CHAPTER 3

Theoretical perspectives of Development and Development

Communication

DEVELOPMENT in general means a concerted effort by political leadership,

decision makers, economic planners, community organizations, citizens initiative to
improve the living conditions and economic foundation of a specific community
living in a specific area. There are various elements that determine the development of
the society. It can be ascertained on the basis of the major production system,
fundamental infrastructure facilities, social distribution of wealth, and parameters of
health, literacy, gender relations and cultural improvement. As Kiran Prasad sums up
development signifies ―A broad based, progressive movement, synonymous with
growth, modernization, industrialization, self reliance, social change culminating in
national development‖. (Prasad :2009)

Everett M. Rogers defines development as a widely participatory process of social

change intended to bring advancement for the majority through gaining control over
the environment. Gunner Myrdal sees development as the upward movement of the
entire social system.

Two important terminologies in relation with development are modernization

and industrialization. The early development paradigms were mostly concentrated
on ascertaining development in terms of growth and the extent to which a society is
modernized. Development theories have gone through different phases from 1945
onwards marking a change in the international scenario where colonialism started
retreating and new sovereign nation‘s states began emerging. For many of these post
colonial states it was a challenge to find an optimum mode of development to
eradicate various economic problems of their nation. An important panacea offered to

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such newly emerging nations where advocating economic growth through
modernization and industrialization.

3.1 CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

According to kiran Prasad the development communication contains mainly

four aspects that represent two different viewpoints. She terms these different
viewpoints as 1. ―state leadership‖ and 2. ―citizen leadership‖ and quoting professor
Hideo Takeichi she also explains the dichotomy between ―material development‖ and
―spiritual development‖. There are many different types of names given to the
concept of development communication. They include development communication,
developmental communication, development support communication, communication
in development and communication for development. The main ideas for
communication for development were evolved from experiences and incites given by
the studies and action research for agricultural planning and family
planning.(Prasad:4)

The development communication as an academic discipline and major

theoretical framework was developed in the 1950s by major communication theorists
like Wilbur schramm and Daniel learner. They consolidated various studies conducted
by different scholars in various developing countries and gave a conceptual
framework to it. According to Daniel Learner there is a correlation between the
expansion of economic activity and a set of modernizing variables like urbanization,
literacy, mass media use and democratic participation.(Learner:1958). According to
Learner the emergence of the mobile personality through the spread of literacy will
create an empathy to modernizing influences within the third world societies and will
create a climate of acceptance of change. Wilbur schramm also retreats that
modernization of industrial and agricultural sectors in the developing nations require a
mobilization of human resources. This mobilization is possible through education and
the spread of mass media and to speed up this mobilization in a society which is slow

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in the process of social transformation, the mass media plays a crucial task by
disseminating education and information in a speedy manner. (Schramm,1964:27)

According to Thomas McPhail ―development communication is a process of

intervening in a systematic strategic manner with the media (print, radio, telephone,
television, video or internet), or education (training, literacy, schooling), for the
purpose of positive social change. The change could be economic, personal, as in
spiritual, social, cultural and political‖.

3.2 MODERNIZATION THEORY

Modernization paradigm is a dominant paradigm that was existing in the

western neo-classical economic theory. According to the modernization theory the
major solution for the economic problems face by the newly emerging post colonial
nations, popularly known as ‗under development‘ was the transfer of technology
which was known as the industrialization to attain a higher level of development. This
paradigm was formed in the sense that by imitating the west these under developed
nations can attain a westernized mode of development. The concept of modernization
is that every society linearly progress from a pre industrialized traditional society to a
highly industrialized modern society.

Till the second half of the 1960s modernization theory of development

communication was the most dominant theory in United States and even in other
academia all over the world. It began with a perspective of critiquing the prevalent
Marxist models of social change and from an imagination of how a new world order
should be emerged. There was also an element of prescriptive solutions to the
developmental problems faced by the newly independent post colonial nations.
According to the promulgators of modernization theory the newly independent
nations should adopt the prescriptions provided by the advocates of modernization.

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 According to Anthony Kigiddens, modernization means the appearance of
modes of social life or organization that emerged in Europe from 17th century
onwards and acquired a worldwide acceptance.

According to kiran Prasad, the modernization theory has been evolved through
three different waves. In the first wave the diffusion of western living styles,
technology and individual communication system acquired dominance. It was a
perspective which would result in the creation of a secular, materialistic, western and
individualistic culture ( Leaner, 1958, Schramm,1964).

