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Operational is a process or a philosophy that
focuses principally on cause and effect
relationships (or stimulus/response, behavior,etc.
T
heoretical is based on theory, ahypothetical statement or speculativeknowledge
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Everett Rogers outlined the elements of the 'new', 'Another
Development', 'plurality' paradigm.
Later radicalized and extended by Jan Servaes, who called it'multiplicity'.
The paradigm was developed in response to the
shortcomings of the earlier modernization paradigm
However, policy makers in Third World countries continue touse the recommendations of the older paradigm.
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Mid 1970s and 1980s, Kuhnian Revolution/scientific
revolution/paradigm shifts were occurred in developmentcommunication.
The paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is not simply the currenttheory, but the entire worldview in which it exists, and all of
the implications which come with it. It is based on features of
landscape of knowledge that scientists can identify aroundthem.
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This paradigm had try to replaced modernization paradigm
because its failure to predict the path and consequences of development.
But the paradigm also failed to replace it as a model of development due to the theoretical weaknesses.
A survey of 244 studies by Fair that examined the mediadevelopment found little difference in the theoreticalframework between (1958 to 1975) and (1976 to 1986).
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Lerner (1958) said that that underdeveloped countries could become prosperouslike their industrial counterparts if only they shed the cultural impediments tomodernity in their societies.
His theory was simple: To modernize, a society must first be industrialized and
urbanized, then become literate, and be exposed to the mass media where, finally, its citizenry would be able to participate more fully both economically and politically. Participation then was the goal and measure of modernity.
Schramm (1964) suggested that Third World governments should acquire mass
media technology from the West and use it as a system of centralized control todisseminate culturally uplifting values.
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But, decades after Third World countries launched
programmes based on the recommendations modernizationtheorists, the results were disappointing. Industrialization
did not prove to be a short-cut to prosperity, as had beenpredicted.
In fact, it was charged that existing socioeconomic inequities
were heightened following the implementation of programmes of modernization.
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Criticism of the paradigm was that it was ethnocentric andpaternalistic because it failed to draw a distinction between
itself and Westernization.
That is, modernization saw a modern society as a Westernsociety. There was no room in the model for a modern non-
Western society, such as Japan.
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(1) A focus on economic growth both as a measure and goal of
development(2) Reliance on capital-intensive technology for
industrialization(3) Centralized planning for development(4) Exclusive stress on internal causes of development
These elements became the focus of criticism and led to theproposal for a new paradigm.
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Arguing from a neo-Marxist perspective, they contended
that the causes of underdevelopment were not to be foundwithin developing countries.
But outside them in international terms of trade, economicimperialism of multinational corporations and the
vulnerability and dependence of developing countries(Singhal and Rogers, 1989: 23-24)
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Field research and criticisms indicated that a paradigm of
development should include labour-intensive methodsrather than capital-intensive technologies.
Inayatullah said the modernization paradigm presupposesthat societies that have not developed technologically by
Western standards were sterile, unproductive, uncreativeand hence worth liquidating (1967: 100).
He said it should be voluntary: the process should be throughinnovation rather than imitation.
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Schumacher (1973) said modernization as practiced needs toconcern about religious and spiritual values.
According to Servaes (1991) developing countries should notape the West, because there is no universal model of
development.
Servaes (1991) also said that the main problematic in
multiplicity is not the trickledown of economic benefits as inmodernization but the empowerment of the people.
Before the people can be empowered, they have to come toan understanding of their true situation.
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The fundamental problem with the paradigm that leads to
several contradictions is that suffers from a dialecticalinconsistency.
Servaes (1990) urges each country to look for its model of development in its own history and culture while at the same
time the country must keep in sight the six principles heidentified.
Basic needs, endogeny, self-reliance, ecological balance,participatory democracy, and structural transformations.
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But, Servaes fails to consider what a country shoulddo when its history and culture lead toward a model
that is antithetical to his principles.
For example, natives of the Murut tribe deep in the jungles of north Borneo were literally drinking
themselves to death in the early 1900s throughabuse of rice alcohol during festivals.
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Another inconsistency in the newer paradigm is that while it
implies that developing countries have the freedom tochoose their paths of development, in reality there are
constraints 'imposed by the historical evolution of thesesocieties and their contemporary internal and externalenvironments' (Inayatullah, 1976: 58).
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Paternalism is an attitude or policy that being made by other
person to another person without that personconsent.(eg:upper class-lower class)
Berger's critique of Freire's method about consciousnessraising makes it evident that theorists who employ this
method, despite assertions to the contrary, are as guilty asthose of the modernization model in holding the attitudethat they understand the situation of the disenfranchisedbetter than the disenfranchised themselves.
Freires endorsed method of teaching and empowering using
conscientization.
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But, Berger (1976) said consciousness raising' is a project of
higher-class individuals directed at a lower-class population.It is the latter, not the former, whose consciousness is to be
raised. What is more, the consciousness at issue is theconsciousness that the lower-class population has of its own
situation.
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The above-mentioned inconsistencies, contradictions and
problems suggest that pluralism may be too expansive inclaiming for itself the status of a paradigm.
Kuhn has defined a paradigm as the generally accepted viewof scientists on fundamental facts that determines the objectof research and how research should conducted.