Communication and Development

Abstract

The relative communication backwardness of many developing nations parallels their extreme economic, social, and individual poverty. There are two general ways in which communication serves people. One of these involves person-to-person communication, such as the telephone or telegraph. This kind of communication makes it possible to contact people, make appointments, and plan things. The second way communication serves people is through its mass or community form. Communication is part of the development process because it is essential to planning, education, and the creation of justice and stability. Variables such as language or culture can impede communication, and successful information exchange on behalf of development is a complex phenomenon requiring more than messages alone. A survey of the literature on communication reveals that many writers have viewed mass media as a fundamental, causal element of development. The most influential work on communication and development in the 1960s was Wilbur Schramm's Mass Media and National Development.

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