Role of mass media in development: which media; what approach?

by Levi Zeleza Manda

After more than a century of theorisation and research, the debate on the role of
mass communication/mass media in development, behaviour change and
technology awareness and adoption can be classified into three broad categories:
strong irresistible effects, limited effects and ‘nil’ effect. This article synthesises the
debates and reviews the challenges and successes in the area of media effects and
development communication before posing questions for further debate.

Key words: mass media, development, social change, behaviour change, media effects

Strong effects

Those who believe in strong media effects, mostly American psychologists, who
mostly use laboratory experiments, have concluded that the mass media have direct
influence and effects on the people. Bennett (1982) contends that the strong effects
paradigm views the audience as a mass of passive and vulnerable recipients of mass
mediated content.

Mass society theory dates back to the period of industrialisation, urbanisation and
modernisation of European and American society in the 17th century. The dramatic
changes at the time are believed to have led to the breakdown of traditional human
relationships. As people migrated to towns in search of employment and other
attractions of modernisation a new society of alienated, culturally rootless,
undifferentiated and anonymous people who had no relations based on "friendship,
kinship and traditional loyalty" (Lowery and DeFleur, 1988:7) emerged. Defleur and
Dennis (1988) say the rise of mass society was characterised by anomie,
impersonality and distrust. The emergence of the film industry in the 1920s led to
especial fears that children would adopt bad manners and anti-social bahaviour. In
the United States, for example, studies were funded to research such fears.
Sociologist Blumer (see Defleur and Dennis, 1988) headed the Payne Fund Studies
into the influence of the film industry on children. The studies concluded that the
films had a powerful influence on children as "youngsters impersonated cowboys
and Indians, cops, robbers, pirates…every conceivable hero and villain they had
seen in films"(1988: 448).

The Payne Fund Studies and the consequent panic caused by the dramatised version
of H.G. Well's, "The War of the Worlds," in 1938, seemed to confirm the irresistibility
of media power on a passive, innocent and vulnerable audience.

A Baker and Ball (1969) study into mass media and violence, commissioned by the
White House (USA) concluded that, “although it is not governed by a board
education, television does teach (many things including aggressive behaviour in
children)”. The strong media effects paradigm likens the mass media to an
irresistible hypodermic needle or a magic bullet (McQuail, 1977; Lowery and
Defleur, 1987). Katz and Lazarsfeld summarise the magic bullet theory of media
effects succinctly thus:

The image of the mass communication process entertained by researchers had

been, firstly, one of 'an atomistic mass' of millions of readers, listeners and
movie-goers, prepared to receive the message; and secondly…every message
was conceived of as a direct and powerful stimulus to action which would
elicit immediate response. (Katz and Lazarsfeld, 1955:16 cited by Morley,
1992:45)

Hieber (1998), writing about the role of the media in conflict resolution and
prevention, says, "although, direct cause and effect has never been proven, Radio
Mille Colllines of Rwanda has played a role in alerting the international community
to the dangers of hate-media (http://ccrweb.ccr.uct.ac.za/two/) because the radio
station is considered to have fanned the hatred that led to the 1994 internecine
massacres in Rwanda.
Hornik (1988) has likened mass communication’s role in development to a low cost
loudspeaker. The World Bank’s Director of Communication, Paul Mitchel is quoted
as declaring that “Change cannot happen without communication. Projects cannot
achieve success without communication. We want to make communication a pillar
of development” (http://www.new-ag.info/pov/views.php?a=1282). The Malawi
government has concluded that mass media has positive and negative influences on
the vulnerable social strata in Malawi. “Some media messages are such that they can
destroy the minds of the youth (Malawi Government, 1999:25). Some countries, such
as Ghana, have made it legal and mandatory to include communication in every
development project.

Dagron (2001) has compared the mass media, particularly community radio
networks, to a tsunami1. One of the most influential mass media theorists, Wilbur
Schramm (1963) saw communication as a contributor to nation building, the voice of
planning, teacher of new skills, and extender of effective markets. Schramm is one
social scientist who believed that mass communication could be harnessed to spur
the newly independent states of Africa, Asia and Latin America into development
(through, inter alia, quick economic growth, productivity, industrialisation, longer
life expectancy, and high literacy (Waisbord 2001).

