate increasing? Is equality
increasing? Are educational opportunities getting
more and more available to everybody? If the
answer to these questions are in the affirmative,
then “there has been a period of development for
the country concerned.”
Unit I Chapter 3 27
Taking the cue from Seers, the Development

Academy of the Phil-ippines launched the Social
Indicators Project in October 1973 to develop a
comprehensive measure for development, a
“national social accounting system” in the words
of its project director, Mahar Mangahas. From a
preliminary list of nine areas of concern, the
project isolated 30 elements, each a measurable,
quantitative indi-cator. The indexes are as
follows:
1. Health and Nutrition

2. Education and Skills
3. Income and Consumption
a. Net beneficial product per capita
b. Proportion and number of families below
the food poverty threshold
c. Proportion and number of families below
the total poverty threshold
d. Ratio of mean income of richest quintile to
mean income of poorest quintile
e. Rate of inflation of consumer prices
4. Employment
a. Unemployment rate of the totally
unemployed, by occupa-tion and by
educational attainment
b. Real wage rate index, skilled vs. unskilled
workers, by occu-pation
5. Capital and Non-Human Resources

a. Reproducible capital stock
b. Arable land
c. Concentration ratio of agricultural land ownership
d. Forested land
e. Mineral reserves, by type of mineral
6. Housing, Utilities and Environment

a. Proportion of occupied dwelling units
adequately served with water
b. Proportion of the population served by electricity at home

c. Index of housing adequacy
d. Proportion of households with 1.5 persons or less per home
e. Proportion of occupied dwelling units with toilets
f. Pollution index for Metro Manila
g. Proportion of river lengths polluted, by
river, by degree of pollution
7. Public Safety and Justice

a. Crime incidence rate, by type of crime
b. Index of citizens’ perception of public safety and justice
c. Backlog of judicial cases
d. Admissions to penal institutions
e. Number confined in penal institutions
8. Social Mobility
a. Index of occupational mobility
b. Coefficient of openness of occupations,
circulation mobil-ity
c. Index of perceived social mobility
9. Political Values
a. Ratio of votes cast to registered voters
b. Ratio of registered voters to population aged 21 and over
c. Index of political mobility
d. Index of political participation
e. Index of political awareness
f. Index of freedom of political dissent
g. Index of political efficacy
The Third Development Decade
The 1980s became known as the Third

Development Decade. By this time, widespread
disillusionment on the slow pace of and frus-
trations in development work has made the use of
the phrase su-perfluous. This period, however,
was characterized by further re-finements and
focus.
Unit I Chapter 3 29
The decade brought in a realignment of priorities

among interna-tional funding institutions along
the lines of Seers’ thought. From infrastructure,
investments were channeled to agriculture,
educa-tion, and health. Several landmark
concerns were introduced. Among them are as
follows:
Women in Development (WID). Concerns for the

role of women in development became translated as
valid components in almost all fields of
development endeavor from agriculture to
population planning to rural credit. Years later,
when the tendency was ob-served for the pendulum
to swing extremely in favor of women, this agenda
was repackaged into a more neutral set of concerns
called “gender issues.” Today, almost all funding
agencies, from international aid agencies such as
the World Bank to bilateral agen-cies such as
USAID, require a gender component in their
projects.
Environment. The World Environment Conference

in Stockholm in the late 1970s ushered in a serious
concern for the environment in the development
arena. In the past, development was synony-mous
to industrialization, and industrialization was
anathema to the environment. Pollution and
degradation were thought of as necessary evils in
the development process. If anything, the
Stockholm Conference proved that environmental
degradation had social and economic costs that
largely undermined development efforts.
Environmental impact assessments (EIA) are now
primary prerequisites in development projects.
Social Dimensions. Much of the criticism on

earlier development efforts were leveled on the
apparent lack of concern for the nega-tive social
and cultural impacts that a development
intervention would bring. For instance, building a
dam to run turbines that would produce
electricity or irrigate rice fields would be a
desirable devel-opment project from the
technical, economic and environmental points of
view. Hydroelectric power is the cheapest source
of elec-tricity. It is also one of the cleanest, with
little or no pollutants produced.
However, from the social and cultural points of

view, building a dam can have such grave
consequences. Two dams built in the 1970s may
serve as cases in point: the Pantabangan Dam in
Central Luzon and the Chico Dam in the
Cordilleras. In the case of the Pantabangan Dam,
an entire town had to be inundated, literally
wiped off from the face of the earth. In the Chico
River Dam, sacred sites of indigenous peoples
had to be submerged. This re-sulted in such a
struggle that attracted worldwide attention and
has become a case study for people’s repression.
If we are to compute the economic costs of such a

struggle, we might arrive at the conclusion that the
costs would far outweigh the benefits of such a
facility. And indeed, this becomes a valid con-cern
among the agencies that bankroll development. The
Asian Development Bank, for one, has established a
Social Dimensions Unit to look into the primary and
higher order impacts of pro-posed development
interventions to the social and cultural lives of
affected communities. The Bank has published two
innovative guide-books on this subject. Likewise,
the United States Agency for In-ternational
Development has developed a procedure for social
soundness analysis and has established it as a
requirement for pipe-line projects to be approved.
Indigenous Peoples. For so long, indigenous

peoples have been neglected in the development
agenda of Third World countries. Oftentimes, the
spread of progress has led to the extinction of an
entire ethnic culture or way of life. Development
planners began to realize that, in many instances,
the struggle for cultural survival among indigenous
peoples may be actually a struggle for ecological
survival, i.e., against threats on biodiversity. This is
not surprising because to most indigenous peoples,
distinctions between cultural and biological
diversity do not exist. Modernizing the way of life of
cultural minorities will incur economic costs on our
ecosystems. It thus becomes counter-productive.
Again, ensuring the welfare of indigenous groups
has become a consideration in the conduct of
development undertakings.
Unit I Chapter 3 31
Sustainable Development. Last but not the

least is the concern for sustainable development.
Sustainable development is the con-vergence of
economic, social, and environmental goals. This
con-cern may be traced to the Third World’s
experience in agricultural production or the so-
called Green Revolution. In the early 1980s, it
has become obvious that the gains in agricultural
production can-not be sustained. The high-
yielding variety technology required massive
amounts of chemical inputs. These severely
stressed the soil and subsequently limited future
produce. Recognizing these constraints,
development planners began studying alternative
pro-duction technologies guided by sustainability
concerns. Sustainable agriculture was born in
this manner, within an atmosphere of lively
debate.
References
Asian Development Bank. (1994). A handbook for

incorporation of social dimensions in projects.
Manila: APB.
Cuyno, R.V. and Lumanta, M.F. (1979). Internalizing
rural development experience. University of the
Philippines at Los Banos.
Goulet, D. (1985). The global development
debate: The case for alternative strategies.
Development and Peace. Autumn, 5-16.
Henriot, P.J. Development alternatives: Problems,
strategies, values. Inayatullah. (1967). Toward a
non-western model of development
in Communication and Change in the
Developing Countries. D. Lerner and W.
Schramm, Eds. Honolulu.
Myrdal, G. (1972). Against the stream: Critical essays on
economics. New
York: Vintage Books.
Schumacher, E.F. (1973). Small is beautiful: Economics as if
people mat-
tered. London: Blond and Briggs, Ltd.
Seers, D. (1969). The meaning of development.
Paper presented during the 11th World
Conference of the Society for International De-
velopment. New Delhi, November 14-17, 1969.
Chapter 4
Of Blind Men and Paradigms
I n the preceding chapter, we discussed the

changes in develop-ment perspectives from the
1960s to the 1980s. We called these changes
paradigm shifts. Here in this module, we shall again
en-counter the term paradigm as applied to the
problems of underde-velopment that we identified
in the introductory module. We will also attempt to
employ the problematique method described in the
second module to illustrate the major paradigms.
Objectives

1. Enumerate the four major paradigms
through which the problem of
underdevelopment is analyzed; and
2. Determine the subordinate and
superordinate influen-tial factors of the
underdevelopment problematique from
each major paradigm.
Paradigms, Perspectives
It was six men of Indostan,
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant,
(Though all of them were blind,)
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
One of the most dreadful words that I had to wrestle

with in graduate school was the word “paradigm.”
What is a paradigm? Simply put, a paradigm is a way
of explaining things. Ideally, a paradigm adopts a set
of assumptions about nature (called epistemology), a
unique pattern of interpretation, reasoning, and
theorizing. A paradigm may be described in a number
of ways: a perspective; a way of looking at things; a
school of thought; a particular model of reality
adopted by a scientist or theoretician when
conducting an inquiry.
For instance, the problems of underdevelopment

may be analyzed from different points of view.
Many of us at the UPLB College of Development
Communication tend to look at these problems
from the sociological perspective. An economics
major would have it differently. So would a
politician, an engineer, or even a priest. That is
because we have chosen to adopt different
paradigms or ways of interpreting reality.
In Chapter 2 we attempted to draw a map of the

underdevelop-ment problematique and to trace
its superordinate influential fac-tors. Needless to
say, the configurations in this map as well as the
root causes identified would depend to a large
degree on the para-digm that we adopt.
There are four major paradigms used in analyzing

underdevelop-ment, namely: the technological
paradigm; the economic para-digm; the
structural paradigm; and the values
paradigm.
Unit I Chapter 4 35
The Technological Paradigm
The first approached the elephant,

And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl
“God bless me but the elephant
Is very like a wall!”
Many technologists and engineers believe that the

primary cause of underdevelopment is the lack of
technological know-how in the Third World. Their
premise is based on the observation that West-ern
nations are rich because they employ modern
technology in agriculture, industry, transportation,
telecommunications, and health. They argue that
the Third World will solve most of its problems by
adopting new technology. They are true believers of
the concepts of “technical assistance” and
“technology transfer” wherein the know-how of the
West is transplanted, modified and practiced in the
developing world. This is primarily accomplished
through the services of expatriate experts or
consultants.
How then are the problems of underdevelopment

solved? By ad-dressing the root cause,
technological backwardness.
Technology is the panacea of the problems

associated with under-development. This
perspective has provided the main arguments for
agencies such as the International Rice Research
Institute and others of the Consultative Group for
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
network as well as for the family planning pro-
grams of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Economic Paradigm
The second feeling of the tusk,

Cried: “Ho! what have we here,
So very round, and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis very clear,
This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The economic paradigm forwards that under-

development is a func-tion of economic policy. It
follows then that the best instruments for
development are sound monetary and fiscal
policies. This view is referred to as economic
fundamentalism.
As a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in

Honolulu, I at-tended a seminar wherein an
economist, who just completed a stint as a young
professional of the Asian Development Bank,
presented an economic model of what was then
quite a novel topic, the newly-industrialized
countries of Southeast Asia or NICs. The paper
gave a number of observations one of which was
that unsound eco-nomic policies has made the
Philippines the “basket case” of South-east Asia.
This was, of course, in 1989. According to this
expert, had the country pursued agro-
industrialization and invested more on education
it could have been a NIC like Singa-pore or
Taiwan. Such would be the argument of one who
espouses the economic paradigm.
How then do we solve the underdevelopment

problematique? By attacking the root cause with
sound fiscal and monetary policies.
Of course, this argument is debatable. Anybody

with even a little familiarity with the Philippine
situation would certainly question the conclusion
forwarded by our young economist. So I challenged
his observations regarding the Philippines after his
presentation. It is a fact that the country invested
heavily on education and even spearheaded agro-
industrialization in the region. How could its prob-
lems been caused by poor economic planning when
it had some of the best economists in the world at
its service?
Unit I Chapter 4 37
The speaker responded that he did not see this

during his stint in Manila, which was during the
Marcos era. What he did find, how-ever, were
absurd cases of graft and corruption such as
“policemen stealing chickens from rural folk.”
Precisely. Graft and corruption may have been a
major hindrance to economic prosperity. But where
in his economic model was graft and corruption
factored in? Agree-ably, the Philippine government
had some of the best economists in its employ then,
textbook writers even. But it also had some of the
worst crooks, a situation which to my mind was the
reason why the Philippine economy was considered
a basket case. No amount of fiscal or monetary
policy could have saved it then.
Our economist friends would have a caveat for this

in the Latin phrase, ceteris paribus, i.e., “All things
being equal.” Given the com-plexity of poverty, one
cannot just impose this conditionality.
Which brings us to our next paradigm.
The Structural Paradigm
The third approached the animal,

And, happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up he spake;
“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant
Is very like a snake!”
“An unjust, self-perpetuating social system is

responsible for the social ills in this country.”
“Third World poverty is caused by the existing

world economic order.”
“Inequality is exacerbated by the present world

information and communication order.”
“Our environmental problems are not caused by

biogeophysical factors but primarily by
institutional factors.”
“In this age of information and communication, a

new social di-chotomy is emerging, one which is
much more subtle but as ex-ploitative as its
predecessors—a new elite composed of the infor-
mation rich and a new lower class composed of
the information poor.”
These statements attribute societal problems to

social structures, i.e., governments, institutions,
the so-called establishment, the capi-talistic
economic system, the oligarchy, the monarchy,
the elite, etc. This paradigm assumes that
existing social orders dictating classes and
castes, the ruler and the ruled, as well as the
explicit and im-plicit laws that govern them have
innate deficiencies and contradic-tions that breed
inequality, poverty, corruption and eventually lead
to its collapse.
How are the problems of underdevelopment

solved? By changing the social order through
revolution or devolution.
The concern for empowerment is rooted in this

paradigm. In the third and last unit of this course,
you will be introduced to the four E’s of
development communication, one of which is
empower-ment. The assumptions of this paradigm
provides the rationale for empowerment to
become a devcom ideal.
The Values Paradigm
The fourth reached out his eager hand,

And fell about the knee:
“What must this wondrous beast is like,
Is very plain,” quoth he
“’Tis clear enough the elephant
Is very like a tree!”
Going back to the NIC example, explanations as

to why certain countries in Southeast Asia
become NICs are not limited to eco-
Unit I Chapter 4 39
nomics. There is the cultural explanation based

on the observation that the newly industrialized
countries have predominantly Chinese
populations. Countries that are lagging behind
are those with pre-dominantly Malay populations
such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
This so-called cultural explanation was forwarded

in the early 1990s. Later events would
substantiate or belie this hypothesis depending
on our sources of economic data.
However, upon hearing this explanation initially,

we were tempted to categorize it as a
sociobiological argument, that development is
correlated to the color of one’s skin, a racist view
of development! However, a qualification
accompanies this explanation: newly in-
dustrialized countries are not limited to those
with predominantly Chinese populations such as
Singapore and Taiwan. These include countries
with cultures heavily influenced by Confucian
teachings such as Korea and Thailand. Therefore,
it is not a function of race but of values.
At about the same time when this explanation was

forwarded, a Senate sub-committee headed by
former Sen. Leticia Ramos Shahani sponsored
Senate Resolution Number 10. This resolution
directed the Department of Education, Culture and
Sports to look into the strengths and weaknesses of
the Filipino national character to de-termine how
these affect our development as a nation. This
Senate resolution eventually spawned the Moral
Regeneration Movement.
These are examples of arguments categorized

under the values para-digm. According to this
paradigm, the ills of our society may be traced to
our values as a people.
To solve this underdevelopment problematique,
we should change our values for the better and
see to it that our children adopt and imbibe
positive values associated with development.
A Case of Blind Men Leading Blind Men?
The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most:
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan!”
You’ve just read the sixth stanza of the poem “The

Six Blind Men and the Elephant.” When you get
to the next unit of this course, you’ll encounter an
often-quoted maxim in communication, “Mean-
ings are in people, not in words.” One of the best
illustrations of this principle is John Godfrey
Saxe’s poem about the six blind men from
Indostan.
The sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant
Is very like a rope!”
Now let us assume for a moment that the elephant

under study is not an animal but this complex web
of societal problems called underdevelopment. In
many respects, underdevelopment is as ab-stract to
us as an ele-phant is to a blind man. The
perspective of the blind is limited to his other
senses. In the case of the poem, their individual
perceptions were determined by their respective
angles of approach to the subject, guiding them to a
specific body part and subsequently leading them to
a conclusion about the animal’s appearance, i.e., a
rope, a fan, a tree, a snake, a wall, or a spear.
These angles of approach may be likened to our

points of view about underdevelopment. Since the
concept itself cannot be seen in its totality, our
tendency is to perceive it from our individual
vantage points, that of our respective disciplines:
engineering; eco-
Unit I Chapter 4 41
nomics; social sciences; religion. Thus we arrive

at differing conclu-sions about underdevelopment
and its causes, conclusions that upon comparison
are as different as a tree is to a snake or as a wall
is to a spear.
Another communication concept that will be taught

to you in the succeeding chapters is the principle of
selectivity. This principle states, in short, that our
vision of the world is limited by selective exposure,
selective perception, and selective retention.
There’s noth-ing wrong with this because it has
been, is, and ever shall be part of human nature. In
fact, this characteristic may have served us well in
the development of our mental processes. However,
problems do arise when we, for whatever reason,
stubbornly stick to a point of view without due
regard to the validity of other points of view. At
best, such an attitude would result in blind men
leading blind men. At worst, it would result in a
useless and tiring protracted debate.
And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
We would like to differ to this concluding line of

the last stanza in Saxe’s poem. Why? A composite
picture drawn from their individual descriptions
could lead to a creature that resembles an
elephant. Similarly, a convergence of points of
views could result in a holis-tic, more accurate
picture of underdevelopment. This so-called
convergence of points of views will be treated
lengthily in the next unit with the introduction of
Kincaid’s Convergence Model of Communication.
At this point, however, suffice it to say that
development commu-nication does not espouse any
particular paradigm. In fact, at one phase or
another, development communication practitioners
have worked for and within each of these
paradigms. Consider the
Masagana 99 rural broadcasters and the family

planning rural the-aters of the 1970s; the
alternative press of the 1980s; the economic
reporters of the 1990s; and the growing number
of priests, nuns, pastors, and other religious in
the graduate program of the UPLB College of
Development Communication.
Whatever paradigm one adopts, there is an

adequate development communication response.
What then is the development communication

response? The res-ponse is to see to it that the
right information is provided at the right time
and at the right place. It is to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of educational
delivery systems. It is to make sure that
information flows within the social system are not
encumbered and that these information flows
contribute to the development and evolution of
this system.
References
Coombs, P.H. The role of education in rural

development. Attack-ing Rural Poverty.
Lasswell, H.D. (1948). The structure and function
of communica-tions in society. The
Communication of Ideas. Lyman Bryson. New
York: Harper.
Schramm, W. (1964). The role of information in
national develop-ment. Mass Media and
National Development. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
Unit II
Chapter 5
THE PROCESS
How does one define communication? A former

colleague at the UPLB College of Development
Communication had seve-ral pages of definitions of
communication—typewritten, single-
spaced! I have often wished that I had
photocopied that list as proof that definitions are
not as important as knowing how communica-tion
takes place.
However, as development communication

students, a basic under-standing of the
communication process is important for us to
achieve the highest social good in its application.
In this chapter, we will be discussing
communication, its models, and the elements and
levels of communication.
Objectives
1. Define communication;
2. Explain the elements of communication;
3. Enumerate the different levels of communication; and
4. Compare and contrast the models of communication.
Defining Communication
In the past, you probably used the words

“sending” or “receiving” when referring to
communication. These days, we prefer the word
“sharing.” The word “share” is important in any
discussion of com-munication because it connotes
something that two or more people do together
rather than something one person does or gives
to some-one else.
Based on this information, Kincaid and Schramm

define commu-nication as “the process of sharing
and the relationship of the par-ticipants in this
process.” Of course, their definition is but one of
many definitions of communication. As a student
(or maybe even as a teacher), you probably
already know that those in this field do not agree
on a single definition of communication. How
would you define communication?
Black and Bryant (1992) define communication as:
1. the process by which individuals share meaning.
2. the process by which an individual (the

communicator) trans-mits stimuli (usually
verbal symbols) to modify the behavior of
other individuals (communicatee).
3. occurring whenever information is passed

from one place to another.
4. not simply the verbal, explicit, and intentional

transmission of message; it includes all those
processes by which people influ-ence one
another.
5. occurring when person A communicates

message B through channel C to person D with
effect E. Each of these letters is an unknown
to some extent, and the process can be solved
for any one of them or for any combination.
Unit II Chapter 5 47
Dennis McQuail and Sven Windahl wrote one of the

classic texts used in graduate communication
classes. This was “Communica-tion Models for the
Study of Mass Communication” (1981). They offer
three examples of definitions of communication.
These defi-nitions (as well as any others you will
come across in the future) serve only to give us an
idea of the diversity of meanings given to
communication. McQuail and Windahl list the
following definitions.
Communication …
1. is the transmission of information, ideas,

attitudes, or emotion from one person or group
to another (or others) primarily through symbols
(Theodorson and Theodorson, 1969).
2. in the most general sense, occurs wherever

one system, a source, influences another, the
destination, by manipulation of alterna-tive
symbols, which can be transmitted over the
channel con-necting them (Osgood et al.,
1957)
3. may be defined as “social interaction through

messages” (Gerbner, 1967)
4. is a process by which a source sends a

message to a receiver by means of some
channel to produce a response from the re-
ceiver, in accordance with the intention of the
source (SRA Sourcebook, 1996).
So far, we have come across two key words in these

definitions:
process and information. According to Kincaid and
Schramm:
1. Not all communication has to be human
communication. Animals communicate with
animals, animals communicate with people,
traffic lights communicate with drivers,
machines com-municate with other machines
(e.g., your ATM with its main-frame)
2. Not all participants in a communication

process have to be present at the same
time. This is why we still know what Christ,
Confucius, and Plato taught, and why you can
commu-nicate through letters, posters, and
other media.
3. Because of information and the ways with

which man cre-ates, maintains, stores,
retrieves, processes, and interprets it,
communication can take place over large
distances of space and time. Thus, people can
communicate through au-diotape, videotape, e-
mail, and regular mail.
4. Not all communication takes place in

words. The traffic enforcer’s whistle, the
traffic light, the map—all these commu-nicate
without the spoken or written word. Deaf-
mutes com-municate without words, mime
artists communicate without words.
5. Communication does not always require

two or more par-ticipants. When a security
guard hears a noise in the middle of the night,
he calls out “Who’s there?” In calling out, he
has created information. When no one
responds, he realized that no one else is
around. He has created and shared
information with himself.
6. Thinking is a form of communication.