According to Denis McQuail the first wave theory produced three variants-

1. Economic development: mass media promote the global diffusion of many

technical and social innovations that are essential to modernization.

2. Literacy and cultural development: mass media can teach literacy and other
essential skills and techniques. They encourage a state of mind‖ favorable to
modernity.

3. National identity development: mass media could support national identities in

new nations and support attention to democratic policies.

A major feature of modernization theory was its pro-western bias. The first
wave of modernization theory was severely criticized by various other perspectives of
development communication. A major criticism was by the advocates of dependency
theory who said that western modernization is an attempt of dominance by western
cultural and economic imperialism.

Many criticism against modernization was that it is a concept of discourse

which can exert tremendous influence through symbols and representations. One
major feature of modernization is that it has acquired the features of culture, ideology
and discourse. According to anthropologist Edward Hard, the term culture has three

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major characteristics including that it is shared by members of groups, it is learnt and
not innate. In that sense culture is inseparable from communication, since the
communication is itself a shared set of meaning. Modernization has also a dimension
of ideology which is a theoretical concept of Marxist thought. Louis Althusser
assumes that ideology and ideological state apparatuses plays an important role in
shaping the human experiences. By discourse we mean that an exchange of utterances
in a greater magnitude that plays a key role in the construction of meaning. According
to post structuralist thinkers like Michel Foucault and Derrida any material structure
will be devoid of meaning if they are not mediated through a particular discourse. In
short, the concept of modernization, as analyzed by these thinkers have the
dimensions of a cultural paradigm, an ideological force and a powerful discourse.
Which means that it is not an innocent concept which is employed with good
intentions to reform and restructure the backward societies in the various developing
countries. It is with this perspective that the concept of modernization was severely
criticized by various scholars and a major group that advanced this criticism was the
proponents of dependency theory which played a crucial role during the second wave
of modernization starting from 1970s.

3.3 DEPENDENCY THEORY

The modernization theory was widely conceived as the west‘s attempt to

impose its own ideas on development on the newly emerge economies of the post
colonial world. The modernization paradigm faced an onslaught of criticism from
various theoreticians from the third world countries. According to this theorist the
under development faced by the emerging economies was not a result of pre capitalist
backwardness but it was a result of the capitalist development imposed upon these
countries which made them dependent on the neo colonial economies. These theories
are generally known as under development theories and various scholars like Andre
Gunder Frank, Samir Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein and H. Magdoff and Paul Baran.
The theory of ‗under development‘ was pioneered by Paul Baran in his work the
political economy of growth published in 1957.

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 According to the dependency theorists the under development faced by
developing countries is not a condition. It is an active process of impoverishment
resulted from the tools of development itself. They attribute the structural inequality
on a global scale as the reasons for the differentiation in development all over the
world. Which means that some parts of the world remain underdeveloped because
some parts of the world are developed. In other words, it is the economic growth
attained by some countries is the cause of poverty in various developing countries.
The industrialization advocated by the modernist paradigm as a solution to the
problems of the developing countries was infact merely accelerating the poverty of
the under developed countries.

The dependency of the third world countries to the mastering colonial nations
was a result of the search for profits by various colonial powers all over the world. In
various countries in the continents of Asia, Africa and south America the people
experienced colonial exploitation for the last 500 years and this exploitation led to the
long standing underdevelopment of these various areas of the world. Dependency
theorists argue that the poverty experience by these countries are not traditional or an
accidental phenomenal. They are infact a result of the power relations derived from
colonial exploitation and various modes of modernization and even the new forms of
global exploitation termed by these theorists as ‗Neo colonialism‘.

As A.G.Frank evaluated critically it is the international capitalist system that

paved a way for the dependency of the third world to the developed countries. In that
sense the solutions should be incurred into the folds of a broader international
scenario and the structures of exploitation. Immanuel Wallerstein who was the
pioneer of the system theory says that a more holistic approach is needed in
composing national and international dynamics and understanding it in the context of
world system. According to the world system theory the global economy should be
viewed in long term perspective and should be seen in a constant state of flux.
According to him the origin of modern world system begins in the 16th century. This
world system is divided into a core of a few rich countries and a periphery inhabited

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by various poor countries and there is also a semi periphery including major countries
such as Egypt, Mexico, India and others with higher levels of resources.

A major drawback of the world system theory is that it was narrowly focused
on economic aspects without paying much attention to socio cultural dimensions.
Communication theorists like Paulo Mefalopulos have criticized world system theory
and an even dependency theory for not giving enough focus on the role of media and
information flow.

