Abstract
Based on the author’s involvement and experience, this chapter presents an overview of events and achievements in the field of development communication from the 1970s onwards, and a summary of a number of more systematic meta-analyses, based on academic publications in the same period. It highlights the major shifts which took place at theoretical, professional and institutional levels.
This chapter builds on a paper presented at the Panel on the ‘History and Future of Participatory Communication Research’, IAMCR Conference, Paris, 23 July 2007, and published in Servaes, Jan (2007) “Participatory Communication for Development and Social Change: Some reflections and suggestions”, Journal of Development Communication, 18, 2, December, 11–23.
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Notes
- 1.
Schramm (1954, 1964, 1967) attended the conference as the guest of honour. After my presentation, Schramm, who was sitting on the first row next to Godwin Chu, called me to his side and said something along the lines of “Though you will understand that I do not agree to your analysis, I cannot deny that it is an intelligent assessment of my writings.” I was a bit baffled and smiled shyly. Afterwards Goodwin came to tell me that Schramm appreciated my paper very much. It was the last time I met Schramm before he died on 27 December 1987.
- 2.
Hoffmann’s (2007) close reading of the five editions is a must-read for all of us. It ends like this: “’Altogether the book … is extremely informative, stimulating, and highly readable—it needs readers who can critically check it.’ This is how Hartmut Albert ended his review of the second edition from 1973. The reception of the book up to edition five indicates that this type of reader is in the minority” (Hoffmann 2007: 157–158; see also Monchak and Kim 2011; Servaes and Obijiofor 2007).
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Servaes, J. (2021). A Personal Encounter: Some Reflections on Communication for Development and Social Change. In: Servaes, J. (eds) Learning from Communicators in Social Change. Communication, Culture and Change in Asia, vol 7. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8281-3_7
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