The Drum Beat 670 - Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication

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Issue #

670

The Drum Beat - 670 - Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication

Specific knowledge shared below includes:
FAMILY TREE ORGANISING PAGE
INTRODUCTION
DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
THE DOMINANT PARADIGM
THEORIES IN THE TRADITION OF THE DOMINANT PARADIGM
CRITIQUES OF THE DOMINANT PARADIGM
TOWARDS A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL CONVERGENCE?
BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Communication Initiative seeks to ensure that you are up to date with: new programme initiatives; emerging strategic thinking; the most recent research and evaluation data; innovations with video, audio, print materials; and much more. That said, we are also committed to communicating the foundations of this field - its theoretical base and planning model options, for example. From that perspective, we wish to reprise Silvio Waisbord's (2001) "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences and Differences". Commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation as part of its communication for social change (CFSC) focus and development process, this report outlines the history of, and theoretical underpinnings to, communication and media for development strategies and practices.

Below are excerpts from Waisbord's foundational publication [PDF] along with just a few links to searches for related summaries on The CI site to entice you to explore the theories further.

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1. Organising Page: Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences and Differences
From The CI (words of a CI editor): "Commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation, this 44-page paper explores the roots and shape of the field of development communication. In it, Silvio Waisbord presents readers with a 'family tree' of theories, concepts, methodologies and strategies for change, describing each 'offshoot' of the related but quite distinct directions in which this field has moved - from its origins in post-war international aid programmes in developing countries to its various refinements over the years, through to the present day. In short, this report 'identifies the main theoretical approaches and their practical applications, traces their origins, draws comparisons, and indicates strengths and weaknesses. It also analyzes the main understandings of development communication that express the outlook of the main 'trunks' and 'branches' of the family tree.' Exercising care not to set up a stiff dichotomy, Waisbord explains that there are two core development communication approaches..."

2. Introduction
In the words of Silvio Waisbord (the following and all quoted material hereafter are his): "Since the 1950s, a diversity of theoretical and empirical traditions has converged in the field of development communication. Such convergence produced a rich analytical vocabulary but also conceptual confusion. The field has not experienced a linear evolution in which new approaches superseded and replaced previous ones. Instead, different theories and practices that originated in different disciplines have existed and have been used simultaneously. This report identifies the main theoretical approaches and their practical applications, traces their origins, draws comparisons, and indicates strengths and weaknesses. It also analyzes the main understandings of development communication that express the outlook of the main 'trunks' and 'branches' of the family tree."

3. Development Communication
"Although a multiplicity of theories and concepts emerged during the past fifty years, studies and interventions have fundamentally offered two different diagnoses and answers to the problem of underdevelopment. While one position has argued that the problem was largely due to lack of information among populations, the other one suggested that power inequality was the underlying problem. Because the diagnoses were different, recommendations were different, too. Running the risk of overgeneralization, it could be said that theories and intervention approaches fell in different camps on the following points: Cultural vs. environmental explanations for underdevelopment. Psychological vs. socio-political theories and interventions. Attitudinal and behavior models vs. structural and social models. Individual vs. community-centered interventions development. Hierarchical and sender-oriented vs. horizontal and participatory communication models. Active vs. passive conceptions of audiences and populations. Participation as means vs. participation as end approaches."

4. The Dominant Paradigm
"The 'diffusion of innovations' theory elaborated by Everett Rogers (1962, 1983) became one of the most influential modernization theories. It has been said that Rogers' model has ruled development communication for decades and became the blueprint for communication activities in development. Rogers' intention was to understand the adoption of new behaviors....[D]iverging from the media-centrism and 'magic bullet' theory of effects that underpinned earlier analyses, Rogers and subsequent “diffusion” studies concluded that the media had a great importance in increasing awareness but that interpersonal communication and personal sources were crucial in making decisions to adopt innovations....Other positions suggested that the traditional model needed to integrate a process orientation that was not only focused on the results of intervention but also to pay attention to content, and address the cognitive dimensions (not just behavior). Many of these observations were integrated into the diffusion approach." See also these items focused on "Diffusion of Innovations" (currently, 47 of them), summarised on The CI website.