3.3 (a) DEPENDENCY THEORY AND COMMUNICATION

During 1970s and 1980s various developing countries came together and
advanced an international agenda demanding for a new international economic order
and restructuring of power relations. A major aspect of this demand was a change in
the way in which communication and information flew over the world. For example
the non aligned movement formed by 77 developing countries was a key player in
demanding a new international order in the flow of communication. They brought a
debate to international organizations like UNESCO and successfully influenced it in
bringing out path breaking reports like ―Many Voices, One world‖ in 1980. The main
focus of the report was on freedom of information and how the communication
technologies should be used for a balanced flow of information. There was a wide
spread complaint against the uneven flow of media programs and information coming
from developed countries like United states which was conceived as a form of cultural
imperialism. The developing countries demanded regulations to address the uneven
flow of information derived out of this context. In a sense this demands where
reflecting the ideas of the propents of dependency theory who vigorously supported a
rethinking on the global communication agenda and a restructuring on the flow of
communication at the international level. However, there were criticism that these
viewpoints never took into consideration the horizontal component of communication
within the national level. In a sense, the dependency theorists also, as Mefalopulaos
observed, where reflecting the classical media centric concept of communication

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which derived from a state perspective. So the questions raised by the dependency
theorists reflects no more than the issues of communication flow that derived under
the control of the state. So in short, one can assume that the main difference between
the modernization theory of communication and the dependency theory of
communication was nothing but a difference about who should control and send the
message and for what purpose.

3.4 GLOBALIZATION THEORY

Globalization is a new economic paradigm derived out of various structural

changes happening all over the world beginning from 1990s. After the disintegration
of Soviet Union in 1989 it is widely accepted that the world has become unipolar and
a global perspective has to be developed for the further development of the societies.
A major program advanced by various global institutions like international monetary
fund was the spreading of economic liberalization and a barrier free world in which
free economic trade will take place. Globalization was a powerful source of change
which made tremendous impact on the economic, social, political and cultural life of
various nations. It enabled the world wide flow of capital things and communications.
In a curious parallel to the changes imposed by globalization the new technological
formations like internet and various other digital media technologies completely
erased the barriers existing between various nation states. Globalization was a process
and a culmination of the modernization but it has transformed the way in which
corporations were formed in the international level. Even though there was wide
spread criticism that globalization was a justification for neo imperialism, one could
not refrain from agreeing the fact that globalization also enabled new forces to come
into the fore. A major impact of globalization was on the communication system and
media organization. This was especially true in the context of developing countries
like India in which globalization made sweeping changes in the way in which media
operates in India. After the opening up of Indian mediascape to the international
communication network including global television and internet, there was a
explosive growth in the media consumption in India. So the impact of globalization is

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so enormous and in any study related with communication or media the globalization
theory is a major object of study.

3.5 ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

The crisis of modernization as a viable model for global economic change and
wide spread criticism against such model called for various other models of
development. There was a wide spread agreement among the policy makers, activists
and academia in the 1970s that just by imitating countries like US, the developing
countries could not attain viable growth or fulfill their basic needs. And there was also
an impending problem of environmental crisis on a global scale that demanded a
relook at the western models of development. It is in this context that various
alternative development models and concepts of ‗sustainable development‘ become
the objects of study for various scholars and politicians.

What is alternative development or sustainable development?

Wang and Dissanayake emphasized the need for the protection of nature and
culture in any economic development. The alternative model of development or
sustainable development include ‗growth with equity, a clean environment, provision
of basic needs such as food, shelter, water, education, health care and livelihoods and
a harmonious relationship between culture and change‘ (Prasad,74). A major concern
for the fragility of environment and awareness of protecting various cultures is an
important feature of alternative concepts of development. It is widely agreed that
violent measures of industrialization will affect the nature and deteriorate the long
term sustainability of the human race. Thinkers like Raymond Williams even went to
the extent of criticizing the concept of production as it never accounts the contribution
of nature. Interestingly, there was a wide spread rethinking about various models of
development like Gandhian model and also the Chinese model of development which
gave more importance to the decentralization of power. The mottos like ―Small is

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Beautiful‖ advanced by the writers like E.F. Schumacher argued for a concern for our
ecology and the need for a rethinking on large scale technological production.

