Communication &

National Development

Approach by Wilbur Schramm

In the 1960s there was a strong belief in the power of mass media to easily propagate ideas on social change.

Calls to improve mass communication systems of underdeveloped countries were made as:• a response to the UN General Assembly Report saying that 70% of the world’s population had inadequate access to information.•with the need to write a guide on how underdeveloped countries could optimise the power of the mass media for development.

Need of the approach:

The nation-state promoting development is ideal, and that the media can hasten the process. Schramm argues the media entice people to change. • However, media can

only do so much when it comes to influencing people in making major attitudinal change.

Wilbur Schramm accepted the task. He argues that:

Agriculture

Health

Literacy

formal education using mass media.

D i scuss ion campa igns on :

The efforts of Wilbur Schramm are largely responsible for the general understanding of the key role that communication plays in the : political economic development of

emerging nations.

Development of communication channels is closely interrelated with the complex processes of :

•Political•Social•economic evolution

in the new countries of:•Asia• Africa•Latin America•the Middle East.

Schramm asserts that communication assists in public understanding and acceptance of national goals and the individual's responsibilities for attaining them.

Economic development is especially dependent upon communication channels but must also provide the financial and material support for communication media.

S c h r a m m ' s t h e m e h a s b e e n t h a t t h e m a s s m e d i a c a n b e u s e d f o r :

•explaining goals• raising aspirations•and creating a climate for national development.

Further, the media assist in providing more widespread education through teacher support (or substitution).

Schramm also indicates that development of the media encourages political democracy with its attempts to involve the public in decision-making processes.

Approaches :

• http://www.nou.edu.ng/NOUN_OCL/pdf/SASS/MAC%20316%20MASS%20COMMUNICATION%20AND%20NATIONAL%20DEVELOPMENT.pdf

www.nou.edu.ng

• JSTOR: Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jan., 1966), pp. 243-247

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