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V V V.“ . ...-...... ..VVm V-V ....-,uVV.V. V. .3... ...{V "...-numb V.V.—r-rrr-v-rv-n , ro-pa—w" " "' F . ,. V .VV V V . ,.V.....-VV.. .V.. V ......”mr. , r ... .--v~-r'- w-u— nw-r-yvo- _:_.,, . V V V . V V ...... . ,. “on. r. >.-~upr'l*""""‘F”"""v.""rr r . , fl _ . . ... V V V V . . . V‘ . .. ......V VV . n. - . muuv—«w-r - 'w _ , . ~ V V V V V V V ...V .. " ' ,V, ..,,~.. ,,,..,,, .V,. ..(f,..,. 'I...’.V',.‘¢.-, ‘27-, V . . V V V V "V‘ v ..-". . «warm... - ..., V.. “V ...V V. .. V V‘ .V V V,, , V. ...... ,“1"" ... v - v: - rv-vq 1:..27.’:nmu~1rzzm This is to certify that the thesis entitled COMMUNICATION IN LATIN AMERICA: PERSUASION FOR STATUS QUO OR FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT? presented by Luid Ramiro Beltran S. has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph . D . degree in Communication dam-I 26 &g% | Major professor Date August, 19 72 0-7639 1 ABSTRACT COMMUNICATION IN LATIN AMERICA: PBRSUASION FOR STATUS QUO OR FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT? by Luis Ramiro Beltran S. Organized social communication has been perceived as highly instrumental in the attainment of national development. This study explores the question with reference to the Latin American countries, seeking to define whether communication in them — especially in the area of mass media operation — in— deed serves development, is indifferent to it or works counter it. The meaning of development to which the writer subscribes is broader than material growth and economic advancement; he regards these phenomena merely as in- struments for the attainment of dignity, freedom and justice for all human beings. And it is in the light of that perspective that he appraises com- munication in Latin America. The study starts with a brief review of generalizations about the re- lationship between communication and development and of propositions perti- nent to the specific roles that communication is seen able to perform in the service of development. It describes summarily the structure of Latin American society, stressing acute concentration of power in a minority as a key factor explanatory of the present state of underdevelopment of that region. It then describes the concomitant phenomenon of Latin America's economic, political and cultural subordination to the United States of America. Within such an overall sociostructural framework of internal and ex— ternal domination, the study describes and documents the mass communication system of Latin America. It does so in terms of the availability of mass media institutions, the distribution of their messages among the various sectors of the population, and the nature of those messages. Press, radio and television messages are analyzed in terms of content and style, rela— tive to their different kinds of audience and to the aims of national de— velopment. The analysis indicates that, for the most part, mass media reach only an urban minority of the population, leaving the peasantry — more than one hundred million human beings — in a state of virtual non-com— munication. The analysis also shows that, in general, content orientation tends to favor non—substantive information over that which could be instru— // mental for development and seems to disfavor the social reorganization nec— // essary for providing the majority access to the benefits of genuine moderni— \V/ zation; three explanations for this situation are discussed: audience pre- ference, marketing influence, and media ownership and its biases. Given that the region's mass communication system is necessarily vin- culated to that of the U. 8., the study proceeds then to analyze news flow between this country and Latin America. It finds that: (l) the flow is Ygg almost totally controlled by U. S. news agencies; (2) it accounts for much \ \ ,¢ of the misunderstanding between people in these two areas of the world; (3) :\\\it does not foster social transformation in the region; and (H) it would ' appear to serve as an important tool for maintaining the dominant influence traditionally exerted by the U. 8. over Latin America. Subsequently presented is a review of those efforts so far executed by the Latin American countries to overcome the serious limitations of the extant mass communication system in relation to the requirements and goals of national development. The short analytical description includes produc- tion, distribution, training and research activities, as well as satellite communication prospects and educational television operations. Attention is then given to some alternative and supplementary communication systems ‘;\\which seem to make viable the incorporation of appreciable sectors of the \ rural masses to the nations' communication networks. Radio ”schools" and i radio "forum" experiences are depicted in some detail, but consideration is i also given to the possible use of agricultural extension services as mass Z /communication sub—systems. The necessity for promoting new types of small— scale mass communication institutions, capable of having an impact at local levels and of serving as feedback facilities, is stressed as an additional . / convenience . \ // The writer criticizes national development strategy in Latin America as primarily derived from a materialistic conception of development which takes for granted the human dimension of that process. As aconsequenceof it, very inadequate attention is given to organizing social communication so that it truly serves development. The State fails to perceive the need for communi- cation policies and plans specifically designed to help achieve the develop- ment objectives. This the author attributes to certain attitudes prevailing among top decision makers, (political leaders and development planners) and accounting for the current lack of integration between national development policy and developmental communication strategy. Suggestions are offered as f to ways and means of generating changes in such situation. The dissertation concludes by discussing central issues in developmental communication strategy, such as: (l) the human value systems; (2) the scope of individual change; \//fl (3) the decision—making ability; (H) the disparity between structural and functional change; (5) the subversive nature of communication; (6) the kinds of human needs which communication should seek to help satisfy; and (7) the uses of communication in achieving the organization, mobilization and parti— cipation of the masses. Communication, the writer believes, can be effectively used for liberating Latin Americans rather than for keeping them subdued. COMMUNICATION IN LATIN AMERICA: PERSUASION FOR STATUS QUO OR FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT? by Luis Ramiro Beltran S. A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Communication 1970 w Copyright by LUIS RAM lfiR BELTRAN S. 1972 To my mother, Mrs. Betsfiabé Beltran, with incommunicable gratitude and devotion. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Several persons have, in many ways, given me their cooperation in the completion of this dissertation as well as in taking the courses and conducting the research required towards obtaining the doctoral degree at Michigan State University. I am indebted to all of them but especially to some in particular. I cannot express adequately the nature and depth of my indebted— ness to my major professor and advisor, Dr. David K. Berlo, Chairman of the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. Above and beyond the administrative and academic sphere, Dr. Berlo was to me a true and exceptionally generous friend. I learned much from him, inside and outside the classroom. And I profess for him the greatest admiration and gratitude. It is with no less admiration and gratitude that I wish to acknow- ledge the invaluable support that I received from Dr. Armando Samper, Director General of the Inter—American Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS, who distinguished me with our institution's honor scholarship. Dr; Everett M. Rogers and Dr. R. Vincent Farace, communication scholars especially interested in Latin America's modernization, were membersof my guidance Committee, as well as Dr. John Useem,professor of the Department of Sociology. I owe much to each of them too in terms of professional growth and human exchange and wish to thank them for their friendly orientation and for the confidence with which they honored me. A warm word of thanks to Mrs. Mary Davis, noble friend and poet, who conceded me the privilege of being my thesis editor. And my thanks also to Barbara Haslem, Marie Peterson, and Sandra Elton, my kind and patient typists and helpers. .1.\ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1 COMMUNICATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE ................. l The Relation Between Communication and Development ............... 3 The Role of Communication in Development ......................... 5 Latin American Social Structure ........... . ...................... 7 Indicators of Power Concentration ........................... 8 The Instruments for Power Preservation ...................... ll The Prospects for Change .................................... 12 The Influence of the United States of America .................... 13 A Framework for the Analysis of Latin American Communication ..... 18 Outline of the Thesis ............................................ 18 Chapter 2 MEDIA AVAILABILITY AND CONSUMPTION ............................... 20 Mass Media Availability in Latin America ......................... 20 Recent Expansion of Media Facilities ............................. 21 Distribution of Mass Communication Resources ..................... 22 Patterns of Media Use ............................................ 23 Deprivation of Communication and Cultural Domination ............. 31 Chapter 3 CONTENTS OF MEDIA MESSAGES ....................................... 36 Some Implicit Assumptions ... .............. ..... .................. 36 Content in General Audience Media ........ . ....................... 40 Print Content ......... ............. . ........................ H0 Radio Content ............ ..................... . ............. 43 Television Content ..... .......... ...... ..................... nu Page Content in Rural Audience Media ....... .......... . ........... ..... ”7 Print Content ............... . ..................... ... ....... 47 Radio and Television Content ....... . ........................ 51 Message Style and the Rural Audience ............................. 53 Message Difficulty in Printed Messages ...................... 53 Code in Non-Verbal Messages ........ ......................... 55 General Summary of the Content and Code Situation ................ 57 Factors Underlying Media Content .......... . .............. . ....... 58 The Audience as Culprit ..... ................................ 58 The Influence of Marketing .................................. 61 The Biases of Media Ownership ..... . ......................... 67 Summary .......................................................... 75 Chapter u LATIN AMERICA AS SEEN AND INFLUENCED BY U. S. MEDIA .............. 80 Knowledge in the U. S. About Latin America ....................... 81 U. S. Print Media Coverage of Latin America ................. 82 Knowledge in Latin America about the U. S. ....................... 84 Latin American Print Media Coverage of the U. S. ............ 86 The U. S. "Image" in the Latin American Press ............... 87 Some Perceptions of the U. 8. through Television .... ........ 88 Monopolization of Inter—American Information ..................... 90 The Dominant Position of the U. S. News Agencies ............ 90 The Lack of Latin American News Agencies and Foreign 91 Correspondents ..... ....... . ............................... The "Image" of Latin America in the U. S. ................... 93 Suppression and Distortion of Information ................... 95 The Locus of Systematic Bias in U. 8. News About Latin 98 America ..... ..... ................... . ..................... Research Required .......... . ..................................... 100 Summary .......... ................................................ 101 ii Page Chapter 5 ATTEMPTS AT IMPROVING COMMUNICATION .............................. 10% The Main Production—Distribution Activities .. ............ . ....... 105 Audio—Visual Education ......................... . ............ 105 Agricultural Information ........ . ..................... ...... 106 The Training Activity ........... . ...... ...... .......... . ...... ... 107 Communication Research ........................................... 111 Satellite Communication and Educational Television ............... 113 Other Indicators of Progress ..................................... 115 Chapter 6 ALTERNATIVE AND SUPPLEMENTARY COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS .............. 117 The System of Radiophonic Schools ................................ 119 What is a Radiophonic School? ............................... 120 The Effectiveness of the System ........ . .................... 121 Criticisms of ACPO .................... . ..................... 123 Brazil: The Experience of M.E.B. ........................... 125 Rural Radio Forums in Latin America .............................. 128 Agricultural Extension as a Mass Communication System ............ 132 Toward New Media of Communication ................................ 136 Chapter 7 DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY .................... 141 Communication: The Neglected Dimension .......................... 1u2 The Attitudes of Policy—Makers and Development Planners .......... 1M6 Summary ..... . .................................................... 150 Toward a Strategy for Changing the Changers ...................... 151 The Integration of Strategies .................................... 15” iii Red China: An Illustrative Case ................................. 155 Issues in Developmental Communication Strategy ................... 158 Value Systems ............................................... 159 Scope of Individual Change .................................. 160 Decision—Making ............................................. 161 Structural versus Functional Change ......................... 162 Subversion and Communication . ............................... 163 Human Needs and Communication ............................... 166 Mobilization, Organization and Participation ................ l7l BIBLIOGRAPHY ..... ....... ......................................... 177 iv Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table LIST OF TABLES Comparison of UNESCO Minimum Mass Media Availability Standards and Actual Latin America Availability ........ Comparison of Mass Media Use Yesterday Between Adults in Six Midwest U. 8. Cities and Professionals and Technicians in Eleven Latin American Countries ......... Comparison of Mass Media Consumption Standards Between Urban and Rural Adults in Argentina .................... Patterns of Information Exposure as Related to Occupa— tion, Residence, Literacy and Value Orientation in a Rural Town Community of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil ...... Comparison of Mass Media Use Between Mexican Ejidata— rios and Land—Owning Farmers Having Small, Medium or Large Farms in the Yaqui Valley ........................ Space Allocations to Content Areas by 29 Latin American Dailies and Four non—Latin American Dailies ............ Column Inches of Agricultural News in Four Bogota Dailies and in one National-Circulation Farm Weekly Newspaper for the Period January 17-May 2, 1955 ........ Content Items in Three Categories of Material as Dis— tributed Among Three Orientation Categories for Six Lima Dailies .................. .. .............. . ....... Page 20 26 27 29 3l ”1 M) 71 Chapter 1 COMMUNICATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE Neither a general theory of social communication nor a general theory of social change is yet available. Thus, the formulation of a broad theory of social communication's role in human or national development remains no more than an objective, as does the construction of a model of communication for development with specific reference to Latin America. This thesis is intended to make a small contribution to that objective by describing the mass communication system in Latin America, with emphasis on the availability and distribution of messages, the exposure of Latin Americans to those messages, the content and style of the messages, and factors accounting for that content and style. From those descriptions, the thesis will derive suggestions for further research and recommendations for policy conducive to the improvement of developmental communication. Throughout the thesis, a distinction is needed between two quite different uses of the word "development.” There is no substantial ~./// \,., , agreement in the use of this term, nor its counterpart, "modernization.” Some writers use them interchangeably. Some use them to distinguish levels of social structure; e.g., an individual becomes modern and a nation or society develops. Some use them to distinguish between two kinds of processes; e.g., the acquisition of economic resources, the complexity of technology——in short, the hardware aspects of national growth—-—are referred to as development. In contrast, the attitudinal changes from traditional viewpoints, the cognitive capacity to cope with the environment, the acquisition of concepts of human dignity and self—worth are called modernization. In this thesis, a distinction will be made between the hardware processes and the cognitive and emotional changes within individuals. The typical use of the words "development" or "national development" will be preserved; i.e., they will be used to refer to either all forms of development, or to the acquisition and use of increasingly complex goods and services, and the emergence of the acouterments of growth in gross economic product. This acquisition and use can occur at either the individualistic or national level. The phrase "human development" will be reserved to refer solely to those attitudes, values, and social relationships central to concepts of self—worth ‘ /, and human dignity. Later in the thesis, the author will attempt to demonstrate that most of our knowledge and use of communication is relative to national or "just—plain" development; furthermore, the author will suggest that the central concern of social change agencies and agents should be the notion of human development. A discussion of either kind of development should occur within the context of three kinds of questions. First, is there any relation— ship between communication and development? Second, what theoretic orientations exist as to the role of communication in the development process? Third, what is the influence on communication of the social structure in which it occurs? An outline of the intellectual frame— work encompassing these questions is needed before we can proceed to the major task of the thesis.* The Relation Between Communication and Development Several researchers have found correlations between the overall development of countries and the state of their communication resources and organization. These studies were conducted at three levels of analysis: nations, villages, and individuals. At the national level of analysis, the first study reporting such correlations was that of Lerner (1957). He used UNESCO data from groups of countries, ranging from 5” to 73 in number, to compose indices for these major variables: (1) urbanization—-including industrialization; (2) media participation; (3) literacy; and (4) political participation. Media participation was found to be highly correlated with the other three factors, its coefficient being second only to that of literacy. Lerner found that, in all societies, the direction of change in communication is always from oral to media systems. He also found that the degree of change in communication behavior appears to correlate significantly with other behavioral changes. *The propositions outlined here have been presented elsewhere in detail. See, for instance, Beltran (1968a),Be1tran (1970), and Gomez (1969). A UNESCO (1961) study of underdeveloped countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia found a very high corre- lation between mass media factors and economic factors in general development (especially income). Similar findings were reported by Schramm and Carter (1959) from a study of one hundred countries. In .WVstudying 54 variables for 109 countries —— including the most developed and the least developed —— Farace (1966) found support for the proposi— tion that mass media development is interdependent with achievements in many aspects of the "way of life" in those countries. Similar evidence has been provided by factor—analytic studies such as those of Schnore (1961), Deutschmann and McNelly (1962), and Farace (1965). Similarly, an index of communication development was found by Outright (1963) to be highly correlated with indices of political development, economic growth, education, and urbanization in 77 countries. In a more restricted sphere, Lipset (1959) found communication to be strongly correlated with democratic political development. At least three major studies have found comparable correlations at the village level of analysis. Frey (1966), in a survey of nearly H60 villages in Turkey, found definite correlations between a mass media exposure index and several indices of rural development. Similar evidence was collected in Colombia, Kenya, and India by Keith, Yadav and Ascroft (1966). And Rao (1966), in a comparative study of two Indian villages, also found clear correlations between communication and social, economic, and political development. Finally a number of factor—analytic studies of certain aspects of development at the individual level of analysis have shown communi- cation variables to be in a significant interplay with development variables in general (e.g., Deutschmann and Fals Borda, 1962; Jain, 1965; Rahim, 1966; Donahew, 1966; Ascroft, 1966, 1968; Whiting, 1967; Farace and others, 1967; Kahl, 1968). Thus, substantial empirical evidence has been accumulated to demonstrate that there is a linkage between communication and develop— ment. A comment by Fagen (1966fi serves as a summary of the findings of studies at the three levels of analysis, and points out that we know little as to the direction of the relationship: Although the correlations themselves tell us nothing about causality, it is clear that the mass media have been both cause and effect, both mover and moved, in the complex interplay of factors which we call the modernization process (p. 119). The Role of Communication in Development \/l As Fagen points out, the close association between communication and development is beyond doubt; however, the question remains, what is the contribution of communication tg_development? The question is pertinent since, as Pool (1960) has suggested: Communication is significant if it acts in a variable way upon the social events of which it is a part, not if it appears as a universal constant with no operational effect upon the interrelations of other phenomena (p. 279), There is no comprehensive theoretic explication of that contribu— tion, and little research which examines the question. A very large number of propositions have been suggested.