Development Support
Communication — CSS Notes
(Section VI)
Comprehensive notes covering the seven sub-topics of
"Development Support Communication" for the CSS
Journalism & Mass Communication paper.
1. Theories of Development Support
Communication (Focus on the
Developing World)
Definition: Development Support Communication
(DSC) — also called Development Communication or
Communication for Development (C4D) — is the
strategic use of communication (mass media,
interpersonal, and participatory channels) to support
planned social, economic, and political change,
particularly in the Third World/developing countries
after decolonisation.
Why it emerged: After WWII, dozens of newly
independent Asian, African, and Latin American states
sought rapid economic and social progress. Western
donor agencies, the UN, and academics believed
communication/media could accelerate this process
— giving birth to an entire sub-field of communication
theory built specifically around the developing-world
context.
The theory has moved through three broad phases
(know this structure — it is the master framework for
the whole section):
1. The Dominant Paradigm (1950s–60s) — top-
down, modernization-based (Section 2 below).
2. The Alternative/Participatory Paradigm (1970s
onward) — critique and correction of the dominant
paradigm (Section 3 below).
3. Contemporary syntheses — glocalization, social
marketing, and multiplicity approaches that
combine global tools with local ownership
(Sections 4–7 below).
This three-phase arc is the single most useful
structure for any essay-type question on DSC theory:
state the problem the dominant paradigm tried to
solve, show why it failed, explain the alternative that
emerged, and end with how contemporary
approaches try to combine the strengths of both.
2. The Dominant Paradigm of
Development: Historical, Analytical
Perspective
Origins: Rooted in classical modernization sociology
and Cold War-era development economics, the
dominant paradigm held that "underdevelopment"
was essentially a lack of exposure to modern values,
technology, and information — and that mass media
could transmit these modern values to traditional
societies, accelerating their transition to a "modern,"
industrialised state.
Key theorists and contributions:
Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society
(1958): studied the Middle East and identified four
indices of modernization — industrialization,
urbanization, literacy, and media
exposure/political participation. He argued mass
media build empathy — the imaginative capacity
to picture oneself in modern roles — which then
drives a person's mobility and openness to
change.
Wilbur Schramm, Mass Media and National
Development (1964, written for UNESCO):
described mass media as "magic multipliers"
capable of informing, educating, motivating, and
persuading millions of people simultaneously — a
scale interpersonal communication alone could
never achieve.
Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1962):
explained how new ideas/technologies spread
through a society via an innovation-decision
process (knowledge → persuasion → decision →
implementation → confirmation), adopter
categories (innovators, early adopters, early/late
majority, laggards), and the crucial role of opinion
leaders in the "two-step flow" of influence.
W.W. Rostow's "Stages of Economic Growth"
provided the underlying economic-linear
framework: all societies pass through the same
stages (traditional → pre-conditions for take-off
→ take-off → drive to maturity → mass
consumption), and the West's path was the model
to be replicated.
Core assumptions:
Development is essentially
Westernization/modernization — the Western
industrial model is the universal template.
The individual (their "traditional" values and
resistance to change) is the primary obstacle to
development — not the surrounding social or
economic structure.
Communication is largely one-way, top-down:
from media/experts/government to a passive
rural audience.
Progress is measured in economic/quantitative
terms (GNP, industrial output).
Criticism (essential for analytical marks):
"Blaming the victim": it located the cause of
underdevelopment in individuals'
psychology/culture rather than in unequal global
economic structures, colonial legacies, or unjust
land tenure and trade systems.
Cultural imperialism: treated Western culture as
inherently superior and worth imitating,
undervaluing indigenous knowledge and
institutions.
Ignored structural constraints: bureaucracy,
exploitative land tenure, and unequal international
trade relations were left unaddressed.
One-way, media-centric bias: overestimated what
mass media alone could achieve without
complementary interpersonal, economic, and
institutional support.
Tellingly, Everett Rogers himself published a
landmark self-critique — "Communication and
Development: The Passing of the Dominant
Paradigm" (Communication Research, 1976) —
formally acknowledging these failures and helping
open the door to the alternative paradigm.
3. The Alternative Paradigm of
Development
Emerging through the 1970s as a direct response to
the dominant paradigm's failures, the alternative
paradigm reframes both what development is and
how communication should support it.
Key intellectual sources:
Dependency theory (Andre Gunder Frank and
Latin American structuralists; world-systems
theory, Immanuel Wallerstein): argued
underdevelopment is not a stage to pass through
but an actively produced condition — the result of
the developing world's unequal, dependent
position within the global capitalist economic
system dominated by wealthy "core" nations.
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970):
the single most cited alternative-paradigm
theorist. Freire rejected the "banking model" of
communication/education (experts depositing
information into passive recipients) in favour of
dialogical, horizontal communication and
"conscientização" (conscientization) — a process
by which people critically analyse their own
social/political reality and become active agents
(subjects, not objects) of their own change.
Jan Servaes, the "multiplicity paradigm"
(Communication for Development: One World,
Multiple Cultures, 1999; earlier work from 1991):
argued there is no single, universal model of
development — each society must define
development according to its own values, needs,
and cultural identity, with communication
designed to support that locally defined vision
rather than impose an external one.
