CHAPTER ONE.
MASS MEDIA, COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT.
'Development' is usually referred to by quantifiable indicators such as Gross National Product (GNP) and per capita income in traditional Social Science literature. But now, instead of becoming a synonym for economic growth, development is seen more in rounded terms – which brings into consideration questions of distributive justice, human fulfillment and cultural identity. (Dissanayeke, W, 1985, p21).
In the past, the mass media, especially radio, were penetrating further into the mass audience of developing countries and seemed to have a considerable potential for helping such nations to reach development goals. Communication scholars were being attracted to study development problems in education, agriculture, politics and family planning. Thus literacy, ideological orientation and political participation constituted real issues for most developing countries espousing a policy of media use for national development.
One of Africa's leading critics and theorists of the mass media, Cehn Chimutengwende (1992) notes: 'The mass media have long been recognized in developing countries as essential auxiliary means of modern economic construction, social and cultural development. They are important means of social control and social process. Their ideological and socialization functions are continually being defined and perfected in developing countries as one of the indispensable factors in the mobilization of general population for programs of national development'(Chimutengwende, quoted in Ziegler and Asante, 1992, p41). Chimutengwende recognizes the importance developing countries place on the media. He sees the necessity for planned and guided development and believes that this is mot consonant to the present conditions of those nations.
In the early communication research tradition led by Everett Rogers, Wilbur Schramm and Daniel Lerner during the 1960s, modern communication media were idealized as powerful instruments for achieving the announced goals of socio-economic modernization, national integration and cultural expression.