* Specification of a few of the most significant of those will provide an adequate picture of the alternative views which are held. *For a summary of these propositions, see Beltran (1968a). y, Lerner (1957 and 1958) proposed the following functions for J communication in development: (1) to create new aspirations; (2) to foster increased participation in societal activities; (3) to help the growth of the new leadership required for social change; and (u) to teach "empathy”, a person's ability to put himself in the position or role of another. Pye (1963b)saw the media as performing five major functions in the political education of the populace, especially in terms of the relationship between civic leaders and their followers. Two similar functions were additionally postulated by Pool (1963). Other analysts, such as Frey (1966), Spector (1969) and Davison (1965), also formulated important role propositions. But the most comprehensive contributions to the effort have come from Pool (1960, 1963, 1966), Schramm (1964) and Rao (1966). Each of these experts de— parted from a different analytical framework and used a different classificatory system for the roles he proposed. Fool's point of departure was the nature of modernity as expressed in what he perceived to be the main personality characteristics of modern man. In describing how he saw communication media leading people to acquire such traits, Pool emphasized, among several other, the functions of: (1) creating pro—developmental images; (2) fostering the formation or consolidation of a national consciousness; and (3) promoting a willingness for planning and operating on a large stage. The departure point of Schramm was the nature of communication as a provider of services to society. He applied Lasswell's conceptu— alization of communication media as ”watchman—reporters", ”policy- ITlakers", and ”teachers”. Thus he stipulated several roles for media, relevant to the following basic needs of people in the process of development: (1) to be informed about the development plans, problems, tasks, and achievements; (2) to be made participant in decision—making on matters of collective concern; and (3) to be taught the skills that the development challenge demands them to command. Based on his research in rural India, Rao's propositions are derived from an analysis of the nature of specific social, economic, and political changes he observed in comparing a traditional village with one with appreciable communication and already in the process of development. Both Schramm and Rao operated within the framework of the con— current processes of communication and development as they relate to each other, while Pool focused his exploration on the final stage —— a given state of development —- to which those joint processes lead. There is much overlap among the three analysts, and they all state that the media of communication can play, in general, a vital role in the attainment of national development. Latin American Social Structure In seeking to understand how communication works in relation to development, it is also necessary to reverse the direction of analysis and consider the influence that the structure of society appears to exert on the system of communication. De Fleur (1966) observed of the United States that: The structure of this mass communication system has been heavily influenced by the general social, political, economic and cultural conditions that were current during the period when our mass media were developing and remain as important sociocultural forces in the society within which they operate (p. 154). .d Is that also the case for Latin America? To attempt an answer to that question requires knowledge of the major characteristics of that region's society. Power concentration, monopolization of the ability to influence the behavior of others in a decisive way, is the key variable in the structure of Latin American society.* Within each country, less than % of the population (Alba, 1965) controls economic, political, and \__l ..... cultural power to a degree apparently unparallelled elsewhere in the world. Externally, the United States of America controls almost completely the economy of Latin America, influences strongly its political life, and affects appreciably its culture. Indicators of Power Concentration. The major indicators of power concentration in the region are land ownership, business ownership, and income distribution. To a lesser extent, and indirectly, con— sumption distribution, capital flight, and tax evasion also contribute to an understanding of the situation. The land ownership situation was summarized by a U. S. analyst as follows: Roughly 90 per cent of the land belongs to 10 per cent of the owners. This degree of concentration is far greater than that in any other world region of comparable size. (Carroll, 1961, p. 16”). Specifically, that means that 108,000 landowners monopolize #71 million hectares (a hectare is roughly equivalent to 2.5 acres) of the total 538 million hectares of land presently available in *Beltran (1970) is among those who have written summary descrip— tions of that situation particularily in relation to communication. the region for cultivation. Some of those owners have more land than is occupied by a number of sovereign nations in the world (Delgado, 1968). At the other end, more than 70% of the tenants occupy less than 9% of the arable surface. Dominated by the big landowners, millions of peasants endure conditions of life and labor that appear to amount to virtual slavery. As Carroll (1961) noted, "...perhaps the worst feature of land concentration is the resulting concentration of power which in innumer- able ways infuses the whole structure of society” (p. 165). Under such conditions, rural development appears almost impossible; further- more, general national development is also impeded. In fact, in establishing the "Alliance for Progress" in 1961, the governments of the countries in the Organization of American States set land reform as a pre—condition for development. However, according to the latest reports of United Nations and of the Organization of American States itself, such reform has progressed almost exclusively in those countries which had already effected it through revolution: Mexico, Bolivia, and Cuba. The pattern of business ownership shows similar monopolistic features. Many of the large commercial and industrial enterprises are owned by individuals, families, and groups, some of which are often interlocked, as has been described by Bravo Bresani (1968). Moreover, according to analysts such as Dos Santos (1968), Quijano (1968), Kling (1968), and Gerassi (1969), domestic business in several Latin American countries is being absorbed by foreign interests, especially those of U. S. private investors. \I" r.. 10 The patterns of income and consumption also reflect the dis— parities prevailing in the region. On the average, in 1960, the minimum income necessary for a family was estimated to be $190 per year; yet, 40% of the region's population —— about 100 million people —- had an income lower than that minimum, averaging $130 (Inter—American Development Bank, 1968). The latest official estimates indicate that the poorer 50% of the region's population get only slightly more than 13% of the total income, whereas the wealthiest 5% receive 31%. Accord- ing to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, the average annual per capita income for those in the privileged sectors of society is $2,400. The figure for those in the poorest 20% of the population is $68 per annum. Other data indicate that three quarters of the income goes to the urban areas. In contrast, F.A.O. experts found that, in one of the largest countries of the region, only 1% of the farmers declared a yearly average income of $3,400 per family, whereas 60% of the farm families had an average annual income of $210 or less. On the average, the monthly purchasing power per person was four dollars (Mitchell and Schatan, 1967). The pattern of consumption provides corroborative information. As reported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, 5% of the people account for approximately 30% of the total consumption in the region. The average level of consumption per family in the upper 5% of the population is 15 times greater than for the 50% that constitute the lower strata of society. Considering food alone, consumption is so distributed that two out of every three Latin Americans suffer from malnutrition or "hidden hunger". At ll least 50 million people, especially the peasants, subsist at virtual starvation levels since their diet is mostly made of starch. Mean— while, the wealthy sector of society indulges in conspicuous consumption, luxury expenditures, tax evasion and flight of capital. In 1967 alone, that sector exported one billion dollars, a sum roughly equivalent to that borrowed abroad by the region's governments to help finance develop— ment projects in the same period (GonCalvez de Souza, 1968). The Instruments for Power Preservation. In addition to monopolizing natural resources and wealth, the ruling Latin American minorities exert, directly and indirectly, considerable intellectual control and overall cultural domination of society. Education, religion, and political organization serve as the instruments of such domination. Indeed, an appreciable body of literature shows that the schools and the Catholic church have traditionally performed the function of sociali— zation of the people into conformity with the paternalistic rule of the Latin American conservative minorities. Those institutions appear to have instilled in people norms and values that seem to render them uncreative and submissive and that appear to make extremely difficult the emergence of modern mentality and actions; furthermore, when deviance does occur, the Army almost invariably assists the ruling minorities in securing by force the compliance of the masses. Only in very recent years and to a limited extent have some segments of the Church and some sectors of the Army appeared to be willing, in a few countries, to put their weight on the side of the oppressed majorities. 12 The Prospects for Change. The rule of the minority is not \3 unchallenged, and communist agitation is not the only threat against it. Large reform—minded populistic parties and groups have been in operation in the region for more than 40 years. "Social democratic", "nationalist revolutionary", and "christian democratic" parties have often gained the support of intellectuals, students, and unionized workers oriented towards societal change. However, most of such largely middle-class political communities appear to have been so far, in the main, ineffectual for national development. In fact (Veliz, 1967 and Veliz, 1969), they have become reinforcers of the status quo. Many of them have failed indeed to bring the rural masses into the political arena. Neither were they able to alter substantially the rigid patterns of social stratification. Thus, contrary to some predictions at times popular in the United States, revolution —— in the sense of a radical transformation of society towards modernity —— does not look these days to be "around the corner” in Latin America. As Veliz (1969) notes: There exists in the region a resilient traditional structure of institutions, hierarchical arrangements, and attitudes which conditions every aspect of political behavior and which has survived centuries of colonial governments, move— ments for independence, foreign wars and invasions, domestic revolutions, and a confusingly large number of lesser palace revolts (p. l). The present situation appears to be one of polarization between two undemocratic minorities: a strengthened conservative sector and a revolution—inclined combination of rural guerrilla with urban terrorism. The former is blindly bent on preserving its privileges. The latter is blindly committed to the total destruction of the prevailing order. Both resort often to violence. Neither can be 13 deemed a contributor to modernization. And, in between them, the masses still appear as if awaiting for the kind of leadership that would redeem them from the serfdom of misery, ignorance, and exploita~ tion. How long will they wait in a relatively passive way is something that observers find hard to predict these days. While the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, however, the Latin American population is growing at the fastest rate on earth: 3% per annum. The Influence of the United States of America History knows of no more powerful nation that the United States of America. As such, that country naturally exerts influence all over the world and, particularly, on its immediate neighbor, Latin America. In the latter case, that influence reaches a level of almost complete domination, especially in the economic and political spheres of activity. The bases for that domination are provided by the prevailing structure of commerce between the U. S. and Latin America. Literature which includes data on the extant terms of that exchange is today abundant, through the work of Latin American scholars, through studies conducted by international official and private organizations, and through reports by Latin American public institutions and agencies of the U. S. government. Derived from that documentation, the following appear to be the essential features of the situation: 1. Foreign interests, predominatly those of U. 8. private investors, have kept Latin America as an exporter of raw materials and importer of manufactured articles and consumer goods. Most of these investments perpetuate the primitive nature and the monocultura] l4 pattern of production established by colonial Spain and Portugal. This renders the region's economy highly vulnerable and makes develop- ment hardly attainable. Concentrated geographically in a few countries and economically in a few products, those interests go preferentially where they can earn large profits in a relatively short time, and where reinvestment needs are infrequent and relatively moderate. Such type of investment contributes minimally to the expansion of employment opportunities since it is made on activities based on capital—intensive technologies; it, moreover, fails to stimulate secondary production. As such, for the most part, U. S. private investments in Latin America are in no way geared toward enabling the region to become a modern and industrialized one, capable of satisfying much of its needs and of exporting manufactured products —- with lucrative as well as emancipatory consequences. 2. Determination of what Latin America is to sell to the United States, in which amounts, with which frequency, and at what prices, is something in which Latin America has only minimal participation. Conversely, Latin America's influence on the prices of what it buys from the U. S. is virtually zero. The region's share of the world market has decreased consistently since the end of World War II. Latin America buys from the U. S. far more than it is allowed to sell to it. And the costs of what it buys from it are higher every time, while the benefits from what it sells to the U. S. A. are lower every time. For instance, according to the President of Colombia, Carlos Lleras Restrepo, the export price of a coffee pound was $0.80 in 1954 and the import price of a "jeep" was $1,367; thus it was necessary to sell 14 sacks of coffee to buy one "jeep". In 1969, the 15 President contrasted, the price of the coffee pound was $0.40 and the cost of the "jeep" had become $2,264; thus 43 sacks need to be sold now to buy the same vehicle. Mr. Lleras added that a reduction of $.01 in the price of the coffee pound represents a loss of 8 million dollars for Central America, 8.7 million for Colombia, and 24 million for Brazil (Unidn Panamericana, June 23, 1969). A similar, but worse, case is that of sugar, the price of which went down from $.08 per pound in 1963 to 1.4 cents in 1967 (Mitchell and Schatan, 1967). 3. Latin America, therefore, suffers a situation of chronic and constantly increasing deficit. Its yearly average loss due to such imbalance, between 1965 and 1967, was $1,300 million (Union Panamericana, July 28, 1969). And public foreign financial assistance cannot compensate the region for such losses. According to the United Nations, the loss was, in a single year, ten times greater than the credits the region received in the same period from the U. S. and from international organizations (De Castro, 1969). In 1966, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil had to allocate from one—fifth to one—third of their export earning to the debt service (Society for International Develop— ment, March 15, 1969). The Inter—American Development Bank (1968) estimated that service of the external public debt was absorbing 75% of the gross external inflow of public capital to the region. 4. The U. S. protects its markets against the importation of Latin American articles through various and severe restrictive mechanisms ranging from legal barriers to sanitary controls. Latin America is granted no protection against fluctuations in the demand and in the prices of the articles it sells to the U. S. The level 16 of fluctuation is often such that it renders anarchic the internal economy of the region, makes long-run development planning in it impossible, and cancels out the effects of all foreign aid. The U. S. refuses to grant trade preferences to Latin America, an alleviation with which European powers provide their former colonies. 5. U. S. investors make out of Latin America far more money than they put into it. On the average, their profits in this region are higher than those they get in other countries and far higher than those they obtain in their own country. In summagy, the overall pattern of trade exchange between the United States and Latin America involves an almost total subordination of the latter to the former, in a manner and degree resembling colonial relationships. The economic gap between the U. S. A. and Latin America is such that, according to economist Barbara Ward (1966), "...the United States, in the course of one year, added to its existing wealth the equivalent of three quarters of the entire national income available to all Latin Americans" (p. 4). About the implications of that dis— parity, the late Robert Kennedy had warned his compatriots: "We cannot endure in fortresses of wealth, surrounded by a sea of despair." Recently, the president of the Chase Manhattan Bank, David Rockefeller (l969),repeated the warning with a broader scope: We could so embitter two—thirds of mankind that it would take generations just to re-establish communication. And during that time we could be forced to live in armed camps (p. 22). Nevertheless, trade conditions for Latin America have experienced little or no improvement to date. And U. S. aid in 1970, in spite 17 of being from 90% to 95% in credits, not grants, has reached its lowest level since 1961. Given economic domination, political domination appears to come almost automatically. It may, at times, be less overt than in the past and rebellion against it appears to be slowly moving from the level of guerrilla bands and street rioters to the level of develop- ment strategists, cabinet members, and ambassadors. But the U. S. influence on the Latin American scene is as firm as ever. And it appears to range in methods from mild diplomatic persuasion and covert manipulation of aid to strong economic pressure and outright military invasion. Save for the short—lived period of Kennedy's "Alliance for Progress", the political, economic, and cultural influence of the United States has consistently been in favor of status quo in Latin America. Thus it operated in the service of the native oligarchy and in association with it. As a U. S. analyst has noted: Within the domestic context, a home—grown class of exploiters has managed to develop an economic system based on internal colonialism. The connections between national burgeoisie and foreign colonial sectors, the economic fusion of the two, have served to define the present situation in Latin America (Horowitz, 1966, p. 396). The definition has followed, for the most part, a direction markedly opposite to social reorganization for the attainment of genuine and widespread national development. Thus, Latin American underdevelopment is largely attributable to the will of the native power nuclei and to the nature of United States investments and policies. 