Reflections: Development Communication as a field of study

This article is originally a reflection paper submitted to one of my courses, DEVC70. I posted it here because I think it roughly provides an overview of what my course is and especially and what I think about it.

            When I first entered the college, I have no idea what course I am taking. I thought it was something similar to Communication Arts, Mass Communication and BS English to some extent. Indeed, I wrote this course in my choices because it has ‘communication’ in it. So you can really imagine my surprise when our first lesson way back in DevC10 was poverty.  I have no idea why we’re talking about poverty, why we’re talking about malnutrition, the poor poorer and the rich richer, why we’re talking about development. That’s when it hit me: ‘development’. I thought Development Communication was about improving communication tools, media or something like that. But I realized I’m extremely wrong.

            Development Communication, as a discourse, is not focused about communication. It is mainly about development... the development of the nation and the people in it. How are you going to communicate to the people to improve their lives? To unleash their individual potential in order for them to grow and develop without needing any help anymore? Indeed, it is the use of communication in development.

            Communication in development... communication for development. What’s the difference? I believe that DevCom nowadays is more on the first: communication in development. Maybe back then, back in the 1970s, when DevCom was first introduced, communication is just a tool for development - an external factor that is used for the society’s upliftment, that aside from communication there are many other ways for development. But now, I believe that DevCom evolved, one way or the other. It does not only use communication as an external factor, but communication is in development. It is now something internal, something necessary for people to develop. It is rooted deep in there; that without proper communication, whatever means people would use, development will be inefficient and ineffective.

            After rethinking everything, one would question: isn’t the main purpose of the discourse too ideal? Too noble? Too good to be true? Well, at some point, yes, it may be. It may be too ideal and not all of those ideals are feasible in reality. But then again, if we ourselves are to lose hope on us, who would bother go out of their comfortable lives and help us? We just need to have a positive approach on things. We can make the objectives of the study of Development Communication come true little by little. Maybe this is also Dr. Quebral’s realization when she changed the definition of the discourse from a ‘speedy transformation’ to a ‘planned transformation’: development need not be rushed, it just needs to have a specific time frame as a goal or a guide. We can take improving ourselves in our time, at our own pace. And if each and every one of us will use, apply and spread the values DevCom is sharing, then maybe, the Filipinos of this generation can experience being a citizen of a first-world country. We were once there during Marcos’ regime. Of course, we can do it again... with people participation, the right attitude and the right mindset.