John Friedmann's "empowerment approach":
development as expanding people's political and
economic power/agency, not just raising income.
Core features of the participatory/alternative model:
Two-way, horizontal communication — dialogue
and consultation rather than one-way persuasion.
Bottom-up, endogenous development — priorities
set by the community itself, not by external
experts or government.
Multiplicity and cultural specificity — respect for
local knowledge systems, languages, and
traditional communication channels (folk media,
community meetings) alongside mass media.
Emphasis on power and rights at the grassroots
level, not merely technical/economic outputs.
Communication scholars describe this shift as
favouring "multiplicity, smallness of scale,
locality... and horizontality of communication
links" rather than the large-scale, centralised, one-
way transmission model of the dominant
paradigm.
For exam answers: Present the alternative paradigm
as both a theoretical correction (structural causes of
underdevelopment matter) and a methodological
correction (communication must be dialogical and
community-owned, not merely a persuasion tool for
externally designed programmes).
4. "Small Is Beautiful": Community
Development as a Snowball Effect
Origin of the phrase: From E.F. Schumacher's
influential 1973 book Small Is Beautiful: A Study of
Economics As If People Mattered — one of the most
influential development-critique texts of the 20th
century (later ranked among the 100 most influential
post-WWII books). Schumacher, building on ideas
from his teacher Leopold Kohr and influenced by
Gandhian thought, challenged the "bigger is better"
logic of mainstream economics and development
planning.
Core ideas:
"Appropriate" or "intermediate" technology: rather
than transplanting large-scale, capital-intensive,
First-World industrial technology into developing
communities (which often displaces labour,
damages the environment, and requires support
systems the community doesn't have),
development should use technology matched to
local skills, resources, and scale — Schumacher
founded the Intermediate Technology
Development Group (1966, now known as
Practical Action) to promote this.
Decentralisation and human scale: economic and
political power should be decentralised; small,
human-scale organisations and local economies
are more sustainable and more genuinely
responsive to people's needs than centralised
mega-projects.
"Economics as if people mattered": development
should be judged by human wellbeing, dignity, and
meaningful work — not just aggregate output
(GNP), directly echoing the alternative paradigm's
critique in Section 3.
Application to community development — the
"snowball effect":
Small-scale, locally owned initiatives (a village
water project, a micro-credit group, a local literacy
circle) succeed because they are manageable,
culturally appropriate, and genuinely owned by the
community — unlike large, externally imposed
projects that often collapse once outside
funding/support withdraws.
These small successes build local confidence,
skills, and social capital, which then spread
organically to neighbouring communities and
scale upward — much like a snowball gathering
size as it rolls — rather than being imposed top-
down all at once.
This is the theoretical bridge between
Schumacher's economics and the participatory
communication model in Section 3: both trust
local agency and organic, bottom-up growth over
centralised, large-scale planning.
5. Globalization vs. Localization
Globalization: the accelerating cross-border flow of
media content, capital, technology, and culture, driven
by satellite/digital communication, multinational
media corporations, and liberalised trade. In
development communication debates, globalization
raises the "cultural/media imperialism" concern
(associated with scholars like Herbert Schiller) — the
fear that global (often Western/American) media
flows homogenise local cultures, erode indigenous
values, and create one-way dependency of developing
nations on media and cultural products from
dominant economies.
Localization: the counter-emphasis on adapting
communication/development content to local
languages, cultural values, and community structures
— ensuring relevance, ownership, and resonance with
the target audience rather than imposing a generic,
one-size-fits-all global message.
The core tension for essay answers:
| Globalization | Localization |
|---|---|
| Economies of scale; access to global technology,
capital, and expertise | Cultural relevance, sensitivity,
and audience trust |
| Risk of cultural homogenization/dependency | Risk
of parochialism or missing broader economic
opportunities |
| Standardized messages/technology across markets
| Customized messages/technology per community |
Development communication practice increasingly
recognises that neither pure globalization nor pure
localization works alone — global resources,
technology, and ideas need local adaptation to be
effective and sustainable, which leads directly into the
next concept.
6. Glocalization
Origin: The term "glocalization" was adapted from the
Japanese business term dochakuka (adapting
farming techniques to local conditions), used in
1980s Japanese business circles for "global
localization." Sociologist Roland Robertson
introduced it into Western academic discourse, most
notably in his 1992/1995 work (Globalization: Social
Theory and Global Culture, and the essay
"Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-
Heterogeneity"), presenting it at a 1992 conference.
Core idea: Robertson argued that the "global vs. local"
binary is a false dichotomy. Globalization does not
simply erase the local — it operates through
localization. He described this as a dual process: the
"universalization of particularism" (local/particular
things gain global relevance) and the
"particularization of universalism" (global/universal
ideas are adapted to fit local contexts). In other
words, every global process is simultaneously
enacted and experienced locally.
Application to development communication:
Global development ideas, technologies, and
media formats (health campaigns, agricultural
innovations, digital platforms) are most effective
when adapted to local languages, customs, and
communication channels rather than delivered in
a uniform global format.