18 A Framework for the Analysis of Latin American Communication The initial sections of this chapter reviewed propositions about the relationship between communication and development, and the role of communication in development. The latter sections of it discussed the impact on communication of factors in Latin American social structure. The two vantage points provide a useful framework in assessing the ways in which communication operates in relation to development in Latin America. Indeed, it is only within the overall cultural context —— that of a society kept underdeveloped by internal and external domination —— that such appraisal can be approached realistically. Outline of the Thesis The appraisal will consist essentially of an overall description of the communication situation in Latin America as it relates to the region's efforts to attain a state of development. Attention will be focused on the mass media system, although consideration will also be given to systems which combine mass communication with communication in groups specifically organized to receive messages addressed especially to them by some of the media. In describing the system of mass communi— cation, regional summary data will be presented on media availability and on exposure of the audience in general, and of the rural audience in particular, to the media messages. Subsequently, the study will concentrate on the nature of those messages in terms of their content and style, seeking to determine how they relate to audience characteristics and to the purposes of national development. Given the nature of the 19 relationships between Latin America and the United States, the finan— cial, political, and communication influence of the U.S. on societal change in that region will also be considered; the latter will be treated especially in terms of the news flow between the U.S.A. and Latin America. Several efforts to correct deficiencies and improve the communication system will be reported. Finally, derived from the conceptual framework presented in this initial chapter of the study, from the data to be included in it, and from the testimonies to be presented, the study will offer some sugges— tions for research, and will end by formulating some remedial propositions toward the improvement of social communication in the service of human development in Latin America. Chapter 2 MEDIA AVAILABILITY AND CONSUMPTION An initial concern of communication scholars and planners is the existence, distribution, and reception of media facilities: they provide constraints on HES can be communicated with, by what channel, with what frequengy, etc. In fact, in many areas of Latin America, simple availability or non—availability of the media explains much of the observed levels of media exposure. Mass Media Availability in Latin America When one examines the availability of mass media in Latin America, and compares this with the minimum standards set by UNESCO, it appears that these (admittedly low) standards are generally met (See Table 1, column three, for the UNESCO minima and Latin American aggregate levels). Latin American media systems are less developed than those of the United States or most European nations; however, in contrast, Table 1: Comparison of UNESCO Minimum Mass Media Availability Standards and Actual Latin America Availability Requisite by Channels UNESCO Minimum Standards of Latin Standards per America per 100 100 Inhabitants Inhabitants Number of newspaper copies 10 7.4 Number of radio receivers: 5 9.8 Number of cinema seats: 2 3.5 Number of television receivers: 2 1.5 Source: UNESCO (1961, pp. 24-28, and 35). 20 21 the levels of media facilities throughout Latin America are considerably higher, in the aggregate, than those of the Asian and African countries. There is some variability in media facilities around these aggregate figures, however. For example, 10 countries, with about 30 million persons, fall below the minimum in three of the four types of media facilities. Recent Expansion of Media Facilities In addition to the absolute levels of media facilities in Latin America, an important developmental question is whether there is growth occurring in the facilities. Are per capita levels of facilities remaining constant as population increases, or are they forging ahead? While up-to—date official data on this question are lacking, there are indications that considerable media growth has taken place in Latin America since 1961, especially in the broadcasting sector. One aspect of the growth in broadcasting is in the size of the radio receiving audience. This is being substantially aided by the increasing availability of relatively low—cost transistorized, battery— powered radio receivers. For example, in 10 years, Mexico alone appears to have more than doubled its number of receivers. Growth has also been observed in television facilities. Reports from 12 countries which had 100 television stations in 1961 indicate that by 1969 there were 133 such stations. These stations have been, for the most part, neutral in their ideology, rather limited in news reporting, and mainly oriented to entertainment content. The receptivity of urban audiences to the medium suggests that further growth is likely to continue, even though radio facilities are expected to grow much faster. 22 It should be stressed, however, that media growth is not in and of itself any necessary contributor to development. Without adequate planning, and particularly without proper use, increases in mass media facilities could cause more harm than good. There are some examples of countries which rate relatively high in media development in Latin America, yet which score low in social integration. Argentina and Uruguay are illustrations—-socia1 disunity and political instability appear to prevail, in spite of the fact that they have some of the most advanced mechanisms for collective public dialogue in the region. Distribution of Mass Communication Resources In addition to comparing media development in Latin America with other parts of the world, it is also important to look carefully at the distribution of facilities within groups of countries, or within each individual country. On either basis, considerable inequalities are apparent. For example, 85 per cent of all the non—daily newspapers and periodicals in the region 10 years ago were published in only seven countries (UNESCO, 1961). Within countries, McNelly (1966) makes the following comment: The overall diversity of Latin America is reflected in the availability of mass media. The differences are tremendous, not only between but within the countries. In the big cities, we find the full range of media readily obtainable, both print and electronic, except in a few cities still without television. In the hinterlands, there are few if any media to be found (p. 347). Research has verified the prevalence of the concentration of mass media resources in the cities of Latin America. This concentration is especially marked in the larger cities, and for the press and television 23 media. In each country, a few newspapers, published in the capital cities (and sometimes in provincial cities), account for most of the circulation. Compared to press and television, the case of radio appears to be one of somewhat less acute concentration in the urban areas. Film is also less concentrated. Some of the reasons why these media are less concentrated in urban areas will be presented in later sections. In summary, Latin American countries in the aggregate, have media availability levels as good as or better than the minimum standards set by UNESCO, and certainly much higher levels than in Africa or Asia. Within regions, and within countries in these regions, some disparities of communication facilities have been noted. We have suggested that media facilities tend to be concentrated more in the urban than rural areas, and that the disparities are greatest for print and television media. We have also suggested that increases in the communication capability of Latin American countries, while generally needed for development, take on importance only to the extent that they are used as positive instruments pf development. Patterns of Media Use Even if the mass media were less unevenly distributed among the population of Latin America, their availability would not by itself insure effective communication for human or national development, nor would it be insured even if those media were able to grow at rates much faster than the present one. Indeed, elementary as it may be, the notion must be stressed that availability is not equal to exposure. And, of course, exposure is not equivalent to effect. 24 An analysis of the effects of the media lies outside the scope of this study; however, we do need to review what is known about exposure of Latin Americans to the media. In addition, we'll review some of the correlates of that exposure, and speculate on the cultural consequences of the deprivation of information that now exists. The lack of a national or regional marketing system based on mass consumption has made useless any comprehensive analysis of consumption of the mass media. The absence of scientifically oriented faculties of social science has also contributed to the fact that we do not have good samples from which we can make population estimates of general media use. There are, however, several studies which gathered media use information from one or more subsets of the population. Those studies permit several propositions about media exposure and use in Latin America. Generally (except for radio), the higher the socio—economic and educational status of the individual, the higher the use of mass media. Several studies support this general proposition. In Costa Rica, a country with a high level of literacy, Waisanen and Durlak (1966) found that about one—half of the adult population of the country listened to the radio one hour or more per day, and two—thirds of the people read one or more newspapers regularly. McNelly and Deutschmann (1964) interviewed high and low socio—economic groups in San Jose, and determined their media use "yesterday." They found higher general media use among the higher socio—economic group. Those in high statuses read more newspapers, magazines, and books. They watched more television and attend more movies. The low income groups listened more to radio . 1-... W ’—1 25 than did the more affluent groups. The fact that neither literacy nor electricity is a prerequisite to radio listening seems to explain the emphasis of lower income and education groups on radio, as does the increased availability of low—cost receivers-~and the program content of radio. The same direct association between social structural factors and media exposure was found in Perd (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 1969), and by Carter and Sepfilveda (1964) in their study of media practices among 452 adult residents of Santiago de Chile. Carter and Sepulveda found a strong correlation between their nine—variable index of socio—economic status, and level of consumption of the media. Contrary to the usual findings, they found this to be true for radio as well as the other media. For the print media, there is no doubt that socio-economic status is a good predictor of media use. For electronic or non-literate media, the data are not as clear, primarily because of the conflict of two kinds of factors. Intellectually, the electronic media are more available to the less educated; economically, radio is also more available--but~television is not. Deutschmann, McNelly and Ellingsworth (1961) studied the media behavior of sub-elites as part of their investigation of the effect of U. 8. experience on media behavior. They compared media use among these Latin Americans with the behavior of adults in six midwest U. S. cities. As shown in Table 2, social class seems to be better than nationality as a predictor of media behavior. Other than to television (which is much more available in the U. 8.), Latin American exposure is as high or higher than U. 8. exposure. 26 Table 2: Comparison of Mass Media Use Yesterday Between Adults in Six Midwest U. 8. Cities and Professionals and Technicians in Eleven Latin American Countries. Medium Adults in Six Mid— Latin American Professionals west U. S. Cities and Technicians in Eleven Latin American Countries (N = 700) (N = 214) Newspapers 92% 95% Magazines 40% 45% Books 17% 71% Radio 58% 76% Television 70% 51% Source: Taken from broader tabular information in McNelly (1966, pp. 349) A similar study by McNelly and Fonseca (1964) of Costa Rican university students produced very similar results. These studies provide general support for the view that the dominant audiences at present for the mass media are those in the higher socio—economic classes, and that members of that class seem to expose themselves to the media much like members of that class do in the United States. Urban citizens use the media much more than do rural citizens. Given the high correlation between socio—economic status and urban— rural residence, this proposition is in part a restatement of the point that media use is greater among more educated and affluent people. There is no doubt that the two propositions are not independent; however, there are data that indicate that rural dwellers generally are lower in consumption of media content. 27 Comparing the mass media ”yesterday" intake of samples of adults in Buenos Aires and in five other cities of Argentina with that of rural adults in different parts of the country, a USIS (1961) survey found the urbanites to be in a position of advantage. Their standards of use of all mass media -- except radio —— were easily superior to those of the rural dwellers. Table 3 shows the differences between them. Table 3: Comparison of Mass Media Consumption Standards Between Urban and Rural Adults in Argentina. Medium Urban Adults Rural Adults (N = 2,000) (N = 300) Newspapers 65% 46% Magazines 30% 20% Books 19% 10% Radio 59% 61% Television 32% 1% Movies 6% 5% Source: USIS (1961). The appreciable differences between urbanites and ruralites for the printed media are even more significant if it is kept in mind that Argentina had then as low an illiteracy rate as 14% (UNESCO, 1964, p. 177). Also, for a country that has no subdued indigenous peasant population, the difference in television viewing is extremely high. As is usually the case for most countries in the region, only radio, and, to a considerable lesser degree, motion pictures have some penetration in the rural world. 28 The concept of literacy is often invoked as an explanation of lower media use in the rural areas; however, illiteracy cannot always be taken as a complete explanation for low print consumption. In Jamundi, Colombia, Gutiérrez—Sénchez and McNamara (1968) found, in fact, that as many as 93% of the peasant families had at least one member who knew how to read. Yet, when asked the frequengy with which they read newspapers, 51% of the respondents said they had never done so in their lives. And this was not in a remote and isolated community either: Jamundi is located at two kilometers from a town and at no more than 26 kilometers from Medellin, one of the largest cities in Colombia. The same researchers found, moreover, that 50 of the 87 respondents in their sample (heads of households) had radio receivers in their homes while 44 of the 87 reported not listening to that medium's messages in general. Asked about the use of mass media as a source of agricultural information, almost everyone of the subjects gave a completely negative answer. Asked specifically about radio as a vehicle for farm informa- tion, 86 percent of the respondents said they had not listened to an agricultural information program or known of its existence. In the case of the newspapers, the researchers felt that the complexity of the messages was exceeded:sn the low reading ability of the peasants. As for radio, they felt that entertainment was the kind of content that peasants probably obtained and expected most from that medium. Even within the rural sector, media exposure is highly stratified; i.e., wealthier and better educated agricultural people are the major 29 users of the media. What already seems to be happening in Latin America is the formation of a rural ”sub—elite", not always composed only of farmers. Located appreciably below the elite of land monopolists but considerably above the peasant majority, this emerging group need not be assumed to be a contributor to the social and political transformation of the region. As early as 1953, Blair (1960) found evidence in Brazil of the emergence of such a rural "sub—elite" (see Table 4). Table 4: Patterns of Information Exposure as Related to Occupation, Residence, Literacy and Value Orientation in a Rural Town Community of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Patterns of Exposure Categories I_ II_ III Predominant form Interpersonal Oral and direct Direct to mass of exposure to mass media, media the former supporting the latter Frequency of expo— Low Medium High (daily) sure to new information Content of infor— Local and Often about non— Urban and cosmo— mation received provincial local occurrences politan Kind of person by Typically rural Typically urban Typically urban occupation, resi— illiterate agri— semi—literate literate office dence and literacy cultural laborer factopy worker employee Kind of person by Traditionalis— Transitional be— Modern, identified value orientation tic, based on tween "folk" and with values common "folk" patterns modern patterns to large cities of Brazil Source: Blair (1960, p. 69). 30 As shown in Table 4, the information exposure patterns in a rural community of that country were positively related to status in the socio— economic structure, particularly along the occupational dimension. The researcher found three specific patterns of information exposure, each related to a particular occupational group: Who talks to whom, how often, on what subjects, and with what influences are all aspects of the social structure. The way a person is exposed, when, and how frequently, is affected by his occupational status in the community (p. 72). Further evidence of communication stratification among rural people was obtained by Canizales and Myren (1967). They compared mass media consumption standards for private owners or colonists on the one hand, and simple tenants of land (the ejidatarios) on the other. They divided farm owners into three groups, depending on the size of the farm. Canizales and Myren found that the mass media intake of farmers was directly related to (a) whether they were owners or tenants, and (b) if they were owners, the size of the farm. They pointed out that the tenants were low with respect to their "contact with potential sources of new information." As shown in Table 5, the case for the proposition of stratification in the rural area is clearly made. The thesis can be accepted that media consumption and use in Latin America is highly slanted in favor of (a) members of the higher socio— economic groups, and (b) people who live in the cities. Even among rural people, the socioeconomic bias is dominant. There is significant stratification along socioeconomic lines of media consumption. To some extent, this is quite understandable—-even inevitable at early 31 Table 5: Comparison of Mass Media Use Between Mexican Ejidatarios and Land—Owning Farmers Having Small, Medium or Large Farms in the Yaqui Valley. Small Farm Small Farm Medium Large Tenants (Eji— Owners Farm Farm datarios)* (89-Hectares) Owners Owners (40-139) (140 + Hectares) (N: 200) (N: 24) (N: 22) (N: 38) Standard of Use by Medium % % % % Read newspapers ever 52 75 91 97 Read farm magazines ever 6 17 32 82 Read any magazines ever 36 46 37 92 Have radio 58 92 91 100 Source: Canizales and Myren (1967, pp. 18—31). *The average size of the gjidp is in that zone 18 hectares; in terms of cultivated land, this places the ejidatarios somewhat below the category of small farm owners. stages of human development. And yet, it is discouraging in that it suggests that messages are more likely to go where they are not needed for development. A more serious concern, a deeply inhibiting factor, would be present if one were to believe that the stratification is based in whole or in part on the desires of those in power to maintain the present subservient state of the underdeveloped citizens of Latin American countries . Deprivation of Communication and Cultural Domination Leaders of any kind tend, as a rule, to constitute, of course, minorities in any country. Also, it is evident that many of the 32 characteristics found, for instance, among Colombian rural opinion leaders are equivalent to those observed among opinion leaders in developed nations. However, most of the variables which explain mass media exposure and opinion leadership in Latin America are, in turn, explainable by major structural factors; i.e., the extreme concentra— tion of power that makes knowledge itself a privilege of the few. Illiteracy is one of the variables consistently associated with low mass media use in the region, especially in the case of printed communication. It is logical to expect low newspaper consumption from people who do not know how to read, even where such a medium is widely available. Why, however, is literacy so low in many of the Latin American countries? Why is education still a benefit not accessible to everyone? Why is the rural population, in particular, so uncultured? One answer found by a sociological study in one country of the region appears equally valid for most of the rest of them: In Colombia's case it has been to the advantage of the upper stratum