Kincaid and Schramm argue that thinking is
actually talking to oneself. You may even say
that it is a form of internal communication by
which mes-sages are framed and responded to
in much the same way as two people engaged
in communication with each other. Take, for
example, the way you argue with yourself
before making a move that could affect your
career (e.g., making a stand for something not
advocated by your office).
Communication as a Process
When communication is looked upon as a

process, it follows that it has elements that are
continually changing, dynamic, and interact-ing,
Furthermore, the events and relationships among
its elements are seen as being:
1. On-going
2. Cyclic
3. Ever-changing
4. No beginning, no end
5. Interdependent
6. Interrelated
As a process, it has at least four attributes (SRA Sourcebook). It

is:
Dynamic. Communication is ever changing, with

no clear begin-nings and endings.
Systemic. A system consists of a group of

elements, which inter-act to influence each other
and the system as a whole.
Symbolic interaction. Language is a form of

symbols which people use in interacting with each
other, in describing and classifying ex-periences.
How we select these symbols and how we organize
them will affect how others will interpret our
messages.
Meaning is personally constructed. Everyone

interprets things in different ways based on their
perceptions and backgrounds. This is why we say
that meanings are in people, not in words.
The emphasis on communication as a process is

important because this reminds us of a paradigm
shift from the earlier understanding of
communication as a one-way, linear activity. The
paradigm of communication as a process
emphasizes its being a two-way, multi-
dimensional activity.
Elements of the Process
If we look at communication as a process, then

we need to look at its elements.
The elements in Berlo’s model of communication

(1961) are most quoted because his model is
often used as the model of communi-cation. Later,
we will discuss other models. However, we can
use Berlo’s model as a benchmark because its
elements are those com-monly employed.
Let us look at each of these elements.
Source
Source refers to a person or a group of persons

“with a purpose, a reason for engaging in
communication” (Berlo, 1961). The source
initiates the communication process.
In some models of communication, the source is

also referred to as the encoder, sender,
information source, or communicator.
Receiver
The receiver is the person or group of persons at

the other end of the communication process.
He/she is the target of communica-tion (Berlo,
1961). The receiver listens when the source talks;
the receiver reads what the source writes.
Message
A source must have something to transmit. His or

her purpose is expressed in the form of a
message. The message may be an idea, purpose,
or intention that has been translated into a code
or a sys-tematic set of symbols (Berlo, 1961).
A message has three factors: message code,

message content, and message treatment.
Berlo defined message code as “any group of
symbols that can be structured in a way that is
meaningful to some person.” Thus, to Berlo,
language is a code because it con-tains elements
(sounds, letters, and words) that are arranged in
mean-ingful orders (syntax).
Message content, on the other hand, is the

material in the mes-sage selected by the source to
express his/her purpose. For ex-ample, in a
research paper or report, the message content
includes the writer’s assertions, information
presented, and conclusions drawn. Like message
code, message content has elements (e.g., in-
formation) that must be presented in some order
(structure).
Berlo defined message treatment as “decisions

that the commu-nication source makes in
selecting and arranging both code and content.”
He further explained this by using the journalist
as an example. When a journalist writes an
article, he makes decisions on as the content he
will include in his article, the angle of the story,
and the words he will use.
Channel
Berlo asserted that no other word in

communication theory has been so much used
and abused as the word channel. He explained
that the channel has three major meanings:
1. modes of encoding and decoding messages;

2. message vehicles; and
3. vehicle carriers.
Let me try to explain this using a radio broadcast example.

When you hear a community broadcaster receive
a live telephone call from a farmer concerned
about insects ruining his citrus trees, then the
broadcaster’s and farmer’s speaking mechanisms
are chan-nels or modes of encoding and
decoding messages.
Sound waves carry the message from the farmer

to the broadcaster, from the broadcaster to you.
The sound waves are also channels. This time,
these channels are message-vehicles.
The sound waves are supported by air. The air

serves as another channel. Air is a vehicle-
carrier.
Berlo explained that channels are determined by:

availability, money, source preferences, which
channels are received by the most people at the
lowest cost, which channels have the most
impact, which channels are the most adaptable to
the kind of purpose of the source, and which
channels are most adaptable to the content of the
mes-sage.
Effect
The effect is the outcome of a communication or

the response of the receiver to the message of
the source. Often, it is the desired outcome of the
source. Sometimes, the effect is not the desired
outcome—but it is an outcome nevertheless.
An effect can be overt (obvious or visible) or covert

(non-observ-able). Overt responses include non-
verbal cues such as nodding of the head or signing
of a contract. Covert responses may not be
observable but sometimes they are the most
important. For ex-ample, a farmer may refuse to
join other farmers who will partici-pate in a
government program to reforest part of their
community. But, as an individual, he may appreciate
the efforts done, resulting in a change in his
attitude toward similar future undertakings. Com-
munication can result in motivation or persuasion.
It may lead to awareness, interest, decision, or
action. These are the traditional effects attributed
to communication.
Feedback
In some models of communication, another

element–feedback is introduced. Berlo (1960)
explained “when an individual communi-
cates with himself, the messages he encodes are

fed back into his system by his decoder.” This is
feedback. In human communica-tion, we
constantly seek feedback. Thus, we check on our
commu-nication, on our messages, on what our
receivers understand of our message. A
communication res-ponse is feedback to both
source and receiver.
When you speak at a convention, the responses

and reaction of your listeners give you an idea of
how well they are receiving your message.
Feedback could take the form of simple non-
verbal cues or vocal, verbal responses to
something you have done or said.
Levels of Communication
There are three levels of communication:

intrapersonal, interper-sonal, and mass
communication.
Intrapersonal communication involves

communication with oneself. While this sounds
odd, I’m sure you would agree with me that, at
one time or another, we talk to ourselves before
making major decisions.
Interpersonal communication is often defined as

face-to-face communication. The problem with this
definition is that it leads to questions such as “How
many people can you communicate with
interpersonally at one time?” And “Is theater a form
of interper-sonal communication? What about
puppetry?” Talking over the telephone?” Thus, the
definition of interpersonal communication has
evolved to “person-to-person communication,” a
definition that has been further expanded with new
communication technologies that allow one person
to communicate with a room full of people at one
time but still on a person-to-person basis.
Mass communication comprises the institutions

and techniques by which specialized groups
employ technological devices (press, radio, films,
etc.) to disseminate symbolic content to large,
hetero-geneous, and widely dispersed audiences
(Janowitz, 1968 and McQuail, 1981). Others have
simplified mass communication to mean
communicating with large groups of people at
one time through the use of mass media such as
the press, radio, and film.
Communication Models
Why study communication models? I like to think

of models as simple descriptions or graphic forms
of frozen reality. In other words, when we speak
of communication models, we are really
“freezing” the communication process, so we can
better study or explore it. McQuail and Windahl
cite Deutsch (1966) who noted three main
advantages in the use of models in the social
sciences:
1. Models organize by “ordering and relating

systems to each other and by providing us
with images of wholes that we might not
otherwise perceive.” Thus a model can give a
general picture of a whole range of different
circumstances (organizing func-tion).
2. Models can help explain complicated or

ambiguous informa-tion (heuristic function).
3. Models make it possible to predict outcomes

and the flow of events (predictive function).
At the least, they can provide a basis for
“assigning probabilities to various alternative
outcomes, and hence for formulating
hypotheses in research” (McQuail and
Windahl, 1981).
Before we go into the basic models of

communication, a word from McQuail and
Windahl:
…become aware of the possibilities of testing

models against circumstances or cases and of
adapting any given model to suit the chosen
application. The models presented are not so
sacred that they cannot be easily given a
some-what different shape and formulation. It
should become apparent that anyone is in a
position to construct his own models of a
given aspect of the communication process…
Lasswell’s Model
Harold D. Lasswell was an American political

scientist who wrote an article in 1948 that began
with “A convenient way to describe an act of
communication is to answer the following
question:
“Who,
Says What,
In Which Channel,
To Whom,
With What Effect?”
Lasswell’s model was the first real attempt

among social scientists to depict the
communication process. However, it was later
criti-cized because:
1. The model took for granted that

communication is mainly a persuasive process,
that the communicator always has some in-
tent to influence the receiver.
2. It omits the elements of feedback.
Despite these limitations (which were really a
reflection of the un-derstanding of
communication during his time), this model
remains a “convenient and comprehensive way of
introducing people to the study of
communication.”
Shannon and Weaver’s “Mathematical Model”
Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver were

engineers working for the Bell Telephone
Company when they developed a graphical model
of communication that they could apply to their
field. This model answered the questions: What
kind of communication chan-nel can bring
through the maximum amount of signals? How
much of transmitted signs will be destroyed by
noise under way from transmitter to receiver?
(McQuail and Windahl, 1981).
Despite the technical beginnings of this model, it

is easy to see how students of communication can
apply this to human communica-tion.
Received
Message Signal Signal Message
Information Transmitter Receiver Destination
Noise
Source
Figure 5-1. Shannon and Weaver Model
What do you notice about this model of

communication? It is a one-way, linear model that
introduces the dysfunctional factor, noise. In the
technical aspect, noise is anything that disrupts
transmission of a signal. In the human
communication context, noise is any-thing that
disrupts the smooth flow of communication.
Newcomb’s Model
So far, we have been looking at linear models or

models that depict communication following a
line from Source to Receiver. Interest-ingly
enough, Newcomb’s model is triangular.
Fiske argues that Newcomb’s model is significant
because it intro-duces the role of communication in
a society or social relationship. To Newcomb,
communication maintains equilibrium within a so-
cial system. Thus ABX represents a system. If A and
B have similar
attitudes about X, then the system is in

equilibrium. Should their attitudes differ, then
there is no equilibrium and A and B must com-
municate to find a way to put their system in
balance by arriving at similar attitudes once
again.
A B
Figure 5-2. Newcomb Model
Can you think of an example where this model

would apply in everyday life? I know a farmer (A)
and his wife (B) who are think-ing of raising pigs
in their backyard (X). The wife was not too en-
thusiastic at first because she did not want the
noise and the mess. They had many arguments
and a few fights over this.
Then, the husband convinced his wife to talk to

their extension agent and some friends who are
backyard swine growers. After many months, she
finally agreed to his plan and is happy with the
addi-tional income their backyard piggery has
brought them. Once more, their relationship is in
a state of equilibrium.
Osgood and Schramm’s Model
The model of communication presented by Wilbur

Schramm actu-ally originated with Charles E.
Osgood. Compare their model with the Shannon-
Weaver model.
This model focuses on the main actors of the
process—unlike the Shannon and Weaver model,
which focuses on the channels that mediate
between sender and receiver. Schramm and Osgood
show
the actors in communication to be equals who

perform the identi-cal tasks of encoding,
interpreting, and decoding messages. Note that
the model does not fit the mold of traditional,
one-way, linear communication models, which
clearly fix and separate the roles of sender and
receiver.
Message
Encoder Decoder
Interpreter Interpreter
Decoder Encoder
Message
Figure 5-3. Osgood and Schramm Model
The reason why this model required a cyclical

representation was explained by Schramm
himself in 1954 (McQuail and Windahl, 1981):
“…it is misleading to think of the

communication process as starting
somewhere and ending somewhere. It is
really endless. We are little switchboard
centers handling and re-routing the great
endless current of information…”
However, note that while this model is useful in

describing inter-personal communication, it does
not explain communication situa-tions where
there is little or no feedback (e.g., mass
communica-tion). Furthermore, it seems to
connote a feeling of equality in communication.
Those of us who are experienced in this area
know all too well that a communication situation
is often unbalanced in terms of resources, power,
and time.
Gerbner’s Model
George Gerbner introduced another linear model.

Fiske (1982) explains that Gerbner’s model is a
more complex version of Shan-non and Weaver’s.
It is unique in that it allows us to see the commu-
nication process as one that consists of “two
alternating dimen-sions—the perceptual or
receptive, and the communicating or means and
control dimension.”
The Gerbner model underwent several

modifications but the ver-sion of this model that
is shown below gives the elements of his model.
M
E Selection Content E1
Availability
Event Percept
Access to
Channels
Media
Control
C M2
O SE1
F N
S O T E Selection Content Perceptor
R E Availability
M N Statement about
T event
Figure 5-4. Gerbner Model
What does this model demonstrate? Actually, it

demonstrates a pro-cess whereby an event (E)
takes place and is perceived by M (hu-man or
machine like a camera). M’s perception of the
event is per-cept E1—and here begins the
perceptual dimension that starts the process.
Once percept E1 is converted into a signal about
the event (SE), we have a message or statement
about E.
Then, we move into the vertical dimension of the

model. The circle is divided into two: S (signal)
and E (content). Because content can be
communicated in different ways, there are many
potential Ss to choose from. The communicator
then must make a crucial deci-sion: how to find
the best signal for the content. Fiske reminds us
that SE is a “unified concept, not two separate
areas brought to-gether.” Thus, the choice of
signal will affect the presentation of the content.
In the third stage of the mode, we move once more

into the hori-zontal dimension. What the receiver,
M2, perceives is not an event
(E). Rather, M2 receives a signal statement about
the event (SE). Drawing upon his or her needs
and concepts from his or her cul-ture, M 2 finds
meaning in the message.
What do you notice about this model? Do you see

the important role that Gerbner has assigned to
perception in the communication of meaning and
messages?
Westley and MacLean’s Model
Fiske (1982) believes that the social need for

information also un-derlies the Westley and
MacLean model of communication. He looks upon
the 1957 model as an extension of Newcomb’s
1953 model. However, the Westley and MacLean
model was created with the mass media in mind.
Thus, while it is rooted in Newcomb’s ABX model,
it has a new element: C.
C represents the editorial-communicating function

or the process one undergoes in deciding what and
how to communicate some-thing. Fiske uses the
example of a news reporter to explain this model.
Let’s use it too as it may be familiar to you. The
reporter (A) sends his story to the newsroom or C.
In the newsroom, editing takes place and the edited
product is transmitted to his readers (B).
x3 x2 x11
A C B
Figure 5-5. Westley and MacLean Model
Just like in mass media, the reader (B) has lost

touch with A and C. They have no direct
relationship with each other. Can you see why this
communication model is specific to mass
communication?
Berlo’s Model
Perhaps the most well-known (certainly one of

the most cited) model of communication is David
Berlo’s model of communication. Like the other
linear models, Berlo delineates the different
actors of the communication process and the
elements that mediate between them. His model
began as the SMCR model (Source Message
Chan-nel Receiver).
When he added the element of effect, it became the

SMCRE model of communication. However, in his
book the Process of Commu-nication (1961), he also
discusses the element of feedback, leading some
communicators to depict his model as follows:
S M C R E
Feedback
Figure 5-6. Berlo Model
Dance’s Helical Model
McQuail and Windahl (1981) included Dance’s

helical model of communication in their book
because they looked at it as an inter-esting
development of the Osgood and Schramm model.
The circular model of

communication
(e.g., Osgood and
Schramm’s model)
suggest that communication
is circular,
that it goes full circle to the
same point
from which it started. The
helical model,
however, portrays the
communication
process more accurately—in
that it
shows the communication
process as
Figure 5-7. Helical moving.
Model
Dance’s model shows the dynamism of the

communication pro-cess. It gives the notion that
man, when communicating, is active, creative,
and able to store information. McQuail and
Windahl (1981) suggest that the model “may be
used to illustrate information gaps and the thesis
that knowledge tends to create more knowledge.”
Thus, it illustrates situations wherein a teacher
can assume that each lecture adds to his
students’ knowledge, helping them to become
successively better informed. Thus, his new
lectures can build on that knowledge.
Kincaid’s Convergence Model

In 1981, D. Lawrence Kincaid brought forth his
Convergence Model of Communication. As
illustrated in Figure 5-8, it shows a process of
convergence through which participants share
information so that mutual understanding is
reached.
I1
I3
Express Interpret
MU
Participant A A B Participant B
Interpret Express
n t n
I4
and then I2
Figure 5-8. Convergence Model
Kincaid’s model shows the communication

process as one in which mutual understanding is
reached through information that cuts through
uncertainty. Once mutual understanding is
reached, there is mutual agreement. Based on
that mutual agreement, collective action can be
taken (Rogers and Kincaid, 1981).
Summary
As a process, communication is ongoing, cyclic,

ever changing, with no beginning and no end.
The elements of the process are interde-pendent
and interrelated. These elements are the source,
message, receiver, channel, effect, and feedback.
However, in the communi-cation models designed
to explain this process, not all these elements are
present. In other models, these elements are
given equivalents or called by other names (e.g.,
channel = transmitter or medium).
These models reflect trends in communication theory:
1. Communication is a process (Berlo, 1961).

2. Communication is a transaction. When people
communicate, they continually offer definitions
of themselves to their per-ceived definitions of
the others (Stewart, 1990); and
3. Communication is a convergence of mutual
understanding. (Rogers and Kincaid, 1981).
Whichever trend you adhere to, it is clear that

communication takes place on three levels—
intrapersonal, interpersonal, and mass com-
munication. People cannot NOT communicate.
References
Berlo, D. (1960). The process of communication.

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Chandler, D. The transmission model of

communication. Accessed 26 April 2006 from
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/documents/short/
trans.html.
De Fleur, M.L. and Dennis, E.E. (1981).
Understanding mass commu-nication. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company.
Kincaid, D.L. (1978). The convergence model of
communication. Hono-lulu: East-West Center.
Fiske, J. (1982). Introduction to communication studies. Chaucer
Press:
Suffolk.
Johns Hopkins University. (1997). Handouts in
Communication. Lasswell, Harold D. (1948). The
structure and function of commu-
nication in society. The Communication of
Ideas. Bryson and Lyman, Eds. New York:
Harper.
McQuail, D. and Windahl, S. (1981). Models of
communication. New York: Longman, Inc.
Chapter 6
MEDIA
In the previous chapters, we took a look at the overall process

of communication. This chapter will focus on the media of
com-munication, the advantages and limitations of each, and
how they
are used.
Objectives

1. Give the advantages and limitations of
the various com-munication media;
2. Explain how the various media are used; and
3. Discuss the implications of new
communication tech-nology on
development.
Nature and Characteristics
Before we go into the nature and characteristics

of specific mass media, let’s look at the
interpersonal media and mass media first.
Table 6.1. Interpersonal media and mass media

Characteristics Intepersonal Mass media
media
Senses stimulated All senses Limited to one or
at a time two
Opportunity for Maximum, Minimum, delayed
feedback immediate
Control of pace Controllable Uncontrolled
Message codes used Verbal and Highly verbal
non-verbal
Multiplicative power Slow Fast
Direction of message Two-way One-way
flow
Message accuracy Low High
Power to preserve a Low High
message
Ability to select High Low
receiver
Ability to overcome High Low
selectivity and noise
Ability to meet Serves Serves common

specialized needs specialized needs
needs
Speed to a large Low High
audience
Possible effects Attitude and Knowledge gain
action change
From the table, it is easy to see why interpersonal

communication media are more suitable in some
situations than mass media chan-nels. What’s a
good example of this?
In a science classroom situation where students

need immediate feedback, an interpersonal
channel such as a lab instructor will be able to fill
this need much better than a mass media channel
such as a video tape and video playback system.
The instructor is better able to encourage two-
way discussion with participants, control the pace
of learning, meet specialized needs (e.g., draw
out the shy stu-dents), and move them to a
quieter/cooler room when needed (i.e., ability to
overcome noise).
On the other hand, mass media channels reach

out faster to large groups in times of emergency.
Radio and TV have a special role to play during
times of man-made calamity, natural disaster, or
na-tional crisis.
Have you watched the movie Gallipoli? It’s about

a group of Aus-tralian soldiers who fought in
World War I in Turkey. Dug-in in endless
trenches, the only way for their leaders to
communicate with each other was to use a runner
—a soldier chosen for his speed and endurance.
Unfortunately, a very important message failed to
reach one of the generals because the runner
didn’t make it on time. The result? Great loss of
lives. I have often wondered how many lives
could have been saved if they had, at least, a two-
way radio.
Furthermore, because of mass media’s power to

accurately pre-serve a message, they have
become important tools in the docu-mentation of
scientific data. Even in the social sciences, the
mass media have become indispensable. Can you
think of examples?
Well, tribal groups with an oral tradition pass on their

history around campfires or as they trek across
kilometers of forest land. This tra-dition is altered or
lost as the people who preserve it die or fail to
accurately pass on the stories from their past. Now,

anthropologists can get all these down on video and
prepare a written history avail-able to all and
preserved for generations to come.
The important thing to remember in all this is

that, we should un-derstand the strengths and
weaknesses of both interpersonal and mass
media so that we can decide when to use one and
skip the other (or use both!) in any given
communication situation.
A quick look at data from the Philippine Information

Agency will show that radio still tops the list as the
most relied upon, most used, and most depended on
for current events/issues (PIA, 1997). Of course,
these are national averages. With this in mind, let
us pro-ceed with our discussion of the advantages
and limitations of the mass media most commonly
used in development communication.
Radio
RADIO is available in almost all countries,

reaching mass audiences cheaply and rapidly
(Barghouti, 1973). Among its advantages, ra-dio:
1. is available and affordable—even in remote communities

2. can repeat messages at low cost
3. reaches illiterate audiences
4. supports other communication channels
5. announces events and developments as they happen
6. is flexible in style (ranging from drama to
lectures, folk songs to interviews)
7. creates awareness and sets agenda of
priorities for people’s at-tention.
On the other hand, among its main disadvantages

are that radio cannot:
1. illustrate complicated technical concepts

2. gauge immediate audience reaction,
participation, or interest in messages
broadcast
3. provide or respond to immediate feedback