Limited effects

Although much younger than the strong effects paradigm, the limited effects
tradition is almost seventy years old. It dates back to the 1940s when Lazarsfeld and
his colleagues published the results of a study of the Erie County voting behaviour,
which led the researchers to the conclusion that the media had a negligible influence
on the voting behaviour of the people of the Erie County since the pattern of political
alignments had not changed much. This conclusion disrupted the image of the mass
media as a hypodermic needle or a magic bullet, that is, the notion that the media
had direct, immediate and powerful effects on people's behaviour. About fifty years

1
A tsunami is a series of strong and devastating tidal waves caused by undersea volcanic eruptions.
www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/tsunami.htm
later, Lazarsfeld's findings were also confirmed by Graber (1989) and Drew and
Weaver, (1991). Graber found that "media influence is greatest in informing people
and creating initial attitudes; it is least effective in changing attitudes and ingrained
behaviours "(cited by Drew and Weaver, 1991:29). Lull (1995) reports that American
researchers and campaigners admitted that 'safe sex' media campaigns had failed to
change people's sexual behaviour, even in the face of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,
although awareness was created. Perloff found that a 1989 shoestring budget AIDS
communication campaign (using micro-media channels such as brochures,
billboards and pamphlets) in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, resulted in “an increase in
general public awareness of AIDS as a social problem but did not result in much
increase in knowledge of how to prevent AIDS” (1991:638).

In short, field research into media effects seems to come up with different results
from empirical, experimental laboratory Stimulus-Response studies influenced by
learning theory (Schramm, 1974). Field research has consistently shown the media to
have only limited effects. In 1960, after an extensive review of the 'effects' research,
Klapper wrote that the media could not have direct effects as there always were
predisposing factors. He said the media are not the sole cause of effects (see Kunczik,
1988, Baker and Ball (1969), MacQuail(1989). Further, Klapper (1960) concluded that:

Persuasive mass communication functions far more frequently as an

agent of reinforcement than as an agent of change. Reinforcement or at
least constancy of opinion, is typically found to be the dominant effect.
(1960, cited by Morley, 1992:48)

Schramm (1974) who, in the 1960s, believed the media were information multipliers,
acknowledges that the audience is active and negotiates the messages it confronts.
Specifically, Schramm points out that:

The social aegis under which the message comes, the receiver's social
relationship to the sender, the perceived social consequences of accepting it or
acting upon it must be put together with an understanding of the symbolic
and structural nature of the message, the conditions under which it is
 received, the abilities of the receiver and his innate and learned responses.
(Schramm, 1974:7)

“Nil” effect

The “Nil” effect paradigm could be best represented by such media effects
“denialists” as David Gauntlett (http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm).
Gauntlett (1998) has argued that media effects are mere perceptions or illusions
because they have not been proved and that the approach taken by strong media
effects researchers is flawed. To this effect he has identified ten things wrong with
the strong effects tradition. John Fiske (1987) a cultural studies guru is another
“extremist” who has argued that the mass media are powerless in the face of very
active consumers. The third person effect of media power (Atwood, 1994) is another
form of “nil”media effect because, it argues that media effects are considered to
work on “the people out there”.

Case studies

Despite the strong arguments for “nil” and limited mass media effects, development
planning and implementation experts have for decades used mostly to create public
awareness and influence knowledge transfer. Although mass media seem to have
very little or nil effect on electoral behaviour, worldwide case studies seem to point
to the fact that mass media play an important role in development (agriculture,
health, rural development, etc). Dagron (2001) presents fifty communication based
projects/cases in Latin America, Asia and Africa that have helped improve the
quality of life in rural communities
(http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/pdf/making_waves).