to keep the lower in continued ignorance. Ignorance is bliss is an ancient upper class rational— ization for the intellectual impoverishment of the mass (Schulman, 1968, p. 312). In fact, the study just mentioned found that a sizable proportion of that country's population suffers: (l) restrictions on knowledge— accumulation; (2) limitations of their opportunity to encounter new situations and make meaningful decisions; (3) constraints on their range of personality development; and (4) domination of their total life pattern (or ethos) by passivity. The investigator felt that none of these factors was attributable at all to mental deficiencies, in a clinical sense. They were rather factors directly connected with the barriers imposed by the oligarchic social structure on the people's opportunities for intellectual evolution. The researcher adequately labeled this phenomenon ”intellectual deprivation" (Schulman, 1968, P-310). Given, however, that formal education takes place necessarily through the process of communication and given that, as many studies cited here have demonstrated, informal mass communication is also a privilege of minorities, what appears to occur in Latin America is a phenomenon of communication deprivation, of which intellectual depri— \ vation seems to be one outcome. Communication deprivation refers to the deliberate denial of access to communication opportunities to the majority of people in the region. It is indeed for the convenience of the power nucleus that the masses remain ignorant and submissive. Knowledge is power. Information can be explosive. Thus education and communication can be dangerous for the Establishment. A liberation—oriented education is in fact subversive. Change—promoting mass communication is indeed revolutionary. Neither are so in the sense of inducing actual physical rebellion. Both are so in the sense that when they generate self—perception and social awareness, they provoke nonconformity and lead to change. And yet this does not mean, of course, that they cannot ultimately result in social revolt and political upheaval. It is, hence, natural for the Latin~American minority to prevent the majority from attaining full access to formal education and informal communication. Closely related to communication deprivation, cultural domination is also a grave problem in Latin America. Cultural domination refers 34 to the imposition on the majority of the values, norms, and behaviors of the minority to the exclusion or reduction in importance of those which are intrinsic to that majority. This is achieved essentially through the processes of socialization and social control, in which informal communication, along with school training and religious indoc— trination, plays a large role. Cultural domination is imposed by the upper class on the lower mass regardless of the urban or rural location of the latter. In the case of the rural segment of the mass, however, cultural domination is accompanied by cultural segregation essentially achieved through communication. That is, the peasantry is not allowed to become a group, nor to contribute to a truly national culture characterized by a genuinely collective and open system of values and norms. "Foreigners" in their own land, most peasants are not permitted to establish social organizationsof their own and are——as Garcia (1966, p. 177) noted—~"impeded to express them— selves, negotiate, participate, and exert pressures”. Not only is the peasants' range of decision—making on personal matters seriously curtailed by the dominating structure, their right to share in decision-making on matters of public interest is flatly denied. Because of illiteracy, they are not allowed to vote for public officers. They §§p_illiterate——and thus uninformed-—because the ruling minority sees to it that they stay so. Thus, as Garcia (1966, p. 181) pointed out, the dynamics of rural mass is restricted to a pendular movement between two extreme alternatives: subordination and subversion. Even in the few countries where revolution has generated a real agrarian reform that has redeemed the peasantry from direct exploitation by 35 a minority and has given it participation in politics, the economic and cultural marginality of most of the rural sector is still prevalent. That is the case in Bolivia and Mexico. And in both countries the system of mass communication has so far failed to include the peasants in a truly national network of information. The argument has been presented here that the peasant majority is controlled and dominated culturally through deprivation of communica— tion, and that deprivation is in large part deliberate on the part of the oligarchic Establishment. That thesis obviously is argumentative and debatable; however, whether or not the peasant is in fact restrained and inhibited at all is not debatable. He is. Potentially, mass communication has a decisive positive contribution to make in 'me struggle for development. In Latin America, there are severe sanctions within the system. There are restrictions on the availability of media, and there is great unevenness in the distribution of messages. Media use and exposure is highly stratified...and heavily biased in favor of the less poor and the urbanite. Those restrictions inhibit development. They also give rise to the question as to additional areas of inhibition and restraint. Are re- strictions on message availability, distribution and consumption accom— panied by restrictions on content of the message? What is the nature of mass media messages in Latin America? What are the major determinants of content? Those questions are the central focus of Chapter 3. Chapter 3 CONTENTS OF MEDIA MESSAGES There is evidence to indicate that the nature of the mass media messages in Latin America may be a restricting factor in development. However, there is far less available evidence as to the factors influ— encing message—nature itself. This chapter will attempt to synthesize existing data in those areas. Specifically, within the context of development, the paper will provide data relevant to two questions: (1) What is the nature of mass media messages in Latin America? (2) Which seem to be the chief determinants of that message-nature? Those data show and reveal the kinds of relationships that appear to exist between the nature of mass media content in Latin America and the development of the countries in that region. Does such content express the people's will to develop? Does it cover developmental activities? Furthermore, does it tend to facilitate development, is it neutral about it, or does it tend to impede it? Some Implicit Assumptions An analysis of developmental content of messages presumes a meaning for development. Chapter 1 made a basic distinction between two kinds of meanings calling one general or national development, and restricting the term "human development." Unfortunately,-most people tend to equate a country's development with the material advancement of it. And mass media do pay attention to development understood primarily as the economic growth and physical 36 37 improvement of a country. In fact, as McNelly (1966) notes: ...even a casual reader of Latin American newspapers can note the remarkable proportion of news stories dealing with plans for housing projects, dams, indus— tries, new schools and governmental reorganization and other aspects of modernization...Much of the content in the other media available to Latin Americans —— magazines, books, radio, television and movies —— is obviously designed to inform or persuade people about various kinds of modernization (p. 3N7). These impressions appear also derived from the assumption, implicit in the work of Girard (1962), Deutschmann (1963), and Schramm (196”), that the very existence of the media is conducive to develop— ment-—independently of content——because the media induce a psychosocial climate that is receptive to the adoption of modern behaviors by the masses. Other observers seem to have a different meaning for development and appraise the effect of the media differently too. They do not reject the notion that mass communication can facilitate development, but they feel that mass media content in Latin America cannot automatically be regarded as universally developmental. For example, Brown (1968) questions the assumption (implicit in correlational studies of mass media and development) that almost any kind of message in the media has a direct impact for development. He rejects the idea: ...that a Hollywood comedy turns the campesino's attention to new and desirable material goods, a radio soap opera stirs new aspirations in the countryside, a national news program transcends the narrow boundaries of tradi— tional society, introduces a wider world, and thus es- tablishes a "climate for modernization" (p. 7). 38 Brown's viewpoint suggests that content affects the extent to which mass media can be instrumental to development. Myren (1962) agrees: The hypothesis about the impact of the mass media can be applied only in areas where these media...deal with questions of interest...in comprehensive terms. Recognizing that simple existence of the media is not enough to facilitate development, some analysts also would disagree with the implication of McNelly, Girard, and Deutschmann that material advance— ment and economic growth are the basic meaning for development. Though not denying the importance of those concepts, analysts such as Araujo conceive of development as being primarily political in nature in that development cannot occur in Latin America if power is not redistributed. Such a position questions the wisdom of increments in financial invest— ments, mostly applied to physical projects, as the chief method of attaining development——especially in the rural areas. Araujo (1970) contends that, unless such investments are directed towards the lower income groups, the investments will benefit only those who already control the productive resources; i.e., the invest- ments may actually impede the attainment of equality and democracy as bases for development. Thus, Araujo (1970) feels that: In order to achieve firm advancements in the long road of development, structural changes must be effected so as to mOdify the present destination of the income flow, to pro— vide direct services to farmers, and to create adequate systems of economic incentive in order to promote social change. We wish to understand this social change——as directed to man, the author and subject of development (p. 7). 39 Araujo's meaning for development is illustrative of the concept of human development, with the following properties: (A) (B) (C) (D) The modification of the value systems of individuals; The awareness by people of their potentialities to control their physical and social environment; The expansion of their ability to make decisions; and Their gaining full participation in the activities of a truly national community. Clearly, judgment of the extent to which mass media content can be deemed instrumental to Latin American development is dependent upon one's definition of development. Given that, it is understandable that there is considerable variation in impressions of the nature or content of mass media messages as they are related to development. However, in this chapter, we can hold the question of relationship in abeyance, and review the content of the media in three areas: (1) (2) (3) The General audience media; Media that are available to rural audiences; and Style or treatment of content in messages available to rural audiences. chapter also will discuss three major factors that account for the kinds of content that are found: the demands of the audience on the source; the pressures of marketing and advertising on media operators; and the biases of media owners. ._ .. _.__,. - . 40 Content in General Audience Media Print Content. — The first comprehensive analysis of Latin American daily press content was the 1962 study conducted by the International Center for Superior Studies of Journalism in Latin America (CIESPAL, 1967). Twenty-nine major Latin American dailies were selected, as well as four major dailies around the world: New York, London, Paris, and Moscow. From CIESPAL's analysis of 10,000 pages of ”39 issues of these dailies, the following four content categories can be constructed for our purposes: (1) Developmental information: economic and financial matters, public welfare and problems of social order, education, science, and culture.* (2) Sports and amenities: sports, public entertainment, how—to—do—it information, society news, hobbies, comic strips, etc. (3) Socially negative materials: crime, alcoholism, drug use, natural disaster, anti-social behavior, etc. (u) Other: e.g., international affairs, religion, internal policy and administrative matters, etc. Table 6 reports the amount of space allocated to each category among the Latin American dailies, and compares those figures with the analogous coverage by the non—Latin American newspapers. As compared to the non—Latin American dailies, the Latin American press allocated much less space to developmental information, considerably more to sports and amenities, and a little more to socially negative in— formation. The CIESPAL report is even more specific when it reports that sports and public entertainment was the favorite sub—category in Latin *This operationalization is somewhat broader than physical growth and economic gain; however, it is compatible with the emphasis many analysts place on the material aspects of development. 41 America; in the non-Latin American dailies, it was economic and financial matters. Table 6. Space Allocations to Content Areas by 29 Latin American Dailies and Four non—Latin American Dailies Content Areas Sports, Socially Dailies Development Amenities Negative Other Total Latin—American (average for 29) 32% 3n% 4% 30% 100% Non—Latin 46% 22% 1% 31% 100% American (average for M) Source: CIESPAL (1967, p. 162) The CIESPAL study also reported the geographic emphasis of Latin American press content. On the average, a Latin American daily devoted 80% of its space to domestic news. The remainder was split as follows: Europe and the United States, 10%; Africa and Asia, 5%; other Latin American countries, 5%. When reporting foreign news, Latin American dailies look most to the developed parts of the world. Furthermore, the CIESPAL study also reported that, when looking to their own region, the Latin American dailies focussed on those countries which are least underdeveloped: e.g., Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil. There have been three studies that essentially replicate the CIESPAL investigation. Two, in Argentina and Brazil, have not yet been reported. The third was conducted in Peru, under CIESPAL guidance, by students of the Journalism School of the Catholic University (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 1969). The categories in the Peruvian study differed 42 somewhat from CIBSPAL's. For our purposes, they can be grouped into two broad groups: substantive (international relations, national policy and administration, socioeconomic, education and orientation); and non—substantive (sports, crimes, accidents, disasters, social news, recreation, and miscellaneous). An analysis of one week's editions of six morning and four evening papers in Lima produced findings compatible with those of CIESPAL. Generally, non—substantive information dominated substantive information. Space allocated to non-substantive information ranged from 56% to 73% of all news space. The preference was more pronounced in the evening papers. Again, sports was the favorite sub—category. Further corroboration of this relative emphasis was obtained by Simmons and others (1968) in their study of a week's editions of Guayaquil, Ecuador and New Delhi, India dailies. Developmental inform— ation was operationalized by grouping these categories: physical pro- jects, social welfare, pace of development, foreign trade, monetary and fiscal policies, and institutional and social change. In New Delhi, 22% of the space was allocated to development; in Guayaquil, 16%. The New Delhi content placed greater emphasis on social problems in development; in Guayaquil, the emphasis was on physical projects (e.g., building of hospitals and schools, etc.), monetary and fiscal policies, and foreign trade. In fact, nearly one—third (31%) of all developmental space in Guayaquil was allocated to physical pro— jects, and only 8% was allocated to the "institutional and social change" category, which included items on housing and slum—clearance, family planning, etc. Clearly, the concept of development implied in 48 statements as those of McNelly (physical progress and economic advance- ment) is dominant in the developmental content of Guayaquil papers. Such information may be useful to the business elite in Ecuador's main seaport and largest city. It is hard to believe that it would interest inhabitants of the slums in which the Simmons study was con— ducted. In fact, Simmons and others (1968) concluded that: Newspapers may carry more information on development and social change than do the broadcast media, but so far...they have been unable to communicate directly with a substantial part of the population that needs developmental news the most (p. 705). In his comparative study of a French daily and two Venezuelan dailies, Diaz Rangel (1967) concluded that the Latin American dailies prefer in— formation that is not developmental in content. He also found that one Venezuelan daily devoted much less space to underdeveloped areas in lisia, Africa, and Latin America than did the other Venezuelan and the French dailies . The only study with somewhat different findings was conducted in .A1?gentina by Hoopes (1966). In one of two Spanish—language papers he aJLaJyzed, culture and sports were the two most used categories; in the CYtluer, it was economics and sports. Although sports was a dominant <3Ei‘tegory in both Buenos Aires dailies, non—substantive information gener— aflLly was not given more space than was substantive information. Radio Content. — What little data there are as to the content of radio alld television in Latin America suggest that the electronic media pay less at"iention than print media to developmental information. The three studies mentioning radio content (Simmons and others, 1968, Ecuador; Alisky, 1958, PeI‘u; Felstehausen, 1968, Colombia) found entertainment to be the dominant Category. In particular, sports, popular music, and soap operas are the 4L: staples of radio broadcasting; educational materials and other develop- mental messages are excluded from the schedule. News occupies only a little time on most stations, and much of the news is sports; e.g., Alisky (1955, p. #82) reported that "one Costa Rican station airs only sports news and devotes most of its time to play—by—play soccer matches and interviews with athletes." Though entertainment is the dominant norm, there are a few notable exceptions. In Mexico, according to Lowry (1969), legislation provides the State with an appreciable opportunity to use commercial radio time for educational purposes. In Uruguay, the State has a well—managed and powerful radio service that plays up cultural content. In Colombia (ACPO, 1965), a large private Catholic organization has several stations which give strong emphasis to educational content for rural development. Other Catholic stations are following that example, particularly in Brazil and Bolivia. However, State-owned educational stations and private stations highly interested in development are extremely rare in Latin America. Thus the content of the great majority of stations is essentially un— related to development. Felstehausen (1968) summarized the disappoint— ment many feel at the lack of developmental content: Radio is considered one of the great information promises for the developing countries, but so far this has proven to be a false hope in Colombia. Colombia has about 225 radio stations to serve a population of 18 million people. Yet the programming consists mainly of music and advertising (p. 272). Television Content. - The data for television reveal an even stronger bias in favor of entertainment. Alisky (1958) found Peruvian television primarily to be entertainment. Mas (1969) reports that Latin America #5 television consumes annually no less than 80 million dollars in U.S. television series and films, most of which are entertainment materials. This level of "canned" import material implies a dominance of such U.S. programs in Latin American programming. The comments of Leo Bogart (1959), a U.S. marketing research specialist, support this inference: As a growing influence, television differs from other media not so much in kind as in degree. American TV programs dubbed into Spanish or with Spanish titles are sold through the international departments of the large package—producing and syndicate firms. Old feature films are staple fare on Latin American television channels, as on those of the United States. The quiz show, the give-away program, the amateur hour, and other familiar features of American broadcasting are readily adapted to local formats (p. 162). Quantitative support is provided by a Brazilian television producer, Barbosa Lima (1966). He reports the following distribution of content for Rio de Janeiro's most viewed station: U.S. films: 32% Soap—opera 20 Comedy 20 Commercials 20 Information 8 Similarly, two—thirds of Lima television material is foreign. The proportion in Ecuador is 73%; in Costa Rica, 80% to 90% (Mas, 1969). Mas reports the concern of the president of the Argentine Chamber of Adver— tisers, Oscar Magdalena: Through television we learn more of the history and of the political and social organization of communities other than our own. When some friends praise the good universal inform- ation of our communication media about Europe and the United States, it is convenient to ask them in which province is El Chocon located and which is the capital of Bolivia (p,u1). Mas adds his evaluation: In this manner, Batman, Custer and Frankenstein are much more familiar to the Latin American youth than Simon Bolivar or Miguel Hidalgo (p. Ml). 