MODULE 1: The Value-Added of Development Communication
phase. Even if there are some similarities between the two types of approaches, most renowned participatory approaches, such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) or participatory action research (PAR), do not usually assess the range and level of people’s perceptions and attitudes on key issues, identify communication entry points, and map out the information and communication systems that can be used later to design and implement the communication strategy. Instead, these are all key activities carried out in a participatory communication assessment.
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1.4 Understanding the Scope and Uses of Development Communication To fully understand the way development communication can be effectively applied in operations, it is necessary to have clearly in mind how its scope has broadened. Even the media-centric MacBride report (1980)11 indicated that the communication role was not restricted to media and dissemination—that it should also be concerned with “involving people in the diagnosis of needs and in the design and implementation of selected activities.” To be effective in that task, and to be true to the interdisciplinary nature of communication, a specialist in this field should be familiar not only with communication do’s and don’ts but should have broad analytical skills and be able to use communication methods to assess the cultural, political, and social context. A communication specialist, when called in to assist in development projects and programs, should always ask why a certain issue is occurring and what kind of communication is needed to address it effectively. Is communication mostly used to inform and promote project activities and objectives? Or is it to engage stakeholders in the investigation and assessment of priorities for change, thus enhancing the design of the initiative? As stated by Quarry (2008), managers and decision makers want communication, but too often it is the first kind of communication, which in this Sourcebook is referred to as monologic, and they tend to neglect the importance of the other type of communication, here referred to as dialogic. The typology adopted in this Sourcebook divides development communication into two basic modes, or families of approaches: the “monologic” mode, based on the classical one-way communication model associated with diffusion, and the “dialogic” mode, based on the interactive two-way model, associated with participatory approaches. Being familiar with these two modes helps one to better understand which to apply under what circumstances. They serve different purposes, but they are not mutually exclusive and can often be used in a complementary way, as explained in module 2.
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