4. repeat messages upon demand
5. pace itself according to audience needs
6. overcome some geographical barriers (such as
high mountain ranges) to reach the remotest
communities.
Because of these limitations, development

communication depends more often on
community radio stations that prepare broadcasts
for specific audience groups. These community
radio stations cover local events, explain and
promote local projects and development efforts.
At the same time, these stations continue to
provide some national coverage, striving all the
time to strike a balance between national and
local coverage.
Radyo DZLB, the community broadcasting station

run by the Col-lege of Development
Communication of UP Los Baños, is a prime
example of a community radio station. It is a
forerunner of the school-on-the-air (SOA) concept
that provides nonformal educa-tion for rural folk.
DZLB has hosted SOAs on nutrition, pest man-
agement, and cooperatives. The enrollees listen
to broadcasts and take quizzes and exams. Those
who successfully complete an SOA are given a
certificate or diploma.
Who runs DZLB? A skeletal staff of CDC

technicians and broad-cast personnel run the
station, but cooperators from government
agencies and NGOs broadcast its programs.
Many of these coop-erators are from the Los
Baños community.
The UNESCO Tambuli projects have placed radio

transmitters in small communities in an effort to
provide a community medium for the exchange
and dissemination of important community in-
formation. Tambuli radio stations are an example
of narrow cast-ing where the broadcast area is
the size of a small to medium sized community.
The residents pick up the broadcasts over their
regular radio units but the information they
receive is highly tailored to their knees as well as
those of their communities.
Another broadcast effort is the Community Audio

Tower System or CATS, which was part of a FAO-
UNESCO project implemented by the Philippine
Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural
Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).
Here, partici-pating communities received karaoke
sets hooked up to four loud speakers attached to a
high pole outside the barangay hall. Devel-opment
programs are then broadcast through this system,
reaching the barangays and some nearby
communities.
The community broadcasting effort with an unusual

twist was the project Enabling Rural Women to
Participate in Development: The Case of Women’s
Radio Philippines. Sponsored by the International
Development Research Center, the project
equipped rural women to participate in
development broadcasting.
Trained to produce their own radio programs, the

project enabled the women to convey information
about their needs, problems, values, and
attitudes. More than this, it gave them a venue to
ex-plore their views and suggestions on how to
solve their problems.
It is important to note that in these and similar

efforts, develop-ment communicators equip the
people of participating communi-ties to run and
manage the equipment as well as write and
produce the programs. This helps ensure the
localization of the programs and gives the people
of the communities a sense of ownership and
control over the medium.
Television
The beauty of television lies in its ability to

communicate or ex-plain complicated messages
because of its combination of sound and picture
(Barghouti, 1975). Among the mass media, it is
the closest to face-to-face communication and is
successful in reaching out to both literate and
illiterate audiences.
The main disadvantage, of course, is accessibility and

availability.
In areas where television sets are available, reception may be poor.
On the other hand, in areas where reception is

good, a poor family may have no access to a
television set. In the Tarlac area, I have seen TV
antennas hoisted high above houses on bamboo
poles that sway with the wind.
Other disadvantages include (Barghouti, 1975):
1. Educational/development shows face severe

competition from entertainment programs.
2. Preparation of development communication
programs for TV requires much planning,
preparation, technical, creative, and
communication skills than for other media.
3. It costs plenty of money to produce and air TV programs.
With these disadvantages, what are the options for

development communication? Right now,
development communicators have two options: (1)
educate staff of national television stations so that
they can find ways of using TV for development
purposes, and (2) ex-plore local television
alternatives such as community cable stations.
Option 2 would best offer an opportunity to

document and pro-vide information on local
problems and issues. Some of my under-graduate
advisees have done research on whether cable
subscribers would be willing to watch cable
programs that focus specifically on their
community. The majority said yes—and even
offered to help out (Balandanan, 1995).
Newspapers
Philippine Information Agency data show that

fewer Filipinos read the newspapers than listen
to the radio or watch TV. Nevertheless,
development communication uses newspapers
because, according to Barghouti (1973), they can
present technical data in clearly de-signed text
and provide detailed information. Furthermore,
he feels that important topics can be covered in a
series of articles. News-papers are still influential
in creating awareness and mobilizing public
opinion. And, like other print media, articles can
be shared or kept as reference materials.
What are the disadvantages of newspapers in dev

com work? One glaring disadvantage is that its
audience is limited to those who can read.
Furthermore, current prices make a newspaper
relatively ex-pensive. Also, it represents one-way
communication as feedback is difficult to monitor.
With the high cost of production, it is difficult for
small communities or businesses to publish
newspapers.
The UPLB College of Development

Communication has been in-volved in helping
barangays put up their own community newspa-
pers. In our experience, sustainability of the
enterprise is the big-gest problem. After funding
dwindles, volunteer editors and report-ers are left
to run a newspaper without money for supplies or
print-ing.
Can these be made self-sustaining? Perhaps— in

areas where small businesses are willing to pay
for advertising, or in areas where people are
willing to pay more to read local news than to
read national news.
Cinema
We would all agree with Barghouti (1973) that

cinema has the power to catch attention, reach
big audiences, can be relatively cheap to show,
and can reach even the lowest strata in most
developing coun-tries. In some countries, it can
be expensive to view and any educa-tional
messages may end up buried in a plot that is
primarily meant to be entertaining. For us, to use
cinema as a medium would require much time
and money. The film should have popular appeal,
can be inexpensively distributed, and yet clearly
contain developmental messages.
Folk Theater
A few months ago, I met a painter from Milan, Italy.

She is based in Los Baños with her husband, an
anthropologist attached to an in-
ternational R&D institution there. Anyway, she

was part of a folk theater group when they lived
in the mountains of Peru before moving to the
Philippines.
In the village where she lived, folk theater was part of

community life. In that sense, its presentation was
culturally relevant, easily avail-able (when needed,
they were ready to perform), and inexpensive (they
made and maintained their own costumes and masks).
Barghouti points out, however, that the use of

folk theater also has its disadvantages:
performers can lose control of their development
messages and format can detract from content.
He suggests that folk theater can be used in
combination with a modern medium like
television or supported by loud speakers.
A few years ago, I was part of a National

Commission on Culture project implemented
through the Philippine Association of Com-
munication Educators. Entitled “Annotated listing
of audio-video recordings of cultural activities,”
the project sought to make a com-prehensive
listing of cultural activities recorded on audio or
video-cassette.
At least in Laguna, very few cultural activities are

actually recorded. Even if they are, they are erased
so that the next year’s activities could be recorded.
What a waste of cultural information!
Wall Painting and Billboards
Barghouti (1975) points out that while these are

potentially avail-able to large audiences and can
mean less cost per person if well located, they are
also easily ignored and are limited to the dissemi-
nation of simple messages. Thus, if they are to be
used in develop-ment communication, we must
ensure that the messages are well designed and
pretested. Sites must be carefully selected to
ensure the message will reach the people for whom
it is intended.
Other Media
Barghouti (1975) also lists other media that are

useful in the dis-semination of development
messages. He lists their main advan-tages and
disadvantages, then comments on how they can
be best used for development purposes. The next
table (Table 6.2) is based on a compilation
prepared by Johns Hopkins University staff (for
their training course on Strategic Communication
Planning for Fam-ily Health) from Barghouti’s
list.
These include video fora, filmstrips, slides,

flipcharts, and flannel boards.
Table 6.2. Advantages and disadvantages of using various media
II
Unit
Media Main advantages Main disadvantages Comments
Video Can be used to introduce new ideas Expensive Fora require continuing
Forum to selected audiences, microteach, Breakdown in hardware is common attention from profes-
introduce complicated concepts and expensive sional organization. They
and technical issues in a series of Hardware is required (i.e., monitor are most successful in
presentations, record field opera- and playback system) small group learning.
tions and use them later, teach Group discussion leaders
skills (after or before video is
Can be handled by farmers and shows) must be carefully
community leaders selected and trained.
Can become part of a library for It is most efficient when
teaching adult education classes used in combination with
print materials at the end
of the discussion.
It should be used to teach
special skills, for
structured instruction,
Chapter 6
and as a tool to generate
participation among rural
community.
75
Table 6.2 continued
76
Films Use of sight and sound attract Good films are rare Best if combined with dis-
audience attention Equipment is costly to buy and cussion groups
Can make great emotional appeal maintain Audience must be encou-
to large audiences Requires skill in running film raged to evaluate film
projector Use film to stimulate
discussion
Filmstrips Much cheaper and easier to work Usually visual medium only (no Can record and play
Communication
Introduction to Development
with than films audio) commentary
Easily made from local photographs Not as dramatic as motion picture Strip can be cut up and
Encourage discussion Could be expensive individual pictures
Difficult to jump from one frame mounted as 2” slides to
to another allow arrangement and
selection
Slides Have all the advantages of film Could be expensive Should be used after care-
strips plus more flexibility Difficult to have them on all subjects ful preparation of logical
Can be used in a seies to illustrate to be taught sequence and good
a concept commentary
Table 6.2 continued
II
Unit
Flannel Can be portable and mobile Can be used only for what it is Very useful but only for
board Can be prepared by expert in prepared prepared talks
advance Cannot adapt to changing interest Should be used to show
Little skill required in actual operation of group step-by-step process
Can be used to make presentation More elaborate than equipment Flannel material should be
more dynamic Difficult to keep up to date numbered according to
order of presentation
Bulletin Striking, graphic, informative, flexible, Requires preparation and attention Should be combined with
board replaces local newspapers to community needs maps, talks, and photo-
Keeps community up-to-date with graphs
information Very suitable for posting
articles, announcements
and news of develop
ments in the community
Flip charts Cheap and simple Soon torn Should not be overlooked
Can be stopped at will for analysis Can only be seen by a few at a time for illustration of simple
Chapter 6
Can be prepared locally Can be difficult to illustrate compli- sequences—especially
Ideas could be illustrated in sequence cated ideas with small groups
Illustrations on flip chart could be used Lecturers should be pre-
many times for different pared in advance for use
77
audiences in different sessions on several occasions
Table 6.2 continued
Models, Appeal to several senses Not many workers can build them Useful models and exhibitions
charts, Can be used on various occasions or use them properly could be built up locally
displays and situations Should be used in familiar
Can illustrate ideas in detail places and centers
Maps, Visual appeal May mislead by over simplification Should be made especially
charts, Should simplify details Create transport and storage for groups
diagrams Permit leisurely study problem May need careful explana-
Can develop sequence on display tion first
be familiar to the audience
boards Could be used as summary
toIntroduc
of information
Symbols and layout should
men
Black- Flexible tool Requires some manipulation skill Should be essential in
elop
Dev
t
board Easy to make and use (which can be quickly acquired) every group
Can be very attractive if used Requires teaching skills to make Very useful for schematic
properly best use summaries, talk, discussion
organized
Use of colored chalks can add to Audience can participate
Communicat
visual appeal Small blackboards can be
Can be portable portable
Writing should be clear and
Table 6.2 continued
II
Unit
Publica- Excellent for in-depth presentations Expensive Should be used to support

tions and of issues and technical information Can only be effective if well special campaigns, such as
leaflets Can cover more than one topic designed and produced literacy and adult education
Easy reference and can be directed Poorly printed publication may be Most useful if topics are
to specific audiences less expensive but not be read covered in a series of
Can be illustrated and made Require special editing, design, pubications
attractive and production skills Could be used successfully
Can support other media for edu- Distribution can be difficult and in group discussions and as
cation purposes expensive backup for public meetings
Can be used for in-service
training of field staff and to
keep up morale (i.e., if field
staff are widely dispersed)
Chapter 6 79
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
There are many new information and

communication technologies (ICT) being
generated, that it is difficult to keep track of
them all. However, the following is a table
adapted from Marken’s Office Systems (1990). It
should give you an idea of when to use these
relatively old ICT.
Table 6.3. Presentation media compared

Media Image Audience Cost Ease of
Quality Size Preparation
Photos Good- 2-20 Low Easy
very good
Slides Very good 20-200 Low Very easy
Overhead Good- 2-200 Low Very easy
projector very good
Video monitors Good 2-50 Medium Easy-fair
Hi resolution TV Very good 2-100 High Fair
LCD screen Poor 2-20 High Easy
Video projection Good 20-200 High Fair
Film Very good 2-200 High Diffiucult
CompuGraphics Very good 2-200 High Easy-fair
Summary
Each medium used in development

communication has advantages and limitations. It
is important for us as students of development
communication to understand when and how to
use these media to best achieve our objectives.
Furthermore, it is important that we understand
information and communication technologies so
that we are able to (1) use them for the benefit of
society, (2) equip others and ourselves, and (3)
prepare for their influence/impacts on our work.
References
Barghouti, S.M. (1973). Reaching rural families in East Africa.

Nairobi:
FAO.
Gomez, E.D. (1993). Enabling Rural Women to
Participate in De-velopment. The case of
women’s radio (Philippines). IDC Faculty
Paper Series. IDC: Los Baños.
Gross, N. (1997). Into the wild frontier. Business Week. New
York:
McGraw Hill Companies.
Johns Hopkins University. (1997). Pros and cons
of different media, materials, and techniques
for communication support. Handout for Stra-
tegic Communication for Family Health
Training.
Marken, G.A. (1990). Visual aids strengthen in-
house presentations. Of-fice Systems.
Morino Institute. (1995). The promise and
challenge of a new communica-tion Age.
Accessed 26 April 2006 from
http://www.morino.org/ under_sp_pro.asp.
Philippine Information Agency Media Studies Division.
(1996).
Philippine Media Profile. Quezon City: PIA.
Chapter 7
BARRIERS
E ven the most experienced communicators

among us have been misunderstood at one time or
another. Distortions in message, misinformation,
lack of information—these are but some of the
barriers to effective communication. As students of
communica-tion, we are concerned about the
fidelity or clarity of the message we transmit and
receive. Thus, this chapter is designed as a review
of the factors that limit effective communication—
not only to re-mind us of how communication can
be hampered but also to allow us to respond
effectively to situations where such barriers can be
avoided or overcome.
Objectives

1. Explain why a communicator must
understand the dif-ferent barriers to
effective communication;
2. List some physical, psychological-
cultural, and social bar-riers to effective
communication;
3. Define competent communication; and
4. Cite examples of how a competent
communicator can overcome the various
barriers to effective communication.
A Second Look at Effective Communication
Do you recall our discussion on effective

communication? Berlo (1961) explained effect as
the difference between what a receiver thinks,
feels, and does before and after exposure to a
message. Thus, effect is best expressed in
behavioral terms.
In any communication situation, the

communicator has one or more purposes: to gain
attention, understanding, or acceptance; or to
elicit action. Jamias used the following formula to
explain the factors that contribute to effective
communication:
E = Sc + Mc + Cc + Rc + Re
Where: E is effect
Sc is characteristics of the source
Mc is characteristics of the message
Cc is characteristics of the channel
Rc is characteristics of the receiver
Re is the resource available to the receiver
Noise
Has any of this ever happened to you?
1. In the middle of an important meeting, the

phone rings insis-tently. Group focus is
disrupted.
2. While rushing to revise a paper whose

deadline was yesterday, the electricity goes off
and you lose half of what you have already
typed in the computer.
3. You’re explaining a procedure to a group of new
freshmen who look like nothing you’ve said so
far has made sense to them.
These are all examples of NOISE. In Chapter 5,

we defined noise as anything that distorts or
interferes with the communication pro-cess.
Noise can be blatantly disruptive as static over
the telephone lines, blaring of the radio, or the
incessant honking of car horns outside your
window. But as communicators, we must also be
on the look out for noise that may creep
unobserved (and unavoided) into everyday
communication situations such as negative first
im-pressions, cultural differences, undiagnosed
learning deficiencies, and others.
Classifying Communication Barriers
In Chapter 5, we said the Shannon and Weaver

introduced the ele-ment of noise in the
communication process. However, some com-
munication scientists believe that this model is a
prototype of a transmissive model of
communication. In other words, it reduced
communication to a “process of transmitting
information.”
The element of noise, which is integral to the

model, is a dysfunc-tional factor. In other words,
“noise is any interference with the message
traveling along the channel…which may lead to
the signal received being different from that
sent” (Chandler, n.d.).
Shannon and Weaver argued that there were

three levels of prob-lems of communication:
1. Technical problems — how accurately the

message can be transmitted
2. Semantic problems — how precisely the meaning is
conveyed
3. Effectiveness problems — how effectively
does the received message affect behavior
These problems of communication form the three

levels of com-munication barriers.
Problems of Effectiveness
When you translate a publication from one

language to another, you face a semantic
problem. You cannot be sure of how accu-rately
you translate the thoughts of the original
publication.
Often, there are nuances of the original language

that are lost in the translation. This is why we
often hear that translations are seldom as good
as their originals.
Problems of effectiveness are faced by most of us,

especially those involved in persuasive
communication. We can never know defi-nitely
whether our purpose in communicating is
achieved. When an editor makes comments, he or
she does so for a specific purpose. Perhaps this
purpose would be to make a piece of writing more
concise or precise. Unless the writer responds to
the editor’s comments, then no amount of
comments, suggestions, or recom-mendations will
result in a more concise copy.
Finally, technical problems relate most closely to

the channel or medium of communication used.
Technical problems can cause misunderstanding
or miscommunication such as radio static or bad
cellular phone signals.
The problems of communication that Chandler

refers to are, for our purposes, barriers to
effective communication.
Are there other ways of classifying barriers to

communication? Some scientists group CCC
barriers to effective communication into three:
physical barriers, psychological-cultural
barriers, and social barriers. Environmental
factors or conditions and channel noise would fall
under physical barriers (factors external to the
commu-nication but influencing it nonetheless). On
the other hand, seman-tic noise and some of the
socio-psychological barriers would be
psychological-cultural barriers (factors within the
receiver and/or source that influence perception of
meanings). Many of the other
socio-psychological barriers would all fall under

social barriers— those that arise from the
communicators’ role and stature within a group.
Because of some overlaps among psychological-

cultural barriers, we will be using the more
specific classification of channel noise,
environmental factors/conditions, semantic noise,
and socio-psy-chological barriers.
Channel Noise
Why are static, wrong spelling, letters too small

to read, a computer diskette with ruined sectors,
and dead air on the radio considered channel
noise? All of these affect the channel, medium, or
instru-ment used in transmitting a message. In
turn, they affect the fidelity of the message.
Fidelity, of course, means that the message
received was faithful to the one sent.
Environmental Factors
These barriers are present in the environment in

which a commu-nication takes place. They are
external to the communication pro-cess but may
create conditions under which communication
effec-tiveness is hampered.
Uncomfortable sitting arrangements, rooms that

are too hot, wall paper that is too bright, meeting
right after lunch—all these are environmental
factors.
Semantic Noise
Semantic noise happens when a message is

received as sent but the meaning received was
different from the meaning sent. It oc-curs mostly
in the receiver’s mind. It is a function of how the
mes-sage has been structured in the first place.
Semantic noise occurs
when we use, hear, or read words with double

meanings. For many years, the word gay meant
happy or joyful. These days, however, we use it
carefully for although it is spelled the same, its
meaning has changed when used in various
contexts.
Language is a wonderful thing for it serves as a

bridge between peoples and cultures. Yet
language can also serve as a barrier in cases
when one word can mean one thing in one
culture and mean something totally different in
another culture.
Socio-psychological barriers
Emotional blocks, charisma, stereotyping, first

impressions, and absent-mindedness all
constitute socio-psychological barriers.
Pfeiffer (1973) explained that a charismatic

person can often make a trivial message seem
new and important. However, this can be
detrimental because the receiver may become
less likely to question or clarify the message.
Negative first impressions can eventually be a
detriment to effective communication.
Stereotyping means judging people before you

know all the facts about them. We stereotype
groups of people, believing that they have certain
characteristics common among members of each
group. Thus, even as we have stereotypes for men
and women, we also have stereotypes for people
from different nations or different re-gions of our
country. A Dutch missionary told me once that the
Dutch are known in Europe for their frugality and
hard work. Just like, he felt, the Iloconos and
Boholanons here in the Philippines.
Other Barriers
Ethnocentrism is viewing a group or culture as

superior to all oth-ers. To some degree, this trait
affects all of us.
Past experiences may form another type of

barrier. We interpret messages from the context
of our experiences. Most of the time,
this tendency helps us respond appropriately to

stimuli. However, at times, negative experiences
make us dysfunctional. Furthermore, when we
receive a message that contradicts with our
experiences or challenges our views, we react
with disbelief, rejection, distortion, or
misinterpretation.
As communicators, we should not perceive these

barriers as prob-lems. Rather, we should perceive
them as challenges that can be overcome—for in
overcoming these barriers, we take one giant
step towards achieving effective communication.
Communication Competence
Earlier in the chapter, we noted that some barriers

to communica-tion actually exist in the Source or
Receiver. Barring physical limita-tions such as
blindness, deafness, or speech impairments, such
bar-riers can actually be overcome if we are aware
that they exist.
Rothwell (1992) noted that knowing what

constitutes human com-munication does not
automatically make you an effective commu-
nicator. He points out that one must first
understand what it means to communicate
competently.
Qualities of a Competent Communicator
Rothwell noted that competence is “a judgment

of an individual’s proficiency in a particular set of
circumstances.” He then went on to explain that
though no one definition of communication com-
petence exists, most communicators would agree
on at least three points. These are:
1. They have a We-not-Me Orientation.
2. They understand communication effectiveness.
3. They have a sense of appropriateness.
Let us look at each of these more closely.

They have a We-not-Me Orientation
Considering the transactional nature of

communication, compe-tency should be viewed in
terms of relationships with others. People who
work well in a group are often more competent in
achieving communication goals than those who
do not.
They understand communication effectiveness
Communication competence is measured by results.

