SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 345-4

COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Overview:

The course will begin with an examination of competing paradigms of communication and development as they emerged out of debates within and outside the discipline of communication. The dominant paradigm of communication, particularly mass mediate communication, as both an engine and an indicator of modernization has been challenged by dependency theorist, who view modernization as the "development of underdevelopment," and by critical communication scholars, who perceive "cultural imperialism" to be the primary impact of the mass media in the Third World. A recent theoretical innovation is the analysis of development itself as communication, in particular, the confrontation between western and local knowledge systems in processes of modernization. Following this examination of different perspectives, different practices of communication and development will be analyzed to reveal how they relate to the different perspectives and what are their concrete implications for the people targeted for development. Practices examined will include the different communication strategies of change agents fostered by governments, by non-governmental agencies, and by social movements. Different approaches to participation, power, and development will be analyzed utilizing concrete case studies from the field.

Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or 130 and completion of 60 credit hours

Required Text:

Nici Nelson & Susan Wright, eds., Power and Participatory Development, London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1995.
Other required readings for discussion in class will be available on reserve in the library. The text and reserved readings will be used in writing four short essays that will be assigned every few weeks throughout the term.

Evaluation:

Note:

Instead of in-class or take-home exams, these review essays will serve the function of testing students' grasp of the ideas and information presented in the readings, lectures, and videos discussed in class.

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty," and "Academic Discipline" (see the current Calendar, General Regulations Section).