1. Introduction
2. Theoretical section:
2.1.1 Development communication: Tracing its roots
2.1.2 How to define it?
2.1.3 The strategies of development communication
2.1.4 Media versus face-to-face
2.2 Analysing the research questions:
2.2.1 What are the reasons for success or failure of communication for development?
2.2.2 What can be done to make it more effective?
2.2.3 What is the influence of the cultural context? How can media campaign be used to realize the objective of development communication?
3. Empirical section:
3.1.1 What research methodology has been followed and why?
3.1.2 Rationale behind the choice of TCG and the questionnaire
3.1.3 TCG: Tracing its roots
3.1.4 Media versus face-to-face
3.2 Re-analysing the research questions:
3.2.1 What are the reasons for the success or failure of communication for development?
3.2.2 What can be done to make it more effective?
3.2.3 What is the influence of the cultural context? How can media campaign be used to realize the objective of development communication?
3.3 What can be an effective communication policy for TCG?
4. Summary, conclusions and future research
5. Bibliography
6.1 Appendix I
6.2 Appendix II
6.3 Appendix III
Monday, 9 February 2009
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In preparing this dissertation, I acknowledge my indebtedness to the following: My supervisor Dr Katrin Voltmer for her invaluable guidance; to Ms Angharad Thomas without whose help it would have been very difficult to obtain data for the empirical study; to the respondents for bearing with me during the interview; to the staff of the Edward Boyle Library and the Brotherton Library for retrieving the relevant books for me; to my family members for their constant encouragement; to my friends for their support; and to numerous other people for helping me in their own ways from time to time.
1. INTRODUCTION
CASE I:
USAID (US Agency for International Development) had implemented the ABC programme to prevent or reduce sexual transmission of the AIDS virus in the developing countries [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13501-2004Jun28.html, http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/aids/News/abcfactsheet.html]. ‘A’ stood for ‘Abstinence’ (or delayed sexual initiation among youth), ‘B’ for ‘Being faithful’ (or reduction in number of sexual partners), and ‘C’ for correct and consistent ‘Condom use’ for casual sexual activity and other high-risk situations. But the project was not successful in the developing countries of Asia, such as India [Report of Ministry of Health, Government of India, 2004].
In fact, in such countries women tend to have less control over their sexual lives, and sexual exploitation of women often go unreported. Under such circumstances, firstly, if a woman exercises abstinence, she would be raped by her husband, would be abandoned by him or he would go outside the wedlock to satisfy his needs. So, how does ‘A’ work for her? Secondly, how do messages on monogamy help to protect themselves? She might be faithful to her husband, but what if he contracts HIV viruses through unsafe sex outside the wedlock and passes it on to her? So, how does ‘B’ work for her? Thirdly, if her husband refuses to use protection, what can she possibly do? Do we have a feminine equivalent of condom that is readily available and affordable in the market? So, how does ‘C’ work for her?
CASE II:
As per official statistics, a large percentage of HIV/AIDS patients in India acquire the virus through unprotected sex. So, the IISD (Institute of International Social Development), with support from West Bengal AIDS Control Society, had launched a programme to offer sex-workers in Calcutta, India, an ancient solution to modern concerns about safe sex. They were taught from the Kama Sutra to ensure maximum client satisfaction without consummation, thus preventing the contraction of HIV/AIDS. Thereafter, a powerful association, called Durbar Mahila Samannoy Samity, was formed with the decree that all its members should perform safe sex and customers refusing will not be entertained [http://ethnodata.com/content.php?id=14, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3133947.stm].
The response to the workshop was remarkable and it ended up being the first sex-workers’ forum in the world. Since then, thousands of Calcutta's sex-workers have successfully applied the message conveyed at these workshops into practice.
In both the case studies, there is an attempt to control the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission. While the project failed in the first instance, it was successful in the second. The reason lies in the correct choice of communications strategy — in the former the strategy was too general for the receiving population, whereas in the latter it was modified to suit the requirements of the target group.
This dissertation aims to find out the objectives, strategies and outcomes of communication for development; thus establishing its efficacy in the development sector. The research questions that will be addressed through the work comprise:
• What are the reasons for the success and failure of communication for development?
• How can it be made more effective?
• What is the influence of the cultural context?
• How can media campaign be used to realize the objective of development communication?
The entire research has been divided into two sections: the theoretical and the empirical. In the theoretical section, existing literature on this field of study has been reviewed as per a few specific dimensions. These include: the origin of the concept of development communication; how to define it; the three basic strategies of development communication, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Thereafter, there is a section on media versus face-to-face communication to adjudge the best strategy. This is followed by a critical discussion of the research questions.
In the empirical section, The Cardiff Group (TCG) has been chosen as the case study — a newly-launched organization dealing with design and development. After tracing the origins of the Group, the interview respondents’ — comprising both the founder-members of TCG as well as professionals from the development sector — opinion on the best communications strategy has been analyzed. They were also asked whether they would identify particular strategies with particular projects. Following this, the research questions have been re-analysed in keeping with the respondents’ replies. It concludes with the recommendation of an effective communication policy for The Cardiff Group.
The research methods used for this study include critical evaluation of existing literature and semi-structured interview. Thus, both primary and secondary data have been used.
USAID (US Agency for International Development) had implemented the ABC programme to prevent or reduce sexual transmission of the AIDS virus in the developing countries [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13501-2004Jun28.html, http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/aids/News/abcfactsheet.html]. ‘A’ stood for ‘Abstinence’ (or delayed sexual initiation among youth), ‘B’ for ‘Being faithful’ (or reduction in number of sexual partners), and ‘C’ for correct and consistent ‘Condom use’ for casual sexual activity and other high-risk situations. But the project was not successful in the developing countries of Asia, such as India [Report of Ministry of Health, Government of India, 2004].