1+6 Expert evaluations of the cultural role of television, collected in several Latin American countries through a survey, were uniformly negative. This led the survey's summarizer, Mas (1969, p. H0), to conclude that: "Beyond doubt, from the cultural point of view, the lack of responsibility of the Latin American television is absolute". Again, there are a few stations which do give preferential attention to educational content desirable for developmental purposes. The out- standing cases are the two university—operated channels in Santiago, Chile and also one channel in Sao Paulo, Brazil. El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico also are doing some significant educational programming. Again, too, those stations are rare, compared to the commercial stations. The content policy of the latter is characterized by the following pre— ferences: (l) avoid treatment of significant matters that may lead to controversy; (2) avoid confrontation with the authorities, by means of self—censorship of information materials, even with sacrifice of inform— ation freedom; and (3) prefer foreign materials, even at the price of deforming the children's image of the world and at the expense of having those children ignore national values, traditions, and history (Mas, 1969, p. 40). In summary, though data are sparse, they are consistent. Radio and television in Latin America are restricted in content——almost entirely—- to programs of entertainment and to commercials. Little attention is devoted by them to developmental communication. 47 Content in Rural Audience Media The rural audienCe is of special importance in Latin America. First, almost one—half of the total population of the region is rural. Second, agriculture is the base of the economy in most Latin American countries. Third, rural areas are the most traditionalistic sector of the region's society. Only a minimal proportion of that rural population is exposed to the mass media; there are questions as to the content of the messages that reach it. Is there content in the media which has developmental value for that sub—group of the population? Or is it as a Colombian economist, Garcia (1966, p. 175) perceives it, even in Mexico——where revolution has liberated the peasants from exploitation——"the information media...are devoted to express a pattern of culture, preoccupations and aspirations exclusively urban"? In the past few years, several research studies have addressed themselves in part to this issue. Print Content — De Almeida (1964) analyzed news and advertising con— tent over a three month period for: (a) the national daily which had the highest level of circulation in the provinces; and (b) two dailies in Leon, the business center in the State of Guanajuato. The three-month period included the major planting and harvesting activities for the year. The two major content topics were found to be politics and sports. Together, they accounted for about one—third of all content. For the national daily, politics was given nearly twice as much space as was sports (22% vs. 13%); for the local dailies, the ratio was reversed (9% vs. 20%). Agricultural information ranked last for both kinds of papers; however, the national daily devoted even less space to agriculture as (1.6%) than did the local dailies (5.0%). Within the advertising space, the national daily included agricultural content in only one-half of 1% of its space, and the local dailies assigned 3% of their advertising space to agricultural copy. {' '“* Though there were differences between the national and regional “ press, agricultural information accounted for only an insignificant amount of space in either——even though the regional dailies were published { in a city located in a rural region, and the period under study was one of important agricultural activities. Testimony of other researchers support that conclusion. Felstehausen (1969) noted that, "it appears that Colombian newspapers do not make special efforts to choose agricultural content on the basis of what experts and farmers consider to be principal problem areas" (p. 8). Schneider and Fett (1967) concluded that Brazilian "newspapers contained little information...about rural credit" (p. 5). There is one additional study, a depth appraisal of content for rural readers. In Colombia, Gutiérrez—Sénchez (1966) analyzed three months content of the weekly agricultural pages of five Bogota dailies, and he sampled materials from a national weekly agricultural newspaper. Gutiérrez-Séhchez established ten content categories, and measured the column inches published for each. Table 7 reports his findings. For both the dailies and the weekly magazine, two of the top three categories (though not first for either kind of publication) were national governmental programs and foreign trade, and crops. The dailies gave first priority to meetings and organizational activities of large farmers (ranked sixth by the weekly), while the weekly gave most emphasis to public programs to aid agriculture (ranked sixth by the dailies). If the Table 7: 10. *Reproduced from Felstehausen (1969, p. 7) 49 Column Inches of Agricultural News in Four Bogota Dailies and in one National—Circulation Farm Weekly Newspaper for the Period January l7—May 2, 1955* Category of agricultural news (in order of impor— tance for dailies) Meetings and organizational activities of large farmers National govern— ment programs and foreign trade Crops Poultry Livestock Public programs to aid agricul— ture Markets and prices Pest controls Rural educational needs and other community programs Fishing Column inches for dailies 1,130 1,052 98L; 659 523 458 339 306 23” 171 Column inches §1_Campesino 114 sun 736 66 223 820 250 63 79 no Rank in §1_Campesino 10 50 categories of national governmental programs and public programs are combined, news about the programs of "the establishment" was given first rank in both kinds of publications. News of rural educational needs and other peasant community programs was ranked low in both cases. Gutierrez—sanchez (1966) summarized his conclusion about the pattern of content preferences as follows: ///Articles reflected mainly objectives of the agricultural ‘ institutions, their policies and public relations activities. The newspapers did not carry too much information on new techniques required for development of agriculture. Much of the agricultural news published is not directed to meet the needs and level of education of the farmers (p. l). The results of this study seem to imply that the farm pages of those dailies were apparently addressed predominantly to farmers of a high socio- economic and educational level. The nature of content appears to corre- spond indeed to the types of interest and the levels of knowledge of urban—based large farm owners. If so, this would mean that the content of agricultural pages themselves bears little or no relation to the great majority of farmers in the country, the pauper and poorly educated peasants. The only published attempt by a newspaper to better meet the needs of the farmer is provided by Martinez and Myren (1964). They report that the editor of E1_Dictamen, the oldest Mexican provincial newspaper, and the most important one in the State of Veracruz, gave (in 1957) the free use of a weekly page to the experts in an agricultural research station that the government had established in 1954. The page was divided into four content categories: (1) research reports from the station; (2) questions and answers; (3) an interview with a farmer; and (H) acknow- ledgment of farmer visits to the research station. 51 The case of §1_Dictamen, a widely read daily, demonstrates that the content of farm pages can be designed to be useful. However, most of the agricultural readers of the page owned relatively large amounts of land and their socioeconomic and educational status, as well as their mass communication standards, were considerably higher than those of most of the rest of farmers within the State of Veracruz. Thus, again, perhaps not even §1_Dictamen's farm content is geared to serve a rural majority. Radio and Television Content. — There are no data on television con— tent for rural audiences, primarily because of the concentration of television stations in the large urban areas. There is testimony by expert observers of Latin American media practices that the level of information in radio (and newspapers) is low; e.g., Brown (196”), point— ing out that radio, newspapers and magazines are accessible to many Chilean peasants, suggests that the problem is that "none of these media carry much technical information" (p. 10“). Havens and Flinn (1970), in reporting little use of media by peasants in Tamesis and Caqueta, conclude by saying that, "this does not mean that communication media are unimportant in this region. It merely reflects the irrelevancy of its content” (p. H7). Grunig (1969), in commenting on unsuccessful entrepreneurial latifundistas (owners of large farm estates), concludes that: Even though he is exposed to the media and other inform— ation sources, he does not receive the content and quality of information needed to adjust to his changing situation. As a result, he is likely to revert to a traditional type of behavior (p. 19). The pattern is similar for radio. Poblete (1967) commented on 52 Chilean radio as follows: Popular entertainment is the keynote of the majority of j N the commercial radio stations...Commercial stations do not H see rural people as a market for advertising products be— cause their purchasing power is limited. There is no real radio policy to serve these people although the rural pop— ulation constitutes ”0% of the total population (p. 16). Several pieces of data corroborate Poblete's evaluation. In Pitalito, Colombia, Felstehausen (1968) observed that the main broad— casting station in the area transmitted mostly songs, and had no more than five minutes of news per day. Agricultural information was limited to press releases from agricultural commercial firms, and clippings from a New York-published Spanish farm magazine. Canizalez and Myren (1967) and Martinez and Myren (196”) reported that no farm radio program was transmitted in either Veracruz or the Yaqui Valley region of Mexico—— even though there were several local radio stations in both. Bostian and Oliveira (1965) found that agricultural programming was quite limited in stations of two municipios of southern Brazil and was restricted to music, general news, and politics——even though 60% of the farmers owned radio sets, and 20% more listened to radio with their neighbors. r____fl,/From research in rural Colombia, Rogers (l969a) concluded: "The i messages carried by the mass media in less developed nations are of low interest and relevancy to villagers because of the strong urban orien— tation of the media" (p. 115). The statement summarizes the situation prevailing, to one extent or another, in all the Latin American countries. 53 Message Style and the Rural Audience In addition to content, style is naturally a very important factor in communication. A given kind of content may be relevant to a given sector of an audience, but the style in which the transmission of that content is attempted may itself be inappropriate to reach that sector; e.g., the "code" used——a given conventional system of words or other signs——may be incomprehensible to those people. Evidence suggests there are style problems in the case of mass media content in Latin America media, especially in reference to the rural sector of the audience. The style or code used in the region's mass media has been perceived as inadequate for large segments of the audience by educators such as Baigorria (1966), sociologists such as Godoy (196”), economists such as Garcia (1966) and broadcasters such as Deformes (1966). Highly difficult written material causes problems for urban as well as rural readers. However, it is an especially important hurdle for rural dwellers who have minimal literacy skills. As Simmons and others (1968) point out, failure to take this problem into account: tends to militate against both understanding and trust of the newspaper. Even in developing nations, journalists seldom make great concessions in their level of presentation for the poorly educated or otherwise culturally deprived (p. 703). Some researchers have investigated the difficulty of print material for the rural audience of Latin America. Message Difficulty i2_Printed Messages. — Several studies of the "readability" of print messages reaching rural people suggest that the media have indeed failed to take message difficulty sufficiently into 5” account. Ruanova (1958), using Spaulding's Spanish readability formula* evaluated seven of Mexico's l” agricultural magazines and found them beyond the understanding of most of that country's farmers. For five of the seven magazines, 75% of the content was found to be "very diffi— cult". The other two were not very easy to read; however, they did at least have some text which could be comprehended by some farmers with a modest reading ability. Amaya (1959) analyzed a Spanish—language farm magazine published in the U.S. She sampled a year's file of it, obtaining 22 articles that had application to Colombian conditions. She re-wrote each of them, with— out altering the content but modifying the style so as to make the mes— sages shorter, simpler and more impactful. Then she scored both the original and the re—written versions of each article with Spaulding's formula. 80 great were the differences in score that statistical tests were not needed. Consistently, the original versions were found "ex— tremely difficult" or "difficult" and the re—written versions were found "easy". A third study was conducted by Gutiérrez—Séhchez (1966). He measured the readability level of 122 articles on the agricultural pages of four dailies and one weekly farm magazine of Colombia. He concluded that "that *Spaulding (19563 devised this formula to test reading difficulty on the basis of frequency of word usage and sentence length. Words in the sample text are checked against a list of 1,500 Spanish words for which fre- quencies of general usage have been recorded. Predominance in the sample of words with a low frequency of use and of long sentences indicates high difficulty in the material in terms of the reader's ability to comprehend it. Spaulding's formula is easier to apply than those devised for English by Flesch (19”9), a precursor in this area of study; but the latter for- mulas are more sophisticated than Spaulding's. Gonzalez Saldana (196”) made an attempt to adapt them for use with Spanish materials. 55 which might be of direct value in improving agriculture is beyond the comprehension of those who could best use the information". Magdub (1966), using mainly the "Cloze Procedure"* evaluated several technical (research) and popular (extension) agricultural publications, and one grammar school textbook. The technical materials were found most difficult. Extension materials and readings for grammar school students had about the same level of difficulty. These studies make evident that, in addition to problems with what is communicated to the rural audience of Latin America, there are problems with how such communication occurs. Code ip_Non—Verbal Messages — A few studies (Spaulding, 1953; Fonseca and Kearl, 1960; Fonseca and Lassey, 196”; and others) have analyzed non—verbal message codes in rural communication: e.g., graphics, illustrations in booklets and posters. The first study of this nature was conducted in Latin America by Spaulding (1956b). He tested, in Costa Rica and Mexico, the compre— hensibility of visual illustrations in a series of 12 booklets prepared for fundamental education by the Pan-American Union. He found that the effectiveness of those publications was dependent upon how well its content fit the experience of the intended audience. But it was also dependent upon: (1) keeping the number of objects in each illustration to a minimum; (2) keeping the number of separate actions necessary to correct interpretation of the message to a minimum; (3) portraying objects EERIE—EEEEEE'ESEEIEEE—Egéentially of eliminating some words in the para- graphs of a test—sfor instance every fourth or fifth word—~and measuring the extent to which such eliminations prevent the reader from restoring the full content of the messages. 56 and inferred actions in a realistic and unambiguous way; and (”) using color realistically and functionally. Fonseca and Kearl (1960) tested several hypotheses about the com- prehensibility of pictorial symbols among a group of rural young people in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Their results included statements such as: (l) comprehension of pictorial symbols is reduced when either too many or too few details are included; (2) familiar objects in the illustration, recognizable by the audience, facilitate comprehension, whereas unfamiliar objects impede it; (3) the illustration of a process should have at least as many individual pictures or frames as there are main steps or actions in that process; (”) pictorial symbols should be as realistic as possible (i.e., "humanization" of animals works against comprehension); and (5) special care should be taken with pictorial symbols which have both a figurative and a literal meaning,since people of low educational level tend to give the most limited literal interpretation to such symbols. The authors also derived from their study a set of specific and practical recommendations for producers of pictorial materials addressed to ruralites. These studies all suggest that a major problem in non—verbal mass communication with rural audiences is the large cultural difference be— tween the producer and the audience. The differences appear particularly serious when considering those peasants for whom Spanish or Portuguese is not their native tongue. Some anecdotes recorded in anthropological obser— Vations illustrate the case; e.g., that of peasants who failed to see a film as relevant to them because they didn't know of fruit flies big enough to fill a 16 millimeter screen; or that of the Andean farmers who rejected the credibility of an agricultural practice because the delay between seeding and cropping was eliminated by the cultural editing convention of the'dissolve'. «<— 57 General Summary of the Content and Code Situation In the context of an interest in development, the following con- clusions emerge from the data on Latin American mass communication content: (1) In general, mass media content show little emphasis on development, a marked preference for non-substantive matters, and a strong urban orientation. (2) Specifically, daily newspapers exhibit a content pattern largely unre- lated to the region's developmental needs, unconcerned with the rural population, and slanted towards irrelevant materials. (3) In reference to the general audience, radio and television content, especially the latter, are even less concerned with development than are the print media. (”) The content in many dailies fails almost completely to take into account the rural audience, even in the case of provincial newspapers located in important agricultural zones. Furthermore, the content of farm pages published by some of the dailies, as well as the content of sev— eral farm newspapers and magazines themselves, also seems dominated by an urban orientation and appears directed primarily to a minority of farmers with a high socioeconomic and educational status. (5) In spite of its appreciable penetration in the rural areas, radio also fails to provide content relevant to farmer's needs, activities, and aspirations. Whether television content may or may not be relevant for peasants constitutes a futile question since they simply are outside the reach of that medium. (6) The style in which message content is expressed in materials addressed to rural people is beyond their comprehension ability. Print codes and non- verbal codes used in dailies, magazines, booklets, and other materials for farmers appear also to be produced within a cultural framework eminently urban in nature. 