Operational, Not Theoretical

8/7/2019 Operational, Not Theoretical

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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



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.



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.



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).



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.



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.



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.



(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.



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)



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.



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.



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.



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.



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).



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.



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.



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.

Operational, Not Theoretical

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