In fact, in such countries women tend to have less control over their sexual lives, and sexual exploitation of women often go unreported. Under such circumstances, firstly, if a woman exercises abstinence, she would be raped by her husband, would be abandoned by him or he would go outside the wedlock to satisfy his needs. So, how does ‘A’ work for her? Secondly, how do messages on monogamy help to protect themselves? She might be faithful to her husband, but what if he contracts HIV viruses through unsafe sex outside the wedlock and passes it on to her? So, how does ‘B’ work for her? Thirdly, if her husband refuses to use protection, what can she possibly do? Do we have a feminine equivalent of condom that is readily available and affordable in the market? So, how does ‘C’ work for her?
CASE II:
As per official statistics, a large percentage of HIV/AIDS patients in India acquire the virus through unprotected sex. So, the IISD (Institute of International Social Development), with support from West Bengal AIDS Control Society, had launched a programme to offer sex-workers in Calcutta, India, an ancient solution to modern concerns about safe sex. They were taught from the Kama Sutra to ensure maximum client satisfaction without consummation, thus preventing the contraction of HIV/AIDS. Thereafter, a powerful association, called Durbar Mahila Samannoy Samity, was formed with the decree that all its members should perform safe sex and customers refusing will not be entertained [http://ethnodata.com/content.php?id=14, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3133947.stm].
The response to the workshop was remarkable and it ended up being the first sex-workers’ forum in the world. Since then, thousands of Calcutta's sex-workers have successfully applied the message conveyed at these workshops into practice.
In both the case studies, there is an attempt to control the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission. While the project failed in the first instance, it was successful in the second. The reason lies in the correct choice of communications strategy — in the former the strategy was too general for the receiving population, whereas in the latter it was modified to suit the requirements of the target group.
This dissertation aims to find out the objectives, strategies and outcomes of communication for development; thus establishing its efficacy in the development sector. The research questions that will be addressed through the work comprise:
• What are the reasons for the success and failure of communication for development?
• How can it be made more effective?
• What is the influence of the cultural context?
• How can media campaign be used to realize the objective of development communication?
The entire research has been divided into two sections: the theoretical and the empirical. In the theoretical section, existing literature on this field of study has been reviewed as per a few specific dimensions. These include: the origin of the concept of development communication; how to define it; the three basic strategies of development communication, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Thereafter, there is a section on media versus face-to-face communication to adjudge the best strategy. This is followed by a critical discussion of the research questions.
In the empirical section, The Cardiff Group (TCG) has been chosen as the case study — a newly-launched organization dealing with design and development. After tracing the origins of the Group, the interview respondents’ — comprising both the founder-members of TCG as well as professionals from the development sector — opinion on the best communications strategy has been analyzed. They were also asked whether they would identify particular strategies with particular projects. Following this, the research questions have been re-analysed in keeping with the respondents’ replies. It concludes with the recommendation of an effective communication policy for The Cardiff Group.
The research methods used for this study include critical evaluation of existing literature and semi-structured interview. Thus, both primary and secondary data have been used.
2. THEORETICAL SECTION
2.1.1 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION: TRACING ITS ROOTS
To understand any concept, it is important to trace its origin and development. Similarly, in the planning of development communication, the process of public campaigning can be considered to be the very first step.
“Public communication campaigns are purposive attempts to inform, persuade, or motivate behaviour changes in a relatively well-defined and large audience, generally for non-commercial benefits to the individuals and/ or society at large, typically within a given time period, by means of organised communication activities involving mass media and often complemented by interpersonal support” [Rice and Atkin 1989; adapted from Rogers and Storey 1987, as quoted by Windahl, Signitzer and Olson, 1992: 101].
When such campaigns are aimed at bringing about social and economic improvements, usually in developing countries, they constitute development communication.
It was the apparent success of World War II propaganda — facilitated to a large extent by the mass media — that prompted theorists like Wilbur Schramm and Daniel Lerner to place high hopes on the potential of radio and television to bring about dramatic progress in the world’s most disadvantaged countries [Paterson].
Thus, the field of development communication that emerged in the late 1950s came to believe that mass media could bring a desire to ‘modernize’, by promoting education, essential skills and social unity [Ibid]. Theorists such as Lerner suggested that “exposure to Western media would create ‘empathy’ for modern culture, and a desire to move from traditional to modern ways” [Ibid]. Thus, the approach advocated a capitalist way of life.
But, there were several drawbacks to this approach. It equated modernisation to Westernisation. It also assumed development to be a top-down process facilitated by a centralized mass media. But, the “producers of development media often failed to ask if the audience can receive the message (television penetration in developing countries is minimal and radio penetration in the early days of development communication was light), understand the message (a problem in countries with dozens of languages and dialects), act upon the message (with the necessary tools or other forms of structural support), and want to act upon the message” [Ibid]. Besides, being based on the propaganda model, all efforts at development were seen as propaganda and distrusted.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a new paradigm developed. It realised that the underdeveloped countries were a product of colonialism, and the diverse cultures, ideologies and political considerations required endless varieties of ways to be communicated with. In keeping with this strategy, educational television, satellite television and VCRs developed as part of the communication system.
It did bring about some changes in beliefs and behaviours and with it came a surge of non-profit non-governmental organisations to work on developmental projects worldwide using UN, government or private funding. They worked on three basic development campaigns: “Persuasion, changing what people do; Education, changing social values; and Informing, empowering people to change by increasing knowledge” [Ibid].
Of these, the third concept is now perceived to be the most useful, because it aims to reduce inequality by involving the poorest sections of society in their own development. In this new approach, communication has become “an important catalyst for change, but not its cause” [Ibid]. Besides using television (for example, the telenovela in Brazil) to disseminate pro-social messages, it also makes use of the local folk media, community newspapers and radio.
Thus, the concept of development communication that originated with an idealistic approach has, with the passing years, become more and more practical. Today, if such a communication policy is implemented keeping all the parameters in mind, it can well be successful.
To understand any concept, it is important to trace its origin and development. Similarly, in the planning of development communication, the process of public campaigning can be considered to be the very first step.
