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Development Communication Policy Sciences
Alexander Flor (1991) regarded development community and the policy sciences as distinct and mutually exclusive areas of study. Many scholars however, have drawn separate definitions for each of these two branches of social science. For development communication, Servaes (2002) calls this as a social process that describes the sharing of knowledge aimed at reaching a consensus for action that takes into account the interests, needs and capacities of all concerned.

Coyle (2008), who wrote the article ‘Theory of Development Communication’, articulated communication as an important tool in informing, persuading, listening, data gathering, educating, training and managing change, where people have options to change their ways of life. Communication then becomes an instrument in facilitating changes in people in order for them to realize their full potentials. Through it, people would improve their ways of thinking, their ways of acting and their ways of living resulting in a higher quality of life.

Flor & Ongkiko (1998) describe development communication in the book titled ‘Introduction to Development Communication’ as purposive as it primarily uses communication not merely to give information but practically to influence the people- the receivers of information.

The place of communication in the development process was given a boost when Lerner (1958) wrote his famous treatise ‘The Passing of the Traditional Society’, in which he acknowledged that mass media growth was one of the three phases of democratic political development (Moemeka, n.d). He pointed out that the mass media had the power to create opportunity for empathy which ‘disciplined western men in skills that spell modernity’. . The conception of the policy sciences on the other hand, is more refined and extended today than at any time in the colorful history of man (Lasswell, 1971). Giving a working definition for it, he noted that policy sciences are concerned with knowledge of and in the decision processes of the public and civic order.

While societies now described as ‘turbulent field’, where changes occur with increasing rapidity and complexity, Allen (1978) stressed that such a condition has made traditional social science methodology inadequate to solve many of today’s societal problems (Flor, 1991). The policy sciences grew out of this need to reorient actively the social sciences to the resolution of policy issues (see Ocampo, 1978 in Flor, 1991)

In his simplified definition, Flor (1991) described policy sciences as the scientific study of policies and policy making. While calling policy sciences as ‘supradiscipline’, this branch of social science aims to improve policy making in order to provide as much ‘lead time’ as necessary in the solution of societal problems, he pointed out.

With the multi-faceted and complex problems our world faces today, the affinity of development communication and policy sciences is believed to impact the decision making of the policy makers in this ‘turbulent field’. While Quebral (1975) calls DevCom as communication for planned social change, policy sciences, as coined by Harold Lasswell, become an approach to understanding and solving problems, and draw on and contribute to all fields of knowledge (PSC, Inc.)

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