58 Factors Underlying Media Content Attention will be given to three possible explanatory factors for the state of media content which has been described: (1) the testimony of media managers that they are simply responding to public desire and demand; (2) the economic pressures of advertising sales, and the mar- keting requirement to build an audience; (3) the conscious and unconscious biases of media owners and managers. The Audience as Culprit. When confronted with criticisms about the predominantly trivial nature of mass media content, some of the managers of those media are often likely to affirm that they give the audience "what the audience wants.” Thus such low quality content-—so unrelated to the purposes of development——is supposed to reflect the low cultural level and the superficial concerns of most of the people :in the audience. The president of a Latin American regional radio group eaxemplified that position in these terms: How can it be asked from radio and television for instance that they embrace the most refined expressions of musical folklore when it is the very audience that rejects them (Tello Cadenas, 1966, p. 152)? There is some evidence, however, that quality is acceptable. For illstance, a former president of Argentina's Administrative Commission fo Radio and Television (Baigorria, 1966, p. 133) reported that no Ckbmmercial firm had wanted to sponsor a telecast of the Buenos Aires 'tlleater-house debut of Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia orchestra, 1JIlder the assumption that such a program could attract only a very small Esfigment of the audience. The performance was nevertheless televised ~through government sponsorship. Surveys conducted to evaluate the 59 audience's reaction to the telecast revealed that it captured the attention of a very large proportion of the audience, including viewers in the most modest neighborhoods of the city. A comparable case was reported for Brazil by a producer of tele— vision news. He had added to a news program a section of "high level" interpretive reporting of international events. The new section was broadcast adjacent to an established section of the program which was taken to be "low level" (i.e., intended for popular consumption). The audience reacted well to the addition. The station received "an immense series of letters, making questions and requesting more explanations" and many of those letters "were written by laborers, by humble people” (Barbosa Lima, 1966, p. 238). There is also some testimony which suggests that some audiences tend at times to reject poor quality of content. As the manager of a survey firm in Buenos Aires told Mas (1969, p. 3”), improvements in the level of television content had to be made by the stations before the 13ercentage of sets in use went from nineteen out of every 100 sets, in 1968, to twenty—three in 1969. Mas also reported that, out of more ‘than ”,300 televiewers in that same city, almost 1,900 rated the pro— ggrams as "more or less acceptable", "bad", ”totally mediocre", "boring", "scandalous", ”immoral”, "untruthful", etc. Yet, as cited by Mas 1”limself (p. ”1), Goar Mestre, the chief television producer in Argentina, fieels that this country's television is "in quantity, quality and variety, Enadoubtedly the best in the Continent." Systematic and rigorous research on the audience's content prefer— <5nces is not available yet in Latin America, other than in foreign -‘ 60 marketing surveys with confidential circulation. One of the few available public studies was done recently by journalism students in Lima (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 1969) with guidance from the International Center of Superior Studies in Journalism for Latin America. The researchers asked a sample of urbanites to express their content preferences in re— lation to radio, television, and daily newspapers. The questions sought to identify possible differences between preferences in days of work and preferences in leisure time conditions. Most respondents perceived the broadcast media as serving, primarily, an entertainment function. For both radio and television, about half the respondents selected entertainment as their preferred category-—both on work days and leisure days. Given radio, three respondents in ten ex— pressed a preference for information on work days; however, this declined ssharply (to one in ten) on leisure days. For television, very few respon— cients expressed a preference for news and information at any time (about <>ne in ten on work days, and only one in twenty on leisure days). Respondents were much more likely to see the newspaper as a carrier <>f substantive information, especially on work days. Thirty—eight percent {Drefer general information on work days (23% on leisure days), as compared t3) 26% who prefer ”trivial" content on both work and leisure days. The results for radio and for television seem to provide, in general, S<>me support for the contention that it is the audience which wants non~ 5311bstantive information. The results for newspapers appear, in general, 13C) give some support to criticisms that the media managers are responsible fRDr the predominance of such content. The level of sports preference Eicross media appears to strengthen the criticisms against media managers, 61 vvlmen such findings are contrasted with content analyses which show a rnzarked proclivity for sports materials. Also the low percentage of Epeeople manifesting a preference for radio "soap—operas", especially on Ireast days, contrasts with the importance that broadcasting schedules Llssually attribute to that kind of program. The Lima study is a useful first step in this area of inquiry; 11untries. "The determinant binomial"——he adds——"will exert its dEEcisive veto against ideas and recommendations which do not suit one <3J_ientele or another” (Diaz Seijas, 1966, p. 2”3). Similarly, the president of Chile's National Commission of Culture S-":ressed that: It has been observed on more than one occasion that the .... 62 search for consumers at any price and the criterion of popularity lead necessarily to the trivialization of a good number of things that fall within the range of radio and television (Millas, 1966, p. 53). These comments reflect the general view of intellectuals that IDIJsinessmen, through advertising, influence media content. However, jLIdtellectuals are not alone in holding businessmen and advertising eezxperts responsible for the predominantly low developmental quality <>:f mass media content. Some media experts themselves join in the Eiccusation. For instance, a Brazilian television producer finds 1:]nat the principal role of that medium appears that of being "a good Eseeller of soap" (Barbosa Lima, 1966, p. 236). The same analyst reports ‘tliat it is common for television directors to abdicate their own ideas EiIld let decisions about their programs be made by advertising agencies. Ikrld he feels that: As long as television operates exclusively within such a system, functioning as a shoe factory or as a department store, public interest will always be in second place. The public will always have that which it likes and never that which it needs. It is the law of easy concessions (p. 237). Barbosa Lima also provides insight into certain motivations behind ‘tlie production behavior of some media experts by citing what a TV S<2ript—writer of humorous programs had told him: The audience does not like the new anecdote; it laughs only with those which it already knows. The truth is that I could do something better, but if I do it people do not laugh. If they do not laugh, the advertiser doesn't like it. If he doesn't like it, there is no program. If there is no program, there is no job (p. 235). Mas (1969) reports that Brazilian television programs are produced essentially in terms of the product to be sold. He also reports (p. ”0) that television in Argentina cares not for what intellectuals have to ¥ 63 s;aay but cares "for the high ratings of programs capable of selling 1:Idnciples influence television content; however, people in the tele- \rision business feel that such criticisms are not always documented. I’or instance, Alfredo Scalises, a public relations officer for a Buenos [\ires channel (as cited by Mas, 1969, p. ”0) felt that: ”TV has not lDeaen accepted by intellectuals. They talk against it and do not try 1:c> understand it". Some intellectuals share that viewpoint. For :iIlstance, a former Minister of Education and of Foreign Affairs of C311atemala, Raul Osegueda (1966), noted that: It is true that there are in play certain commercial interests not always clean in nature. It is true that the level of production of materials to be televised is not first class. But it is also true that the high level intellectual, the quality writer, has done little to colonize such fields (p. 135). Arguments for and against businessmen and advertising experts are 11<>t restricted to television. The same kind of controversy goes on Eilbout newspapers, magazines and, especially, radio and motion pictures. Yeat, as far as this writer knows, there are in Latin America no systematic S=‘tudies to provide sufficient empirical evidence to support either I>osition. Within print media, the accusation often is made that U.S. business— rnen exert considerable control over content through U.S. advertising ‘— 6” eagencies. Mujica, a former director of the School of Journalism of \Ienezuela's Central University, argues that U. S. investors control aalmost completely the "big press" of Latin America. The "big press" <3an be defined as the 200 dailies that are ready by 75% of the newspaper :readers, and which contain 80% of the advertisements. Mujica (1967) asserts that: At least ten of the large North American advertising agencies operate directly in the twenty Latin American republics...and exert effective domination over the most important newspapers (p. 136) Malpica's analysis of Peruvian advertising (1968) supports Mujica's argument. Malpica estimates that 80% of Peruvian advertising is con— 'trolled by seven U. S. advertising firms. The marketing bias is antagonistic, of course, to media content <>f interest to the peasant population, in that peasants are not customers—— <>r~even potential customers—~for most products. A U. S. marketing Especialist, Leo Bogart (1959), reproduces a statement of advertising {Dhilosophy for Latin America which Bogart found in a "brochure sent out 13y a large international publication with (of course!) an elite audience:" It is dangerous to spend advertising appropriations to appeal to the millions, most of whom have no buying potential. It is enough of a task for any advertising budget merely to concentrate on those who do have the buying power, and to aim to turn these prospects into buyers of your particular product. The goal of the advertiser in Latin America, therefore, should be to reach not the largest number of people, but the largest number of prospects. The advertiser in Latin America should concentrate not on turning people into ros ects, but in turning prospects into customers (p. 161). Gutiérrez—Sénchez (1966) found this policy in operation in Colombian Ciailies, even on the agricultural pages. He found that the content of 1those pages was unrelated to the peasantry, and appealed primarily to 65 -t11e minority of urban-based large landowners of a high socioeconomic and enflucational status. The content was geared to publication of official aigricultural activities among city people. Felstehausen (1969) inter— xriewed the editors of some of those dailies, and reported them reluctant 't<3 give ample attention to rural problems because their dailies circulate rnostly in cities and thus are not widely read by peasants. One final source of advertising—business bias needs to be noted. ffliere is some evidence that businessmen direct their advertising to rneedia which share their conservative points of view, and that they can Eilld do directly influence content when it doesn't support that view. ]:T1 Peru, Roca (1969) analyzed the distribution of 105 agricultural aa such interests. Such evidence is at best no more than suggestive of 'tlle possibility of discriminatory advertising concessions in favor of Cubnservative—oriented media. A clearer example is provided by an analysis fo the change of content in a Caracas newspaper. As reported by Mujica (1967, pp. 238—239), one of the main Caracas I1ewspapers——a daily with a large national circulation and a liberal Ibosition—-was forced to subscribe to an anti—Cuban line of conduct by rDeans of a boycott organized by Venezuela's National Association of Advertisers. According to Mujica, thousands of centimeters of advertise— Inents were withdrawn ipso—facto from the daily by the following business groups: automobile importers; supermarket chains; general stores; international airlines; and, to a lesser extent, oil companies.* *Mujica specifies that the following U.S. business firms were among those <4— 66 155; a consequence of such withdrawal, the president of the company owning -t1162 daily had to resign and the staff of the paper was reorganized so as ‘t<> eliminate certain elements from it. After that, the daily joined the a111zi—Cuba line of conduct and advertising resumed its customary level. The impressions and informations so far presented suggest the £231.143wing schema of the role of businessmen in determining media content: (1) (3) Importers and manufacturers strive for market expansion in terms of sizable increases in the number of consumers of their products. Thus they ask advertising agencies to seek the enlargement of the Inass media audience, except for those sectors of the population twith no buying power. Importers and manufacturers presumably regard social stability as as sine-gua—non condition for market expansion. Thus they influence the advertising agencies to favor those mass media institutions ‘which advocate conformity with internal status quo and with external domination. Under such guidelines, the advertising agencies exert, in turn, pressures on mass media owners and managers to secure the largest possible audiences and to foster, through their editorial and information policies, as much compliance as possible among the population reached by those media. Selective allocation of advertising concessions--at times taken to the point of boycotting uncooperative media—~is the key instrument to obtain the media's contribution. \—________— Ipétbticipating in the boycott: General Motors, Chrysler and Ford; Nelson CNzkefeller (supermarkets); Pan American Airways; the petroleum companies; Enid——in particular-~Sears and Roebuck. - 67 On logical grounds, this schema may be defensible. Only strict scientific verification, however, can provide sufficiently reliable evidence to support or to reject such assumptions. Thus, again, empirical investigations appear very necessary in this area of possible determinants of the nature of mass media content in Latin America. The Biases of Media Ownership. A third factor frequently regarded as a major determinant of the content of Latin American mass media is the bias introduced by the owners of those media. Lazarsfeld and Merton (1960) described the owners and their biases in the United States. What they said seems quite applicable to Latin America: Big business finances the production and distribution of mass media. And, all intent aside, he who pays the piper generally calls the tune (p. 503). The implication of that remark is that ownership does bias——whether consciously or not. Though data on both ownership and bias in Latin America are sparse, what evidence there is suggests that there is bias. The eVidence certainly makes clear that ownership is primarily private, monOPOJ—istic, and in the hands of wealthy families and business interests. There is some governmental operation of television (e.g., television is a State monopoly in Colombia, Bolivia, and Chile), and governmental efforts to control the privately—owned media are far from rare in Latin AmeriCa (see University of Missouri, 1968; Inter—American Press Association, 1969a and 19691); Adams, 1967; and Gillmore, 1962); however, for the most part, ownership is in the hands of those who have the financial base to establish, operate, and consolidate the extremely expensive media. Malpica (1968, pp. 28—31) reports that, of the total of eight dai ' lies existing in Lima, two belong to a group of owners of large farm 68 estates; two are owned by two interlocked groups of merchants and indus— tr-ialists; one belongs to a family which owns a large bank, cement factories, insurance companies, real estate firms, and a petroleum concern; and one belongs to the main owner in the fish-flour industry who also owns specialized magazines and a chain of provincial newspapers. Furthermore, those who own one of the dailies also own a television channel and eleven radio stations. And a single person owns forty—five radio stations spread across the country. Out of six of the dailies of Lima which Roca (1969, pp. ”2—”6) studied, three were owned by people who also own large commercial farm estates and have other business interests as well. Of the other three dailies, two were owned by non—agricultural business interests. A similar situation was reported for Chile by Lagos Escobar (1962, pp. 166—168). Of ten dailies in Santiago, three belong to a banking group 3 one is owned by the Catholic church but is vinculated to a financial sub-group; and one falls within the sphere of two banking groups. These five dailies have the largest circulation, both in the Capital and in the provinces. In the northern part of the country, two mining companies exert almost complete control of the press. In the City Of Valparaiso, two of the three existing dailies are dominated by a financial group which is also dominant in Santiago. All main dailies 1n the southern part of the country fall under the control of one COPpot‘ation. A publishing firm connected to a bank owns several of the n : . . . . . . athhal Circulation magaZines. The two most important radio stations of the country belong directly to two banking groupsfl" The major film \w— 3': Te€~evision has been restricted in Chile to university—operation. No pr‘lvately owned channels exist. __ 69 prxpducing company is related to three banking groups. The Chilean pattern of media ownership and the bias it implies is sununarized by Sunkel (1969) as follows: Most of the principal newspapers, weekly magazines, radio networks, news and publicity agencies are owned by powerful industrial and financial concerns, and are largely in their service (p. 136). Lowry (1969, p. 33”) reports that: "Television in Mexico is a near moruapoly. Telesistema, S.A. owns or controls (under various names) forty of ‘tlie country's fifty TV stations." He adds that, in Mexico City alone, than: company owns all three of the television channels. And, according to Ddas (1969, p. 39), one man monopolized Mexican television for fifteen yearns. Alisky (1960) reported that Latin America's largest newspaper chaiJ) (thirty-six dailies) also was owned in Mexico by one person. A large multi-media chain exists also in Brazil, according to Lane (196T7, p. 299). He reports that Diarios Asociados owns about one—half Of tide country's television stations, as well as many newspapers and radix) stations in several cities of that country. A chain of newspapers and-magazines owned by one family exists in Venezuela. Mujica (1967, p. 137) lists several major dailies of Argentina, ChiJJB, Uruguay, Ecuador and Colombia as belonging to traditional families whi‘3rl he perceives not only as vinculated to powerful national financial interests but also as related to United States business groups. He inc'l—udes in the latter category two of the main Mexican dailies and all of: tlie Central American newspapers. According to Mas (1969, p. ”1), the man who dominated the Cuban teleVision system until the beginning of Castro's government now owns lr1 1\rgentina one television station (Canal 13), and the largest television ¥ 70 production company of Latin America (Proartel). The same person, according to Malpica (1968, pp. 29—30) shares in the ownership of one of the two largest television networks of Peru. In general, it appears that the influence of media monopolies is not accounted for by their magnitude alone. A group may own only three of nine dailies in a city, the other dailies being monopolized by no one. Yet, if the three-daily group has the largest audience and most of the advertisements in that city, it will easily overpower the other six dailies. Also a man who owns just one television channel and two newspapers may be far more influential than a group owning ten radio stations. Lastly, a small monopoly in a capital city may be much more powerful than a large one in provincial locations. Independent media, not owned by business groups or monopolized by aanyone, do exist in Latin America, especially in magazine, radio, and :film exhibiting activities. Their influence appears minimal compared ‘to that of the business—owned and monopoly-owned media, and their very ssurvival is precarious. Complete and detailed ownership studies for each Latin American (:ountry are, of course, desirable. But the information reviewed here Iprovides, by itself, appreciable evidence that mass media ownership in ‘the region is indeed essentially private, mercantile, and monopolistic in nature. Given that, what seems to be the influence of the owners on the nature of media content? Data on the bias of ownership is restricted to two extensive case studies, one by Roca (1969) in Peru, and the other by Brunner (1969) in Chile. Roca (1969) hypothesized that the interests of owners of daily s‘ 71 newspapers in Peru influence the orientation of content in those media, especially when such interests are threatened. He content—analyzed six of the Lima dailies for the six—week period of 1963 during which peasant invasions of large farm estates constituted a serious threat for the land—monopolizing interests in the country. During the period, one farm estate had been invaded for the ninth time and twenty—five peasants had lost their lives in the struggle for land. The analysis used three categories of material (news, editorial, and advertisements) and three orientation categories (against the peasants, in favor of the landlords; against the landlords, in favor of the peasants; and neutral). A total of 391 items in the papers were classified according to such categorizations. Table 8 shows the distribution of the items into those categories. TFable 8: Content Items in Three Categories of Material as Distributed Among Three Orientation Categories for Six Lima Dailies ()Identation Category Category of Material News Editorials Advertisements Total [\gainst the Peasants 151 3” 105 290 ( in favor of the landlords) [\gainst the landlords 33 6 0 39 ( in favor of the peasants) bleutral (sided with 62 O 0 62 rieither peasants rlor landlords) Total 2”6 W 05 39 \— Source: Roca (1969, p. ”1) 72 The degree to which the dailies supported the landlords' position was very pronounced. Of the total of 391 items analyzed, 290 were in their favor, thirty—nine for the peasants, and the balance were neutral. Editorial content was definitely on the side of the landlords and adver— tising content was exclusively so. News content favored the landlords very markedly over the peasants and it also favored the former substan— tially in relation to the neutral orientation category. Neutral communi— cation did not occur at all in the editorial and advertising categories of material. Roca found, furthermore, that ownership of three of the six dailies he studied was related to ownership of large farm estates. Those news— paper firms were directly connected to individuals and companies which are agricultural producers, owning large farm estates. When analyzing the data in relation to ownership, a higher number c>f pro—landlord items (in news, editorial, and advertisements) is found iJn the content of the three dailies connected to land—owning interests 1Ihan in the dailies for which no such association had been found (18” 37ersus 106 out of a total of 290 items against the peasant). Thus the data clearly support the hypothesis that the interests of Tnedia owners influence content in the service of their biases, particularly Vvhen those interests are threatened. Henri Favre (1969, p. 133) analyzed the Peruvian power nucleus; he Esuggests reasons why the large conservative dailies of Lima overplayed ‘the invasion by peasants and identified the peasants as "dangerous Red Iaevolutionaries." In exaggerating the public threat and identifying it as communist, Favre feels, the Peruvian ruling minority wanted and 73 obtained two things: (1) to control the techno-bureaucratic groups and the middle classes which were entertaining emancipatory purposes; and (2) to precipitate the Army's movement against the peasants, including repression through napalm bombings. Analogously, although not in specific relation to the peasant invasions, another French analyst (Bourricaud, 1969, pp. ”7—”8) and a Peruvian analyst (Malpica, 1968, p. 3”) have also observed that the conservative media of Lima foster compliance with the system and discourage middle—of—the roaders from joining attempts to change that system. Brunner's study in Chile (1969) appraised the editorial policy of Chile's major daily in a non-quantitative but systematic assessment. He content—analyzed the editorial opinions of that newspaper in relation to some strong—-and at times violent—~manifestations of certain sectors of the country's youth to promote radical changes in two private educational institutions. One was the 1967 reform movement in the Catholic University. The other was the 1969 emergence of an exceptionally reform—minded and equally Catholic high school. The culminating actions of the college movement were: (1) occupation of the University's premises by the students; (2) interruption of academic activities; and (3) a peremptory demand for a change in the composition and system of academic authority. Brunner analyzed the editorials of the daily newspaper for all issues corresponding to the period of the movement's peak activity. He summarized the central propositions of the editorials as follows: (1) The university reform movement was inspired and controlled by Marxist elements. Students were not acting on their own but in response to plans designed and circulated by the Communists. 