“Public communication campaigns are purposive attempts to inform, persuade, or motivate behaviour changes in a relatively well-defined and large audience, generally for non-commercial benefits to the individuals and/ or society at large, typically within a given time period, by means of organised communication activities involving mass media and often complemented by interpersonal support” [Rice and Atkin 1989; adapted from Rogers and Storey 1987, as quoted by Windahl, Signitzer and Olson, 1992: 101].
When such campaigns are aimed at bringing about social and economic improvements, usually in developing countries, they constitute development communication.
It was the apparent success of World War II propaganda — facilitated to a large extent by the mass media — that prompted theorists like Wilbur Schramm and Daniel Lerner to place high hopes on the potential of radio and television to bring about dramatic progress in the world’s most disadvantaged countries [Paterson].
Thus, the field of development communication that emerged in the late 1950s came to believe that mass media could bring a desire to ‘modernize’, by promoting education, essential skills and social unity [Ibid]. Theorists such as Lerner suggested that “exposure to Western media would create ‘empathy’ for modern culture, and a desire to move from traditional to modern ways” [Ibid]. Thus, the approach advocated a capitalist way of life.
But, there were several drawbacks to this approach. It equated modernisation to Westernisation. It also assumed development to be a top-down process facilitated by a centralized mass media. But, the “producers of development media often failed to ask if the audience can receive the message (television penetration in developing countries is minimal and radio penetration in the early days of development communication was light), understand the message (a problem in countries with dozens of languages and dialects), act upon the message (with the necessary tools or other forms of structural support), and want to act upon the message” [Ibid]. Besides, being based on the propaganda model, all efforts at development were seen as propaganda and distrusted.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a new paradigm developed. It realised that the underdeveloped countries were a product of colonialism, and the diverse cultures, ideologies and political considerations required endless varieties of ways to be communicated with. In keeping with this strategy, educational television, satellite television and VCRs developed as part of the communication system.
It did bring about some changes in beliefs and behaviours and with it came a surge of non-profit non-governmental organisations to work on developmental projects worldwide using UN, government or private funding. They worked on three basic development campaigns: “Persuasion, changing what people do; Education, changing social values; and Informing, empowering people to change by increasing knowledge” [Ibid].
Of these, the third concept is now perceived to be the most useful, because it aims to reduce inequality by involving the poorest sections of society in their own development. In this new approach, communication has become “an important catalyst for change, but not its cause” [Ibid]. Besides using television (for example, the telenovela in Brazil) to disseminate pro-social messages, it also makes use of the local folk media, community newspapers and radio.
Thus, the concept of development communication that originated with an idealistic approach has, with the passing years, become more and more practical. Today, if such a communication policy is implemented keeping all the parameters in mind, it can well be successful.
2.1.2 HOW TO DEFINE IT?
The concept of development communication has been defined in very many ways:
Isang Bagsak has defined it as an “instrument in development projects… to spread information and contribute to behaviour change” by improving “opportunities for community dialogue and access to information”, thus ensuring citizens’ “participation in political communities” [www.comminit.com/planningmodels/pmodels/planningmodels-55.html].
It has also been defined as a “process of identifying, segmenting and targeting specific groups and audiences with particular strategies, messages and training programmes through various mass media and interpersonal channels, traditional and non-traditional” [McKee 1992, as quoted in ibid].
Rockefeller Foundation [2000, as quoted in ibid], however, has defined development communication as “a process of dialogue, information sharing, mutual understanding and agreement, and collective action”.
Another definition is that “development communication is a branch of communication theory or practice that is concerned with applying insights from communication theory to address problems of development and modernization” [http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Development%20communication]. It aims “to find strategies for mobilizing people, and consequently resources, for developmental goals” [Ibid].
Whereas, the World Bank defines it as a process that “involves creating mechanisms to broaden public access to information on reforms; strengthening clients' ability to listen to their constituencies and negotiate with stakeholders; empowering grassroots organizations to achieve a more participatory process; and undertaking communications activities that are grounded in public opinion research” [www.worldbank.org/developmentcommunications/].
Thus, the objectives of development communication can be summarized as follows:
• It communicates messages with a developmental goal
• It hopes to bring about reforms for the betterment of the public at large
• The message communicated is not only supposed to affect the people but also change their behaviour in a certain way
• It improves public access to information and resources
• It also improves community dialogue and mobilizes people to share information. This would bring about harmony and peace in the society
• It ensures political participation
• It empowers the grassroots to participate in activities that affect the society
• All the message communicated are grounded in public opinion research
Isang Bagsak has defined it as an “instrument in development projects… to spread information and contribute to behaviour change” by improving “opportunities for community dialogue and access to information”, thus ensuring citizens’ “participation in political communities” [www.comminit.com/planningmodels/pmodels/planningmodels-55.html].
It has also been defined as a “process of identifying, segmenting and targeting specific groups and audiences with particular strategies, messages and training programmes through various mass media and interpersonal channels, traditional and non-traditional” [McKee 1992, as quoted in ibid].
Rockefeller Foundation [2000, as quoted in ibid], however, has defined development communication as “a process of dialogue, information sharing, mutual understanding and agreement, and collective action”.
Another definition is that “development communication is a branch of communication theory or practice that is concerned with applying insights from communication theory to address problems of development and modernization” [http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Development%20communication]. It aims “to find strategies for mobilizing people, and consequently resources, for developmental goals” [Ibid].
Whereas, the World Bank defines it as a process that “involves creating mechanisms to broaden public access to information on reforms; strengthening clients' ability to listen to their constituencies and negotiate with stakeholders; empowering grassroots organizations to achieve a more participatory process; and undertaking communications activities that are grounded in public opinion research” [www.worldbank.org/developmentcommunications/].