Thus, “some-one who knows what changes in
communication behavior need to be made, want to
make these changes, but never does, can hardly be
deemed a competent communicator” (Rothwell,
1992).
They have a sense of appropriateness
A competent communicator must have a sense of

context. In other words, avoid “violating social or
interpersonal norms, rules or ex-pectations”
(Spitzberg and Cupach, 1989 in Rothwell, 1992).
The way you act at work is certainly different
from the way you act in church or in a favorite
restaurant.
Components of Communication Competence
Who comes to mind when you think of an

example of a compe-tent communicator? Through
the years, I have met many people I would
consider competent communicators. And they
don’t fit a single mold. Some have PhDs; others
have never finished elemen-tary school. Some
speak perfect English, others cannot even read or
write it. Perhaps now it’s time to define what
competent com-munication is.
Rothwell explained that there are many definitions
of communica-tion competence. For example, he
cited the following:
1. Littlejohn and Jabusch (1982) who perceived

communication competence as the “ability and
willingness of an individual to
participate responsibly in a transaction in such

a way as to maxi-mize the outcome of shared
meanings.”
2. Trenhold (1988) who defined it as the “ability to

communicate in a personally effective and
socially appropriate manner.”
3. Adler and Towne (1990) who viewed it as the

“ability to get what you are seeking from
others in a manner that maintains the
relationship on terms acceptable to both you
and the other person.”
He then went on to note that Littlejohn and Jabusch

(1982) had identified four basic components of
communication competence - process
understanding, communication skills, interpersonal
sensi-tivity, and ethical responsibility. Furthermore,
he explained that Shockley-Zalabak (1988) modified
these into four easily remem-bered elements -
knowledge, skills, sensitivity, and values. All of
them would agree on four elements of
communication competence.
Rothwell (1992) discussed each of Shockley-

Zalabak’s four elements of communication
competence as follows:
Knowledge
Knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to do

it is the first basic element of communication
competence. Some people are great at small talk
that eases tight communication situation. Others
know when to keep quiet and when to speak up.
I remember a few years ago, one of my

undergraduate advisees worked as a community
volunteer in one of the University’s out-reach
programs. Her supervisor praised her, telling me
that she seemed to have an innate knowledge of
how to communicate with different groups of
people. Even tribal communities, so often wary of
outsiders, took to her almost immediately. She
proved to be a very valuable human resource in
breaking through psychological-cultural barriers.
Skills
This refers to the ability to “demonstrate your

knowledge in actual situations” (Rothwell, 1992).
Communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal,
are intrinsic to the success of any individual.
I’ve had some students who got high paying jobs -

not because they graduated with honors—but
because they knew how to use inter-personal
communication skills to their advantage.
Sensitivity
Rothwell explains that competent communicators

must be sensi-tive to the consequences of the
communication choices they make. These choices
include what a situation requires, what
relationships they have with others in a group,
and what are the goals of the communicator in
the light of the group’s goals.
Values
You probably can guess what this refers to.

Rothwell emphasizes that the “predominant value
of the competent communicator is the desire to
avoid previous mistakes and find better ways of
com-munication with group members.”
Commitment to better communication—this is

what we as com-municators should share. Does
this explanation help you in defin-ing competent
communication? Do you believe you are a compe-
tent communicator?
Identifying and Breaking Down Barriers
Let’s start with the physical barriers...

1. The mountains. These prevent effective radio
and TV trans-mission. They also make it
difficult for outsiders to contact the village.
Solution for TV:

Use a higher antenna or a satellite dish. If the
television is used for purely entertainment or
educational purposes, then perhaps, a VHS
player might come in handy.
Solution for radio:

Explore possibilities for narrow casting
(broadcasting in a small area of reception)
from broadcasting facilities within the vil-lage.
Or, for entertainment or educational purposes,
explore use of audiotapes.
Solution for inaccessibility:

Find ways to facilitate exchange between the
village and out-side.
2. Blindness. Blind man doesn’t know he’s not

allowed to beg there because he can’t read the
sign.
Solution:
Someone better tell him - and soon. But as
communicators, we should be aware that we
don’t often consider the physical prob-lems of
our receivers that may hamper effective
communica-tion.
3. It is too hot under the tree and the flies are

bothering the chil-dren. They can’t listen to
their teacher.
Solution:
Move them to some place cool where the flies
won’t bother them. Spray the flies?
Now let’s look at the psychological-cultural barriers
1. The tourist failed to bow in front of the temple.
Solution:
Brief people who are new in a place about
customs and tradi-tions.
2. The other tourist insists on taking pictures

when the children don’t want her to.
Solution:
Again, inform new comers of group norms.
Suggest sensitivity to a new situation; don’t
insist on what you want.
3. Villagers are laughing at the tourist.
Solution:
Well, stereotypes and ethnocentrism are the
most difficult to break. Time and
understanding eventually break these down.
4. Illiteracy
Solution:
Get someone to read for them. Or, initiate a literacy program.
Or, don’t use print media for an illiterate audience.
Now for social barriers
1. The “wealthy” villagers won’t have anything to

do with the “poorer” villagers.
Solution:
Reach out and educate.
Failure to Listen
As a teacher, I have always believed that one of

the greatest barri-ers to effective communication
is an individual’s failure to listen. Listening is a
skill that one develops over time. I’m sure many
of my colleagues would agree. This is why in
some of my classes, I give my student a listening
test made up of 10 questions. I read the questions
just once. They aren’t allowed to ask questions or
discuss these with their classmate.
For example, I ask them the question: How many

animals did Moses have on the ark with him?
What would you answer?
As you can imagine, everything goes downhill from

there. I have had students argue about the number
of animals - totally missing the point that it was
Noah who ended up stranded on the ark with
animals of different shapes and sizes! The problem
is, we hear but we do not listen. Listening is a skill
that needs to be developed. Thus, I am listing 10
barriers to effective communication that I learned
at a training course I attended in Lucca, Italy a few
years ago. Read through the list and see how many
of them you can relate with. You may want to mark
(with a pen or highlighter) those which you find are
particularly troublesome in your field of work.
Barriers to Effective Listening
What follows is a list of barriers to effective

listening and suggested remedies.
Barrier 1:
Many people assume in advance that the
message communicated will be unin-teresting
and unimportant. Thus, they steer their minds in
another direction even before the source begins.
Remedy:
Give the source at least a few minutes of
concentration when com-munication begins. If
you are giving up valuable time to listen, be
selfish enough to collect dividends in the form of
new ideas that the source may have. It has been
said that in the entire world there is no such
thing as an uninteresting subject; there are only
uninter-esting communicators.
Barrier 2:
People begin by mentally criticizing the source’s
delivery. They don’t tune in on the message
because they are too busy adding up his/her
physical faults and wondering why he/she rates
their attention.
Remedy:
Remember that brainpower and instantaneous
charm are seldom attributes of the same person.
People with profound ideas to share may not
qualify as television performers, but their
message usually outweighs their delivery.
Barrier 3:
People can become over stimulated when they
question or oppose an idea and, consequently,
hear only part of it. They are too busy thinking up
an argument or rebuttal to listen with
understanding.
For example, when we listen to a message that

contradicts our most deeply-held beliefs, opinions,
or convictions, we become stimulated by many
factors other than the speaker’s words. Suppose we
are arguing with someone—especially about
something that is “near and clear” to us. What are
we usually doing while the other person is making
his point? In all probability, we do not listen nor
under-stand. We may be planning a rebuttal to what
the other person is saying, or formulating a
question.
Remedy:
Next time you get into an argument, stop the
discussion and insti-tute this rule: Each person
may speak up with his own thoughts only after
he/she has first stated the ideas and feelings of
the previ-ous speaker. Any distortion may be
corrected immediately by the original speaker.
Barrier 4:
People listen only for factual data and want to be spared of the
“details.”
Remedy:
The so-called details often are composed of
principles and the main idea. The facts make
sense only when they support such principles. To
remember dates and statistics is unimportant if
the main point is lost.
Barrier 5:
People try to outline everything they hear in a
conference or at a convention. But in their busy
efforts to outline what’s said, they hear only one-
third of it.
Remedy:
Be a flexible note-taker or information
rememberer. Within a few minutes, you can tell
how well the source has organized his or her
main points and supporting facts.
Barrier 6:
People frequently pretend to give the source
their undivided attention. They then proceed to
tune him/her in or out at will while retaining an
attentive facial expression.
Remedy:
Good listening is not a relaxed passive activity at
all, say the experts. Good listening is
characterized by a quickened heartbeat, faster
blood circulation, and a slight rise in body
temperature. It consumes en-ergy and requires
hard work. Mere visual attentiveness isn’t listen-
ing.
Barrier 7:
People permit others to speak inaudibly or to give
fragmentary information instead of asking for
clarification or repetition.
Remedy:
Be an aggressive listener. Pin down your source
when he or she is unclear. Ask for more
information when it is necessary. This kind of
eagerness on your part is not rudeness but
flattery—you are anxious to capture the source’s
entire thought.
Barrier 8:
People tune out any message that borders on the technical.
Remedy:
This is a technical world, and we’ve got to meet it
with technical knowledge acquired through
technical listening and study. We all are
associated with products or services that require
some explain-ing.
To the person who knows nothing of your

commodity, your expla-nation may sound technical,
even if it’s simple. It is likely that tech-nical-
sounding message contains information, that is new
to you.
Barrier 9:
People are allergic to certain words, ideas, or
phrases they find distasteful. They tend to
change the topic or avoid discussion.
Remedy:
Don’t let them get in your way. Pet peeves against
certain hack-neyed phrases or slang words may
cause you to miss important or useful
information. Listen to the source on his or her
terms, not yours.
Barrier 10:
Their minds wander.
Remedy:
Capitalize on thought speed. Most persons talk at
a speed of about 125 words per minute. Most of
us could think easily at four times that rate.
It is difficult to try to slow down our thinking

speed. Thus, we normally have about 400 words
of thinking time to spare during every minute a
person talks to us. Try to anticipate what a
person is going to talk about. On the basis of
what he has already said, ask yourself: “What’s
he trying to get at? What point is he going to
make?”
Mentally summarize what the person has been

saying. What point has he made already, if any?
Weigh the speaker’s evidence by men-tally
questioning it. As he presents facts, illustrative
stories, and sta-tistics, continually ask yourself:
“Are they accurate? Do they come from an
unprejudiced source? Am I getting the full picture,
or is he telling me only what will prove his point?”
Listen between the lines. The speaker doesn’t
always put everything that’s important into words.
The changing tones and volume of his voice, his
facial ex-pressions, the gestures he makes with his
hands, and the movement of his body all have
meaning. But—don’t get so absorbed using your
excess thinking time that you end up not listening.
Summary
There are many barriers to communication. We

must be able to identify them and deal with them.
These barriers are present every-where. As
students of development communication, we must
be conscious of these barriers that come in the
form of environmen-tal factors, semantic noise,
channel noise, or socio-psychological factors. These
barriers must not be seen as insurmountable prob-
lems, rather, as challenges that can be overcome.
References
Anonymous. (1992). Barriers to effective

listening. Centro Studi Agricola “Borgo a
Mozzano,” Lucca, Italy. Handout.
Berlo, D. (1960). The process of communication.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Chandler, D. The transmission model of
communication. Accessed 26 April 2006 from
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/documents/short/
trans.html.
De Fleur, M.L. and Dennis, E.E. (1981).
Understanding mass commu-nication. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company.
Fiske, J. (1982). Introduction to communication studies. Chaucer

Press:
Suffolk.
Jamias, J.F. (1975). Readings in development communication.
Los Baños:
University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Johns Hopkins University. (1997). Handouts in
Communication. McQuail, D. and Windahl, S.
(1981). Models of communication. New
York: Longman, Inc.
Pfeiffer, W.J. (1996). Conditions which hinder
effective communi-cation. The Handbook for
Group Facilitators. John E. Jones and J.W.
Pfeiffer, Eds. University Associate Publishers,
Inc.
Rothwell, J.D. (1992). In Mixed Company: Small Group
Communication.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
Chapter 8
Related Concepts
M any believe that communication is a pan discipline,

an area of study that encompasses other areas of study.
Indeed, as one goes deeper into it, the boundaries of
communication seem to
blur the more. Shannon and Weaver have taught
us that there is a mathematical dimension to
communication. Lasswell, on the other hand,
used biological metaphors to analyze it. Norbert
Weiner viewed communication as a branch of
systems theory. In Los Baños, dev com majors are
as at home with the concept of bits and bytes as
computer engineering students. Furthermore,
who can argue against the statement that
communication is both an art and a sci-ence?
This chapter gives a rundown of concepts

belonging to communi-cation as well as other
disciplines, such as systems theory, psycho-logy,
education, engineering, linguistics and physics.
Because of the diversity of the fields represented,
these concepts are sequenced alphabetically,
instead of logically.
Objective
At the end of this chapter, you should be

able to recall and discuss the concepts
contained herein.
Channel Capacity
Among the first crop of communication scientists

were engineers such as Shannon, Weaver, and
Ashley. Some of their studies were commissioned
by the United States military to study codes and
chan-nels, specifically, how much code can a
specific channel contain. It was during these
experiments that the term “bit” was introduced
as the standard unit for measuring information.
Bits and Bytes
Technically defined, a bit is “one negative

uncertainty.” A bit is also short for “binary digit,”
which makes up the binary numbering sys-tem. In
the binary system you count the numbers 1,2,3,4,
and 5 using the symbols 1, 10, 11, 100, and 101
respectively. In other words, you use only numbers
with 1 and/or 0 in them. This system constitutes the
very foundation of computing.
The binary counting system proved to be the ideal

way of not only measuring but also operationalizing
information since, indeed, one binary digit carries
the smallest, most basic unit of information. Eight
(8) bits is equivalent to one byte. What is significant
about the number 8? Why 8 instead of 10? Eight
was convenient simply be-cause, in computers, it
takes 8 bits of data to generate one alphanu-meric
character (i.e., A, B, C…. 1, 2, 3…).
The question that confronted communication
engineers then was, how many bits of information
can one channel accommodate at any given time?
The channel may be an AM or FM radio frequency
or a copper telephone cable. Eventually, this

concept was extended to computer memory and
storage media such as diskettes, hard drives, and
CD-ROM.
Information Overload
To some extent, channel capacity may also be

applied to humans, not merely machines. Miller’s
“Magic Seven” theorem submits that one can
only absorb seven chunks of information per
sitting. Once you go beyond this threshold of
seven chunks, one can no longer absorb
information. As in copper cables and sound
waves, our minds can also be overloaded.
Notice however that Miller stopped short of using

the term bit and instead used the term chunks,
which is rather figurative than con-crete. How
many bits of information constitute one chunk?
The answer to this is relative to the receiver and
how the message was structured.
We would do well by structuring our messages in

convenient chunks, taking care that our
communication material does not go beyond
seven of these chunks to ensure that our
audiences are able to ab-sorb them efficiently.
Communication Breakdown
I’m sure you’ve heard stories similar to this:
The Captain to the Lieutenant:
As you know, tomorrow at 9 a.m. we’re

expecting a sun eclipse, that doesn’t happen
everyday. Take the men dressed in country
clothes to Piazza d’Armi at 7 a.m. so that we
can watch this rare phenomenon. I will give
the necessary ex-planations. In case of rain,
there will be nothing to be seen, therefore
you’ll take the men to the gym.
The Lieutenant to the Marshal:
By orders of the Captain tomorrow at 9

a.m. there will be a sun eclipse with
instructions given by the Captain, that
doesn’t happen everyday. If the weather is
rainy we won’t have anything to see outside
and the eclipse will take place in the gym.
The Marshal to the Sergeant:
By order of the Captain tomorrow at 9 a.m.

there will be the inauguration of the sun
eclipse dressed in country clothes. The
Captain will give the necessary instructions
in the gym in case it rains, that doesn’t
happen everyday.
The Sergeant to the Corporal:
Tomorrow at 9 a.m., dressed in country

clothes, the Cap-tain will have the sun
eclipsing in the gym, with his instruc-tions
if he is on time. If it rains, there won’t be
any eclipse, although this doesn’t happen
everyday.
This is an obvious example of communication breakdown.
However, Ruben (1978) argued that communication

does not “break down.” Machines break down or quit.
However, human beings con-tinue to communicate
even when they don’t wish to do so.
Rothwell (1992) says
“The view that communication breakdowns

occur comes from a recognition that we do
not always achieve our goals through
communication. But failure to achieve our
goals may occur even when communication
between the parties in conflict is exemplary.
So, where’s the breakdown?”
Rothwell further explains that we sometimes

mistakenly conclude that disagreement
constitutes communication breakdown.
For example, in a meeting, your superior asks you

to listen to her because she wants to convince you
to support one of her projects. Now, you may listen
carefully to her very persuasive presentation but
refuse in the end to support it. This is merely a case
of dis-agreement—NOT a case of communication
breakdown. Her com-munication was not effective
(the effect did not equal her purpose) but
communication continued: you understood perfectly
what she conveyed but decided you did not agree
with her proposal.
Convergence of Media
Negroponte (1978, cited by Brand, 1987) made

the case for creat-ing the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Media Lab by pre-dicting that the
broadcast, film, and print media as well as the
broad-cast, film, and publishing industries will
converge by the year 2000. Indeed, nowadays we
edit videos, broadcast programs, design graph-
ics, synthesize sounds, and layout books on one
digital platform – the computer.
It was not too long ago when the areas of

specialization of dev com were categorized
according to the traditional media-centric
orientation of communication schools: print,
audio-visual, and broadcast. The dev com
building, designed in the sixties, was struc-tured
in such a way that the print section was situated
in the left wing of the first floor; the audio-visual
section in the right wing of the second floor; and
the broadcast section in the left wing of the
second floor. The practicum courses of these
sections were con-ducted in their respective
areas. Their respective production hard-ware
were also thus located.
The situation was drastically affected by the
introduction of one piece of equipment in the
market in 1984: Apple’s Macintosh com-puter. The
Mac was able to do, among other things: desktop
pub-lishing, a skill that was critical for print majors;
sound synthesizing and mixing, a requirement for
broadcast majors; and computer graphics, a
necessity for audio-visual majors. Instead of huffing
and
puffing from one part of the building to another

to produce spe-cific communication materials, a
student with a Mac, needed only to stay put in
one place.
Cybernetics
General systems theory (GST) deals with both

living and non-living systems. Living systems
are made up of living things as elements, thus
encompassing organisms, ecosystems, and social
sys-tems. An ecosystem is considered an
organism at a higher level of complexity. A social
system is likewise considered as a living sys-tem
because it is made up of human beings.
One of the most basic tenets of GST is that living

systems perform three critical functions with
respect to its environment and other living
systems: the exchange of materials; the exchange
of energy; and the exchange of information.
Without exception, every organ-ism, be it a one-
celled amoeba or a complex creature such as
man, an organization, or a society, performs all
three functions because these are vital for its
survival. If any of these critical functions were
hampered, then it would spell the doom of that
organism. The third and last critical function—the
exchange of information—is nothing else but
communication.
Cybernetics, the science of control, is the

branch of General Sys-tems Theory that deals
with communication. The founder of cy-bernetics
was the child prodigy turned MIT professor,
scientist and novelist, Norbert Wiener. The term
itself was coined by Wiener from the Greek word
kuber, meaning helmsman or pilot.
The take-off point of cybernetics is the Second
Law of Thermo-dynamics, which as you know,
deals with the diffusion of heat in a closed
system. Wiener maintained that the diffusion of
heat is a function of entropy, the tendency of any
system towards greater uniformity and lesser
differentiation or organization. We can say
that if a system is innately made up of hot

elements and cold ele-ments then these
differentiations in temperature should be main-
tained for the integrity of the system. When these
differentiations are lost, then the system dies—as
in the thermal death of the uni-verse, which the
Second Law of Thermodynamics predicts. En-
tropy is a universal tendency for these
differentiations to diminish and ultimately
disappear. And it is bad for a living system
because it brings forth disorganization and decay.
Why are we discussing concepts of physics such

as the Second Law of Thermodynamics and
entropy in a development communica-tion
textbook? Simple. Wiener maintains that the third
critical func-tion of every living system—the
exchange of information—is the function that
counters entropy. In fact, Wiener believes that
infor-mation negates entropy. He has since
termed information as negentropy.
Based on the above, consider the following propositions.
All living systems are purposive. All living

systems have desired or ideal states. The goal or
purpose of a living system is to achieve this
desired or ideal state. Living systems are prone
to entropy in accordance with the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.
A social system is a living system. Entropy

prevents social sys-tems from achieving its
societal goal. Entropy can only be coun-tered
through information. Thus information, or more
appropri-ately, communication, allows a social
system to achieve its goal.
Dependency
The Dependency Model of De Fleur and Rokeach
forwards that nowadays people are very
dependent on the media for information to the
extent that audiences and the structural stability
of social systems are affected.
Media Systems
Societal Systems
Number of Info Functions
Degree of Structural
Centrality of Info
Stability
Functions
Audiences
Degree of Dependency
on Media Information
Effects
Cognitive
Affective
Behavioral
Figure 8-1. Media dependency model