7” (2) The alleged democratization of the university's life was contrary to the very nature of the institution and implied an attack on the "principle of authority". It meant also: abuse against private property, physical and moral pressure on the teachers, and an attempt to destroy the university's autonomy. (3) Given that the movement endangered legality and threatened the public order, those engaged in it were delinquents. Furthermore, they were actually no less than urban guerillas. (”) Therefore, to re—establish order and secure legality, the misfits had to be stopped and penalized for their actions. Hence, use of the public force against them was justifiable. Brunner found, two years later, that the same newspaper applied about the same treatment to a similar situation. In this case, the teachers and students of a private Catholic high school publicly decided to radically change its aims and methods. This was to be done in the service of substantive social change and thus against the elitist pedagogy of conformity traditionally prevailing in Catholic schools. As Brunner (1969, p. 329) concludes, the daily repeated its 1967 edi— torial pattern of appraisal: "Reformists are marxists, marxists preach revolution, revolution opposes freedom of teaching, freedom of teaching is inherent to democracy, democracy is in danger.” Roca in Peru and Brunner in Chile point to an unaccustomed direction in communication research in Latin America: the apparent linkage between power concentration and knowledge concentration, and the possible impact of such association as a deterrent to national development. Their studies lead one to think that the Latin American power nuclei may not be using —. 75 the press only as a tool for the socialization of the citizenry into the values and norms of the culture over which they preside. They may be using it also as an instrument to secure social control, as an influence to discourage non-conformity with those values and to inhibit or punish deviance from those norms. The differentiation appears important for future content—research in the region. Though the evidence of bias seems adequate to support the thesis, it should be noted that all of the errors and deficiencies in the Latin American media cannot be attributed to bias. Some of it is simply attributable to the fact that most mass media practitioners are neither professionally trained nor employed full—time. Salaries are so low that practitioners need to engage in several occupations simultaneously. The media staff may not share the orientation of the media owners. In fact, McLeod and Rush (1969a and 1969b) found that many Latin American journalists are critical of their own newspaper's content. The lack of competence and training, howeverg makesimpossible the rigorous documen— tation of events and the skillful handling of news. Summary As a rule, content in the general audience media is characterized by its lack of relevance. A lack of change—orientation and, to a lesser extent, a lack of objectivity, appear to be additional features of it. The print media devote far more space to non—substantive materials than to substantive information of the type useful for national development; sports is their favorite category. Within the limited space they assign to developmental content, most materials refer to indicators of physical 76 and economic growth rather than to social change, political transfor— mation, and cultural mutation. Furthermore, when looking outside their country of publication, the dailies pay least attention to Latin America itself and to the other underdeveloped regions of the world and place most attention on highly developed countries and regions; within Latin America, they focus on those countries which are least underdeveloped. The broadcasting media are even less concerned with developmental information than are the print media. For both radio and television, entertainment is the favorite category, the preference being more pro- nounced in the case of the latter. Television shows a high level of usage of foreign ("canned") materials, gives little time to news, and avoids controversial issues of concern for society. Content in media reaching the rural audience is eminently urban in nature. Print media of national circulation make no effort to communicate with the peasantry. Even provincial dailies published in cities located in important agricultural regions fail to address themselves to the peasants. Not even agricultural publications seem to take into consi— deration that sector of the population. The content of farm pages which some dailies publish once a week, of farm weeklies, and of farm magazines appears addressed to a minority of large land—owners of high socio—economic and educational status, some of whom are city—based farm operators. The weekly agricultural publications do not carry much farm news or technical information; they serve more to publicize government agricultural projects, to cover the activities of large landowners and agricultural professionals, and to discuss financial aspects of commercial 77 agriculture. Information about the peasants and for the peasants occupies the least space in all the farm print media. Although radio has much more penetration in the rural areas than newspapers and magazines, it does not carry any significant proportion of content directly relevant to the agricultural audience, not even in the case of stations located in rural areas. Their favorite content category is entertainment (mostly popular music). They pay little attention to general news and show little interest in development. Television simply does not reach the farm audience. There is evidence that, in addition to problems with content, the rural audience has problems with the gpylg_of the messages with which it comes in contact. The level of difficulty is beyond the comprehension of the great majority of rural dwellers, even in the case of agricultural publications. Non—verbal messages, such as illustrations in booklets and posters addressed to ruralites, are also expressed in a pictorial Style not suited to them. In both cases, large cultural differences between urban communicators and rural receivers seem to account for much of the problem. The following have been suggested as the main factors underlying media content in Latin America: (1) audience preferences; (2) marketing needs; and (3) biases of media owners. Audience preferences have often been postulated by media managers as an explanation for the low quality of content in those media. The managers claim that they give the audience what the audience wants, the implication being that low taste and superficial interests are the mark of the public's culture. There is very little research on this matter _. 78 and the research is not conSistent across media. Most radio listeners in a survey did manifest a preference for entertainment content, but most newspaper readers did not manifest a preference for such content. Marketing needs have been pointed out by several intellectuals, and by some media practitioners, as constituting the main reason for the dilution of substantive content, especially in the case of television. The critics contend that importers and manufacturers employ the adver- tising agencies to exert pressure on the media towards expansion of the market by means of enlarging the audience at the price of increasing the mediocrity of content. The weight of testimony supports the criticisms but research information on this matter is also minimally available. There is, instead, some evidence that selective allocation of advertising contracts is used at times by business groups to secure media conformity with the status quo. There are also some indications that United States business interests, and U.S. advertising agencies, are connected to such control operations, which in one case included a total advertising boycott. Finally, there are some indications that media deliberately exclude the rural audience from consideration because that sector is of no interest to advertisers, given its minimal purchasing power. Media ownership has been found by an appreciable number of studies to be mostly private, largely mercantile, and often monopolistic. In particular, data from Peru, Chile, Brazil and Mexico makes evident a pattern of strong media monopoly. Independent media ownership, not financed by business interests or included in monopolies, does exist in the region, especially in magazine, radio, and film activities. Its influence, however, appears very limited compared to that of the big 79 business dailies and the media chains. Government media ownership is minimal, especially in print media. Some research evidence supports the hypothesis that the biases of media owners influence media content. Certain dailies were found to have recourse to slanted information in order to serve the interests of their owners, especially when such interests were under threat. One daily was found to cast its editorials about certain events in a rather systematic fashion over time. In both cases, information appeared managed towards discouraging attempts at social and political transfor— mation so as to foster the continuation of the minority's rule. In summary, if national development is understood primarily as the reorganization of Latin American society on the basis of breaking the prevalent concentration of power, most content in the majority of Latin American mass media institutions appears not to contribute to such development. 0n the contrary, its predominantly non—substantive nature and conservative orientation appear to operate as deterrents to human (levelopment in the region. <- Chapter ” LATIN AMERICA AS SEEN AND INFLUENCED BY U. S. MEDIA What do Americans -— of North and South -— know about each other? Complaints are frequent among Latin Americans that people in the United States are disinterested in that region and that their knowledge of Latin America is limited and inaccurate. On the other hand, some American observers feel that their southern neighbors do not have either an adequate or balanced perception of the United States. Neither party appears satisfied with the image that the other seems to have of it. There are many reasons for that mutual lack of knowledge. One is the type and volume of information available in the U. S. and Latin American mass media. This chapter is concerned with that issue. Given what pertinent Inesearch there is, the chapter will attempt to determine (a) whether impressions as those just mentioned are supported or rejected; (b) Vvhether mass media influence the respective national images; and (c) Vvhether deficiencies of information are attributable primarily to (organizational problems in the media, or in systematic biases of their rnanagers. After reviewing media coverage studies, the chapter will Eattend to the process of "gatekeeping" in the inter—American news flow. thtention will also be given to the activity of U. S. news agencies since they seem to play a major role in the news exchange between Latin America and the U. S. 80 81 Knowledge in the U. S. About Latin America As reported by Robinson (1967) and McNelly 33: Si: (1968), a large segment of the U. S. population has very little concern for events and matters outside the U. S. Given that low level of concern, it can be assumed that there is a corresponding low level of knowledge about the world, including Latin America. The assumption is supported by a survey of U. S. adults and teenagers, conducted by a Maryknoll newspaperman with experience in Latin America, Father Albert Nevins, and reported by Considine (196”, pp. 1”6—1”7). Nevins found little knowledge about Latin America; e.g., only 11% of his U. 8. sample knew that Brazilians speak Portugese. He also detected superificial concerns, stereotypes, and derogatory perceptions, as indicated by answers to questions such as this: Question: When you hear the term Latin America, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? Answers: 1. "The tropics. I always wanted to go there." 2. "Bananas and revolutions." 3. "Jungles." ”. "Nothing in particular." 5. "A place where the rich people won't help the poor people and expect us to do it." 6. "A mess." Support also comes from testimony of U. S. experts on Latin America. Considine (196”) cites a report Milton Eisenhower made to President Eisenhower. Commenting on problems of misunderstandings between the U. S. and Latin America, he said: 82 In the United States, the problem stems primarily from lack of knowledge...our people do not truly comprehend the problems and aspirations of our neighbors, and thus we sometimes take actions that are detrimental to the good relationships we wish to foster (p. l”5). Another U. S. analyst, Robert Sollen (1961), expands on the consequence of a lack of information: As the public fails to understand the nature of other nations' problems, so it will fail to anticipate their consequences. And when the crises occur, the public demands panic action, usually aimed at... "Communists"... (p. 32). One of the possible specific consequences of inadequate knowledge of Latin America on the part of the U. S. public was suggested by the president of the Washington Post: It is this kind of lack of information that could lead to the astonishment of Latin American peoples in l967——when an aggressively thrifty Congress in this city coldly ignored the grand (and good) promises made by President Lyndon Johnson at Punta del Este (Graham, 1969, p. 3). Surveys such as that of Nevins, and perceptions of observers such éas Eisenhower, Sollen and Graham provide data to support the proposition 'that, in general, the level of information the U. 8. people has about ILatin America is far from satisfactory. (J. S. Print Media Coverage of Latin America Given that low level of knowledge and interest of U. S. citizens for Latin American affairs, it can be asked if it is reflected in the coverage granted to those affairs by the U. 8. mass media. There are several studies of U. 8. print media coverage of Latin America. Some of them have compared foreign news coverage among Latin America and U. 8. major dailies. -—' 83 Whether originating in Latin America or elsewhere outside the United States, foreign news does not constitute priority material in American daily newspapers. Markham (1961) described the deficiency as follows: Original coverage is unsatisfactory, little of what is reported gets published, little of what is published gets read, and some of what is read is not comprehended...The average United States newspaper uses about four columns of foreign news a day. Newspapers receive much more foreign news than they print. The reader gets through only a small proportion (a— bout 12 column inches) of what is printed...0rdinarily, space devoted to foreign news by our daily newspapers goes primar— ily to the news of crises in Europe and Asia, to the almost complete exclusion of information about our neighbors in this hemisphere (pp. 2”9 and 250). These conclusions confirm evidence found by studies such as those of the International Press Institute (1953, l95”a, and 195”b) and the Inter—American Press Association (1955—1959), as well as those of Hechinger (19”8) and Kayser (1953). For instance, the latter researcher found that each of sixteen newspapers from several countries, including two from Latin America, carried a greater proportion of foreign news than did the one United States paper he studied. Similarly, a study by Hoopes (1966) showed later that, in 1959 and 1961, compared to three of the main Argentine dailies, the average U. S. newspaper had printed less foreign news. In reference to Latin America, the situation does not appear to be different for U. S. magazines. Whitaker (1969) studied the Latin American coverage between 1958 and 1967 of ten of the top circulation magazines in the U. S. As of June, 1967, the ten magazines' total cir— culation was approximately 75 million. Six are published monthly; two, bi—weekly; and, two, weekly. Five are women's magazines; 2, picture; 2, general; and 1, Time, a news magazine. 8” 0f the articles published by these ten magazines, Time, with only 5 per cent of the circulation, published 70 per cent of the articles relating to Latin America. In contrast, the women's magazines, with ”2 per cent of the total circulation, published less than 2 per cent of the Latin American articles. With the exception of the news weekly, the major magazines reaching much of the U. S. audience care very little about Latin American information. Those with the largest circulation, the women's magazines, are the most disinterested. Considine (196”, pp. l”9—150) reports a study by Armstrong of foreign coverage in four successive issues of 88 U. 8. Catholic newspapers. Armstrong found that Latin America was the referent of: 19 out of 150 foreign news stories provided by a Catholic news agency; 2 of 28 syndicated columns; and, 5 of 625 editorials published by the 88 newspapers. The studies agree in their findings; namely that the U. 8. mass Inedia (1) pay relatively little attention to foreign information, and (2) give Latin America —— the immediate neighbor of the U. S. —— .less attention than they give to other parts of the world. (‘ Knowledge in Latin America About the U. 0. Latin American urbanites have ample access to information about ‘the United States. The United States Information Agency operates centers for cultural exchange in almost every major city of Latin .America. There are American high schools in several countries of the region. Most films in commercial movie houses are American, and some U. 8. magazines have Spanish editions with wide circulation in the region. 85 Markham (1961) analyzed the foreign news and pictorial content, during January—March of 1959, of seven Latin American dailies and seven U. S. dailies (plus the New York Times, analyzed separately). He used a classification system that divided foreign news into six categories: five geographic regions, plus a general "International" category. The U. S. dailies published, on the average, 62 column inches of foreign news a day. Of that, ”5% of the space was given to Western Europe and 37% to the Soviet Union. Latin America was given only 2-3 inches per day. The New York Times published three to four times more foreign news than did the other U. S. dailies —— an average of 219 column inches daily. Yet, the proportion of Latin American news in the Times was as low as the proportion in the other U. S. dailies. Markham's findings about the Times paralleled those of a CIESPAL study of 29 Latin American dailies and four non—Latin American dailies, including the New York Times. CIESPAL (Centro Internacional de Estudios Superiores de Periodismo para América Latina, 1967) found that the Times devoted only 10% of its foreign news space to the American continent -— and less than half of that to Latin America. It published 75 items about Latin America, and 10” about other non—U. S. parts of the continent. Comparatively, it published 33 items on Russia, ”05 on Asia and Africa, and 562 on Europe. For the most part, the Times maintains control over its own foreign news information; i.e., 61% of its foreign news is produced by its own correspondents and news service. For other U. S. dailies, however, almost 82% of all foreign news is supplied by UPI and AP, according to Markham (1961). 