Thus, the objectives of development communication can be summarized as follows:
• It communicates messages with a developmental goal
• It hopes to bring about reforms for the betterment of the public at large
• The message communicated is not only supposed to affect the people but also change their behaviour in a certain way
• It improves public access to information and resources
• It also improves community dialogue and mobilizes people to share information. This would bring about harmony and peace in the society
• It ensures political participation
• It empowers the grassroots to participate in activities that affect the society
• All the message communicated are grounded in public opinion research
2.1.3 THE STRATEGIES OF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
By analysing these definitions, we can arrive at three main strategies of development communication, namely the mass media, the popular media — also referred to jointly as the diffusion method [Morris, 2003:225] — and the participatory method that involves face-to-face communication. Here is a brief discussion on them to help us understand their advantages and disadvantages.
1) The mass media is one of the best strategies of propaganda and gradual persuasion. Deriving from a cognitive-neoassociationistic perspective [Anderson & Bower, 1973; Landman & Manis, 1983; as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 45], we can say that when people watch, read or hear about an event through the mass media, similar ideas are activated in them which “in turn can activate other semantically related ideas and actions” [Ibid]. In that sense, the potential of the mass media is immense.
As such, every year millions of resources are spent on campaigns to change attitudes of people in the desired direction – the issues could be as varied as political candidates and consumer products to health and safety practices, and charitable causes. The ultimate aim is to influence people’s behaviour so that they will vote for certain politicians or referenda, purchase specific goods, engage in safer eating and sexual activities, and donate money to various religious, environmental and educational organisations and institutions [Ibid: 91].
This can again be achieved in two ways: firstly, through widespread propaganda which has a direct effect on the attitude and behaviour of the recipients. But, very few social scientists today will credit mass media with such persuasive powers, even though the technological advances in the last few years have been unprecedented. This is because the audience has also become more discerning than ever before. So, the other way of achieving it is through the indirect method where the media influences the opinion leaders who in turn mingle with the masses to bring about changes in their behaviour [Ibid: 92].
McQuail [2000: 432-433] has come up with four models of influence: information processing, conditioning or associational, functional, and relational. The relational model focuses on the relationship between the sender and the receiver of the message, which is basically governed by power. The two must cooperate in this power relationship if influence is to succeed. People tend to reject power, so there must be sufficient motivation to cooperate.
Kelman suggests three basic processes of influence: compliance, identification and internalisation. He also emphasises that this relational model of influence is not power-oriented. However, McQuail feels that it’s the persuader’s task to convince the persuadee that acquisition of some product or behaviour can earn him social approval and acceptance. In this sense, a power relationship does seem to exist. And, it is a fact that the mass media, through commercials and popular programmes, tends to establish this kind of relationship with its audience [Ibid and Reardon, 1991: 176-7].
To achieve identification and subsequent compliance, here’s an interesting observation by Burnkrant and Unnava [1989, as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 103]. They found a message that frames its pronouns in the second person (for example, ‘you’) and not in the third person (that is, ‘one’ or ‘he’ and ‘she’), is more efficient in increasing personal involvement and processing of the information conveyed. And, this is the only way mass media can bring about enduring changes in attitudes and behaviours of the recipients. Here, Bryant and Zillmann [Ibid: 102] mentions the concept of “perceived personal relevance of the communication” which enhances interest and consequent internalisation of the media message.
However, there are certain drawbacks to the mass media as a tool of propaganda and persuasion. It is commonly believed that since the same programmes are available to all the people in the country at the same time, similar experiences are interpreted in similar ways by the audience. Reardon [1991: 172], in fact, considers the watching of television to be “one of the few social influence processes that appears to lend itself neatly to cause-effect explanations”. But, this assumption could be erroneous, in the sense that the reception power of the audience might vary with age and upbringing.
It reminds one of the famous saying that you can take a horse near the water, but you cannot make it drink. Similarly, one can persuade a person to watch/ hear a particular programme, but it is not always possible to motivate him to think about the message conveyed. This is because the recipient might consider the information to be irrelevant and react unfavourably or just discard it. Even if there are apparent attitudinal changes, they might be based on superficial interpretation of the messages as opposed to elaborate processing of the message. Another reason could be that the person concerned lacks necessary skills to translate the internalised attitudes into actions because of certain social constraints.
But the most important note of caution is that although the mass media can respond to the needs of the people, at the end of the day they are money-making enterprises selling what gets them revenue. As such, their messages are seldom accepted uncritically by the discerning audience.
2) Comprising basically performing arts, the popular media is an important tool for communication in support of development. It engages in the strategy of blatant propaganda and persuasion that the concerned recipients can relate to more easily than that of the mass media.
In the last few decades, a special type of popular theatre has developed called ‘theatre for development’ wherein the workshop participants are not only trained in dramatisation but also in basic sociological techniques. “This enables them to draw up an inventory of local community problems. In each play, one problem theme is explored by and for the local community” [Boeren and Epskamp, 1992: 8].
To respond to the need for development, performing arts are used for disseminating information on government ideology and programmes, as also convincing people to accept the ideas of modernisation. In the rural areas, it is used as a participatory and confidence-building tool that not only teaches the latest technology to the farmers, but also makes them literate and promotes community education [Ibid: 112].
These campaigns can either be (a) mobile in which the government hires professional troupes to tour as many villages as possible to publicise “government ideology and development programmes”. They operate on massive scales. For example, the Indian song-and-drama troupes are estimated to give 20,000 performances a year. (b) There can be another type of campaign for mobilisation. In this, large numbers of locally-based theatre troupes are encouraged to enact plays in their own areas “on national development policies or programmes” [Ibid: 113].
Besides the programmes on government initiatives that operate within a conventional framework, there is another category of “change-oriented theatre” that performs on non-governmental initiatives. These groups “aim at contributing to a process of structural transformation by movements of agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, migrant workers, urban squatters, and other marginalised groups”. Here, the popular media helps to educate and organise the deprived population to defend themselves against victimization and gradually transform the existing power structure [Ibid: 118].