(De Fleur and Rokeach, 1982)
What this model says is that our dependence on

radio, TV, and newspapers is positively correlated
to the kind of information that we get from the
media. Our dependence is also positively corre-
lated to the instability of our government and
institutions. Our dependence is likewise
correlated to changes in our knowledge, at-
titudes, and actions attributed to media.
During times of crises, wars and calamities have

you observed the changes in our newspaper
reading, radio listening or TV viewing habits? We
became more avid readers of the Philippine Daily
In-quirer during the impeachment trial of Joseph
Estrada. Our ears were glued to DZMM during
EDSA II. We watched CNN instead of HBO when
the World Trade Center was crash bombed and
when coalition forces invaded Iraq. Indeed,
during times of crises, we become voracious
consumers of information, very dependent on the
media.
Media coverage during times of crises can topple

governments, cause widespread social unrest,
and change presidents. This is pri-marily the
reason why radio and TV stations become
primary tar-gets of coup plotters. This is why
people began panic buying surgi-cal masks after
viewing the six o’clock news during the SARS
out-break in Asia. This is also why the Iraqi
Information Minister kept on giving an optimistic
picture of Baghdad during the last days of
Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Domains
Educational technologists and psychologists tell

us that through certain stimuli, we may achieve
changes in three domains within the individual:
the cognitive domain, the psychomotor domain,
and the affective domain.
Cognitive
Changes in the cognitive domain mainly refer to

knowledge gain. The delta symbol followed by the
letter k (ρk) is often used to signify changes in
knowledge measured through oral or written tests.
Psychomotor
Changes in the psychomotor domain refer to

behavioral change, the acquisition of skills, or
the adoption of certain courses of ac-tion. These
are quite easy to observe.
Affective
The affective domain covers attitudes and

values. Changes in the affective domain are more
difficult to measure and observe since these are
internal to the person. However, they may be
manifested verbally or behaviorally. Psychologists
usually employ measures such as the Liekert
scale or the seven-point semantic differential
scale to determine changes in the affective
domain.
ICT
Information and communication technology or

ICT is the col-lective term given to the new (second
and third) generation of in-formation technology
spawned by the merger of computers and
telecommunications. There are social trends
associated with ICT. These include: informatization,
the shift in the workforce and com-modity base of
national economies, wherein information labor be-
comes the dominant workforce and information
becomes the pri-mary commodity; digitization, the
use of digital technology as the operational
standard for all information-based systems; and
global-ization, the blurring of national and regional
boundaries among information-related sectors, i.e.,
business and finance, governance, education,
entertainment, and communication.
Another feature of ICT is the convergence of

media (print, audio and video—hence,
multimedia) made possible by a common digi-tal
platform, which was earlier discussed.
ICT encompasses computer systems and networks,

cellular tele-phony, desktop publishing, multimedia
production, the Internet, cable television, and
others. ICT applications may be Web-enabled,
networked, or stand-alone; it may make available
an information or knowledge system; or it may
generate an information or knowl-edge product or
service. Its uses are diverse and varied. The appli-
cations of one form of ICT alone, the Internet,
include on-line exchanges of personal messages and
files (e-mail), on-line economic transactions (e-
Commerce or eBusiness), and network assistance to
local and national governance (e-Government).
Information Society
Social observers from Toffler to Naisbitt and
academics from Machlup to Drucker agree that
humanity has gone through two major eras, the
Agricultural Age and the Industrial Age. The
former began with the invention of the plough,

the latter with the introduction of the steam
engine. Today, human civilization is in the
Information Age. This period commenced with
the launching of the Sputnik satellite and the
development of the computer.
The Information Age is characterized by rapid

informatization (in contrast to industrialization),
widespread recognition of the pri-macy of
information as a resource, and the dominance of
informa-tion-based economies.
As differentiated from agriculture-based and

industrial-based econo-mies, information-based
economies have a labor force made up mostly of
information or knowledge workers. Economist Marc
Porat maintains that an information society exists in
countries with infor-mation-based economies, as in
the case of Singapore. In the same manner,
agricultural and industrial societies exist in
countries with agriculture-based and industrial-
based economies, respectively.
Indeed, the world is in the Information Age. Yet,

most developing countries remain agricultural
societies. The Philippines is an agri-cultural
society. And it is tough for an agricultural society
to be in the Information Age.
Invasion of Privacy
Everyone was shocked when Princess Diana died

in a car crash with her boyfriend Dodi Alfayyed.
Their deaths (and the circum-stances that led to
it) turned the world’s attention to camera-totting
paparazzi and sensationalist tabloids, in
particular, and the mass media, in general.
The families of Princess Di and Dodie were very
vocal in their views that the mass media—
specifically the paparazzi—were re-sponsible for
their deaths. They accused the paparazzi of
invading the couple’s privacy to such an extent that
the two were forced to escape the flashing cameras
that dogged their every step.
When do celebrities stop being public figures?
Legally, all citizens have a right to privacy.

However, legal experts maintain that public
figures whose private lives have a bearing on jobs
that put them in the public eye, give up their
right to privacy. Thus, politicians, actors, and
actresses, and other famous (or infa-mous!)
people should expect to find themselves in the
public’s eye. People are naturally curious about
how their leaders and entertain-ers live their
lives. And, the public is entitled to know how the
pri-vate lives of their leaders and role models
could affect how they perform their jobs.
Knowledge Management
Paraphrasing Microsoft, knowledge

management or KM is an evolving discipline
that considers an organization’s intellectual
capital as a manageable and potentially profitable
asset. Each and every organization possesses
some form of human capital, which is made up of
individual talents and tacit knowledge. The latter
is some-times referred to as intellectual capital
and is considered as a funda-mental input to all
wealth generating processes.
Undocumented or Documented or
Tacit Knowledge Knowledge Explicit Knowledge
Ideas, Experiences, ... Management captured
Information Base in Documents
Sharing & Reuse
Figure 8-2. Goal of knowledge management

The goal of KM is the sharing and reuse of

intellectual capital (Liebmann, 1998). Prior to the
development of ICT, intellectual capital was
considered difficult to manage because it
primarily re-sides in the individual. With ICT,
such knowledge can be captured, stored, and
shared electronically—in short, managed.
Bill Gates uses the digital nervous system

metaphor, comparing an organization to an
organism with a nervous system technologically
enabled by computer hardware, software, and
networking. This network of workstations and
servers (or KM system) programmed to facilitate
knowledge sharing and reuse is, to an
organization, like a nervous system to an
organism.
Language and Meaning
Perhaps you are wondering: What about

language? Doesn’t it play an important role in
communication?
Berlo (1960) explained that language is used to

express and elicit meanings. Language is made
up of a set of significant symbols, which people
sequence and impose a structure. Thus, a specific
language like Filipino includes a set of symbols
(vocabulary) and meaningful ways of combining
the symbols (syntax). We know that people share
a language if they encode and decode symbols
that are significant to all of them.
In a way, people created language to express

meanings to others and to ensure that others
receive the same meanings. Language is also
used for people to make responses that increase
their ability to affect changes (Berlo, 1960).
We can see that meanings and language are
intrinsically joined to-gether. Because the main
function of language is to express and elicit
meanings (Berlo, 1960), then meaning is part of
the definition of language. As communicators, we
are concerned with the mean-ings that we
communicate.
Our freshman English course tells us that there

are two types of meaning: denotative or the
dictionary meaning; and connotative or the
implied meaning. However, there is more to
meaning than this distinction.
Berlo explains that communication does not consist

of the trans-mission of meanings. Meanings are in
the message-user and in the message-sender, not in
the message itself. Thus, meanings cannot be
transmitted or transferred. Only messages can be
transmitted. This is why we say that meanings are
in people, not in words.
Nowhere is this most apparent than in inter-

cultural situations. At a national camp, a Cebuana
friend who was cooking rice cried, “Ay, napagod
ang kanin!” (The rice burned!). A Tagalog friend
turned to me and asked, “Paano napapagod ang
kanin?” (How did the rice get tired?). You see,
both used the same word “napagod” but they did
not understand each other. They each had a
different meaning for the word and these
meanings were offshoots of their cultural back-
grounds and experiences.
As development communicators, we must be

careful to ensure that we communicate meanings,
not just words. An effective communi-cator is able
to choose words and symbols for which he/she
shares meanings with his/her receiver.
Yes, people have different meanings for different

things and ideas because we interpret what we
know from the perspective of our culture, education
background, and field of experience. This is why we
even have different meanings for colors. Black for a
long time was the color of mourning in the
Philippines. But for the Chinese, white is used at
funerals. Truly, meanings are in people.
Mass vs. Interpersonal
Interpersonal Communication
Words have great potential for both good and

evil. Interpersonal communication can bring
about changes in what people know, what people
think, and what people do.
Interpersonal communication plays a very active,

integral part in all persuasive communication. In
dev com, there is a long list of case studies about
important changes introduced through
interpersonal communication. From new varieties
of rice to new breeds of farm animals,
development efforts often depend on change
agents—ex-tension agent and development
communicators—out in the field. They work
directly with communities, convincing,
persuading, motivating, encouraging. They do the
job better than a hundred billboards, leaflets, or
videotapes could ever do. However, this does not
mean that there is no room for other means of
communica-tion.
Mass Communication
For so long, we have been taught that generally,

mass media do not bring about change in people’s
behavior. However, the Johns Hopkins University
Center for Communication Programs explained that
some communication scientists are actually revising
their stand on this. They believe that the mass
media today can bring about radical changes in
behavior—positive or otherwise. We should work on
understanding these influences and harnessing
them to bring about positive changes in the lives of
people and in society.
Memetics
If… a gene is the basic unit of heredity;

a phoneme is the basic unit of language;
a kine is the basic unit of body language;
and a bit is the basic unit of information…
What is the basic unit of culture?
In 1976, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins

wrote a book titled, The Selfish Gene. In this book,
Dawkins introduced the word “meme” as a
purposeful analogy to “gene,” the former being
cultural while the latter, biological. Dawkins defines
meme as “replicating infor-mation patterns that
use minds to get themselves copied much as a virus
uses cells to get themselves copied.” A meme could
be an idea (environmentalism), a song (Tom
Greene’s Bum-Bum Song), a fashion trend (bare
midriffs), or an expression (“Let’s Get It On!) that
lodges in our minds and changes us. What is
intriguing about it is the thought that it could
spread much like the SARS virus, thereby
influencing entire cultures.
I have always been fascinated by memetics.

Determining the be-havior of memes and the
principles that govern them is the key to
discovering or more appropriately uncovering the
dynamics of so-cial movements, so critical to the
study of development communi-cation.
How does one spread a socially beneficial idea, a

meme, such as “world peace” with such impact
and scale that it becomes ingrained in our
culture? To my mind this is the biggest question
confronting us.
Networks
A network is a collection of people or objects
connected to each other in some way. Networks
are made up of nodes and links.
A node is an element or unit in a network. Others

define it as a type of junction for links. Links
connect nodes. They may be physical in nature
(such as computer cables) or symbolic, signifying
associa-tions or relationships. Two nodes linked
together by a reciprocal relationship are called
diads. Nodes with many reciprocal links rela-tive
to other nodes are called hubs.
As defined, networks may be made up of objects

(such as com-puter terminals in a LAN) or people
(such as a group of friends). Below is an example
of a visual representation (or sociogram) of the
latter.
Manuel
Donna
Nancy
Kathy Charles
Tanya Stuart
Wynn Carol Harold

Sharon Fred
Susan
Bob
Figure 8-4. Sociogram
Sociograms are drawn to illustrate unique

relationships among the nodes. In a network of
people, one generally finds cliques or closely knit
networks within networks. In the example given
above Charles, Wynn, Harold, and Carol form one
such clique. So do Bob, Fred, Sharon, and Stuart.
Charles and Stuart form the bridge between
these two cliques. Nancy is a cosmopolite, a
person who does not belong to any clique but is
linked to all of them. If in a network we find a
node that is not linked to other nodes, then we
have an iso-late.
There is a growing field called network science,

which is very much related to communication. Many
network scientists believe that networks make up the
fundamental organizational structure of liv-ing
systems. The World Wide Web is a network. So are the
UPLB Alumni Association and the Amway sales force.
Our body is made up of a network of organs, our
organs are made up of networks of tissues, and our
tissues are made up of networks of cells. We see
networks in spider webs, rivers, countries, and
societies.
What is fascinating is that—whether they are

organic or inorganic, living or nonliving, physical
or biological, political or social—all these
networks are subject to the same laws of network
behavior, such as:
1. Each node in a network, no matter how large,

should be con-nected within six degrees of
separation.
2. Decentralized networks have higher fitness
levels than central-ized networks
3. Interconnectivity, reciprocity, and network
activity are corre-lated to a network’s survival.
4. Networks without content die.
Non-Verbal Communication
Randall Harrison (1970) estimates that during

face-to-face com-munication, no more than 35
percent of the social meaning is carried in verbal
messages. The rest (64 percent) is carried by
non-verbal cues such as gestures, facial
expressions, distance between the participants,
and timing. In other words, we communicate
more non-verbally than verbally, everyday.
We communicate through body language. Founded by

Ray Birdwhistle, kinesics is the science of
communicating through bodily gestures and facial
expressions. The basic unit of bodily move-ment,
which carries a meaning, is called a kine, the
counterpart of the phoneme in verbal
communication. When we raise our eye-brows, shrug
our shoulders, or raise our hands, we execute a kine.
Body language is culture bound for the most part.

Witness South Asians turn their heads from side
to side as a sign of agreement. In our cultural
context, this would mean disagreement. Observe
how a Javanese would be offended if you hand
over something to him with the left hand.
Proxemics, on the other hand, is communicating

through space. Founded by Edward Hall, this
science distinguishes between inti-mate space,
personal space, social space, and public space.
Although these vary across cultures, generally,
only your closest friends and family can violate
your intimate space, the area within six inches
from your body. Your personal space is the area
within a foot and a half from your body. Social
space is the area beyond a foot and a half but
within three feet. Public space is the area beyond
six feet from your body.
Selectivity
Psychologically, we unconsciously go through

selective processes that have a bearing on the
effectiveness of communication. There are three
selective processes that concern us most:
1. Selective exposure
2. Selective perception
3. Selective retention
Let’s look at each one briefly.
What do you usually do when you get home from

school in the evenings? Many of my friends flop
down in front of the television, pick up the
remote control, and spend a few hours glued to
the set. How do they decide on what to watch?
The decision isn’t too diffi-cult to make when you
have few choices but once you subscribe to cable,
then the choices are legion!
Which of the following would you rather watch on TV:

1. Basketball OR the news
2. Movie OR a talk show
3. Filipino soap opera OR a canned series
The choices you checked indicate which shows

you would prefer to watch. This is selective
exposure, the process of selecting what
messages you would like to listen to or watch or
read. As communi-cators, we need to design
messages that our audiences will choose to listen
to, watch, or read.
As for selective perception—well, we perceive

some things and do not perceive others. Why?
Berlo (1960) explains that we make judgments
about the things we perceive and then structure
our per-ceptions to fit those judgments.
Experiences and values affect our judgments—
and our perceptions.
As communicators, we should understand how

our receiver’s per-ception of who we are and
what our message is can affect his/her perception
of our message. This is where credibility comes
in. A message is more likely to be understood and
accepted if the re-ceiver perceives the source as
credible. Who do we perceive as cred-ible?
We perceive as credible those with experience or

expertise in the topic he or she is discussing. We
perceive as credible those who are literally
dressed for the part. We perceive as credible
those whose opinions and attitudes are similar to
ours. Effective communicators are those
perceived by their audiences to be credible
sources of information.
What do we remember about people or events?

And why? Selec-tive retention means that there
are things we remember and things we don’t.
Thus, as communicators, we must design
messages in such a way that our audience
remembers them.
In a lifetime, we hear thousands of words of

wisdom but we select only a few by which to live
our lives.
Social Mobilization
Social mobilization or socmob is the process of

bringing together all feasible and practical inter-
sectoral social allies to raise people’s demand for
a particular development program, to assist in
the de-livery of resources and services and to
strengthen community par-ticipation for
sustainability and self-reliance (McKee, 1992). In
other words, it is the act of rallying together as
many social sectors— government leaders, civil
society, and business sector— to own and support
a certain development program.
Social mobilization has six elements: advocacy;

information, edu-cation, and communication or
IEC; community organizing; capac-ity
development; networking and alliance building;
and monitoring and evaluation.
Advocacy is the organization of information into

arguments used to persuade or convince a
specific group of people to take neces-sary action
on a specific goal. It involves pleading, defending,
rec-ommending, and supporting a policy.
Advocacy targets include na-tional and local
leaders, policymakers, and decision-makers
Information, education, and communication

strategies and tac-tics are employed in social
mobilization to generate a knowledge-able and
supportive environment for decision-making. This
includes the allocation of adequate resources to
inform and engage various stakeholders through
multiple communication channels. The aim of IEC is
to change knowledge, attitudes, opinions, and
values.
Community organizing involves building the

community’s capa-bility for problem solving,
decision-making and collective action. Community
organizing serves as catalyst for the neighborhood
to initiate action. This approach believes that
improvements in ser-vices can be achieved if people
participate in their delivery.
Harnessing the community’s potential,

particularly in sustaining it-self is capacity
development. This includes training to improve
people’s knowledge, attitudes, values, and skills.

This element in the social mobilization process
develops competencies in dealing with their
networks, resource sharing, problem solving, and
collective action.
Through networking and alliance building, we

bring together those who have similar interests
and programs. These include what the Asian
Institute of Management refers to as the four
pillars of gov-ernance: local government units
(LGUs); nongovernment organi-zations (NGOs);
business sector; and civil society (schools, media,
religious, and socio-civic organizations).
Monitoring and evaluation seeks to determine

the effectiveness of the program as well as to
improve its efficiency. It identifies weak spots of
the program, thereby enables making necessary
ad-justments. M&E determines the impact and
allows assessment of how much of the defined
goals have been met.
The Net
The Internet is the sum total of all connected

computers around the world. Some describe it as a
community of cooperation that circles the globe,
spanning political spectrum, and goes up and down
the economic ladder. Others choose to define it as a
set of agree-ments between administrators and
users of a bunch of indepen-dent computers hooked
up to shared or linked computer resources.
Several metaphors have been used to describe

the Net. It has been called: a living network; an
ecosystem of computers; and a world brain of
Pentium-powered neurons.
We should distinguish between the Internet and
the World Wide Web. The latter is the collective
name for all computer files: acces-sible on the
Internet; electronically linked together
(expressed through HTML or Hypertext Markup
Language); viewed, experi-enced or retrieved
with the use of a browser.
Every three seconds, 15 Webpages are uploaded.

In 2003, an esti-mated 50 million Web sites can
be accessed in the World Wide Web.
The Net’s Downside
In today’s world dominated by computers and

information tech-nology, access to information
seems a moot point to discuss. And yet, precisely
because access to information is so easy, it
becomes an issue that should concern us all.
All of us are online. Our big tri-media outfits are

online. We have access to the World Wide Web at
the touch of a finger— and the world has access
to us.
Yet, uncontrolled access raises issues such as:

control over Internet content and the digital
divide.
Control over Internet Content
The Internet has been around since the 1950s but

it only went pub-lic in the 1980s. Since then, the
number of users has grown to en-compass billions
all over the world.
The information one gets over the Net can be

very helpful and entertaining. For example, I
subscribe to several services that send me news
articles on topics of my choice. I also subscribe to
ser-vices that inform me when something I am
interested in is pub-lished the Net. All one has to
do then is access the website—and the material
can be downloaded and linked to other related
materi-als.
However, as a user, I am aware that the Net also
contains some very disturbing elements. Sites
catering to pornography and terror-ism are just a
mouse click away. The majority of Net surfers are
teenagers who can be easily corrupted. Should
the Net be censored? How can this be possible?
The Digital Divide
I stand corrected. Not everyone is online. In fact,

the poor, who make up the majority of the
population, have little or no access to the World
Wide Web. Hence, they are deprived of
opportunities to improve their lives.
The so-called Digital Divide is the gap between the

information rich and the information poor. From
1983 to 86, I conducted a study on this widening
gap and analyzed its implications on the
agricultural sector. One significant finding of that
study is that the information rich gets richer while
the information poor gets poorer.
The world has been made conscious of the Digital

Divide when this formed part of the agenda of the
July 2000 G10 Summit in Okinawa. During this
summit, the 10 richest nations in the world
resolved to bridge the ever-widening digital
divide.
References
Brand, S. (1987). The media lab: Inventing the future at MIT. New
York:
Viking Press.
De Fleur, M.L. and Ball-Rokeach, S. (1982).
Theories of mass commu-nication (Fourth
Edition). New York: Longman.
Flor, A.G. (1998). The Philippine Communication
Scene. The Asian Communication Handbook. A.
Goonasekara and D. Holiday, Edi-tors.
Singapore: Asian Media Information and
Communication Center and the Nanyang
Technological University.
Flor, A.G. and Matulac, L.A. (1994). Cultural
dimensions of environ-mental IEC. Los Baños:
Dalhousie University and UPLB, CIDA.
Flor, B.G. (1989). Media dependency during
crises situations. Unpublished MSDC Thesis,
Los Baños: University of the Philippines
Gradu-ate School.
Index on Censorship, 1997-99. All Issues, Volumes 32 to 28.
London:
Writers and Scholars International, Ltd.
Ito, Y. and Kochevar, J.J. (1983). Factors accounting

for the flow of international communication. KEIO
Communication Review No. 4.
Jones, L.Y. (1980). Great expectations. New York: Ballantine
Books.
Kelly, K. (1988). Signal: Communication tools for the
information age. New
York: The Point Foundation and Harmony Books.
McKee, N. (1992). Social mobilization and social
marketing in devel-oping communities.
Penang: Southbound Press.
Millennium Whole Earth Catalogue, 1995. New
York: The Point Foun-dation.
Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital, New York:
Alfred P. Knofp. Rivers, W.L., Schramm, W. and
Christians, C.G. (1980). Responsibility
in mass communication. New York: Harper and Row.
Yoshizoe, Y. (1988). An economic interpretation of
‘Information flow census’ data. KEIO
Communication Review No. 9.
Unit III
Chapter 9
DEFINITIONS
U nit III will acquaint you with the concept and

practice of deve-lopment communication. Some of us
in the academe have spent the best years of our lives
growing with the discipline. We hope that Unit III is
where your love story with dev com begins. We expect
every love story to have a happy ending, so let this
chap-ter be your guide in seeing to it that your
relationship with this
discipline will proceed meaningfully, if not blissfully.
Objectives

1. Explain the concept of development
communication in your own words;
2. Discuss the uniqueness and similarity of
dev com with other allied fields; and
3. Relate how development communication
started as a field of study.
Quebral Definition
What is development communication?
Quebral (1971) defines development

communication as “the art and science of human
communication applied to the speedy transforma-
tion 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.”
Let me explain each italicized word/phrase to

better understand how Quebral defines dev com.
Art
Dev com requires creativity in communicating

messages through the use of various
communication media and materials; the aes-
thetic aspect is an important consideration in
communication be-cause first you have to gain
the attraction and attention of your learner or
your audience before he or she decides to read or
listen to your message.
Practicing the art of human communication not only

entails the aesthetic designing and presentation of
messages or what we call the “hard” or “concrete”
art. It is also being creative in the practice of the
field such as in conducting interviews (you phrase
questions in a manner by which you can get the
information you want form your source) or in doing
other challenging tasks in development which
require a lot of creativity in human communication
(such as causing behavioral change among groups
who are slow to accept-ing or adopting change in
their lives.)
Science
Development communication is a social science.
Like other social science fields, it uses the scientific
method to enrich its own field through research
where theories and principles can be derived and
Unit III Chapter 9 131
applied to development problems. Furthermore,

it applies system-atic methods in making
decisions and planning how to effectively carry
out communication interventions.
When using communication as an intervention in

waste manage-ment in a community, the scientific
method is observed.
Identify the basic problem Is it a matter of educating the
(problem identification) households or the garbage
collectors?
Gather data about the What is the knowledge level
problem (data gathering) of the community or of the
garbage collectors in waste
management? Do they know
and practice waste segregation?
(survey)
Develop and test materials, Will people be more conscious
methods or new communica- of waste management or do I
tion processes (hypothesis need to try another approach?
formulation)
Human Communication
Development communication is human

communication whether it utilizes interpersonal
channels or mass media or whether it is prac-
ticed at various levels: individual, group,
organizational, international, national, provincial,
sectoral, program, or at the grassroots. The key
players in dev com are people. The field itself is
more about people than technology. Perhaps this
is one very distinct feature of dev com when
compared with other communication sciences. It
is people-centered.
Speedy Transformation
Dev com acts as a catalyst for social change. The
word “catalyst” is a borrowed term from chemistry,
which refers to a substance that
increases the rate of a chemical reaction.

