Development Support Communication

Development Support Communication, a term that was coined and popularized by practitioners, was the response of fieldworkers to the realities in developing countries. With this term, the emphasis changed from viewing communication as an input toward greater economic growth to visualizing communication more holistically and as a support for people's self-determination, especially those at the grassroots.

Erskine Childers, brain behind this term, describes 'Development Support Communication' as development planning and implementation in which more adequate action is taken of human behavioral factors in the design of development projects and their objectives.

Development Support Communication system continuously emphasizes the appropriate motivation for the on-going support to sartorial development programmes. In the Development Support Communication system communication is used for:

Persuasion

Transmission of knowledge and information

Personal expression

Social and political change associated with sartorial development as vital instrument for social and political change

In the development context, communication strives not only to inform and educate but also to motivate the people and secure public participation in the growth process. A widespread understanding of development plans is an essential stage in the public cooperation for national development. An understanding of the priorities which govern these plans will enable each person to relate its role to the larger purposes of the nation as whole. Methods of communication must give people messages in simple language for understanding. The development plans must be carried into every home in the language and symbols of the people and expressed in terms of its common needs and problems. If obstacles are encountered and things go wrong somewhere people must be informed and acquainted with the steps taken to set things right. It is and error to be little the capacity of the common man to find out and accept what is good for improvement. This is the philosophy of development support communication which was urgently supported by UNESCO, UNDP, communication scholars and practitioners the world over.

Development communication was guided by the organizing principles of the dominant paradigm. Initially, the emphasis in this approach was on economic growth as the main route to development. Later, as disenchantment with this notion grew, people-oriented development variables were included under the umbrella of the paradigm.

Development communication and development support communication are two different trems.Development communication communicates development messages to people for betterment of their economic and social conditions. Whereas development support communication addresses development planning and the plan of operation for implementation.

Development Communication	Development Support Communication
Structure: Top-down, Authoritarian (Subject-Object relationship) Paradigm: Dominant paradigm of externally directed social change Level: International and national Media: Big media, TV, Radio, Newspapers Effects: To create a climate of acceptance by beneficiaries for exogenous ideas and innovations	Horizontal knowledge-sharing between participants (Subject-Subject relationship) Participatory paradigm of an endogenously directed quest to maintain control over basic needs Grassroots, Local Small media, Video, Film strips, Traditional media, Group and Interpersonal communication Create a climate of mutual understanding between participants

Development Support Communication

Development Support Communication, a term that was coined and popularized by practitioners, was the response of fieldworkers to the realities in developing countries. With this term, the emphasis changed from viewing communication as an input toward greater economic growth to visualizing communication more holistically and as a support for people's self-determination, especially those at the grassroots.

Erskine Childers, brain behind this term, describes 'Development Support Communication' as development planning and implementation in which more adequate action is taken of human behavioral factors in the design of development projects and their objectives.

Development Support Communication system continuously emphasizes the appropriate motivation for the on-going support to sartorial development programmes. In the Development Support Communication system communication is used for:

Persuasion

Transmission of knowledge and information

Personal expression

Social and political change associated with sartorial development as vital instrument for social and political change

In the development context, communication strives not only to inform and educate but also to motivate the people and secure public participation in the growth process. A widespread understanding of development plans is an essential stage in the public cooperation for national development. An understanding of the priorities which govern these plans will enable each person to relate its role to the larger purposes of the nation as whole. Methods of communication must give people messages in simple language for understanding. The development plans must be carried into every home in the language and symbols of the people and expressed in terms of its common needs and problems. If obstacles are encountered and things go wrong somewhere people must be informed and acquainted with the steps taken to set things right. It is and error to be little the capacity of the common man to find out and accept what is good for improvement. This is the philosophy of development support communication which was urgently supported by UNESCO, UNDP, communication scholars and practitioners the world over.

Development communication was guided by the organizing principles of the dominant paradigm. Initially, the emphasis in this approach was on economic growth as the main route to development. Later, as disenchantment with this notion grew, people-oriented development variables were included under the umbrella of the paradigm.

Development communication and development support communication are two different trems.Development communication communicates development messages to people for betterment of their economic and social conditions. Whereas development support communication addresses development planning and the plan of operation for implementation.

Development Communication	Development Support Communication
Structure: Top-down, Authoritarian (Subject-Object relationship) Paradigm: Dominant paradigm of externally directed social change Level: International and national Media: Big media, TV, Radio, Newspapers Effects: To create a climate of acceptance by beneficiaries for exogenous ideas and innovations	Horizontal knowledge-sharing between participants (Subject-Subject relationship) Participatory paradigm of an endogenously directed quest to maintain control over basic needs Grassroots, Local Small media, Video, Film strips, Traditional media, Group and Interpersonal communication Create a climate of mutual understanding between participants

Reference:

1.      Bista Dor Bahadur, Fatalism and Development Nepal's Struggle for Mordernization, Orient Longman, 1991

2.      Panday Devendra Raj, Nepal's Failed Development Reflections on the Mission and the Maladies, Nepal South Asia Centre, April 1999