3.6 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION THEORY

The recent trends looking for a change in the already existing paradigms of
development concentrates more on people‘s participation and empowerment. In this
perspective the people who are considered as a beneficiary of the development would
be not just passive receipts but active agents of the development process. Various
scholars have stressed the importance of the recipients of any developmental projects
should also have the power to control the development processes. One cannot say that
participatory development paradigm is a unified system or even a rigorous theory
rather it is a system that want to rectify various models of development by stressing
the aspect of empowerment. The advocates of this theory never project themselves as
proponents of the grand theory like modernization or dependency theory.

As Paulo Mefalopulos points out the participation in development cannot be

taken place without communication. In other words, the participatory development
emphasis the importance of dialogic communication. Here the communication is
characterized by a horizontal flow enabling ‗balanced sharing of perception of
knowledge‘ (Mefalopulos,54). Here it is quite evident that the participatory
communication is totally different from the modernization paradigm in which the
communication flow is from top to down. Even the messages in a mass media are
derived to come not from any authoritative source but from the people who are
important in the process of development. As United Nations development program
annual report of 1993 confirms participation requires not only an increased control but
also demands an increased empowerment. In the participatory communication the
importance of the flow of information on a horizontal level is stressed more than any
other flow of communication. An important theoretical insight that inspired the idea
of participatory communication is the Brazilian scholar Paulo Freire‘s concept of
process of awareness or ‗conscientization‘ which enabled the poor about their own

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conditions and reflect about action. In this kind of empowerment the role of dialogue
and horizontal level of communication is quite relevant. Amartya Sen‘s concept of
capability deprivation is also relevant here in the sense that it understands poverty not
simply as an issue of the lack of income but also as a social issue.

The concept of participatory communication is crucial in understanding and

refining the process of processes and programs of health communication like Kalyani,
which is the topic of this dissertation. The relation between participation,
empowerment and communication is quite important in the participatory
communication model in which the horizontal flow of communication and dialogue
has a crucial role. In this process the exchange of knowledge as people as its source
and their participation in the process of communication and their role in the
empowering process are crucial factors in determining the direction of development.
With this understanding we would come to the conclusion that it is not the
technological aspect or the infrastructural system of media that is playing the crucial
role in the communication but it is the people who are the centre of this model. So
when we connect it with the systems of health communication like programs of
Kalyani, it will be clear that the role of the people for whom this programs is
addressed the sections who are its audience formed the central and crucial role in
determining this model of development communication.

3.7 SOCIAL MARKETING THEORY

Social marketing is a new concept introduced in the second half of the 20 th

century to mark it effectively ideas that promote health behaviours and help
disseminating the various health services. (Prasad, 80). The main content of social
marketing is that it designs a number of programs that bear upon a selective audience
for whom the reception of certain ideas have importance. In that sense, it is a strategy
of disseminating a certain idea or a set of practices on a selected audience group
through designing, implementing and controlling the message. Even though the
communication of the message is the central pivot this theory, a number of strategies

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used by marketing where employed in social marketing. For example, Concepts like
market segmentation, consumer research, idea configuration, communication,
facilitation, incentives, and exchange theories to maximize target group response etc
play an important role in social marketing. This theory is very much relevant in the
analysis of this thesis, in the sense that, it is the public health sector that utilizes the
methods provided by this theory. As Kiran Prasad rightly pointed out the early
campaigns in the 1950s related with public health in developing countries like family
planning, oral dehydration and immunization campaigns effectively utilized social
marketing. Recently, many developing countries used this strategy of social marketing
in theory campaigns against tobacco usage, condom use, helmet use and similar other
preventive behaviors. Even in a program like Kalyani which is targeted on a selected
audience one can infer the methods and strategies of social marketing.

3.8 DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT COMMUNICATION

The fundamental difference between development communication and

development support communication is the way in which the knowledge or
information is disseminated among the masses. As Melkote and H Leslie Steeves
points out the development support communication is premised on pluralistic and
participatory approaches. (Melkote and Steeves:348) . This concept is opposed to the
top down perspective transmission models of the past. In the development support
communication the focal point is the empowerment of the people. As the authors
indicate a real change in the development sector could not be achieved without
addressing the inequalities in the distribution of power among individuals and groups.
A table given by Melkote and Steeves clearly explains the differences between
development communication and development support communication.

3.9 INDIAN THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

During the anti colonial movement different national leaders thought about the
way in which India as an independent nation should be developed. There were

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different concepts of economic model advocated by various industrialists like Dada
Bhai Naroji, JRD Tata and others. However, what caught the attention of the popular
masses was the imagination of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jwahar Lal
Nehru. Consequently the Gandhian and Nehruvian concept of development dominated
the debates on the future progress of India as an independent nation.

a) GANDHIAN MODEL OF DEVLEOPMENT.