Therefore, it seems, the efficacy of the popular media is theoretically more pronounced than that of the mass media. This is because the theatre groups engaging in impromptu street plays and road shows, reach a more targeted audience with a specific message. Moreover, they have no profit-making motives and that make their strategies more objective. However, this strategy may suffer from the same limitation of motivating the audience to process and internalise the message conveyed. Whatever changes in attitude might be evident could be superficial and temporary. Besides, as Boeren puts it [Ibid: 49], popular theatre comprises an expensive affair involving a group of people over a considerable period of time. So, the campaign costs are often too prohibitive to adopt. Again, although the actors use local idioms in the play, theatre for development does amount to external intervention and the benefits of the message conveyed, seldom reach the marginal sections of the society.
3) Participatory communication has been defined as a process that “solicits the involvement of the people to shape their own development, addressing the problems they have identified and providing solutions that are feasible to them” [Boeren and Epskamp, 1992: 57].
This strategy was born in reaction to the deliberate modernisation propagated by the developed West. As Uphoff [1985; as quoted by Yoon in http://www. southbound.com.my/communication/parcom.htm] puts it, there are four ways in which participation can be ensured in a communication campaign.
Firstly, through participation in implementation where people are encouraged to take up certain responsibilities and are required to contribute specific resources. Secondly, through participation in evaluation when upon completion of the project, the target population is asked to critically analyse its success and failure. Thirdly, they can participate in the benefits of the project; for example, by drawing drinking-water from the hand-pump. Fourthly, by participating in the decision-making, whereby people plan the activities that they will do as a community and discuss the pros and cons of a particular project. For example, the target group could decide whether to construct a school building or not.
While some development campaigns provide people with all these opportunities, others restrict it to one or two ways. It is argued that participation in decision-making is the most important form to promote as it gives people an opportunity to control their lives and environment, along with acquiring problem-solving skills. The other three forms of participation are considered to encourage pseudo-participation as people can easily be manipulated to accept plans made by other more powerful people. But there are others who argue that these three ways allow people “to build-up capacity to participate in decision-making”. They feel that “prematurely mobilizing people to make their own decisions and chart their own development can put the people at risk of conflict with powerful interests and jeopardize their safety” [Ibid]. Another reason put forth by some Asian countries against the Western concept of people’s participation, is that the target population should be educated before they are allowed to take decisions from a diversity of views. Otherwise, they might find it difficult to come to a consensus and it could lead to a conflict situation.
As such, participatory communication cannot be regarded as a “panacea for development” [Ibid]; they are not always suitable for solving all problems in all situations. It can be considered to be the best strategy that has the potential to involve people to pursue their aspirations, but it has limited influence on people’s commitment because whether people want to or can participate in developmental projects depend solely on the situations they live in. For example, a mother with a terminally ill child cannot be expected to take interest in such projects.
Although the participatory strategy is a bottom-up approach that makes people self-reliant, it also presupposes that the rural population cooperates with each other to pursue their common interest. But, in reality, it often leads to total chaos and conflict due to a lack of consensus in decision-making. This democratic dilemma brings us to Jurgen Habermas’ concepts of the ‘public sphere’ and the ‘ideal speech’. As Escobar [1995; as quoted by Jacobson and Storey, 2004: 101] points out: the universalism of these concepts “under-emphasizes the plurality of human experience and applauds as social progress the abandonment of tradition in the Third World”.
The communicative action that takes place in an “ideal speech situation”, assumes that all participants contribute to the discussion equally [Habermas, as quoted in Ibid: 103]. Yet, in reality, it is the one who argues better persuades the rest; and, a logical argument can involve deception. This theory can also be applied to cultural change and loss of identity — the potential outcomes of the participatory method of communication.
Again, the concepts of "participation" and "manipulation" can be interpreted from many perspectives. An interventionist, who attempts to impose his own decisions on the target population, also brings with him a whole set of “alien cultural premises”. On the other hand, the communicator of the message may enter a village with a particular “picture of reality and set of values” in mind. And, he might even expect the people to see their plight in just the same way as he or she sees it. This can be interpreted as manipulation as well.
Another drawback that is often overlooked is the price that people have to pay for taking part in participatory processes. “It is often assumed that the villager has nothing better to do with his or her time. For every hour spent ‘participating’ there is an opportunity cost; that is, the fact that the villager may be foregoing more productive activity if the participatory process does not lead to benefits, either in the long or short term” [Ibid].
The greatest drawback of this strategy is, perhaps, the fact that the communicator is totally alien to the conditions of the target population. Doing a research on a certain community from afar and spending a few months with them does not ensure a proper understanding of the living conditions and culture of the people. As such, the best way of going about with this strategy is to allow the villagers to take fundamental decisions, with the role of the communicator being that of a guide who steers them away from conflicting situations and motivating them to maintain their long-term commitments towards the project at hand.
1) The mass media is one of the best strategies of propaganda and gradual persuasion. Deriving from a cognitive-neoassociationistic perspective [Anderson & Bower, 1973; Landman & Manis, 1983; as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 45], we can say that when people watch, read or hear about an event through the mass media, similar ideas are activated in them which “in turn can activate other semantically related ideas and actions” [Ibid]. In that sense, the potential of the mass media is immense.
As such, every year millions of resources are spent on campaigns to change attitudes of people in the desired direction – the issues could be as varied as political candidates and consumer products to health and safety practices, and charitable causes. The ultimate aim is to influence people’s behaviour so that they will vote for certain politicians or referenda, purchase specific goods, engage in safer eating and sexual activities, and donate money to various religious, environmental and educational organisations and institutions [Ibid: 91].
This can again be achieved in two ways: firstly, through widespread propaganda which has a direct effect on the attitude and behaviour of the recipients. But, very few social scientists today will credit mass media with such persuasive powers, even though the technological advances in the last few years have been unprecedented. This is because the audience has also become more discerning than ever before. So, the other way of achieving it is through the indirect method where the media influences the opinion leaders who in turn mingle with the masses to bring about changes in their behaviour [Ibid: 92].
