Abstract: Media, Entertainment and Development Communication can be the catalyst in the paradigm shift in India’s approach to its developmental agenda as an emerging economy among developing nations. The Media, Entertainment and Development Communication have become the stimulating factor to activate India’s human and natural resources to demystify the old concept of “Top-Down” approach to development. Development communication is founded on a paradigm. This paradigm puts the modern media of social communication at the service of development. Development is making use of a country's human and material resources in order to increase the production of goods and services to enhance the general progress and welfare of its people. The core essence of development communication is for behavioural change. To Everett Rogers, “Development communication refers to the uses to which communication are put in order to further development.” The development communicator must device innovative approaches in explaining development process to the ordinary person in a manner that would influence change. Development communication is a skill. Its purpose or objective is to help at developing social awareness, we-feeling and responsibility towards one’s fellow beings, one’s community and country. “It bothers on social consciousness. Hence, the term, “conscientisation,” the sensitizing of the conscience.” One of the most important roles of the Media in development communication is the provision of information, enabling platform for effective discourse on national issues, explaining of ideas, skills for a transformed life and a catalyst for consensus building for national cohesion. India has taken advantage of the media and exploited it potentials for its development agenda since its early inception in the 1940s. Development journalism became the underpinning of the media. It is the central focus of the media and constitutes the whole communication process. It means change in attitudes on the part of the government and the media: both electronic and print. As a developing nation, India has no choice, in considering development issues as major policy decisions that directly or indirectly affect the life of its people. When development communication became the vehicle for transformation in the 1940s in India, different languages were used for radio broadcast to make the ordinary person part of the process of development. In Entertainment, It is said that music transcends borders, cultures, languages and continents. One does not need to understand the lyrics to appreciate the beauty of music. It is just an expression of a feeling. This feeling cannot be measured. In the same vein, films offer a deeper appreciation as compared to music. Films use both visual and audio; the interplay of both verbal and non-verbal communications. The influence of Cinema on India’s culture, education, leisure and propaganda became the channel for transformation. In a 1963 report for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) looking at Indian Cinema and Culture, the author, Baldoon Dhingra, quoted a speech by Prime Minister Nehru who stated, “…the influence in India of films is greater than newspapers and books combined.” Sadly, it is becoming more theoretical and practical use.
Keywords: development, communication, media, entertainment.
Title: Media, Entertainment and Development Communication: Perspective of a Developing Nation
Author: DR. SONAL PANDYA, Wisdom Peter Awuku
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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