Development communi-cation will accomplish in a
shorter time what normally will take years to
accomplish.
Take the case of locust infestation in Northern

Luzon. If the dev com practitioner does not enter
into the picture and research on locust remains
inside the laboratories or libraries, then the
problem will remain unsolved for years. But, with
the dev com person who thinks of effective ways
of disseminating information on locust control
and mobilizes the community in combating the
pest, then the problem will most likely be solved.
As a student of development communication,

prepare to become a catalyst for change.
People
Development communication entails motivating

individuals and groups of people such as farmers,
fisherfolk, workers, housewives, and the youth to
change their habits, their lifestyles, their way of
thinking, their way of doing things. When we
target changing people, we intend to change
them in the three domains discussed in Chap-ter
6: cognitive (knowledge), affective (attitude), and
psychomotor (practice).
For instance, if we want people to stop throwing

solid waste into Laguna de Bay, we should also aim
to change their attitudes, we aim to instill in them
values that have a positive regard for the environ-
ment. Likewise, we should also educate them why it
is not good to throw garbage in bodies of water. All
these three learning domains must be considered if
we are to design a communication program or an
information campaign targeting the lake
community.
Likewise, we do not only target the beneficiaries
or end users of development programs. We
likewise interact and coordinate with people from
the higher echelons of government and the
private
sector. Why do we need to? Because they make the

decisions for the people and they fund the
development projects. As Quebral (1975) puts it,
“We need to influence their ideas and thoughts.
They can, like the end users of development
projects, be as resistant to change and as
traditional in their ways of thinking. The dev com
practitioner must also win over this group of
people.”
Poverty
This is the greatest challenge facing development

communication practitioners.
You learned in the beginning chapters that

poverty is related to malnutrition, unemployment,
illiteracy, overpopulation. Landless farmers,
uninformed mothers, or uneducated laborers
manifest poverty. By virtue of their need and
number, they and their families are the targets of
development communication.
As development communication practitioners, it is

not enough that we know how the poor are or who
our targets should be. We should also know where
they are and what are their characteristics. Michael
Todaro (1977) in his book Economic Development
in the Third World said that the poor are
disproportionately located in the rural areas and
they are primarily engaged in agricultural and
associated activi-ties. About two-thirds of the very
poor scratch out their livelihood from subsistence
agriculture either as small farmers or low-paid farm
workers. The remaining one-third is located partly
in the rural areas and in the marginal areas of
urban centers. These urban poor engage in various
forms of self-employment such as street-hawk-ing,
trading, etc.
Todaro concludes his discussion on poverty by
stating that if in-deed the poorest can be found in
the rural areas, policies designed to alleviate
poverty must be directed to rural development in
gen-eral and to agricultural developments in
particular.
Dynamic State of Economic Growth, Greater Social

Equality, and the Larger Fulfillment of the Human
Potential
The goals that dev com endeavors to fulfill for the

nation, any na-tion, are three: a dynamic state of
economic growth, greater social equality, and the
larger fulfillment of the human potential. Con-
sider that Quebral set these goals more than 30
years ago. These are pretty much related to what
development planners now refer to as the triple
bottom line: economic goals, social goals, and
environ-mental goals.
These are the three goals of sustainable development.
Why do we describe development as dynamic? It

is because deve-lopment is a continuous process.
Why do we aim for greater social development? It

is because the gap between the rich and the poor
is becoming wider and wider. We need to narrow
this widening gap.
As to the “fulfillment of the human potential,”

remember our dis-cussion on the Second
Development Decade in Chapter 3, where we
quoted Dudley Seers who credited Mahatma
Gandhi for this phrase? We agree with Gandhi that
human societies, like human beings, are constantly
evolving towards perfection. Achieving this desired
state should never be hampered by man himself. At
the individual level, we should make people realize
and be conscious of their potentials and
capabilities. At the societal level, we should
contribute to the achievement of that “desired
state.”
What Dev Com is Not

Quebral (1988) further elucidates that
development communica-tion is:
1. not publicity per se, or getting the

maximum media expo-sure for someone or
something for image-building. The
dev com practitioner uses the same media that a

publicist does but the difference lies in the purpose
why the dev com uses these media. The dev com
practitioner uses these media to stimu-late public
awareness and understanding of planned change.
2. not mass communication alone. Dev com

uses any available channel that will achieve its
goals. These channels could be meetings with
barangay constituents, a demonstration plot, a
course curriculum, a song or stage play.
3. more than a slideset, a leaflet, or a

seminar. Dev com is an approach or a point of
view that sizes up a problem of the people and
of overcoming barriers in reaching them.
4. not source-oriented but is audience-

oriented. The end-use of the information we
communicate is the top priority and guides us in
making decisions on how best to communicate.
It is not the boss that matters but the receivers
of the informa-tion. Dev com is thinking of ways
of how to make people un-derstand and use
information to improve their lives.
5. not only an exercise of profession but is a

commitment to social goals. The dev com
practitioner is more than a worker. He is a
social worker with a sense of mission to
mankind, his country, and the ideals of
development.
Lent’s Perspective
The preceding discussion was based on Quebral’s

view, that of an insider. In the following
paragraphs, we will see how an external
observer, John Lent (1977), a Western media
observer and journal-ism professor, talks about
development communication and how it can
impinge on press freedom and be synonymous
with govern-ment control of media in the Third
World.
Lent observes that development communication has

been used as a major government tool in numerous
developing countries. Third
world governments realized that if media should

be used in plan-ning and implementing national
development strategies then they had to control
media. This realization causes two value systems
to clash head on: one, should dev com be used as
watchdog of gov-ernment, meaning the press
hounding government and supervising the public
good or should dev com be used as a lapdog by
govern-ment, meaning the press defers to
authority and becomes a na-tional development
tool. He cites Asian and African nations where
government takes newspapers and other media
as government prop-erties and scrutinizes and
screens all foreign and domestic news. In China,
the media were used to promote national
ideological cam-paigns.
At the global level, Lent observed that development

communica-tion is indeed at work, although in a
different way. At a 1971 UNESCO meeting in Paris,
there was a proposal to organize a na-tional
communication policy council made of opinion
leaders in each country unit. UNESCO envisioned
these units to systematize national communication
planning that will eventually promote planned
education and social change. UNESCO will serve as
a co-ordinating neutral agent at the planning and
research levels. The proposal was severely
criticized by international advocates of press
freedom. These advocates were one in saying that
UNESCO in-duced governments to tighten media
control. The formation of these communication-
planning units were tested in Latin America. Yet,
still the new system was hit left and right after
findings of the tests were disclosed. It remains
unresolved up to now.
Cybernatic Definition
A more recent definition of dev com (Flor 1992),
somewhat devi-ates from that of Quebral
conceptually. This definition borrows extensively
from systems thinking and may be referred to as
the social cybernetics definition of development
communication.
In Chapter 8, we discussed the branch of systems

theory that re-lated directly to communication,
cybernetics. We also said that its
founder, Norbert Weiner, primarily considered

cybernetics to be a human science rather than a
technical field. However, with the pro-liferation of
cybernetic inventions such as the smart bomb and
the cruise missiles, scientists find it convenient to
differentiate cyber-netic engineering and social
cybernetics, the latter referring to the study of
directional behavior of social systems.
Personally, I submit that as a grand theory,

development communi-cation finds its best
rationale in social cybernetics. Essentially, dev com
may be described as communication that prevents
or corrects deviation from the prescribed social
path. Ordinarily, as in the case of development
support communication, communication is rel-
egated a supportive role in the development
process. In dev com, communication takes a central
role in development.
Ideal or End States
A society is the most complicated social system. As

a system made up of living beings, it is considered a
living system. And like all living systems it should
have a desired goal or state, a purpose that
determines its reason for being. This end state may
be described as total development, or one that
allows “the larger fulfillment of the human
potential” or the full achievement of the triple
bottom line. It may also be a running target that
leads a social system to higher and higher
evolutional states, a constant movement towards
“per-fection.” Arriving at this desired state (or
moving towards it) at the earliest or fastest possible
time necessitates movement along a pre-scribed
path, the shortest one available towards the goal.
Dev Com as Negentropic

As the second law of thermodynamics dictates, all
systems, includ-ing societies, are susceptible to
entropy—the tendency to go into a state of lesser
organization. Hence the social system deviates from
the desired path because of entropy. As in all
systems, entropy can only be countered with
information. As mentioned earlier, the sci-
ence of cybernetics is all about the application of

information to negate entropy. The process of
obtaining, delivering, or exchang-ing this
information - the movement of this information—
is deve-lopment communication at the societal
level.
In systems jargon, social cybernetics assumes

that social systems are organisms. Organisms by
nature are purposive or goal-oriented systems.
Entropy is a tendency in all systems. Information
is negentropy. Negentropic initiatives within
social systems may be referred to as development
communication.
Ideal state or
End state
deviation caused
by entropy desired path
System X
actual path
Figure 9-1. Societal movement towards ideal state
It is quite appropriate that the word development

originated from biology as applied to organisms,
since cybernetics and systems theory are more
appropriately applied to living systems.
One dimension that has been neglected thus far

is the fact that a desired goal changes in space
and time. Negentropic initiatives should always
be considerate of these changes. It is like playing
Chinese baseball where the bases change
locations every time the ball is in flight.
Convergence and Cybernetics
One could take this argument further by

superimposing Kincaid’s Convergence Theory.
Personally, I tend to adhere to Kincaid’s view that
the purpose of the communication process is
mutual under-standing, where the two midpoints
converge. Communication per se would have this
phenomenon anywhere in an x-y plane. How-ever,
in the case of development communication, there
is a point of reference and that is the nearest
point within the prescribed path, taking well into
consideration the velocity and the direction of
movement.
For instance, point D is within the desired path.

Point A represents Individual A’s understanding
midpoint of appropriate action. Point B
represents Individual B’s understanding midpoint
of appropriate action. A communication situation
between Individuals A and B that lead to
converging midpoints A and B and decreases
their re-spective distances between D may be
regarded as development com-munication.
state
Ideal
convergence
desired path
A B
D
Figure 9-2. Convergence superimposed

The Values of Development Communication
There are three major values that guide the

practice of develop-ment communication:
One, it is purposive.
Two, it is pragmatic.
Three, it is value-laden.
Dev com is purposive communication. We

communicate not only to inform but also to
influence the behavior of the receiver of
information. We have a desired outcome in mind,
targets, specific goals, and objectives—to
decrease use of pesticides in growing rice and
vegetables, to stop smoking in public areas, to
improve the teaching skills of elementary science
teachers.
Dev com is pragmatic. To be pragmatic means

being results-ori-ented. We evaluate if we indeed
made an impact, if we accom-plished our purpose.
Being pragmatic also means we check out the
factors that contributed to the success or failure of
a communica-tion program. It is asking yourself,
“Did I achieve my objectives?” “What factors led to
the attainment of my objectives?”
Dev com is value-laden. Information sources,

consciously or un-consciously, assign values to
every message they communicate. Back in the
1970s, the government promoted the use of
pesticides as part of the green revolution program.
When this message was com-municated to farmers,
unconsciously government also communi-cated the
high positive value it attached to pesticide use and
other agricultural inputs. However, values attached
to messages change over time. Now, it is the
Integrated Pest Management program that the
government is promoting. Although the program
does not dis-regard chemical control methods, the
government as an informa-tion source also
communicates that it is assigning a negative value
to unsafe pesticide use.
Basically, in development communication, we

assume that there is an attached value in every
message that one communicates (Jamias,
1975). Development is in itself a value-laden

word. It is not a neu-tral word (Quebral, 1988).
People assume certain biases on how
development can be achieved.
At the present time, dev com is promoting four

requisite values to make Philippine development
a reality. These values are termed as the four Es
of dev com. These are: empowerment,
environmental-ism, entrepreneurship, and equity.
These values will be elaborated on further in Chapter 11.
Dev Com and other Allied Fields
As you may have gleaned by now, dev com is

different from other communication fields
although it draws strength from the principles of
these older disciplines. We may call mass
communication or com-munication arts as cousins
of development communication in the
communication family tree.
Aside from these communication fields, dev com is

also a close relative of agricultural journalism,
agricultural extension, education, and basic social
sciences like sociology, psychology and economics.
Mass Communication
Mass communication and development

communication are branches of communication
science yet their basic difference lies with their
orientations. Mass com is media-centric and
source-oriented while dev com is message-centric
and receiver-oriented. The latter orien-tation best
serves the so-called triple bottom line. Needless
to say, development communication does not limit
itself to the use of mass media.
The media-centric orientation of mass com is
evident in mass com-munication education. A.B.
Mass Communication majors are gene-
rally categorized under the print, broadcast, and

audio-visual trichotomy. Not so in dev com
programs. This will be further dis-cussed in the
following chapter.
In contrast to mass com which has for its

audience large groups of people or the general
public, dev com audiences are commonly groups,
communities or sectors, although they vary from
the lowly fisherman to the highest policymaking
body of the land. We can say that dev com
audiences are more specific, mass com audiences
are broader.
Communication Arts
The similarity of communication arts and

development communi-cation could be found in the
means by which each communication field uses art
forms such as puppetry or theater. However, the
aim and the focus of each of these communication
fields set them apart.
Communication arts aim to acculturate man. On

the other hand, dev com educates man. Dev com
aims to teach the poor to im-prove his life by, first
and foremost, knowing how to provide for himself
and his family the basic needs. If you are familiar
with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, dev com aims
to help man fulfill the very base of the hierarchy
whereas com arts aims for the higher needs of
man in the hierarchy.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

5th: Self-actualization and fulfillment
4th: Esteem and status Higher order

3rd: Belonging and social needs
2nd: Safety and security
1st: Basic physical needs Lower order
Advertising
The similarity of advertising and dev com is their

purpose—to in-form and persuade. Advertising
techniques such as audience analy-sis, audience
segmentation, and budgeting are widely adopted
and used by dev com practitioners in
communication program plan-ning. However,
instead of advertising, we call it social marketing.
Their difference: in advertising, a one-way goal is

evident—to per-suade the consumer to buy a
product or adopt an idea. Dev com presents several
alternatives and tries to point the way for the re-
ceiver of the information to make a decision, many
ways—one goal. For instance, in family planning,
the approach of advertising is to promote the use of
a certain brand of condom. The approach of dev
com will be to present the pros and cons of family
planning and the methods couples can use to
control the number of chil-dren they may have.
Through the various information presented, the
individual is encouraged to make a decision.
Agricultural Extension
The shared goal of agricultural extension and

development com-munication is economic
development. The uniqueness of each field lies in
the following:
1. Agricultural extension was initiated and

practiced in the West while development
communication grew in the Third World
setting. In other words, dev com is home
grown.
2. Agricultural extension limits itself to the delivery

of agricul-tural information whereas in dev com,
agriculture is only one of its several concerns.
Other concerns are health, population, economy,
nutrition, forestry, and even the environment.
Table 9.1. Development communication

Similarities Differences
Mass Branches of commu- Mass com is media-centric,

communication nication science source-oriented and has a
broader audience.
Dev com can use any avail-
able media so long as the
development purpose is
served and it has a more
specific audience
groups.
Communication Communication Com arts acculturates man,
arts media used fulfills higher order needs.
Dev com teaches man how to
fulfill his basic needs
Advertising Purpose is to inform Advertising has a one-way
and to persuade goal: to persuade the
customer to buy a product.
Dev com offers several op-
tions to encourage the indi-
vidual to make own
decision.
Agricultural Shared goal for Ag ext was born in the West.
extension agricultural develop- Its concern is limited to
ment to take place agriculture
Dev com was born in the
Third World and agricul-
ture is only one of its
concerns
A Historical Perspective
How did development communication begin?
The idea of communication as a support to

development came from Erskine Childers back in
the 1960s. Childers was then the director of the
UNDP Development Support Service in Bangkok.
He espoused the methodology of communication
appraisal, plan-
ning, production, and evaluation for selected

developing country projects supported by the
United Nation’s Development Program and the
UNICEF.
Childers’ idea of development support

communication was pur-sued in the 1970s by
Nora C. Quebral who was then Chair of the
Department of Agricultural Communications,
University of the Philippines College of
Agriculture. Her seminal paper, “Develop-ment
Communication in the Agricultural Context” was
presented in the symposium titled, “In Search of
Breakthroughs in Agricul-tural Development.”
Basically, we can infer that dev com in the

Philippines grew out of agricultural communication.
The political environment in which dev com was
born was the Martial Law years, where agricultural
devel-opment was considered as a priority thrust to
stem rural unrest. However, there were other
development concerns that needed at-tention such
as the ballooning population, the economy, and re-
forming agrarian structures. The small teaching
staff of agricul-tural communications in Los Baños
realized this and expanded their coverage. They
used a bigger umbrella, which can accommodate
more concerns related to the development of the
country.
The concept of dev com is still evolving as long as

the develop-ment process continues. Development
as a process is as dynamic as ever. The changes
happening in our time are so fast and dev com must
keep up with these changes. Some of these
concerns are found in the immediate environment
of dev com: globalization facilitated by GATT-WTO
or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,
World Trade Organization (economic environment);
decentraliza-tion and local autonomy (political
environment); social protection (social
environment); and ethnic conflicts (cultural
environment).
The history of development communication can also

be discussed in terms of its institutional history—
how the College of Develop-ment Communication
began in Los Baños. The University of the
Philippines Los Baños pioneered in the field of
development com-
munication by offering the first graduate and

undergraduate cur-ricular programs in dev com
in the entire world. It was here where the term
development communication was coined.
CDC began as the Office of Extension and

Publications of the UP College of Agriculture in
1954. This office was created to dissemi-nate
information useful in improving farming and
homemaking practices and to inform the public
about the results of research being done by Los
Baños scientists. After almost a decade, in 1962, it
was converted into the Department of Agricultural
Information and Communications under CA and its
first curricular offering was the Bachelor of Science
in Agricultural Communications. In 1965, a
master’s degree program in agricultural
communications was of-fered. In 1968, the
department was renamed into the Department of
Agricultural Communications. Five years later, in
1973, the master’s program was reconstituted into
a Development Commu-nication program. A year
after, the undergraduate curriculum in development
communication was instituted. The following year,
the Department of Development Communication
was born. In 1977, the doctoral program was
offered. The department grew into an Institute in
1987 and was elevated into a College of Develop-
ment Communication in 1998.
Summary
Quebral defines development communication as

the art and sci-ence of human communication
applied to the speedy transforma-tion of a
country and the mass of its people from poverty
to a dynamic state of economic growth that
makes possible greater so-cial equality and the
larger fulfillment of the human potential. Lent
contends that dev com can both be a watchdog or
a lapdog of the government. From the
cybernetics perspective, however, develop-ment
communication is essential to society because it
negates soci-etal entropy.
The late UPLB Chancellor Abelardo G. Samonte