McQuail [2000: 432-433] has come up with four models of influence: information processing, conditioning or associational, functional, and relational. The relational model focuses on the relationship between the sender and the receiver of the message, which is basically governed by power. The two must cooperate in this power relationship if influence is to succeed. People tend to reject power, so there must be sufficient motivation to cooperate.
Kelman suggests three basic processes of influence: compliance, identification and internalisation. He also emphasises that this relational model of influence is not power-oriented. However, McQuail feels that it’s the persuader’s task to convince the persuadee that acquisition of some product or behaviour can earn him social approval and acceptance. In this sense, a power relationship does seem to exist. And, it is a fact that the mass media, through commercials and popular programmes, tends to establish this kind of relationship with its audience [Ibid and Reardon, 1991: 176-7].
To achieve identification and subsequent compliance, here’s an interesting observation by Burnkrant and Unnava [1989, as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 103]. They found a message that frames its pronouns in the second person (for example, ‘you’) and not in the third person (that is, ‘one’ or ‘he’ and ‘she’), is more efficient in increasing personal involvement and processing of the information conveyed. And, this is the only way mass media can bring about enduring changes in attitudes and behaviours of the recipients. Here, Bryant and Zillmann [Ibid: 102] mentions the concept of “perceived personal relevance of the communication” which enhances interest and consequent internalisation of the media message.
However, there are certain drawbacks to the mass media as a tool of propaganda and persuasion. It is commonly believed that since the same programmes are available to all the people in the country at the same time, similar experiences are interpreted in similar ways by the audience. Reardon [1991: 172], in fact, considers the watching of television to be “one of the few social influence processes that appears to lend itself neatly to cause-effect explanations”. But, this assumption could be erroneous, in the sense that the reception power of the audience might vary with age and upbringing.
It reminds one of the famous saying that you can take a horse near the water, but you cannot make it drink. Similarly, one can persuade a person to watch/ hear a particular programme, but it is not always possible to motivate him to think about the message conveyed. This is because the recipient might consider the information to be irrelevant and react unfavourably or just discard it. Even if there are apparent attitudinal changes, they might be based on superficial interpretation of the messages as opposed to elaborate processing of the message. Another reason could be that the person concerned lacks necessary skills to translate the internalised attitudes into actions because of certain social constraints.
But the most important note of caution is that although the mass media can respond to the needs of the people, at the end of the day they are money-making enterprises selling what gets them revenue. As such, their messages are seldom accepted uncritically by the discerning audience.
2) Comprising basically performing arts, the popular media is an important tool for communication in support of development. It engages in the strategy of blatant propaganda and persuasion that the concerned recipients can relate to more easily than that of the mass media.
In the last few decades, a special type of popular theatre has developed called ‘theatre for development’ wherein the workshop participants are not only trained in dramatisation but also in basic sociological techniques. “This enables them to draw up an inventory of local community problems. In each play, one problem theme is explored by and for the local community” [Boeren and Epskamp, 1992: 8].
To respond to the need for development, performing arts are used for disseminating information on government ideology and programmes, as also convincing people to accept the ideas of modernisation. In the rural areas, it is used as a participatory and confidence-building tool that not only teaches the latest technology to the farmers, but also makes them literate and promotes community education [Ibid: 112].
These campaigns can either be (a) mobile in which the government hires professional troupes to tour as many villages as possible to publicise “government ideology and development programmes”. They operate on massive scales. For example, the Indian song-and-drama troupes are estimated to give 20,000 performances a year. (b) There can be another type of campaign for mobilisation. In this, large numbers of locally-based theatre troupes are encouraged to enact plays in their own areas “on national development policies or programmes” [Ibid: 113].
Besides the programmes on government initiatives that operate within a conventional framework, there is another category of “change-oriented theatre” that performs on non-governmental initiatives. These groups “aim at contributing to a process of structural transformation by movements of agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, migrant workers, urban squatters, and other marginalised groups”. Here, the popular media helps to educate and organise the deprived population to defend themselves against victimization and gradually transform the existing power structure [Ibid: 118].
Therefore, it seems, the efficacy of the popular media is theoretically more pronounced than that of the mass media. This is because the theatre groups engaging in impromptu street plays and road shows, reach a more targeted audience with a specific message. Moreover, they have no profit-making motives and that make their strategies more objective. However, this strategy may suffer from the same limitation of motivating the audience to process and internalise the message conveyed. Whatever changes in attitude might be evident could be superficial and temporary. Besides, as Boeren puts it [Ibid: 49], popular theatre comprises an expensive affair involving a group of people over a considerable period of time. So, the campaign costs are often too prohibitive to adopt. Again, although the actors use local idioms in the play, theatre for development does amount to external intervention and the benefits of the message conveyed, seldom reach the marginal sections of the society.
3) Participatory communication has been defined as a process that “solicits the involvement of the people to shape their own development, addressing the problems they have identified and providing solutions that are feasible to them” [Boeren and Epskamp, 1992: 57].
This strategy was born in reaction to the deliberate modernisation propagated by the developed West. As Uphoff [1985; as quoted by Yoon in http://www. southbound.com.my/communication/parcom.htm] puts it, there are four ways in which participation can be ensured in a communication campaign.
Firstly, through participation in implementation where people are encouraged to take up certain responsibilities and are required to contribute specific resources. Secondly, through participation in evaluation when upon completion of the project, the target population is asked to critically analyse its success and failure. Thirdly, they can participate in the benefits of the project; for example, by drawing drinking-water from the hand-pump. Fourthly, by participating in the decision-making, whereby people plan the activities that they will do as a community and discuss the pros and cons of a particular project. For example, the target group could decide whether to construct a school building or not.
