International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Author Podcasts   Comment on this article   Approaches to communication and development practice and studies have changed dramatically in the last fifty years. Whether it is the roles of individual national governments or the focus on top-down vs. bottom-up or even the assumption that culture matters, discussions centering on communication and development have altered substantially. Examples of these changes include: a focus on the nation-state fifty years ago to a more multistakeholder focus today; a central and top-down direction fifty years ago to a more bottom-up or combination direction today; and from a primary focus on political and economic development to a more nuanced view including cultural components and social development today. However, some issues remain much the same: communication and development as it relates to poverty worldwide; access to a specific communication mode (from the mass media in the 1960s to internet and mobile-technology related media in the early 2000s); media interventions (whether for political development in the sixties or health campaigns in the nineties and beyond); and the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and development policy-making challenges for governments and, more recently, international organization, private sector organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. This essay traces the major approaches over the last ... log in or subscribe to read full text