A universally valid and widely accepted definition of the field does not exist, but three conceptualizations have prevailed in the western world, the first two emanating from the US and the third from Latin America. The first, development communication, is the notion that mass media are capable of creating a public atmosphere favorable to change
This article offers an overview of development communication in the region that the west calls the Middle East, but which in Arabic is known as “al-Mashrik al Arabi,” or the Arab East. The area comprises three Arab regions that fall between the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
Effective development communication programs require a clearly defined strategy with specific goals established in advance. Communication goals may range from relatively short-term changes in individual behavior (for example, improving health or environmental practices) to relatively long-term changes in social or structural conditions (for example, increased economic opportunity, increased gender equity, improved environmental quality). Goals must
Development discourse refers to the process of articulating knowledge and power through which particular concepts, theories, and practices for social change are created and reproduced (Escobar 1995; 1999; 2000; Crush 1996). Historically, the approach to development in terms of discourse has evolved out of debates on modernization and Marxist dependency theory rooted in social evolutionism.
Development communication addresses issues of gender in a variety of ways. Communication projects designed to address social problems, such as health, agriculture, population, nutrition, education, democracy, and other topics, may either target women or consider gender as a way of understanding the social context in which the issue might be best addressed. In addition, development
Geometry of development refer to the spaces, shapes, and arrangements underlying the idea and practice of development. Similar to a classic definition of “geometry” as a physical arrangement of forms, discourses of development describe the arrangement of various actors within a global system. As used within development discourse, geometries of development describe the relationship among
At present, there are over 50,000 international organizations with a total budget easily over US$250 billion devoted to improving social, economic, political, and health conditions around the world, specifically in less developed countries (Directory of Development Organizations 2007). The current status of modern international development organizations can be traced back to the end of World
During the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization was the site of vociferous debate about global communication. Collectively, these arguments have come to be known as the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) debate. Nations of the south, many of which had relatively recently emerged from colonial domination, demanded
“Development” refers to the process of social change that has as its objective the promotion of physical and material progress. The “silent engine” that drives this development endeavor is communication. In the developed world, development communication is geared toward addressing the dysfunctions of physical and material progress. In the developing world, it is concerned with
In 1990, development assistance for health (DAH) flowing from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries amounted to only US$4 billon accounted in the index year of 2009. This figure had increased to US$19 billion by 2010, although the year 2009 saw a decline in DAH perhaps due to the economic downturn in