5. Theories in the Tradition of the Dominant Paradigm
a) Social marketing, where the emphasis is "not so much on getting ideas out or transforming attitudes but influencing behavior. For some of its best-known proponents, behavior change is social marketing's bottom line, the goal that sets it apart from education or propaganda. Unlike commercial marketing, which is not concerned with the social consequences of its actions, the social marketing model centers on communication campaigns designed to promote socially beneficial practices or products in a target group. Social marketing's goal is to position a product such as condoms by giving information that could help fulfill, rather than create, uncovered demand." See also these items focused on "social marketing" (currently, 590 of them), summarised on The CI website. b) Health promotion and health education: "The goal of health promotion is to facilitate the environmental conditions to support healthy behaviors. Individual knowledge, as conceived in traditional approaches, is insufficient if groups lack basic systems that facilitate the adoption of healthy practices." See also these items focused on health promotion and health education (currently, 9,464 of them - many filters are available so that you can refine the search), summarised on The CI website. c) Entertainment-education "is not a theory but a strategy to maximize the reach and effectiveness of health messages through the combination of entertainment and education. The fact that its premises are derived from socio-psychology and human communication theories place entertainment-education in the modernization/diffusion theory trunk. It subscribes to the Shannon-Weaver model of communication of sender-channel-message-receiver. Like diffusion theory, it is concerned with behavior change through the dissemination of information." See also our Entertainment-Education theme site, where you will find a portal to the both long-established and current work drawing upon this theoretical basis.

6. Critiques of the Dominant Paradigm
a) Dependency theory found that the "solution to underdevelopment problems was essentially political, rather than merely informational. What was required was social change in order to transform the general distribution of power and resources. Information and media policies were necessary to deal with communication problems. Solutions to underdevelopment required major changes in media structures that were dominated by commercial principles and foreign interests. Policies needed to promote national and public goals that could put the media in the service of the people rather than as pipelines for capitalist ideologies." b) Participatory theories and approaches "considered necessary a redefinition of development communication. One set of definitions stated that it meant the systematic utilization of communication channels and techniques to increase people's participation in development and to inform, motivate, and train rural populations mainly at the grassroots. For others, development communication needed to be human- rather than media-centered. This implied the abandonment of the persuasion bias that development communication had inherited from propaganda theories, and the adoption of a different understanding of communication." c) Media advocacy has as its goals "to stimulate debate and promote responsible portrayals and coverage of health issues. Advocacy requires the mobilization of resources and groups in support of certain issues and policies to change public opinion and decisions. It consists of the organization of information for dissemination through various interpersonal and media channels towards gaining political and social acceptance of certain issues." d) Social mobilisation is "the process of bringing together all feasible and practical inter-sectoral social allies to raise people's awareness of and demand for a particular development program, to assist in the delivery of resources and services and to strengthen community participation for sustainability and self-reliance. A successful mobilization must be built on the basis of mutual benefits of partners and a decentralized structure."

7. Towards a Theoretical and Empirical Convergence?
"Notwithstanding important persistent differences among theories and approaches, it is possible to identify several points of convergence that suggest possible directions in the field of international communication. The need of political will... A 'tool-kit' conception of strategies... Integration of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches... Integration of multimedia and interpersonal communication... Personal and environmental approaches should be integrated... Persistent divisions: Despite the cross-pollination of traditions and a multi-strategy approach to interventions, the rift between behavior change and participatory approaches and theories still characterizes the field. The divisions are less pronounced than a few decades ago given the integration of different strategies discussed in the previous section but are still important.....The realization that communities should be the main actors of development communication may constitute a starting point for further integration. Likewise, efforts to integrate theories and strategies that recognize that media campaigns are insufficient without community participation, that social marketing efforts are weak without environmental changes, that community empowerment might be the ultimate goal to guarantee sustainable development, are encouraging to promote dialogue among different theories and traditions."

8. Bibliography
Editor's note: This bibliography, in alphabetical order, includes references to 96 communication for development (C4D) publications - some of them seminal in the C4D field.

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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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