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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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When a village learns about a new vaccine, a new seed or a new loan scheme, communication is doing a special job. What would you call that job?
Spreading information so that people's lives improve?
Close. Development communication uses communication as a catalyst for positive social change, and it does so in a planned, systematic way.
Who first used the term?
Nora Quebral coined it in 1972. She called it the art and science of human communication used to help a disadvantaged society develop with equity.
Why both an art and a science?
Because messages must be planned and tested like a science, but they must also be creative and sensitive enough to reach people's hearts, which is an art.
Development communication combines mass media with interpersonal channels. Why use both?
Radio or TV can reach thousands at once, but people trust a health worker they can talk to.
Exactly. It is also based on the audience and their environment. What does that mean in practice?
A message for farmers in a dry area should talk about their crops, in their language, at a time they can listen.
Good. Now the most important feature: it is a two-way process. What flows back from the audience?
Feedback, like their questions, doubts and ideas.
And it assumes people who face a problem can find solutions themselves. So the agency listens as much as it speaks.
Suppose children in a village often suffer from diarrhoea. How would you use development communication to promote oral rehydration solution?
First find out what mothers already do and why, perhaps by visiting homes and talking to them.
Then show them how to make the solution at a group meeting, and back it up with a radio message.
Good mix of channels. Where does motivation come in?
Mothers who have used it successfully could share their stories, so others feel they can do it too.
And if mothers say the solution tastes bad, so children refuse it?
We take that feedback seriously and change the demonstration, so it is a real dialogue.
That is development communication: dialogue that leads to concerted action.
Development communication uses communication to speed up positive social change in a planned way.
The art and science of human communication for the planned development of a disadvantaged society with equity.
Mass media give reach, while interpersonal channels build trust and help people act.
Messages are shaped by the characteristics and environment of the people they are meant for.
Dialogue and feedback between people and agencies, with motivation as the key element, lead to consensus and concerted action.
Health: Health workers demonstrate oral rehydration solution in home visits while radio spots repeat the message, and mothers' questions shape later demonstrations.
Agriculture: An extension officer tests a new seed variety with farmers on their own fields, discusses the results with them, and then shares their experience through a local radio programme.
Sanitation: Instead of only ordering households to build toilets, a programme first learns why toilets are not used and plans solutions together with women's groups and village leaders.
Talk with people, not at them; listen first and change will stem.
A health team put up posters about clean water, but nothing changed. Then they sat with the village women, heard that the well was too far, and helped them plan a closer tap. The posters spoke; the dialogue worked.
Nora named it in seventy-two: the name Nora Quebral goes with the year 1972.
M.A.T.E. - Mixed channels, Audience-based, Two-way, Educates and informs.
Term
Who coined the term development communication, and when?
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How did Quebral describe development communication?
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Why does development communication combine mass media and interpersonal channels?
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What makes development communication a two-way process?
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What does development communication treat as its key element?
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Positive changes in the socio-economic and cultural lives of most people on a lasting basis, without exploitation or violence.
The systematic use of communication processes, strategies and principles to bring about positive social change.
Communication in which the audience responds and the source listens and adapts, rather than a one-way flow of messages.
The response of the audience, such as questions, doubts or suggestions, that returns to the source.
Face-to-face or person-to-person communication, such as home visits, group meetings and demonstrations.
Channels that reach large audiences at once, such as radio, television, newspapers and the internet.
The particular group of people a message is designed for, such as young mothers or small farmers.
A shared understanding or agreement among all the people taking part in a development effort.
Development communication is the planned use of communication as a catalyst for positive social change. The term was first coined in 1972 by Nora Quebral, and it works as a two-way process that builds dialogue between people and development agencies.
Development communication systematically applies the processes, strategies and principles of communication to bring about positive social change. Nora Quebral, who coined the term in 1972, described it as the art and science of human communication used to help a disadvantaged society develop in a planned way, with equity and the fulfilment of each person's potential. Its essential features are that it is oriented to the socio-economic development and happiness of the community, it informs and educates, it combines mass media with interpersonal channels, and it is based on the audience and their environment. Above all it is a two-way process: it assumes that people facing a problem can find solutions, treats motivation as the key element, and seeks a common understanding that leads to concerted action.
Development communication means using the power of communication as a catalyst for social development. It is the practice of systematically applying the processes, strategies and principles of communication to bring about positive social change. Where development means positive and lasting changes in the socio-economic and cultural lives of most people, without exploitation or violence, development communication is the means by which people learn about, discuss and take part in those changes.
The term "Development Communication" was first coined in 1972 by Nora Quebral. She described it as the art and science of human communication used to help a disadvantaged society develop in a planned manner, so as to ensure equity and the achievement of each individual's potential. Calling it both an art and a science matters: messages must be planned carefully and tested, but they must also be creative and sensitive enough to reach people.
Taken together, these features make development communication a social process designed to reach a common understanding, or consensus, among everyone involved in development, leading to concerted action.
Every act of development communication has a source (such as a health worker, an agriculture extension officer or an NGO), a message (for example, how to prepare oral rehydration solution), a channel (a home visit, a group meeting, a demonstration, radio, television, print or a mobile phone), and an audience (such as young mothers or small farmers). What makes it development communication is feedback: the audience's questions, doubts and suggestions flow back to the source, and the message and method are changed in response.
A notice that simply tells villagers to build toilets is one-way information. A development communication approach first learns why families are not using toilets, involves local leaders and women's groups in discussion, demonstrates low-cost options, and keeps listening to the community. The first gives orders; the second builds understanding and commitment.
Development communication supports programmes in health and nutrition, agriculture, literacy and education, sanitation, women's empowerment and environmental protection. Campaigns such as the Red Ribbon Express on HIV/AIDS, studied in the next lesson, show it at work on a national scale.
Development communication is not only about sending messages to people. It treats people as partners who hold knowledge and solutions of their own, and it uses well-chosen channels and continuous dialogue to help them achieve lasting change.