This directly links back to Servaes' multiplicity
paradigm (Section 3): glocalization gives that
principle a name and a broader sociological
framework — think globally (draw on global
resources/knowledge), act locally (implement
through locally meaningful, culturally embedded
communication).
Practical example structure for essays: global
health/development bodies (e.g., WHO, UNICEF)
design broad programme frameworks, but
delivery is glocalized through local languages,
community leaders, and culturally specific
messaging — the Pakistan polio eradication
communication campaigns are a commonly cited
real-world example of this "multiplicity/glocal"
approach in the South Asian context.
7. Social Marketing: How to Infuse
New Ideas into a Developing
Population
Origin: The term was coined by Philip Kotler and
Gerald Zaltman in their seminal 1971 Journal of
Marketing article, "Social Marketing: An Approach to
Planned Social Change." Their central question was
whether commercial marketing techniques —
originally designed to sell products — could be applied
to promote social objectives such as family planning,
road safety, or public health.
Definition: Social marketing is the application of
commercial marketing principles and techniques
(audience segmentation, the marketing mix, research-
driven message design) to voluntarily influence a
target audience to adopt, reject, modify, or abandon a
behaviour for the benefit of individuals or society —
with the explicit goal of positive, planned social
change rather than commercial profit.
The marketing mix applied to social ideas (the "4 Ps,"
adapted):
Product: the idea or behaviour being promoted
(e.g., using a family-planning method, boiling
water, vaccinating a child).
Price: the cost to the individual of adopting the
behaviour — not just money, but time, effort,
social risk, and giving up old habits/beliefs.
Place: the channels through which the behaviour-
change message and any supporting
services/products reach the audience (clinics,
community health workers, radio, mobile units).
Promotion: the communication strategy itself —
messages, media channels, and persuasive
techniques tailored to the specific audience
segment.
Why it matters for developing populations
specifically:
Audiences in developing regions are rarely
homogeneous — social marketing's emphasis on
audience segmentation and research-based
message design (rather than generic mass
messaging) makes it well suited to reaching
different groups (by literacy level, language,
gender, rural/urban) with tailored approaches.
It treats behaviour change as something that
must be sold — i.e., the perceived benefits must
clearly outweigh perceived costs to the target
audience, requiring genuine understanding of
local barriers, beliefs, and incentives rather than
simply broadcasting information (a direct
application of the alternative paradigm's
participatory insight from Section 3).
Classic developing-world applications: family
planning campaigns, immunization/vaccination
drives, oral rehydration therapy, HIV/AIDS
awareness, sanitation and hygiene behaviour
change, and nutrition programmes — this
overlaps heavily with what is now often called
Behaviour Change Communication (BCC).
Exam-answer synthesis point: Social marketing
represents the practical, applied end of development
communication theory — it operationalises lessons
from both paradigms: it borrows the dominant
paradigm's structured, planned, and media-savvy
approach to reaching mass audiences, while
incorporating the alternative paradigm's insistence on
understanding the audience's own perceived needs,
costs, and cultural context rather than simply
transmitting a top-down message.
Quick-Reference: Key Theorists and
Works
Theorist Key Work / Concept Year
The Passing of
Daniel Traditional Society —
1958
Lerner empathy, four indices of
modernization
Diffusion of Innovations
Everett
— adopter categories, 1962
Rogers
opinion leaders
Mass Media and National
Wilbur
Development — "magic 1964
Schramm
multipliers"
Theorist Key Work / Concept Year
Pedagogy of the
Oppressed —
Paulo Freire conscientization, 1970
dialogical
communication
Philip Kotler "Social Marketing: An
& Gerald Approach to Planned 1971
Zaltman Social Change"
Small Is Beautiful —
E.F.
appropriate/intermediate 1973
Schumacher
technology
"Communication and
Everett Development: The
1976
Rogers Passing of the Dominant
Paradigm" (self-critique)
Glocalization —
universalization of
Roland
particularism / 1992/1995
Robertson
particularization of
universalism
1999
Multiplicity paradigm —
(earlier
Jan Servaes One World, Multiple
work
Cultures
1991)
Exam-Writing Tips for This Section
1. Use the three-phase arc (dominant → alternative
→ contemporary synthesis) as your default essay
skeleton — it works for almost any question in this
section.
2. Always pair a theorist with a year and a concept
(e.g., "Lerner, 1958, empathy") — precise
attribution signals depth of preparation to
examiners.
3. Link concepts across sub-topics in analytical
answers: e.g., connect Freire's participatory model
→ Servaes' multiplicity paradigm → glocalization
→ social marketing's audience-centred design,
showing they form one continuous intellectual
thread rather than isolated facts.
4. For "small is beautiful" and "snowball effect"
questions, always tie Schumacher's economic
argument back to its communication implication:
appropriate technology requires participatory,
locally-owned communication to be adopted at
all.
5. For globalization/localization/glocalization
questions, use the classic structure: define both
poles → explain the tension → introduce
glocalization as the synthesis → give a real-
world (ideally Pakistani/South Asian)
development-communication example.