(1974) used only five words to describe dev com
and to differentiate it from other communication
fields. He said development communication is
“communication with a social conscience.”
References
Flor, A.G. (1992). Upstream—Downstream

interventions of development communication.
IDC Faculty Papers.
Jamias, J. (1975). Philosophy of development
communication. Read-ings in Development
Communication.
Lent, J. (1977). Development communication: Watch
dog or lap dog? In Development Communication
Report. Issue No. 19, Jul7 1977.
Quebral, N.C. (1988). Is it government or people
communication? In Development
Communication. College of Agriculture, UP
Los Baños.
_____________. (1988). Development
communication: Status and trends in
development communication. College of
Agriculture, UP Los Baños.
Samonte, A.G. (1974). A University’s response to
the challenges of develop-ment. Inaugural
Address on His Investiture as the First Chan-
cellor of UP Los Baños.
Todaro, M.P. (1977). Economic development in
the third world: An intro-duction to problems
and policies in a global perspective. London:
Longman, Inc.
Chapter 10
FOUNDATIONS
S hould development communication be afforded the

status of an academic discipline? Has it contributed to
the existing body of scientific knowledge? Has it offered
a unique perspective, phi-
losophy, or paradigm? Critics of development
communication do not think so.
Many of us engaged in the teaching and practice

of this craft, how-ever, know better. We are aware
that we do things differently, that we think
differently, that our students are taught
differently from their com arts or mass com
counterparts. One practical example is how we
place more emphasis on appropriate low-cost
communica-tion technology. Another is how social
considerations outweigh artis-tic merit in our
media productions.
This chapter attempts to lay down the

philosophical and theoretical foundations of
development communication.
Objectives

able to articulate these philosophical and
theoretical foundations.
Some of us often encounter situations wherein we

are forced to defend the legitimacy of our
discipline. We are confronted with questions on
its nature (i.e., “Is this an old product with a new
package?”); on its true intent (i.e., “Is it simply a
euphemism for propaganda?”); and on its
theoretical soundness (a former visiting professor
of the UPLB College of Development
Communication authored a doctoral dissertation
with the title “Development jour-nalism: the
fragile theory and the acquiescent practice in the
Philip-pines”).
Development communication is a relatively young

science and, as such, will have to undergo its own
baptism of fire like all other academic disciplines.
However, both its critics and expo-nents should
note that its claim to legitimacy begins with the
assumption that previously developed models of
mass communication are not ex-actly appropriate to
Third World conditions and social realities.
This chapter argues not just for the legitimacy of

development com-munication but also for its
potential of becoming a unique and separate
paradigm in the social sciences. For purposes of
expedi-ency and contrast, we will take off from
Siebert’s “Four Theories” typology.
The Four Theories of the Press

Students of communication are familiar with
Siebert et al.’s Four Theories of the Press.
However, it is essential to review some of its
features.
Siebert et al. outlines four basic rationales for the

mass media: the Authoritarian Theory, the
Libertarian Theory, the Social Res-ponsibility
Theory, and the Soviet-Totalitarian Theory.
Techni-cally speaking, these are not theories but
“types” in a typology of press systems, duly
noting that typologies are regarded as legitimate
ventures into theory construction.
The earliest press system follows the

Authoritarian model. Of this, Rivers and
Schramm (1969) write:
Modern communication was born in 1450

into an authori-tarian society. The essential
characteristic of an authoritar-ian society is
that the state ranks higher than the
individual in the scale of social values. Only
through subordinating himself to the state
can the individual achieve his goals and
develop his attributes as a civilized man. As
an individual, he can do little; as a member
of an organized society, his potential is
enormously increased. This means not only
that the state ranks higher than the
individual, but also that the state has a
caretaker function and the individual a
depen-dent status.
The press belonged to the office of the king or the

emperor or the Pope and, in some cases, to
private individuals who favored and were favored
by royalty and authority. The press was the
servant of the state.
The Libertarian Theory, on the other hand, is the

exact anti-the-sis of the Authoritarian Theory. The
press is no longer seen as an instrument of the
government but as a watchdog, a mechanism
through which people may check on government.
Man is no longer conceived of as a dependent being
to be led and directed, but rather as a rational
being able to discern between truth and falsehood,
between a better and worse alternative, when faced
with conflicting evidence and alternative choices.
Truth is no longer conceived of as the property of
power. Rather, the right to search for truth is one of
the inalienable natural rights of man...(Siebert et
al., 1956).
Furthermore, the Libertarian Theory espouses

the total freedom of the press from government
control and influence. All ideas are to be given a
fair hearing. The press becomes a “free market
place” of ideas and information.
The Social Responsibility Theory is a

modification of the Liber-tarian Theory taken in
the context of 20th century conditions, par-
ticularly the impact of the communication
revolution. It may be summarized as follows:
...the power and near monopoly position of

the media im-pose on them an obligation to
be socially responsible, to see that all sides
are fairly presented and that the public has
enough information to decide; and that if
the media do not take on themselves such
re-sponsibility, it may be necessary for
some other agency of the public to enforce
it. (Ibid, p.3)
Lastly, the Soviet Totalitarian Theory is a

development of the Authoritarian Theory with
some peculiar features of its own. Siebert et al.
describe it as:
...a tool of the ruling power just as clearly as

did the older authoritarianism. Unlike the
older pattern, it is state rather than privately
owned. The profit motive has been removed,
and a concept of positive has been
substituted for a con-cept of negative liberty...
The American press is not truly free, the
Soviets say, because it is business controlled
and therefore not free to speak the Marxists
“truth.” (Ibid, p.5)
Siebert et al. presented a matrix to differentiate

the distinguishing characteristics of each
category under the typology.
One may question the wisdom of using the above
typology as a take off point for development
communication theory. After all the typology is
almost 40 years old. Neither is it among the more
avant garde theories of communication granting
that it may be called a theory at all. These
observations, however, are beside the point.
The primary thesis of the “Four Theories” model

is that the press “always takes the form and
coloration of the social and political structures
within which it operates.” Ogan (1982) correctly
identi-fies this as the basic assumption for a “fifth
theory.” Moving a step further, we could even
argue that such press systems were in fact
needed to achieve the goals of the given society.
It may be noted that Siebert et al.’s typology
covers the major types of social and political
structures analyzed by historians and political
scientists during their time. Less than a decade
after the publication of their work, however,
another type of social structure began to emerge,
one that would hardly escape notice if only for its
pervasiveness. This was the developing society,
the predominant social genre in post-colonial
Asia, Latin America, and Africa. It is in the
context of this particular society and its global
environment that a “fifth theory” finds its
application.
The Fifth Theory of the Press
One may argue with little reservation that

development communi-cation is the Fifth Theory of
the Press. It is the appropriate system given “the
social and political structures” of the developing
world and its current global environment.
Compared with the other four, development
communication would stand out distinctly as a sepa-
rate type in the Siebert typology. Although we
observe that it shares features with and, perhaps,
may have developed from both the So-cial
Responsibility and Soviet Totalitarian theories, we
argue that it has its own unique premises,
philosophy, and perspective.
A fifth column may be added to the Siebert matrix

with the follow-ing entries:
Development Communication
Developed:
• In the Third World
• In United Nations food and agriculture
programs, Latin Ameri-can educational
campaigns as well as international population
programs
• In church outreach programs and government

community de-velopment projects
• As an academic program of the University of
the Philippines – College of Agriculture
Out of:
• The philosophy of Gandhi (the full realization
of man’s poten-tial)
• The writings of Seers, Lasswell, Lerner, Freire,
Schramm, and Quebral
Chief purpose:
• Social transformation and development
• The fulfillment of basic needs
Who has the right to use media:

• Government agencies, non-government
organizations (NGOs), religious orders,
grassroots organizations, state colleges and
uni-versities
• The audience themselves: farmers, rural
women, out-of-school youth, the urban poor,
illiterates, etc.
How media are controlled:

• Social priorities and realities
What are forbidden:

• Monopolies
• Government propaganda
• Manipulative advertising
• Immorality/obscenity, Inanities (messages that
serve no posi-tive social purpose)
Ownership:
• Development agencies
• Communities
Essential differences from others:

• Although it is non-profit, ownership is not
limited to the gov-ernment sector
• Although it may not be controlled by the state,
it is purposively employed for social
transformation
Dialectical Superiority
We may deduce from the standard “Four Theories”

model that the relationships between the different
types are dialectical. From an authoritarian thesis
there developed a libertarian anti-thesis. The
synthesis of these two resulted in the Soviet
totalitarian model dur-ing the early years of the
twentieth century. The label “Soviet to-talitarian,”
however, is quite loaded with connotations
reminiscent of the Cold War Era when this typology
was formulated. We could profit from Lowenstein’s
example of calling the Soviet totalitarian system as
the “social centralist” system instead. Transformed
into
a thesis itself, the social centralist rationale
developed an anti-thesis in the form of the social
responsibility theory of post-war United States.
Granting that the social centralist model is the
thesis and that the social responsibility theory is
the anti-thesis, there ought to be a new synthesis.
This synthesis may be found in development
communication.
Hence, the proposition may be forwarded that

development com-munication is the synthesis of the
social centralist and the social responsibility
theories. Dev com combines the positive aspects
and negates the negative features of both. Thus, it
is dialectically supe-rior to the earlier ones. In fact,
dev com even transcends the as-sumptions
underlying the “Four Theories” model.
Cultural Foundations
The standard “Four Theories” model addresses

the relation-ship of Man to the State.
Development communication addresses the
relationship of Man to his entire Environment. In

fact, the sound-ness of this theory may be traced
to its profound appreciation of the role of
communication in all walks of life.
One may glean from the wisdom of traditional

cultures that devel-opment communication is
what communication at all levels (whether it be
interpersonal, group, media, societal,
intercultural) ought to be.
Consider the following quotations:
A person with good sense holds his tongue.

– Proverbs 11:12
Gentle words cause life and health.

– Proverbs 15:4
Ang bibig na tikom, ligtas sa linggatong.

– Tagalog saying
However sharp the knife, sharper yet is the human tongue.

– Malay saying
These proverbs and sayings apparently put social

and individual well-being above freedom of
expression, thus contradicting the Libertarians.
Most ancient traditions share the same belief that
man is the only creature blessed by nature with
the facility or power to communicate through the
spoken or written word. Hence this power carries
with it great responsibility. It should be used with
utmost discretion, benevolence, and purpose.
In India, for instance, one cardinal moral tenet is

that of satya or benevolent truthfulness. It
disallows the use of expression for the detriment
of others. In fact, speech is so highly regarded
that spiri-tual discipline includes the practice of
mauna brata or silence. Inter-estingly enough,
Christian monks such as the Trappists have
adopted this practice to this day.
The Libertarian arguments may be traced to the

ancient Greeks, particularly to Socrates.
However, their tradition likewise had cer-tain
guidelines on communication. The Sophists
declare, “There is no wisdom like silence.” Even
the most zealous of Libertarian ad-vocates during
the 18th century believed that communication
should be developmental and purposive.
Benjamin Franklin listed Silence as the second of
his “Thirteen Virtues in the Pursuit of Moral Per-
fection.” His guideline: “Speak not but what may
benefit others or yourself.” And there is not a
tinge of the precedence of freedom of expression
in this aphorism.
Development communication is consistent with values

such as these. While conventional journalistic
decisions are determined by con-siderations such as
proximity, timeliness, prominence, significance and
conflict, values central to development communication
include personal or social transformation
(development in the Gandhian sense), purposiveness,
participation, responsibility, education (con-tent-wise
and presentation-wise), practicality, and
ephemeralization.
The Socio-Political Framework
The role of communication in society is far more

critical than what Libertarians or Social
Responsibility advocates contend. Commu-nication
is one of the major variables of social
transformation and should thus be employed to
achieve the highest social goals at the shortest
amount of time. This argument originated from the
writ-ings of Lasswell, Lerner, and Schramm. Recent
theories such as the Agenda-Setting Function of
Media and the Media Dependency Model are
supportive of this line.
Recent events, in fact, have contributed
immensely to the valida-tion of the Media
Dependency Theory of De Fleur and Rock-each.
This model proposes that correlations exist
between the degree of societal stability, the
centrality of information of media systems, and
media dependency. This dependency in turn
brings about cer-tain effects on the audience
which feed back on societal stability and media
systems.
At the empirical level, we may relate this to the

CNN phenomenon during the Gulf War. This crisis
situation had a direct bearing on the degree of
societal stability. Decreased stability prompted a
change in programming among television networks
all over the world. The shift was particularly felt in
the United States and the Philippines wherein
public affairs/special events programs have pre-
empted entertainment programs. This may be
interpreted as an increase in the centrality of
information offered by media systems. Media de-
pendency likewise increased, prompting CNN to
declare that Ameri-cans have become TV addicts
overnight. The effects were particu-larly obvious in
terms of consumer behavior. Panic buying became
widespread. In turn, this behavior fed back on
societal stability as well as on the media systems. In
the Philippines, panic buying in-creased the prices
of prime commodities. In the US, both advertis-ers
and network executives voluntarily withdrew their
scheduled commercials because advertisements
might be found by the public to be in “poor taste.”
The validation of these contemporary social science

theories proves that communication has immediate
and profound effects on our social and political
fabric. The channeling of communication re-sources
to worthwhile social ends at the least social cost is
called for. Such is the development communication
perspective.
Supportive Arguments from other Disciplines
Contemporary theories in other fields such as

economics, psychol-ogy, physics, cybernetics, and
biology are likewise compatible with, if not
supportive of, development communication.
In the field of economics, for instance, theorists
such as Fritz Machlup, Marc Porat, and Meheroo
Jussawalla have declared that predominant world
economies have become information-based.
Economies of scale are making way to economies
of networking. Hence, growth industries,
particularly in the developed world, are
information industries. The mere fact that
information and com-
munication resources bring tremendous

economic and social power provides us with an
additional rationale for development commu-
nication.
In the transpersonal psychology of Abraham

Maslow, self actual-ization is considered the goal
of all human beings. It can only be achieved once
higher needs are fulfilled. Maslow observed that
ser-vice to others is one of the surest means by
which these higher needs are satisfied.
Communication should thus be employed for the
service of others. Development communication,
from the stand-point of transpersonal psychology,
is what communication ought to be.
Interestingly enough, we may find additional

rationales for deve-lopment communication in
contemporary physics and biology.
Quantum physics, in particular, conceives the

universe as an inter-connected web of relations.
Sub-atomic particles, the stuff that the universe is
made of, is, in essence, a set of relationships that
reach outward to other things (Stapp, 1971).
Matter, then, is not made up of things but of
interconnections and links. The key phrase being
“set of relationships,” “interconnections,” and
“links.” Could it be that from the standpoint of
quantum physics, communication mat-ters more
than matter?
The biological contribution to this framework

comes from recent research on evolution.
Reporting on the results of studies by biolo-gists
Gautier and Kingdon, Maranto (1986) writes that
in the case of certain species “Evolution is being
prompted not by standard devices of natural
selection such as predation, food supply and bio-
logically advantageous mutations, but by an in-
crease in the effi-ciency of communication.”
If we were to incorporate the systems concept of
cybernetics into these arguments and apply these
on a societal level, we may say that communication
is critical for societal maintenance and survival. It
should thus be employed primarily for
developmental purposes.
In summary, we maintain that communication, be

it at the interper-sonal, group, mass or societal
level, plays a larger, deeper and more profound
role than traditionally accounted for in the
Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility,
and Soviet Totalitarian theories of the press. We
find evidence of this in economics and in biology,
in physics and in psychology, in traditional
cultures as well as in contemporary sciences.
Development communication takes this profound

view of com-munication as its primary rationale. It
addresses not only the rela-tionship of Man to the
State but the relationship of Man to his entire
—
Environment physical, biological, socio-cultural,
—
and, per-haps, even spiritual in the pursuit of the
realization of his full potential.
References
De Fleur, M.L. and Ball-Rokeach, S.J. (1982).

Theories of mass commu-nication. Fourth
Edition. New York: Longman Inc.
Jussawalla, M. et al. (1988). The cost of thinking:
Information economies of ten pacific countries.
Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corpora-tion.
Lerner, D. Toward a communication theory of
modernization: A set of considerations.
Communications and political development.
Lucien W. Pye, Ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Machlup, F. (1962). The production and
distribution of knowledge in the United States.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ogan, C.L. (1982). Development journalism/
communication: The status of a concept.
Gazette (29).
Porat, M.U. (1978). Communication policy in an
information soci-ety. Policy perspectives for
the 1980’s. Glen O. Robinson, Ed. Praeger
Publishers.
Rivers, W.L. and Schramm, W. (1969).
Responsibility in mass communi-cation.
Harper and Row Publishers.
Siebert, F. et al. (1956). The four theories of the press. Urbana,
Illinois:
University of Illinois Press.
Stapp, H.P. (1971). S-Matrix interpretation of
quantum theory. Physi-cal review.
Chapter 12
Dev Com and the Policy Sciences
Development communication and the policy sciences are

gene-rally regarded as distinct and mutually exclusive
areas of study.
Academics and degree programs, specializing on
either one, rarely have anything to do with the
other. These two branches of the social sciences,
however, are inextricably linked. The links are
fun-damental and may be traced before either
area was afforded the status of a science.
Objectives

1. Trace the historical links of development
communica-tion with the policy sciences;
2. Define the policy sciences;
3. Describe the stakeholders of communication policy;
and
4. Enumerate methods of policy analysis
applicable to de-velopment
communication.
Historical Perspective
To students of development communication and

to students of the policy sciences, not to mention
to those professionally engaged in the practice of
one or the other, two names, those of Harold
Lasswell and Daniel Lerner, sound most familiar.
Pre-empting Shannon and Weaver (1949),

Schramm (1955), Westley and MacLean (1957),
Berlo (1960), and Kincaid (1979), Lasswell (1948)
developed the first social science-oriented model
of the com-munication process. Similarly, Lerner
was one of those who pio-neered in relating the
study of communication to the process of
modernization and development (See Lerner
1958; Lerner in Pye, 1963). Hardly anybody from
the policy sciences are aware of the foregoing.
Likewise, very few of those engaged in the study

and practice of development communication
know that in 1951, Harold Lasswell and Daniel
Lerner collaborated on a volume entitled The
Policy Sci-ences, which is recognized until now,
as the seminal work on the field. Since then,
Harold Lasswell has been acknowledged as the
intellectual father of the policy sciences while
Daniel Lerner con-tinues to be a respected figure
in this area of study.
It should be noted that while Lasswell’s

communication model pre-ceded his writings on the
policy sciences, Lerner’s interest in com-munication
came after the publication of their work. Hence, in
terms of conceptualization, it cannot be said that
one area of study pre-ceded or developed
completely independent from the other.
What are the policy sciences? How may the policy

sciences be re-lated to development
communication in conceptual and empirical
terms? This chapter aims to answer the foregoing
questions.
The Policy Sciences
We now live in an environment where change

occurs with increas-ing rapidity and complexity.
Described as a “turbulent field” envi-ronment,
such a condition has made traditional social
science meth-odology inadequate to solve many
of today’s societal problems (Allen, 1978). The
policy sciences grew out of this need to reorient
actively the social sciences to the resolution of
policy issues (Ocampo, 1978). Allen relates this
anecdote to underscore the need for sound
policymaking in coping with today’s “turbulent
field” environment:
Suppose you own a pond on which a water

lily is growing. The lily plant doubles in size
each day. If the lily were al-lowed to grow
unchecked, it would completely cover the
pond in 30 days, choking off the other forms
of life in the water. For a long time the lily
plant seems small, and so you decide not to
worry about cutting it back until it covers half
the pond. On what day will that be? On the
29th day, of course. You have one day to save
your pond (Allen, 1978).
Encountering similar problems has become a

recurring dilemma especially in Third World
societies. One has only to examine the negative
social conditions associated with some advanced
communi-cation technology (i.e., the digital divide;
lack of privacy; societal information overload) to
conclude that although techno-logical progress has
grown by leaps and bounds, little progress has been
achieved in anticipating and projecting higher
order impacts and consequences. All too often,
today’s public policymaker is faced with very little
“lead time” to solve urgent societal problems.
The term “policy sciences” refers to the scientific
study of poli-cies and policymaking. Policy refers to
a cluster of decisions with a particular purpose and
audience in mind. The word “science” is
used to suggest the use of empirical data

gathered from systematic observation. The plural
form (sciences) is used to underscore the
interdisciplinary nature of this field (Allen, 1978).
The aim of this supradiscipline is to improve

policymaking in order to provide as much “lead
time” as necessary in the solution of so-cietal
problems. Improved policymaking is achieved
through the application of social and behavioral
science knowledge, structured rationality, and
new uses of the scientific method (Allen, p.51).
Hence, a policy scientist (or a policy analyst for
that matter) is in-volved not only in the scientific
design, formulation, analysis, and evaluation of
policies. He of she is also concerned with the
study of the policymaking process itself.
The approach of the policy sciences is forward-

looking or anticipa-tory. Dror (1971) clearly
describes this particular characteristic of the
policy sciences metaphorically:
Policy sciences theory states that one

should not leave the problem of crossing a
river until the river is reached; rather, one
should survey the territory in advance,
identify rivers flowing through it, decide
whether it is at all necessary to cross the
—
river and if so, where and how to cross it
—
then prepare in advance the materials for
crossing the river and design a logistic
network so that the material is ready when
the river is reached.
Another significant characteristic of the policy

sciences is its inter-disciplinary and holistic nature.
Societal problems are considered to be multi-
faceted and complex. However, certain schools of
policy analysis, particularly the economics school,
tend to overlook this critical prerequisite. Economic
policy analyses revolve exclusively around
economic variables (i.e., land, labor, capital, taxes,
expendi-tures, etc.). Policies are roughly classified
under two categories: fis-cal or monetary. In the
process, many critical variables such as edu-cation,
communication, and value-orientation are
unaccounted for.
Some would opt for this wider approach.