In India, an evaluation of the impact of a Backyard Poultry Farm School radio

programme (Profitable Backyard Poultry Farming in Rural Areas), broadcast in the
local language weekly on the national broadcaster, All India Radio-Rampur for 13
weeks between April 6 and June 29, 2005, concluded that the broadcasts helped in
creating awareness, changing negative attitudes towards backyard poultry farming,
mobilised people and increased farmer participation in the farm school and poultry
farming (Sasidhar et al., 2008:18-19).

In Benin, an Africa Rice Centre study found that “watching [instructional] videos
spurred greater innovation than did conventional farmer training techniques.
Notably high levels of creativity (67%) were recorded among women who did not
have access to the rice processing technology featured in the video”
(http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2009/06/radio-video-key-to-
agricultural.html).

Babalola and Babalola (2004) write that in the Nigerian State of Osun, participatory
communication helped in the promotion and achievement of self-help projects while
Clemens and Coulibaly (1999) report that in Mali, use of the symbolic green coloured
wrapping cloth, (the pandelou), as a communication sign associated with pregnancy,
increased awareness about and access to maternal health services. Similar success is
reported in Rwanda where the communications project, Urunana, is reported to
have created awareness about malaria and health issues. Chapman et al. (2003)
report that vernacular rural radio programming raised awareness and popular
participation in a soil and water conservation project in northern Ghana and
Anyaegbunam, Mefalous and Moetsabi (1998) report that due to lack of participatory
communication, villagers in Zimbabwe resisted the construction of a German-
funded irrigation scheme. Child (2009), summarising success stories of DFiD funded
media projects in Kenya, Zambia and Somalia, reports that radio communication
interventions helped Kenyan male youths to start treating donkeys in a friendlier
manner than before; that in Zambia a private radio, Breeze FM, was able to
communicate timely market information to rural farmers and thus boost production
and in that Somalia radio-based instructions were partly responsible for teaching
livestock farmers basic literacy skills and boosting their knowledge of livestock
management. Zijp (1994) reports that in the Sudan use of packet radio facilitated
local self-help in rural areas (area development schemes) by assisting extension staff
to communicate efficiently with headquarters in the absence of traditional telephony.
Manyozo (2005) reports that in Malawi the use of radio listeners clubs has
empowered hitherto uncared for rural audiences to demand services from the
government and Chapota (2009), writing about the African Farm Radio Research
Initiative action research, concludes that the farm radio international funded
agriculture radio programmes have empowered Malawian smallholder farmers to
demand agriculture-related services such as how to access farm inputs. Chapota
(2009) further reports that participatory radio campaigns succeeded in raising
awareness about and improving uptake of knowledge on new agricultural
technologies. Chilowa et al (2001) conclude that the Malawi Social Action Fund
(MASAF) Information Education Communication programme helped in awareness
raising amongst the project’s target audiences. Another related study by Blessings
Chinsinga (2003), concludes that some 97.2% of the respondents were aware of or
had heard about MASAF’s interventions in Malawi. The Agricultural Marketing and
Information System for Malawi (MIS-Malawi) project is credited with linking
farmers directly with markets. Through its radio programme, Misika yapa Wailesi
(Markets on the Air), MIS-Malawi is reported to have traded, from January to
September 2008 agricultural commodity valued at K32, 733,845.10 (FARA, 2009: 24)
and the USAID/COMPASS sponsored radio and TV programme, Chuma Chobisika, is
said to have motivated its target audiences to take up natural resource based
enterprises (COMPASS, 2008).

Conclusion
Contributing to the ninth UN roundtable on development communications in Rome,
Italy, 2004, Wijayananda Jayaweera, Director of UNESCO’s Communication for
Development Division correctly observed that "Communication is a means to
sustainable development, not an end in itself" (http://www.new-
ag.info/pov/views.php? See also http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=17177&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html). He was right;
for in itself, mass communication does not provide hypodermic needle or magic
bullet or Mida’s touch solutions but has a big role to play in addressing the social
problems besetting the developing world. As Hall (1982) and Herman and Chomsky
(1988) have severally argued, mass communication does work, over a long time, in
the subtle and discreet purveyance of ideology, change of social attitudes and
“consensus formation” (Hall, 1982:64). Rogers (1962) adds that mass media help in
facilitating the adoption of new innovations by, inter alia, creating empathy in the
target audiences. As Rogers’ (1962) time tested adoption curve illustrates
(www.provenmodels.com/570), not every member of society will adopt change at
the same time.