While some development campaigns provide people with all these opportunities, others restrict it to one or two ways. It is argued that participation in decision-making is the most important form to promote as it gives people an opportunity to control their lives and environment, along with acquiring problem-solving skills. The other three forms of participation are considered to encourage pseudo-participation as people can easily be manipulated to accept plans made by other more powerful people. But there are others who argue that these three ways allow people “to build-up capacity to participate in decision-making”. They feel that “prematurely mobilizing people to make their own decisions and chart their own development can put the people at risk of conflict with powerful interests and jeopardize their safety” [Ibid]. Another reason put forth by some Asian countries against the Western concept of people’s participation, is that the target population should be educated before they are allowed to take decisions from a diversity of views. Otherwise, they might find it difficult to come to a consensus and it could lead to a conflict situation.
As such, participatory communication cannot be regarded as a “panacea for development” [Ibid]; they are not always suitable for solving all problems in all situations. It can be considered to be the best strategy that has the potential to involve people to pursue their aspirations, but it has limited influence on people’s commitment because whether people want to or can participate in developmental projects depend solely on the situations they live in. For example, a mother with a terminally ill child cannot be expected to take interest in such projects.
Although the participatory strategy is a bottom-up approach that makes people self-reliant, it also presupposes that the rural population cooperates with each other to pursue their common interest. But, in reality, it often leads to total chaos and conflict due to a lack of consensus in decision-making. This democratic dilemma brings us to Jurgen Habermas’ concepts of the ‘public sphere’ and the ‘ideal speech’. As Escobar [1995; as quoted by Jacobson and Storey, 2004: 101] points out: the universalism of these concepts “under-emphasizes the plurality of human experience and applauds as social progress the abandonment of tradition in the Third World”.
The communicative action that takes place in an “ideal speech situation”, assumes that all participants contribute to the discussion equally [Habermas, as quoted in Ibid: 103]. Yet, in reality, it is the one who argues better persuades the rest; and, a logical argument can involve deception. This theory can also be applied to cultural change and loss of identity — the potential outcomes of the participatory method of communication.
Again, the concepts of "participation" and "manipulation" can be interpreted from many perspectives. An interventionist, who attempts to impose his own decisions on the target population, also brings with him a whole set of “alien cultural premises”. On the other hand, the communicator of the message may enter a village with a particular “picture of reality and set of values” in mind. And, he might even expect the people to see their plight in just the same way as he or she sees it. This can be interpreted as manipulation as well.
Another drawback that is often overlooked is the price that people have to pay for taking part in participatory processes. “It is often assumed that the villager has nothing better to do with his or her time. For every hour spent ‘participating’ there is an opportunity cost; that is, the fact that the villager may be foregoing more productive activity if the participatory process does not lead to benefits, either in the long or short term” [Ibid].
The greatest drawback of this strategy is, perhaps, the fact that the communicator is totally alien to the conditions of the target population. Doing a research on a certain community from afar and spending a few months with them does not ensure a proper understanding of the living conditions and culture of the people. As such, the best way of going about with this strategy is to allow the villagers to take fundamental decisions, with the role of the communicator being that of a guide who steers them away from conflicting situations and motivating them to maintain their long-term commitments towards the project at hand.
2.1.4 FACE-TO-FACE VERSUS MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
All the three strategies involve interpersonal communication. That is, all entail an interactive process between two people — either face-to-face or through mediated forms [http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/interpersonal/]. However, interpersonal communication is more often related to the former and is considered to be more influential when communicated through the interpersonal channels [Windahl, Signitzer and Olson, 1992: 54].
This brings us to the issue of identifying the most effective development communication strategy. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and so it is debatable as to which is the best strategy to adopt.
Cartwright [1949: 253; as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 91] has been quoted as saying: “It is conceivable that one persuasive person could, through the use of mass media, bend the world’s population to his will”. But, there is no social scientist today who would corroborate this view, because a number of theories that have evolved since then establish selective influence of the mass media.
Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory claims that if there is a psychological discomfort between a person’s beliefs/ attitudes and actions, it leads to selective perception. The intensity of influence of the message varies depending on the importance of issue and degree of inconsistency. It might induce a ‘drive state’ whereby the individual avoids or reduces dissonance by changing beliefs, attitudes or behaviours so that the messages are perceived as consistent. It could also lead to ‘selective exposure’ leading to a tendency to avoid information inconsistent with one’s beliefs and attitudes. However, critics have argued that it can be counteracted to some extent by introducing perceived usefulness of information, perceived norm of fairness or curiosity/interest value to the information. If used properly, this can even be used to persuade a hostile audience [Griffin, 1997: 165].
Katz and Lazarsfeld have also talked about the two step flow of communication to describe their observation. They feel that media messages flow from the media to opinion leaders to the rest of the audience. In other words, media influences are mediated by the pattern of our social contacts and so they have limited effects [http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/ MUHome/cshtml/media/efterms.html]. In fact, it is believed that it is this model that connects mass or the mechanical media to interpersonal communication [Windahl, Signitzer and Olson, 1992: 52].
Hornik [as quoted Ibid:153] has come up with five hypotheses; the first two place more importance on the interpersonal channels or agents in achieving behavioural changes than the others. They are:
• Agent-Effects-Only Hypothesis
• Agent-Necessary-for-Media-Effects Hypothesis
• Additive Hypothesis where both media and interpersonal channels bring about change independently
• Substitution Hypothesis where both channels may substitute each other
• Reinforcement Hypothesis where both have independent effects with a positive interaction
John Fiske [1990: 19, 64, 65] talks about the system of encoding and decoding codes to understand human behaviour. A code is a system of signs that have a common meaning to the members of a culture or a community. They determine how and in what context these signs are used and how they can be combined to form complex messages. Thus, all codes perform an identifiable social or communicative function.
Of the many codes, the broadcast code is one that is shared by a mass audience. They are usually simple and have an immediate appeal even to people with less ‘education’. They are community-oriented and so tend to link the audience with the society they belong to. Thus, the audience, in turn, determine not just the content of the broadcast message, but also the form of the message. For example, broadcast messages have a beginning, the body and an end; an event may not have finished, but the news report on it has to have a conclusion [Ibid: 73-74]. In this way, the audience tend to control the message conveyed by the media.
