Toward an integrated development communication strategy : an analysis of the SADCC case

This thesis reflects an attempt at a theoretical and methodological retaxonomization of development communication research in the aftermath of theory failure in the traditional communication approach to development--a failure largely attributed to the inadequacy of research methods in giving a full accounting of the dynamics of interrelationships between and among various social dimensions in which communication and development occur. Innovative and critical methodological dimensions to the traditional and hardline quantitative research, namely, ethnomethodology, focus group interviews and case studies, have been added in an attempt to give a more comprehensive account of the role of the people at grassroots level.It is from this theoretical perspective that the thesis assesses the potential impact of the telecommunication development program of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) on the productive sector, notably, small-scale rural farmers who are crucial elements in the region's hopes for food security and agriculture-based development. The thesis takes the theoretical and methodological position that the question of a communication approach to development cannot be addressed as if communication were an independent variable but as an integrated package of socio-economic and cultural factors that jointly or collectively impact on communication and development in more interactive and complex ways than previously recognized. Hence the potential of development communication has to be viewed in the context of the strategic equation in which information and communication are but one aspect of interactive factors that add up to the fulfillment of life.The thesis' methodological elements include; field research among the rural farmers in Zimbabwe, interviews with policymakers, researchers, media practitioners, communication educators, consultants, NGO project officers; content analysis of selected media of the SADCC region, with the Zimbabwean media (both print and electronic) as case studies; and an analysis of original documents and reports on telecommunication and other development plans. Interviews with peasants on one hand, and with technical experts and politicians, on the other, will highlight the fact that knowledge generation can be multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary and what different constituencies can offer to development efforts. How we might begin to take account of this prospect is the basic research question this thesis addresses