ASCOT Library Zabali Campus

Part I: development communication in the '80s. –
A. As a concept –
1. Development communication update –
2. Is it government communication or people communication –
3. Development communication after the people's revolution –
4. Community as communication –
5. On "The people's right to know" –
B. As an academic field –
6. Development communication training values: how current are they? –
7. Some attributes of development communication research –
C. As practice –
8. Rural development: some policy issues for communication –
9. Communication in the National Azolla Action Program: a case study –
10. Setting up a development communication unit: the Los Baños experience –
D. Links with other fields –
11. Information needs and services for rural development –
12. Beyond public information –
13. The unmediated word in development communication –
Part II: development communication in the '70s. –
14. Development communication in the agricultural context –
15. Development communication: status and trends –
16. Development communication: the time is now.

"In the early '70s when it began to take shape as a concept, development communication drew spirited comments from many quarters. Some were supportive; many more were critical. In the late '80s, a good deal of the resistance to it persists in the very countries where the hope is that it will be useful. Yet in the overseas projects of at least one developed country, it seems to have moved from the realm of trial and experimentation to the field of action.
The concept has not been static. Sometimes it is praised or criticized on grounds no longer germane if they ever were. In the '90s and through the century just around the corner, it will probably continue to adapt as any dynamic organism will. Once it congeals as unsupported dogma is when it is likely to die off. It will keep vigorous so long as it is anchored on thoughtful practice and methodical inquiry.
Development communication has gone by some other tag in the past and may be called differently in the future. Its present name could go out of fashion after a while. Not likely to disappear, though, is the idea that underlies it: that the art of communication, infused by social science principles, can be consciously directed towards improving people's lives. This is the essence of development communication, regardless of how it is labeled or what else may be imputed to it.
The chapters in this book, most of them written between 1983 and 1987, try to picture present thinking, practice and teaching in development communication in the Philippines and Southeast Asia seen against its beginnings in the 1970s. The perceptions are those of someone who is Filipino and Asian but who has learned much from colleagues in other parts of the world.
In going over the chapters, I realize anew my large debt to Wilbur Schramm from whom I have learned the most. I acknowledge here what I should have thanked him for when I had the opportunity.
My appreciation also goes to the following for allowing me the use of articles and papers that they had originally published:
Media Asia, publication of the Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre;
Media Development, journal of the World Association for Christian Conimunication;
The Communicatio Socialis Yearbook;
The Philippine Association of Communication Educators;
The Philippines Communication Society;
The Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians;
The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Agriculture."
- N.C. Quebral September 1988