Narrowing down the list of variables to work on
may contribute to parsimony and to a sober
appreciation of the problem. However, all too
often, this “sober appreciation” leads to a limited
perspective and, consequently, to inadequate
solutions or unsound policies.
Dev Com and the Policy Sciences
The affinity of the policy sciences and development

communica-tion does not begin and end with
Harold Lasswell and Daniel Lerner. It may be
argued that both writers dealt with mass
communication in general and not with
development communication in particular. It should
be noted, however, that a fundamental
characteristic of development communication,
which differentiates it from the tra-ditional view of
mass communication, is its purposive nature. Poli-
cies, being guidelines, imply that certain directions
are assumed. In the works of Lasswell and Dror, the
purposive nature of the policy sciences is always
underscored.
Although different in scope, development

communication and the policy sciences stem from
the same rationale: the need to actively apply
knowledge from and principles of the social
sciences in solv-ing large-scale societal problems
under conditions of social change. Both endorse a
normative or prescriptive role for the social sci-
ences; both recognize the imperatives of change;
both acknowl-edge communication as a critical
variable.
In a discussion on the policy sciences, Allen (1978) states:

Since communication permeates every
facet of a person’s behavior, the study of
communication is no less than one way to
study policy making. Communication is a
useful con-cept precisely because it is one
more handle whereby we can effectively
study policy making. Communication is one
of those few variables through which any
policy decision is dependent (p. 69).
Policy Engagement in
Development Communication
Socially beneficial policies on communication and

information, be they at the micro (institutional)
level or the macro (national) level, have been
acknowledged as necessities in this ever-
changing “tur-bulent field” communication
environment (See AIJ, 1982; Ali, 1983; MacBride,
1980). If indeed communication and information
are to be efficiently and effectively utilized in the
development process, then policies are needed to
direct their use for the achievement of the
highest social good.
Since communication resources in Third World

societies are lim-ited and since information is fast
becoming a dominant commod-ity, the private and
government sectors are beginning to feel the
need for communication policies. Lobbyists for
authentic develop-ment communication programs
readily assume that rationality pre-vails in policy
undertakings. However, policymaking is not
always determined by rationality. Oftentimes,
policymaking becomes a func-tion of power
(Smith, 1976).
Power, in the policy process, refers to the

relationship among and between the different
—
stakeholders those who stand to gain or lose in
any specific policy. Policy engagement in deve-
lopment com-munication is no exception. The
stakeholders would necessarily want to take part
and look after their own interests.
Stakeholders in Communication Policy
A stakeholder analysis of communication

policy would reveal the interplay of interests of the
following sectors: the government, the education
sector, the communication industry, the private sec-
tor, the church, foreign vested interests, and the
consumers.
For more than two decades, the national government

was the most powerful stakeholder in communication
policy. It is a well-known fact, however, that this setup
merely sought to further existing power
structures.
The government’s interest in communication
stems from the belief that “The state of politics is
a function of the communication pro-cess
“(Lerner, 1963). At present, the formulation and
implementa-tion of communication policies rest
upon the legislative and execu-tive branches of
the government, respectively. Thus, the govern-
ment is still and will always be a very dominant
stakeholder and its interests should not be
divorced from the interests of its constitu-ents.
The education sector rightly belongs among the

major stakehold-ers of communication policy,
particularly development communi-cation policy.
However, it is one of the least involved. On the
other hand, the church or the religious sector
has, for a long time, recog-nized the potential of
communication in its outreach undertakings as
well as in conscientizacion. Yet its involvement in
communication policy undertakings has been only
fairly recent.
In contrast, the communication industry has

attempted to play a vital role in policy
undertakings through so-called self-regulating
bodies such as the Kapisanan ng mga
Brodkasters sa Pilipinas. However, certain issues
have been raised against the industry.
For instance, telecommunications and media in the

Philippines are private enterprises. Naturally, the
profit motive provides the domi-nant drive for the
industry. At times, social responsibility is ignored as
long as “the product sells.” Cases in point are the
patronage of sensationalized rumor type television
talk shows, which thrive on scandal and gossip; the
proliferation of smut in the print media;
sensationalized reporting in tabloids; not to
mention bold movies. Observers decry that the
libertarian approach to communication regulation
has, at times, made the industry highly
commercialized and susceptible to manipulation by
vested interests.
Likewise, having direct access to media and other

communication resources imply access to a
significant degree of societal power. It would not
be surprising to find foreign governments
applying pres-sure or lobbying for or against
certain communication policies be-cause of their
interests in this type of power.
Closely related to the foregoing argument is the

involvement of the private sector (represented by
its elite, “big business”) in the com-munications
game. Big business also has high stakes in the
national communication system considering the
necessity of advertising gim-micks and strategies
in the free market.
The most important and, at times, the least

involved stakeholder in the communication
policymaking process is the consumer. Media
consumers or, in information science parlance,
the users are poten-tially the most powerful
stakeholder in communication policy because of
their numbers. Furthermore, the communication
sys-tem exists primarily for them. Yet, at times,
the information user or the media consumer is
the least heard. There exists a need to orga-nize
media consumer movements that would actively
participate in the policymaking process.
Some Methods in Communication

Policy Analysis
The introduction of policy science concepts as

integral subject matter in development
communication training has strengthened the links
between the two fields. A development
communication specialist, at one time or another
assumes the role of a communi-cation policy analyst
because of his proactive posture and his pre-
occupation with purpose. In order to fully act out
this role, a rudi-mentary knowledge of methods in
policy analysis, particularly those related to
development communication, is called for. Among
these methods are communication technology
assessment, social cost-benefit analysis,
problematique analysis, scenario construction, and
the Policy Delphi.
Communication Technology Assessment
This is a qualitative method that seeks to

determine the higher and lower order impacts of
specific forms of communication technology on the
individual and society. Assessment is conducted
before the adoption of the new technology. In

fact, the decision to adopt or not depends on the
findings of the assessment. CTA is forward
looking and adopts certain value premises as to
what is socially beneficial or detrimental to
society.
Social Cost-Benefit Analysis
This is a quantitative method, which attaches

monetary values on social conditions brought
about by certain communication poli-cies. The
monetary value of the social costs is subtracted
from the social benefits of a particular program
or policy. A positive differ-ence is required for a
program or policy to be adjudged as socially
beneficial.
Problematique Analysis
Extensively discussed in Chapters 2 and 4, this

procedure seeks to discover the influential
factors of existing problems related to a
communication system. Influential factors are
classified as either subordinate or superordinate.
The subordinate influential factors are merely
symptoms of the superordinate influential factors
or the root causes of the problem. It goes without
saying that the identifi-cation and elimination of
the root causes prevent the recurrence of the
problem situation.
Scenario Construction
A scenario is a chronological description of

hypothetical events occurring in the future of a
particular system (Allen, 1978). It has also been
defined as a description of the conditions and
events under which some system being studied is
assumed to be operating (Kraemer, 1973). In
short, scenarios provide an educated descrip-tion
of one of many possible futures of a system. It is
usually pre-sented at the most optimistic or “best-
case” state and the most pessimistic or “worst-
case” state.
Allen (1978) enumerates six steps in scenario

construction: first, the system is defined; second,
a time period is established for the system to
operate; third, the external constraints on the
environ-ment of the system are defined; fourth,
the elements or events within the system that are
likely to increase or decrease the chances of the
system’s meeting its goals and objectives are
defined; fifth, the like-lihood of the occurrence of
the elements or events are stated in probabilistic
terms; and sixth, a sensitivity analysis of the
results is conducted.
Policy Delphi
This procedure is a variation of the Delphi

technique defined as a “method of structuring a
group communication process so that the process
is effective in allowing a group of individuals, as a
whole, to deal with a complex problem” (Lin-
stone and Turoff, 1975). The Policy Delphi, in
particular, is a “tool for the analysis of policy
issues” wherein the participation of anonymous
respondents (usu-ally representatives of the
different stakeholders of the policy) are involved.
In an exercise such as this, the desirability and
feasibility of certain policies are assessed from
the points of view of the dif-ferent stakeholders.
Turoff (1975) outlines six phases of the Policy

Delphi: the formu-lation of issues; exposing the
options; determining initial positions on the issues;
exploring and obtaining the reasons for
disagreements; evaluating the underlying reasons;
and reevaluating the options. A Policy Delphi could
go from three to five rounds with its respon-dents
all the while maintaining their anonymity. If a
consensus among the respondents is reached, then
a policy that would please all the stakeholders
concerned may be formulated.
Communication Policy Science
The atmosphere of participation created by recent

administrations has brought about a more
significant role for the development com-
munication specialist/policy scientist. His or her
involvement in communication policymaking is
facilitated by the so-called institu-tionalization of
people power. His expertise may be directly tapped
by the most important stakeholder, the media
consumer.
The participation of information users and media

consumers in policymaking may be realized by
the formation of a nationwide media consumers
organization or a federation of local organiza-
tions of this nature in which policy analysts play a
significant role.
This proposed organization could initiate media

education in the formal and non-formal modes.
Media education at the formal level may be
facilitated by lobbying for the inclusion of such in
existing secondary and tertiary curricula.
Nonformal education may be con-ducted through
media consumer sponsored awareness campaigns.
This organization could also conduct its own

audience related studies and policy research. It
could establish a nationwide network involv-ing
the church, academic communities, grassroots
organizations, and cause-oriented groups.
Communication policy scientists may also serve as

part of the staff of our legislators in the Congress
and Senate. In their private ca-pacities, they can
form research and development outfits or “think
tanks” whose services may be availed of by
government agencies.
Indeed, now is a fortuitous time for policy
engagement in develop-ment communication.
References
Allen, T. (1973). New methods in social science

research. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Asian Institute of Journalism. (1982). The
communication structure in the Philippines:
Issues, problems and opportunities. Working
document for the roundtable meeting
sponsored by the Makati Business Club.
Manila.
Dror, Y. (1971). Design for policy sciences. New
York: Elsevier Publish-ing House.
Kraemer, K.L. (1973). Policy analysis in local
governments. Washington, D.C.: ICMA.
Lerner, D. (1958). The passing of traditional society: Modernizing
the middle
east. New York: The Free Press.
_______. (1963). Toward a communication theory
of moderniza-tion: A set of considerations.
Communications and Political Devel-opment.
Lucien W. Pye, Ed. Princeton University Press.
Linstone, H.A. and Turoff, M. (1975). The Delphi method:
Techniques
and applications. Massachusetts: Addison-
Wesley. MacBride, S. (1980). Many voices, one
world. Paris: UNESCO. Ocampo, R.B. (1978). The
nature of and need for policy studies. Paper
presented at the Seminar on Policy Studies.
UP College of Public Administration. Manila.
Chapter 13
Myths
I n late 1997, I co-authored an article published in

the Tambuli Journal of USAID Coastal Resource
Management Project titled “Transformational
Communication.” The article contained a boxed
sub-article with the heading, “Five Myths on IEC.”
This boxed article began with a statement that most
planners consider commu-nication as an
indispensable adjunct to any development project,
program, or organization. However, development
communication means different things to different
people and everyone seems to have strong opinions
on how it should be carried out. Compared with
other sciences, communication is not such an
esoteric disci-pline far removed from our everyday
existence. On the contrary, it is a pervasive
phenomenon that we relate with daily. Thus, every-
body believes that he/she is a communication
expert. Unfortu-nately, however, this universal
expertise may have been misled by a
number of myths.
Objective

able to enumerate and discuss the
prevailing myths on development commu-
nication and ICT.
Dev Com Myths
Myth 1: Dev Com is merely supportive to

other project com-ponents or project
interventions.
This myth is rooted in early forms of development

communication whose practitioners were relegated
the task of designing communi-cation materials in
support of agricultural production. In reaction to
this supportive role, communication experts have
tried to de-bunk this myth early on. Hence, the
outright refusal of senior com-munication faculty of
the University of the Philippines Los Baños to adopt
the phrase “development support communication”
being used by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.
Communication is a legitimate intervention in

itself. In fact, many would argue that in projects
that aim for long-term behavior change (i.e.,
population control, social forestry, and even
resource manage-ment), communication becomes
the main intervention. Some would even go as far
as saying that the development process is a
commu-nication process.
Myth 2: Dev com means communication media or materials.
Communication is a process. It does not refer to

media nor mate-rials only, which are but elements
in this process. In a working environment ruled by
management audits and performance indica-tors, it
is all very convenient to focus on concrete
deliverables and output such as posters, leaflets, TV
spots, or press releases. How-ever, in doing so, we
may be missing the whole point of having an
IEC component in the first place, which is to

effectively tap the spontaneous and dynamic
societal process that brings about social change.
We cannot substitute this process with any given
material. We can only hope to facilitate it.
Myth 3: The development project, program,

or organization is the source of information.
Being a process, we cannot really determine where

communication begins and ends nor can we
accurately identify the original source and the
ultimate receiver. We tend to suffer from the
illusion that the development project, program, or
organization is the source of communication all of
the time. This is not really the case because we
conduct needs assessments, rapid rural appraisals,
and Knowl-edge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) studies
wherein our beneficiaries become the main source
of information.
The development process may be considered as

an ongoing dia-logue between the project,
program, or organization and the ben-eficiaries,
that lead to mutual understanding on what
measures to take. Hopefully, this understanding
will result in social action that will bring about
social change.
Myth 4: Communication is not difficult. It’s a

relatively minor job.
In development settings characterized by limited

resources and sur-vival-type priorities,
communication may very well be a one-man job.
For instance, graduates of most development
communication schools are trained to expect the
least in terms of resources and do the most in
terms of workload. Hence, their skills should
cover every requirement in the production
process, from planning, visu-alization and writing
to artwork execution and pretesting. How-ever,
dev com work is far from simple.
Judging from experience, the creative (i.e.,

production) part of dev com is indeed hard work
but, in a sense, the most gratifying. The really
difficult part of communication work (and perhaps
the most time consuming) is pleasing everybody
from your superior to the
subject matter specialist and, finally, to the user

whose opinions (and tastes) may altogether vary
from those of the decision-maker. This potentially
is the most time consuming particularly since,
right or wrong, everyone believes that he/she
is a communication expert.
Myth 5: If the project fails, communication is to blame.
Actually, this myth goes around in a more positive

form. We have heard statements such as these
coming from project assistants to fellow
consultants, LGU officials to line department
secretaries: “My activity flopped because I had no
communication materials,” “The project failed
because it lacked communication support,”
“Communication is the key to our organization’s
success.” There is this prevailing feeling that
communication is the panacea of all prob-lems of
development projects, programs, or organizations.
On one hand, such statements are indicative of an
increasing appreciation of communication as a
social intervention. On the other, it may lead to
unrealistic expectations on what dev com can do.
People still cling to these five myths as they did

years ago. However, since the Okinawa Summit of
2000, when the G10 nations an-nounced their
resolve to bridge the “Digital Divide,” a new set of
myths, this time on information and communication
technology or ICT are being embraced by many.
Since a considerable amount of your work will
involve ICT, I am enumerating these myths for you.
ICT Myths
ICT Myth 1. Technology as the Panacea Myth

or “Install a computer in the boondocks and
you have instant develop-ment.”
Those who accept this proposition generally adhere
to the techno-logical paradigm of development. In
other words, they believe that Third World
countries are poor because of the lack of
technology. There are certainly other factors that
contribute to poverty and
underdevelopment. Furthermore, they ignore the

fact that the ICT revolution began in the
developed world where a completely differ-ent
set of social, cultural, and economic conditions
exist. These conditions will have to be satisfied
before the economic boom brought by ICT to the
West can be replicated in the South.
ICT Myth 2. The Direct User Myth or

“Farmers, fishers, in-digenous peoples, rural
women, and out-of-school youth should be
the users of ICT.”
This belief forwards that ICT interventions for the

poor should be targeted directly to the poor. This
leads to the issue of appropriate technology. We
cannot really expect marginal fishers to surf the
Net. They would rather use nets beyond the surf.
But this is hardly the point. ICT is most useful in
building the capacities of support agencies for
the poor. This myth blatantly forgets one of the
most basic principles in development assistance,
the multi-step flow of communication
ICT Myth 3. The Myth of Programmer

Supremacy or “ICT is just another name for
IT.”
Narrowly put, ICT mainly refers to computer

science. This myth effectively marginalizes other
technology such as telecommunica-tions and
multimedia. More seriously, it effectively
marginalizes other disciplines such as
communication, cybernetics, systems theory, and
network science, all of which figure prominently
in ICT and are claimed not only by the
engineering sciences but the social sciences as
well.
ICT Myth 4. The Myth of Infrastructure
Determinism or “Build the infra then
everything else will fall in place.”
At the turn of the century or the millennium, rather,

there was a concerted effort among development
agencies to build up their infrastructure. Many of
these infrastructures are now in place. How-ever
these networks run the risk of becoming white
elephants be-cause there is hardly any content.
During the First National Partners
Meeting of the Philippine Research and

Education Government Infrastructure Network,
this concern was whispered by many of the
participants who now had access to broadband
and wireless technology but had comparatively
little appropriate content to feed their networks.
Note that the Internet would not have flourished
with the World Wide Web. There is more to ICT
than infrastruc-ture.
ICT Myth 5. The Myth of a Free Market

Prevailing or “As long as there is content in
whatever form, then it will be ac-cessed and
used.”
There is roughly over a billion sites in the World

Wide Web. Some of these sites, such as Google,
get millions of hits a day. However, a larger
number hardly get any hits at all. Perhaps, it is a
function of attractive, sophisticated interface
designs. Six decades of commu-nication science
research tell us that content needs to be
appropri-ately referenced, packaged, presented,
maintained, and managed with the user in mind.
Yes, perhaps the Web is a free marketplace of
information and knowledge. But as Marshall
MacLuhan (the person who coined the phrase
“global village”) said 50 years ago, “The medium
is the message.”
Attendant to this myth is a predominant opinion

that application standards to reference, package,
present, maintain, and manage content should be
determined on a de facto basis rather than decided
upon collectively. Our experience with proprietary
software (as com-pared with open source) proves
that a de facto standards system may be taken
advantage of by enterprising minds.
To conclude this chapter, let us note that if
communication and ICT are expected to
contribute to development, then we must un-
derscore the fact that development is still a social
process.
Epilogue
Writing this book has provided us with an

opportunity to give vent to a passion that has
been consuming us at UPLB for the past years.
That passion is advocacy for development
communication, as theory and as practice, or as
science and praxis if you will. We cannot tire of
this passion since we have given dev com the best
years of our lives.
The year 2002 marked the 30 th year of development

communica-tion as an academic field. UPLB old-
timers remember when it was the innest thing in
town. Yet as the pages of the book have shown, we
had our share of critics. We had to struggle for
legitimacy. After more than 30 years, can we safely
say that we have pre-vailed? After all, the best test
for a discipline is its endurance.
Endurance, however, is a function of adaptability

and applicabil-ity. Has development
communication adapted to evolving trends in the
social sciences? Is it being applied in solving
societal prob-lems? Most certainly, it has. But
when applied as such, do people recognize it as
development communication or does it come un-
der a different label such as Social Marketing or
IEC? Has devel-opment communication finally
lost its relevance?
Not long ago, we attended a national conference

on distance edu-cation organized by the Asian
Institute of Journalism. One of the papers
presented during the conference dealt with a
case study on communitarian communication.
The presenter was formerly the dean of the UP
College of Social Work and Development. We
chatted briefly after the conference and she
commented that the problem with development
communication is that it is top-down. I answered
that she must have been misinformed about dev
com. She responded by saying that this was the
prevailing consensus among her colleagues in the
NGO network.
Have we at the College of Development

Communication been unfairly branded as top-down
in approach or is this how we project
ourselves to be? More importantly, is this how we

perceive our-selves to be? Is development
communication just a glorified label for
agricultural communication, as some of our
critics would have it?
If anything, this book proves that it is not.
Furthermore, development communication

science has explored initiatives other than those
mentioned in this book. It has ana-lyzed its role in
peace and conflict. It has investigated the collec-
tive mind. And it has looked into the Filipino soul
or diwa.
Many of us believe that in our diwa, we can find a

Filipino value or perspective on communication that
is unique from the Western value or perspective
that we borrowed from the libertarians in Europe
through the Freemasons in the propaganda
movement.
Our ancestors held communication in awe. For

instance, it was believed that among all
creatures, speech was unique to man (tao) who
had consciousness (malay) and thus was used
judiciously and with a great sense of
responsibility. Among the indigenous Filipi-nos,
silence was a greater value than freedom of
speech. Upon analysis, in fact, this diwa would
prove to be more consistent to the pan-
disciplinary perspective than the libertarian
perspective.
As mentioned more than once in the preceding

chapters, systems theory forwards that
communication is a critical function in all living
systems, from the simplest unicellular amoebae
to the most complex of social systems, which is
the global society. Interest-ingly enough, most of
our scholars are preoccupied with one fun-
damental question: How does communication
transform society? Or, more pragmatically, how
can we employ communication to effectively
transform society to its ideal state?
It would not come as a surprise if these questions
were answered by the development
communication practitioner way ahead of the lot.
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Introduction to Development Communication

Book · January 2006

GIZ Environment and Rural Development Program View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

I t is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

A Third World Legacy

Although the term “Third World” is no longer in

Living in a developing country, you must have

Third World Problems

Development sociologists would tell us that

The Dev Com Response

Development communication grew in response to

What exactly are the problems that plague developing societies?

The most menacing of these problems is poverty.

Poverty is a problem that brings with it a host of

Consider, too, the justification of the parents of the

Six out of 10 Filipinos are poor. This estimate is

Being poor means being unable to eat properly, clothe

fortable shelter. It means being unable to get an

We are not even writing strictly of slum dwellers

You are unemployed when you do not earn a living.

Our national economic experts believe that our

High Population Growth

World population has reached the 6 billion mark

Seven out of the 10 most highly populated

Contrary to myth, all men are not created equal.

Is the situation any better globally?

In 1998, the United Nations Development Program reported

1. The wealth of the world’s three richest

Little has changes since then.

The Philippines should not be poor. It is very rich

In the past 50 years, 70 percent of our primary

Furthermore, our cities and inland waters suffer

By nature, marine ecosystems are more delicate

Two decades ago, it was estimated that 68

However, our technocrats are optimistic. By 1997, a

Furthermore, we should note that, as food policy

Contemporary wars are not being waged by

The conflicts in Rwanda, Basque, Bosnia, Kosovo,

Given the gravity and extent of our societal

The United Nations Development Program made

Europe alone spent US$ 105 billion on alcoholic

Figure 1-1 gives the global annual spending in

This chapter enumerated problems associated with

Hughes, J. (1995). The Larousse Desk Reference.

P roblems associated with underdevelopment

This chapter gives the development

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

The Vicious Cycle of Poverty

In the mid-1960s, the noted policy scientist

...no sustained economic growth is possible

We can summarize the dominant features of the

low savings and investments malnutrition

low-income poor education

unequal wealth distribution high birth rate

Lerner’s analysis points to excessive population

Without undermining its originality and

Development planners in the 1990s are faced with

The Problematique Method

In the late 1970s, two communication scientists

They argued that in any given system, problems

The Problematique Map