The many successful cases cited in this article attest to the fact that mass media are
critical in the social development process. Media provide an agenda and public
sphere for social development. As such media planners supporting development
should always be cognisant of the fact that local and community media have proved
to be critical in galvanising people towards projects as such media are considered
relevant and appropriate, culturally and linguistically, by the local people.

It is important for project planners to always consider including the mass media in
development projects, not as standalone activities but as support systems to deliver
critical knowledge, raise awareness, consciousness and create empathy among target
audiences for the projects to succeed. Media involvement should precede the
implementation of a development project or introduction of a new technology or
innovation, be used throughout the lifespan of the project and be the last to be
withdrawn.

A combination of formats (such as drama/theatre, poetry, music, dance, phone-ins

and narratives) is necessarily for mass communication to play a long lasting role in
development. These formats should be complemented with traditional mass media
techniques such as news broadcasts, documentaries, and grassroots advocacy
techniques as door to door campaigns among other interpersonal communication
channels. Marketing techniques such as social marketing, road shows and
participatory community media production which have already proved critical in
advancing the role of media in sustainable social and human development (Dagron,
2001, op. cit.) ought to be harnessed in communication for development.
The road ahead

What remains is for researchers to determine conclusively:

a) Which type of media (Radio, TV, Internet, Print, PR (Outdoor, posters, etc?) is best
fit for what kind of development?

Conclusions from several studies tend to indicate that film/video media (and TV as
its channel) are the most effective media for social change, followed by radio (which
is still pervasive in Malawi because it is relatively cheap), the internet/social media
like Facebook (although these are still for a privileged few in Malawi) and printed
media. Many development projects opt for radio because it reaches a broad audience
at the lowest per capita cost but generally this channel is ephemeral and non-specific
in nature and once the broadcast is over there is nothing to remind the audience
about the content. As such, print media (such posters) are a good development
communication supplement.

b) How long it takes for mass media to have any influence.

c) What is the right dose of media per unit time sufficient to influence change and at
what cost

d) What role the media must assume to influence development and social change
(supporting role, leading role, a passive reporting role?)

e) Why do mass media seem to fail to influence elections? The trend in Malawi has
been such that although incumbents control public media, they don’t necessarily
benefit from the same? (See Manda, 2007 for a detailed discussion).

Development communication gurus speak out: Do you agree with them?

The quotes below were uttered by some of the best in the area of development
communication. They have been taken from http://www.new-
ag.info/pov/views.php?
“Change cannot happen without communication. Projects cannot achieve success
without communication. We want to make communication a pillar of development
[and] "in Ghana they have legislated that every development project must have a
communication component in it. We have persuaded The Bank that they should
provide lending for communication as a stand-alone activity, just like any other."
Paul Mitchell, Director of Communication, The World Bank

"People are not poor because they have no knowledge - they do have knowledge.
We must make good use of communication to spread this knowledge."
Oumy Ndiaye, Head of Communications Channels and Services Department, CTA

"Communication is a means to sustainable development, not an end in itself."

Wijayananada Jayaweera, Director, Communication Development Division, UNESCO

"Communication for development should not be technology driven. It should be

based on social issues and concerns. Technology is at best a facilitator and tool."
Jan Servaes, University of Queensland, Australia

"Addressing a general audience such as 'the community' or 'the farmers' does not
really help involve people in communication. Various sub-groups make up any
community. Each sub-group has its own way of perceiving a problem and its
solution, and its own way of taking actions."
Guy Bessette, Senior Program Specialist, IDRC

"It is more difficult to get across poverty and development issues to the media. There
is therefore need for more local content and local languages, which points to the
importance of community media. I hope that this Roundtable will come up with
major support for true community media."
Colin Fraser, Communications Consultant, Rome

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