Gandhian model of development is generally known as sustainable

development. Gandhi never thought that western industrialized model could bring a
viable economic growth to India as a nation. He believed in a life based on non-
violence and sustainable living in which one should use the resources of nature
without exploiting it. Gandhi gave more importance to the sustainability of nature and
clearly understood that there is a limit to world‘s resources. His concept was an
inclusive growth which was based on self reliance and non industrialized productive
sectors which he termed as Gram Swaraj.‖ The way indicated by Gandhiji is not one
which only the few great persons can follow. It is so simple that the humble citizens
amongst us can adopt. It consists in leading our own individual lives according to the
dictates of that which is highest in us. It, of course, means self- control, self-
discipline instead of self- indulge as at present‖ (kumarappa : 1951)

IS THERE A GANDHAIN MODEL OF COMMUNICATION?

As a political leader Gandhi effectively used the insights of communication in

mobilizing the Indian people against the British colonial rule. He derived symbols,
images and metaphors from various cultural field of Indian society so that it could
communicate with the common people and persons in a popular manner. For example,
his adoption of Khadi charkha, salt is some of the indications of the insights Gandhi
had about the popular perception. As Indira Rothermund points out Gandhi created a
new style of communicating with masses and eventually inducted them into a political
culture. Gandhi‘s concept of development gave greater stress to self reliance of

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village societies and an agartarian ethic. Especially in the realm of health, Gandhi
used the insights given by self reliance and keeping a rhythm with nature. He gave
much importance to the concepts like a clean environment, which was an integral part
of keeping the public health of the society. Even though Gandhian model is stressing
more on self reliance and view individual as the central aspect of its development
perspectives, there is an element of participatory nature in the Gandhian program in
the sense that it view the importance of community in building up the developmental
ethics.

b) NEHRUVIAN MODEL

Even though the Gandhi was the father of Nation of India. It was the
Nehruvian concept of development that dominated in the post independent period. In
the early stages of development there was lot of debates about the path that has to be
adopted by India to develop as an independent nation. The dominant perspectives
were that of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel. However, after the death of Patel in
1950 it was the Nehruvian model that gained hegemony in the Indian socio-economic
system. Though Nehru had a great respect for Gandhi as a leader of Nationalist
movement. Unlike Gandhi, he was not against the western model of industrialization.
Even though the Nehruvian model was generally conceived as a socialist planning
model, the fact was that it was a mix of western modernization process, soviet
economic planning and the age old indigenous systems of economic production.
Instead of giving importance to self reliant village communities, Nehru gave stress on
big projects like big damns and irrigation projects which he though as temples of
modern India. It was only after the 1960s that the ruptures within the Nehruvian
model was realized and finally agreed that it was far away resolving the economic
issues of the country. (Dantwala: 1964)

Even though Nehru never envisaged any theory of communication or even

though that communication is an important element in disseminating the idea of
development, it was during his regime that some important practical experiments in

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communication occurred in India. The mass media like radio was effectively used in
the early days of post independent India to communicate the ideas of development,
especially among the rural masses. And the new visual media of television
experimented in India in the 1950s mainly concentrating on the rural audience in
order to communicate the ideas that support agricultural growth. Even though it was
in 1960s and 1970s that television in India explored various modes of development
communication, one could confidently say that it was clearly a Nehruvian paradigm.

IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION IN DEVELOPMNT COMMUNICATION IN

INDIA

In the Indian context two dominant paradigms of development was Gandhian

and Nehruvian models of development. But one can not say that these two paradigms
had a direct influence on various modes of development communication in the Indian
media sector. As the Gandhian ideals and his privileging of self reliance and Gram
Swaraj marginalized already from the dominant development perspective. There was
hardly any impact of Gandhi in the development communication. On the other hand,
the Nehruvian model which was the dominant state model of development atleast till
the 1980s, it had some impact on Indian media and its ideas of development
communication, not only in the state run media but also the private controlled media
mostly the print media in India. However, in the early 1990s, when a new
international economic order was introduced on a global scale, the decision of a
Indian political leadership to open up the Indian economy to this new world order had
resulted in wide spread change in the communication sector in India. These changes
have subverted the balance existed in the media in India and their broader consensus
with the Nehruvian planning of economy. As a result the media in india, atleast
influenced by new programs introduced by the foreign television channels had to
priviledge the middle class audience and their economic aspirations and even cultural
values which was very formulated by the new changes in the economic order. Even
though the state run media like Doordarshan and AIR have resisted this influence, one
cannot miss the fact that the general atmospheric change in the media has diminished

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the gravity of programs especially those designed as a part of the development
communication was seriously affected. So in this dissertation, I will also be looking at
how changes in the globalization have affected then programs like Kalyani which was
mainly a public health campaign with a developmental perspective. Various scholars
like Poornima Mankekar have seriously studied on the impact of globalization in the
Indian television industry. Even though the Indian media was effectively
domesticating the global technology by imbibing indigenous cultural values, it was
more or less conforming to a global capitalist value system in which the human
subject is understood mainly as a consumer in a market.

