Development Communication Primer

Development Communication> Development Communication Primer

Author: Nora Cruz Quebral

ISBN: 978–983–9054–56–9
Published August 2012
323 pages. 215mm x 140mm
Paperback: US$9.00 per copy
Cost of delivery and postage is extra
and will be billed at cost.

Nora Cruz Quebral played a leading role in establishing development communication as a field of practice and study. She offers in this primer a succinct discussion highlighting the core attributes and mission of development communication: to circulate useful information and knowledge; provide a forum where people can air problems and issues; learn needed ideas, skills, and values; and create a base of consensus that stabilizes the state. The allegiance of the field is to the poor, the powerless and the disadvantaged in any society – in developing and developed countries.

The primer is structured in the question-and-answer mode. It answers questions that a newcomer to development communication might ask. It reflects the advances in the field itself, as well as its current issues and concerns. For instance, the role of big government as planner and implementer of development is greatly diminished, and the nature of communication media has changed radically. The questions asked and answered include the following:

•	What is development communication?
•	Why is it that the definition of development communication changes?
•	Are the two processes of development and communication co-equal?
•	Does development mean economic development?
•	Is development communication more of an academic discipline?
•	How is development communication viewed and practiced elsewhere?
•	What have been the changes in how development is viewed?
•	What are these universal goals?
•	Do the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have specific targets?
•	What have been the changes in the communication part of the development communication equation?
•	What are the usual tasks that communication media can do in a developing country?
•	How can communication media help create and maintain consensus?
•	What are some of the skills and values that communication media can help teach?
•	Corruption is said to be endemic in developing countries. Can that be prevented by values education?
•	What exactly does providing a forum mean?
•	Reporting of events as they happen is certainly not a new task for our communication media, is it?
•	Why should the communication media have to take on the role of teacher?
•	What are the circumstances in developing countries that warrant the use of old and new media for nonformal education?
•	Have the new media been useful for development communication?
•	Would not community media be more helpful?
•	How can community media stimulate dialogue in a rural community?
•	When we speak of the poor and the disadvantaged, are they still mainly in the rural areas?
•	Is domestic migration linked to urbanization then?
•	Should development communication assist local and overseas migrants wherever they are?
•	Besides urbanization and migration, what other socio-economic issues have been linked to the poor in this century?
•	Should not development communication also be taught in communication schools as art?
•	How is development communication different from communication as practiced in developed countries?
•	In conclusion, then, what or who is a development communicator?

We are a scholarly press dedicated to publications in the following areas:

A PDF file of our cataloque is available for download here.

Refunds Policy
All orders placed at our Online Bookstore will be invoiced in US$

We host the Community of Practice for facilitators of the VIPP participatory planning and visualisation process. Click here to visit the interactive website where you can share your experiences or pose questions to other VIPP facilitators.