Development Communication in the Agricultural Context (1971, with a new foreword)1

Abstract

2005 Foreword The thinking behind this article jelled in that period before the 1970s when the modernization theory of development still ruled but had lost some of its luster. ‘Communication’ then was a word used mostly by academics to connote media systems or the mass media, also known familiarly as ‘the press’. With its perceived capability to directly affect large, passive audiences, communication for development was expected to diffuse from elite sources information to raise expectations, unify diverse groups; and persuade people to shed traditional attitudes, learn new skills, and adopt technological innovations. But in developing Asia and Latin America, native experience was not in sync with conventional wisdom. This article may be viewed as part of the tentative groping at that time for more apt constructs. It attempted to hold up local reality against existing conceptual frameworks, note the disparities and offer some re-interpretations. Yet, from hindsight, one clearly sees the lack of fit between emerging concepts and extant terminology. The more appropriate terms had yet to be crafted. Thus, the article still used the language of persuasion and diffusion to describe an essentially educational model of communication. Thankfully, that problem need not exist today. Suitable terms for a wealth of new development and development communication concepts now abound. Even so, nomenclatures and paradigms still are indiscriminately mixed, to the probable distress of paradigm developers. Which statement in no way reflects on older paradigms. They co-exist with newer ones, each to be used when the situation is right. One thing is certain. Seeing the inadequacies of yesterday's paradigms does not negate their value. Let us not forget that present ideas build on the old. Without the latter, today's decentralized, participatory, user-oriented, environmentally sensitive models could never have taken off. And let us not think either that current ones will last forever. They will surely be replaced as knowledge expands and as societies move along their chosen paths to work out their own destinies.