The Uses and Gratifications Theory also espouses that the audience uses the media only to seek gratification for a variety of needs. In other words, instead of asking 'what do the media do to audiences?', the Uses and Gratifications approach asks 'what do audiences do with the media?'. The most commonly identified needs that the media gratifies for the audience are: surveillance (monitoring what is going on in the world), personal relationships, personal identity and diversion (entertainment and escapism) [http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/ MUHome/cshtml/media/efterms.html]. As such, Blumler and Katz suggest that media-users play an active role in the communication process by choosing and using the media to meet their own goal. The theory also assumes that the users have alternate choices to satisfy their need [Blumler and Katz, 1974: 37].
But, critics point out that this is an optimistic view. The theory overlooks the possibility of an unconscious influence that the media might have on our lives and how we view the world. The idea that we simply use the media to satisfy a given need does not seem to fully recognize the power of the media in today’s society [Blumler and Katz, 1974: 94].
In fact, all these theories apply not only to mass media but also to the popular media as well as the participatory method. The audience of a popular theatre might also suffer from selective perception just as they would absorb only those messages that would gratify their needs. The same applies to the receivers of a message conveyed through the participatory method; they would only be influenced by it at a superficial level.
Although the participatory process involves a higher level of interpersonal communication — that is so beneficial for any developmental work — it should always be supplemented by the other strategies, namely the mass and the popular media. This will help the target population, usually based in rural areas, to interpret the message reaching them and make them aware of their predicament, which in turn will ensure a more objective decision-making on their part as also mobilise them into participation.
This brings us to the issue of identifying the most effective development communication strategy. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and so it is debatable as to which is the best strategy to adopt.
Cartwright [1949: 253; as quoted by Bryant and Zillmann, 1994: 91] has been quoted as saying: “It is conceivable that one persuasive person could, through the use of mass media, bend the world’s population to his will”. But, there is no social scientist today who would corroborate this view, because a number of theories that have evolved since then establish selective influence of the mass media.
Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory claims that if there is a psychological discomfort between a person’s beliefs/ attitudes and actions, it leads to selective perception. The intensity of influence of the message varies depending on the importance of issue and degree of inconsistency. It might induce a ‘drive state’ whereby the individual avoids or reduces dissonance by changing beliefs, attitudes or behaviours so that the messages are perceived as consistent. It could also lead to ‘selective exposure’ leading to a tendency to avoid information inconsistent with one’s beliefs and attitudes. However, critics have argued that it can be counteracted to some extent by introducing perceived usefulness of information, perceived norm of fairness or curiosity/interest value to the information. If used properly, this can even be used to persuade a hostile audience [Griffin, 1997: 165].
Katz and Lazarsfeld have also talked about the two step flow of communication to describe their observation. They feel that media messages flow from the media to opinion leaders to the rest of the audience. In other words, media influences are mediated by the pattern of our social contacts and so they have limited effects [http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/ MUHome/cshtml/media/efterms.html]. In fact, it is believed that it is this model that connects mass or the mechanical media to interpersonal communication [Windahl, Signitzer and Olson, 1992: 52].
Hornik [as quoted Ibid:153] has come up with five hypotheses; the first two place more importance on the interpersonal channels or agents in achieving behavioural changes than the others. They are:
• Agent-Effects-Only Hypothesis
• Agent-Necessary-for-Media-Effects Hypothesis
• Additive Hypothesis where both media and interpersonal channels bring about change independently
• Substitution Hypothesis where both channels may substitute each other
• Reinforcement Hypothesis where both have independent effects with a positive interaction
John Fiske [1990: 19, 64, 65] talks about the system of encoding and decoding codes to understand human behaviour. A code is a system of signs that have a common meaning to the members of a culture or a community. They determine how and in what context these signs are used and how they can be combined to form complex messages. Thus, all codes perform an identifiable social or communicative function.
Of the many codes, the broadcast code is one that is shared by a mass audience. They are usually simple and have an immediate appeal even to people with less ‘education’. They are community-oriented and so tend to link the audience with the society they belong to. Thus, the audience, in turn, determine not just the content of the broadcast message, but also the form of the message. For example, broadcast messages have a beginning, the body and an end; an event may not have finished, but the news report on it has to have a conclusion [Ibid: 73-74]. In this way, the audience tend to control the message conveyed by the media.
The Uses and Gratifications Theory also espouses that the audience uses the media only to seek gratification for a variety of needs. In other words, instead of asking 'what do the media do to audiences?', the Uses and Gratifications approach asks 'what do audiences do with the media?'. The most commonly identified needs that the media gratifies for the audience are: surveillance (monitoring what is going on in the world), personal relationships, personal identity and diversion (entertainment and escapism) [http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/ MUHome/cshtml/media/efterms.html]. As such, Blumler and Katz suggest that media-users play an active role in the communication process by choosing and using the media to meet their own goal. The theory also assumes that the users have alternate choices to satisfy their need [Blumler and Katz, 1974: 37].
But, critics point out that this is an optimistic view. The theory overlooks the possibility of an unconscious influence that the media might have on our lives and how we view the world. The idea that we simply use the media to satisfy a given need does not seem to fully recognize the power of the media in today’s society [Blumler and Katz, 1974: 94].
In fact, all these theories apply not only to mass media but also to the popular media as well as the participatory method. The audience of a popular theatre might also suffer from selective perception just as they would absorb only those messages that would gratify their needs. The same applies to the receivers of a message conveyed through the participatory method; they would only be influenced by it at a superficial level.
Although the participatory process involves a higher level of interpersonal communication — that is so beneficial for any developmental work — it should always be supplemented by the other strategies, namely the mass and the popular media. This will help the target population, usually based in rural areas, to interpret the message reaching them and make them aware of their predicament, which in turn will ensure a more objective decision-making on their part as also mobilise them into participation.
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