ABSTRACT
Communication has been widely viewed as a major force for national development, at least in the years since the early pioneering work of Wilbur Schramm (1964). The early work on the relationship between communication and development focused on the messages in the mass media and how they could be utilized to create a sense of national identity, foster attitudes favourable to modernization, or fulfil the goals of such particular campaigns as family planning, disease prevention or agricultural development projects. While drawing on that rich tradition, this paper shifts the focus of attention to the technology of communication and to the institutional structures supporting or made possible by the communication technology. Rather than assume that present technologies and institutions are immutable, we start with the assumption that technologies and institutions, as well as messages, can be planned to support the goals of national development. The following sections begin with a general discussion of the goals of national development, the factors and constraints influencing development and the general strategies open to rapidly developing nations (or nations wishing to develop rapidly). The discussion then turns to the specifics of communication in support of development, including communication technology, institutional structure and choice of messages. A concluding section summarizes the policy and planning issues associated with national development support communication.
