Communication and Change: The Last Ten Years and the Next.

Abstract

Foreword All countries are developing countries. Development is the process through which a society moves to acquire the capability of enhancing the quality of life of its people, primarily through the solution of its problems. In this sense, although they have been slow to recognize it, the United States and other affluent countries are still underdeveloped in such areas as urban life, environmental protection, race relations, crime, and other social problems.The task of developing a country must ultimately be undertaken by the citizens or natives of that country. The idea that more affluent countries have a responsibility to assist less affluent ones has come to be accepted in recent decades. As a new concept, it had many pitfalls as well as certain advantages. We have now learned that any nation that wants to develop -- that is, that wants to improve the quality of life of its people -- must do so itself, although not necessarily without assistance. Science and certain technology can be borrowed, imported, and adapted from abroad, but ultimately creativity from within is the only answer, for development, essentially, is not a matter of technology or gross national product but the growth of a new consciousness, the movement of the human mind, the uplifting of the human spirit, the infusion of human confidence. We have come to recognize also that the development of one country does not merely have impact upon that country alone, but actually upon all countries.