Mass Media and National Development: The Role of Information in Developing Countries

PrefaceThe United Nations Conference on Freedom of Information, in 1948, called freedom of information of basic freedoms, and free and adequate information the touchstone of all freedoms to which United Nations is dedicated. It is now generally understood that before there can be free and adequate information in any country, there must be adequate development of mass communication. Therefore all countries, new or old, industrialized or not, highly developed or underdeveloped, are properly concerned with development of their communication systems.But one aspect of communication development is of special concern to new and emerging countries. This is contribution that effective communication can make to economic and social development. Free and adequate information is thus not only a goal: it is also a means of bringing about desired social change. Without adequate and effective communication, economic and social development will inevitably be retarded, and may be counter productive. With adequate and effective communication, pathways to change can be made easier and shorter.The following pages take for granted general desirability of free and adequate information, and concern themselves primarily with this second aspect of communication development. They are concerned with part that information can play, if used wisely, to speed and smooth what Julius Nyerere called terrible ascent of developing nations of world toward social and economic modernity.