3.10 HEALTH COMMUNICATION THEORY

Health communication is influenced by a number of disciplines and theoretical

perspectives. Renata Schiavo considers some important theories like behavioral and
social science theories, mass communication theories; new media influence theories,
marketing and social marketing and others. According to the encyclopedia of
communication theory edited by Stephen little john and Karen A. Foss there are a
number of theories of mass communication that have been used to understand health
communication research. This includes cultivation theory which describes how
audiences learn about the worlds and model their behavior from media portrayals;
Uses and gratification theory, agenda setting theory, two step flow model and
diffusion of innovations. And there are other theories like social cognitive theory,
social learning theory and social marketing theory. However, here we are considering
only those theories which are quite important in the sense that they are used by public
health practitioners and media professionals.

 THEORIES OF PERSUASION

Persuasion theory is an important communication theory used in persuasive

health communication which envisages a change in the outlook of the audience to
whom a particular health program is designed. It is in a sense making a change in the

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behavior of the people to adopt a new behavior which they think that beneficial in
terms of health. For example, Motivating people to include eating more vegetables
and fruits, doing more exercise, practicing safe sex with partner etc are a way of
persuading people to safer health practices. In this theory what is important is not just
information, here the program designed will create a positive change among the
audience so that they will start thinking personally that it is possible to change in that
way and it will be supported by the community and it will be something that
positively change the foundation of their health.

 SOCIAL MARKETING AND HEALTH

We have already mentioned about social marketing as a major theory used in

communication. Even though social marketing was taken from the broader idea of
marketing but as a theory it is mostly in health communication. This is a way of using
marketing principles in communicating social issues and products. An interesting
feature of this theory is that how it uses the ideas of four Ps like price, placement,
product and promotion in communication to disseminate ideas among a particular
consumer segment. In this theory the ideas of public health or a specific health
campaign is communicated to a specific audience like a particular product is
positioned in a particular market.

 SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

According to clodia parvanta social cognitive theory hypothesis that

individual behavior is the result of constant interaction between the external
environment and the internal psycho social characteristic and perception. According
to this theory the behavior is formed in the context of the dynamic interaction of the
person behavior and the environment in which the behavior is performed. There is a
pregiven notion of the person having a particular knowledge or skill to perform a
given behavior and is also expected that a particular outcome will come out of that
behavior. There is also a question of self efficacy and observational learning in this

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theoretical framework. For example, a particular person who is following a particular
program designed by a communicative media is formed by the behavioral changes
that are derived from the social cognition of that particular program. The person‘s
behavior and the willingness to respond to that kind of program will be molded much
by such a context.

3.11 DIFUSSION OF INNOVASION

Unlike the theories which were focusing on individual behavior the diffusion
of innovation theory is something that deals with the group behavior. This group can
be an organization, a community or a specific section of an audience. According to
this theory, new ideas or innovations are disseminated among the people through
various channels. Health communication, the focus is on specific aspects of
innovations like advantage, compatibility, complexity and observability. There are
changes in the way in which a particular audience adopts a particular innovation.
When some audience easily adopts a new innovation there are other audiences who
will take time o adopt in their lives. The early adopters of the innovations function as
a trendsetters who can influence the pattern of adaptability of innovations in slow
audience.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter we have covered some important theories that deal with the
issues of the development, development communication and health communication.
Some of these theories like social marketing theory, participatory communication
theory and social cognitive theory have its impact on the study undertaken by me in
this dissertation. For example, the social cognitive theory which deal specifically with
a group has special relevance in understanding kalyani health campaign because the
kalyani Clubs , the minute organizations are crucial in disseminating the health ideas
through these programs. The other theories covered in this section though may not
directly link with the issue of health communication are still relevant in understanding

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the logic of development communication and the concepts of development that‘s
predominant in India as well as a globalised world. So the understanding of the
theories also has its relevance in formulating general insights into the issues of
communication which is undertaken in this project.

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