86 Latin American Print Media Coverage of the U. S. Latin American print media give far more attention to the U. S. than the U. S. print media give to Latin America. Markham (1961) found that Latin American dailies publish about twice as much foreign news, as do the U. S. dailies; specifically, 133 column inches daily as contrasted with 62 in the U. S. Latin American dailies devote about 38% of their foreign news space (50 column inches) to the U. S., as contrasted with the 2—3 inches per day U. S. dailies devote to Latin American news. Markham summarized the situation as follows: In the world news market the United States is indeed a "news giver" region, while South America is a "news taker" region...That South America is more interested in the United States than other world areas are may perhaps be attributed to our proximity and position as a world power. The close ties of the Latin American economy to that of North America may also be a factor affecting this greater interest. This news interest in us curiously has not been reciprocated in any appreciable degree by United States news interest in South America, despite that area's economic and political importance to us (p. 258—259). A study of 29 of the major Latin American dailies provided evidence that, of the space they allocate to information from the American con— tinent (excluding the Latin American region of it), the largest portion is assigned to the U. S. Only minimal attention is given to Canada and to Caribbean territories (Centro Internacional de Estudios Superiores en Periodismo para América Latina, 1967). If U. S. information in Latin American newspapers is added to the other opportunities that urban Latin Americans have for becoming acquainted with the United States, their probabilities of being knowledgeable about the U. S. should be fairly high. The question is, 87 however, the extent to which that knowledge reflects what Americans understand to be their reality. A few studies have dealt with the question in reference to daily newspapers, and, to a lesser extent, to television programs. The U. 8. "Image" in the Latin American Press Wolfe (196”) content—analyzed 20 leading daily newspapers of Latin America. Checking U. 8. news sent to those dailies by AP, UPI, and France Press, he found that more than two thirds of the items referred to economic and government matters. With far smaller percentages, sports was in third place and social problems in fourth place. They were followed by accidents and disasters, science and medicine, human interest and cultural activities. Most U. S. news came from Washington, D. C. and New York City. Wolfe identified twelve distinctive images of the U. S. people among the audience <>f the Latin American dailies he studied: Three —- the democratic American, the friendly American, and the generous American ~~ were favorable. Three —— the powerful American, the affluent American, and the American at play -- were neutral. Six -— the American looking to Europe, the ignorant American, the imperialist American, the shallow American, the arrogant American, and the American friend of dictators —— were negative images (p. 86). Merrill (1962) concentrated on the image of the United States in ten Mexican dailies. Coinciding with previous similar studies at the international level (e.g., International Press Institute, 1953), he found that (1) very little is reported which gives the reader a real idea of how Americans live; (2) the heavy emphasis on official news of the U. S. distorts the general picture of the country; and, 88 (3) almost all the U. S. news is from Washington, D. C. and New York City. Merrill noted that, for instance, very little material dealt with the American man-in—the—street, with religion and education, and with people in the small cities and in the rural areas of the U. S. From an analysis of opinion materials (produced by Mexican and by U. S. writers), Merrill identified 12 main themes, only two of which he regarded as favorable to the U. S. He felt that a combination of news, opinions, and pictures in the ten Mexican dailies: tended to verify the well—publicized image of Americans (held by foreigners) as people who are admirers of the businessman and the athlete, who applaud physical prowess and care little for aesthetic values, who love a mechanical civilization, who have small interest in religion or in a high level of sexual morality, and who are prone to see Communists everywhere, especially where there is disagreement with American policy (p. 209). Alisky (1958) studied the behavior of the Peruvian press in relation to the aggression against the U. 8. Vice President, Richard Nixon, an incident which led the researcher to ask what kind of picture of the U. S. were Peruvians getting from their newspapers. He found the answer dependent upon the newspaper and perceived the Lima dailies as objective, the provincial dailies as disinterested, and the leftwing weeklies as consistently antagonistic to the United States. He also found that most papers had condemned the violence against Mr. Nixon but, at the same time, deplored U. S. actions that hurt the economy of Peru. Some Perceptions of the U. 8. through Television To the knowledge of this writer, there are no broadcasting content studies of Latin American stations' information about the U. S. In 89 some USIA surveys (1962a, 1962b, 1963) from various parts of the world including a few Latin American countries, indications emerged that the image of the U.S. provided By\television may be less inadequate than some American critics —— such as Skornia (1965) and Dizard (1966) —— have perceived it to be. From his analysis of those surveys, Browne (l9 , p. 315) concluded that it appears that (1) American television programs do not dominate the television schedules, at least in terms of popularity, in those countries for which rating services exist, but that (2) American television programs more often than not have given foreign viewers a rather favorable impression of life in the United States.* This has been chiefly, the researcher specified, through the portrayal of harmonious family life, a high standard of living, and a general sense of freedom and equality for and among Americans. The studies coincide in indicating that print media in Latin America provide a less than accurate and balanced image of the United States. Broadcasting media seem to do so even less than dailies and magazines. Judging the inadequacies in both directions of the inter—American flow of news, the president of the Washington Post observed: It is this kind of mutual lack of knowledge that could cause the people of the United States to be astounded in 1958 -— when Vice President Richard Nixon was stoned and mobbed in Caracas, and again more recently when Governor Rockefeller met his stormy reception in Latin America (Graham, 1969, p. 3). *Carter and Sepdlveda (196”) found, similarly, that more than half of the movie goers in Santiago de Chile felt that foreign films ~— including those from the U.S. —— portrayed realistically life in the country in which the films were made. 90 Monopolization of Inter—American Information Latin American coverage differs from U.S. coverage in an extremely important respect. When U.S. dailies print Latin American news, most of what they print is supplied by U.S. news agencies. When Latin American dailies print U.S. news, it, too, is primarily supplied by U.S. news agencies. The two major agencies, UPI and AP, dominate both the import and export of neWS to and about Latin America.* The Dominant Position of U.S. News Agencies As Markham (1961) reported, foreign news in seven Latin American dailies was supplied almost entirely by the two U.S. agencies, plus France Press. UPI alone provided nearly half (”7%) of all story items to those dailies. Corroboration is available in three other studies. Diaz Rangel (1967) analyzed one day's content for 1” Latin American dailies and found that AP and UPI contributed 72% of all foreign stories in them. The CIESPAL study (1967) revealed that 8”% of the foreign news in the 29 dailies of the study was contributed by news agencies; less than 1% was contributed by ORBE, one of the few Latin American agencies; the 9 0 rest was distributed by foreign news agencies: half by UPI, 30 by AP, and 13% by France Press. Those three agencies were also found to be the primary source of news about the United States for 20 Latin American dailies (Wolfe, 196”). *The intra—regional traffic of news in Latin America is also monopolized by UPI, AP, and France Press. 80 people in each Latin American country depend primarily on those agencies for news about people in the other Latin American countries. 91 The dependency on U.S. agencies for foreign news in Latin American ‘/ dailies is summarized by Diaz Rangel (1967) as follows: Wire information depends on the United States as our economies depend upon it. AP and UPI have the decisive weight in the opinion formation in the average Latin American about the most important world events (p. ”3—””). Supporting the same thesis, Malpica (1968) pointed out that AP belongs to a cooperative of U.S. and other foreign dailies; UPI is a part of Scripps-Howard; Reuters and France Press belong to their respective governments, etc. An important implication of this control was underlined by Barnes (196”): The Latin American countries are covered by agencies that are foreign to them, in the same way that Reuters was foreign to the U.S. ... the two American agencies which report Latin America...have their own economic interests to defend (p. ”). The Lack of Latin American News Agencies and Foreigp Correspondents The dependence of Latin American dailies on foreign agencies is accentuated by two factors: (1) Latin America lacks national and regional news agencies of its own; (2) Latin American dailies do not employ any significant number of foreign correspondents. A UNESCO report (1961) indicates that Cuba is the only country that has an agency which distributes regularly some news to other countries in the region. Most Latin American attempts at organizing regional news agencies can be attributed to anti-American political interests (e.g., those of Castro, or, in the past, those of Peron). However, these attempts have not been successful and non—political attempts have been even less successful. In the few countries which have private agencies operating, the firms are very small, ill— financed and unable to compete with either U.S. or EurOpean agencies. 92 Asian and African underdeveloped regions have progressed much more than Latin America in building their own international news services. However, a recent effort has been made to establish a powerful regional organization in this part of the underdeveloped world. As reported in Excelsior (January 1”, 1970), the Agencia Latinoamericana §§_Noticias (LATIN) was formed in Mexico, is legally registered in Uruguay, and operates from Argentina. Owned by 13 major Latin American dailies, it has the potential to become a professional newshandling group. It remains to be determined whether U.S. agencies will permit such competition to develop, and whether the agency will promote the modification of the region's social structure by means of redistribution of power. Latin America lacks its own special correspondents as well as its own news agencies. Diaz Rangel (1967) found articles by special correspondents in only two of tb l” dailies he evaluated. A report by Mrs. Graham of the Washington Post Company (1969) states that there are only four Latin American correspondents in the U.S., none of whom is in Washington, D.C. Graham implies that Latin American dailies could be better represented when she pointed outthat there are 16 Canadian and 33 Japanese correspondents in Washington. Diaz Rangel is more explicit. He points out that pg Monde employes 30 foreign correspondents -— 7 of which serve the French paper exclusively —— even though £§_Monde has less news space and lower earnings than any of the 1” Latin American dailies he studied. Barnes (196”) quotes James Morris, who also implies that lack of funds cannot explain the absence of correspondents when he points out that 93 pg Prensa of Buenos Aires has paid UPI as much as $10,000 to $1”,000 per week for coverage. Processing Foreign News: The Effect of "Gatekeepers" Most foreign news is processed through a news agency. McNelly (1959) describes the steps in the creation of these foreign news stories as follows: 1. A newsworthy event comes to theattention of a newsgatherer in the foreign country, and he writes a story. 2. The story goes to a regional bureau, where an editor or rewriteman may cut it. 3. The story is sent to the news agency's central bureau, where a deskman may combine it with a related story. ”. The resultant story is sent to the national or state bureau, where another deskman prunes it. 5. The story is sent to the telegraph editor of a newspaper, or to a radio or television station news editor. He edits it one more time, and passes it to the reader or listener (p. 25). Whenever information passes through one of these check—points, the appropriate editor or rewrite man serves as a gatekeeper. Typically, the story becomes easier to read at each check—point. In the process, the content will unavoidably change in some ways. Some alteration is inevitable. The question is whether or not the alteratiaican be attributed to specific evaluative biases over time. The ”Image" of Latin America in the U.S. Analysts of the import and export of foreign news between the U.S. and Latin America have not examined systematically the biases of information U.S. news agencies ship from Latin America; however, there is a variety of opinions about the nature of such bias. For instance, as quoted in Alianza p233 pl Progreso the President of Venezuela, Rafael Caldera (1970) said to the National Press Club, in Washington, 91+ D.C., the following: Perhaps the phrase "no news is good news" has become "good news is no news." Only the most deplorable incidents, be they the work of nature or of man, gain prominence in the mass media (of the U.S.). Little or nothing is said about literary or scientific achievements; little is said about man's efforts to tame nature and put it to his service; little is said about social achievements and about defense against the dangers which threaten our peace and our development. It is far more easy to present the Latin American as a disorderly, difficult neighbor, unable Of achieving that which others have already attained in the economic and technological fields (p. l). The analyses of biases have concentrated on the images of Latin America that are published by U.S. media, especially the print ones.* For example, Markham (1961) asserts that "it has become a truism that it takes a revolution to get Latin America in the news" (p. 2”9). Whitaker's data (1969) suggest, and a study by Lewis (1960) confirms the fact that a successful Communist revolution isn't even enough. Lewis monitored news coverage by U.S. dailies of the 31 days prior to Castro's take-over of the Cuban government, and concluded that little, and less than adequate, coverage was given until the last six days of that period. Whitaker concluded that Latin American information in U.S. magazines was concentrated on what U.S. tourists should see, eat, drink, or buy, or on the discomforts (if not outright perils) of living and traveling in Latin America. Several of his comments are illustrative: *There are no "gatekeeping" studies about Latin American mass media operators either in relation to local information or in reference to U.S. information. However, studies reporting distorted perceptions of the U.S. personality and life by the Latin American press have been reviewed in this chapter in the section Knowledge in Latin America about the U.S. 95 The great masses...some two hundred million...are rarely visible to the tourist, or the magazine writer, as anything more than a moving, human blur peripheral to whatever is being pointed by the guide as quaint, colorful, or historic...The prominent, the wealthy, the beautiful or the bizarre are singled out for exposure, but virtually nothing is said about the faceless millions struggling to achieve and cling to a tiny place in the sun (p. 20). Looming largest and most prominently in this nine—magazine image of Latin America would be three or four glittering cities. A few superb beaches, a large cattle ranch on the pampas, some Inca, Maya or Aztec ruins, a Venezuelan oil mill, a Bolivian tin mine and the Panama canal —— all scattered about the edges of a vast and forbidding continent dominated by impassable mountains, impenetrable jungles, crocodile—infested rivers, and populated by bikini—clad nymphs, toujours gai Cariocas, dusty gauchos, dour Indians of the altiplano and—head—hunting savages of the Amazon (p. 20). Whitaker also detected a patronizing attitude towards persons, places, and things of Latin America. He believed the magazines: Exaggerated the evils and dangers in that region while under— rating the compensatory aspects of the land, the people, their accomplishments, and their aspirations...0ne is much more likely to hear about guerillas and revolutionists, bandits and terror— ists, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, floods and landslides, disease and starvation, ignorance and superstition than about new schools and hospitals, peasant cooperatives and adult— education programs, new industries and sources of energy, the rising middle class and its aspirations, movements to reduce tax evasion and inequities and to promote land reform and opening of new lands, (p. 18). This lack of emphasis on development and social welfare is not surprising, but it may not be free of deplorable implications for Latin America and for the U. S. itself. Similarly, after studying news copy about Latin America, Barnes (196”) concluded: The truth is that after decades of reporting, it is still largely the traditional standards of news worthiness that apply to Latin America, especially in the hard news coverage: the disastrous, the violent, the curious, the "it could happen to us," and the "local boy makes good" are what constitutes news (p. 5). 96 Suppression and Distortion of Information In addition to this traditional bias of "what is news," Lewis (1960) suggests that U. 8. coverage of Latin America may be poor because "this nation's menu of news is based largely on ancestral, historical, and language ties with European nations" (p. 578). Diaz Rangel (1967) found that a single day's coverage by U. S. news agencies ignored such things as a political crisis in the Domi— nican Republic, an international trip by Chile's President Frei, a mili- tary revolt in Ecuador, and pressures being exerted by coffee growers on Brazil's government. Instead, coverage was given to a bizarre di- vorce case and to an unusual inheritance case in Peru. Francis (1967) studied the coverage of the Cuban revolution in 17 leading U. S. dailies. He concentrated on nine events between the flight of Batista in January of 1959 and the failure of the Bay of Pigs inva— sion in April, 1961. In addition to determining that "Republican" news— papers had printed many more anti-Castro stories than "Democrat" news— papers, Francis found that a number of papers consistently overempha- sized (a) the probability of using the economic strength of the United States to bring down the Cuban revolutionary government, (b) the trips of Cuban officials to communist countries, and (c) rumors of guerrilla threats against the Cuban government. "Anti—American sentiments" —— Francis (1967, p. 265) noted —— "were widely publicized while little coverage was given to the more important, from the point of view of the average Cuban, social and economic changes which characterized the re- volution." And, rather than discussing what U. S. policy should be about that revolution, some dailies simply demanded the invasion of the island while other demanded better treatment for Cuba. 97 Houghton (1965) also studied U. S. journalistic coverage of the invasion in 1961. He found that emphasis was given to U. S. denials that the government of the U. S. was involved in that invasion, even when Cuban accusations had anticipated such involvement and when information became available to demonstrate it. The researcher felt that there may be..."Castro—type" revolutions in some other parts of Latin America in spite of Alliance for Progress —- not primarily because of Castro or Communism —- but because of basic social conditions, too long neglected...0ur govern— ment, our economic interests, and our people, will react to such developments. Can the reactions be more enlightened ones? Can the press be relied upon better to lead toward that enlightenment (Houghton, 1965, p. ”30)? In January of 1966, the first "Tri—Continental Conference of Asian, African, and Latin American Revolutionary Solidarity" took place in Havana. The conference prompted the Organization of American States to hold an extraordinary session since the event was rated by some as a threat almost comparable to that of the nuclear weapons uncovered in Cuba in 1962. Yet, according to Bethel (1966) and to Kipp (1967), most of the U. S. mass media gave that conference little or no coverage. The latter content—analyzed five major dailies and three weekly news periodicals of the U. S. for a 23 day period, including the conference days. His conclusion: "Although the larger dailies and news magazines gave it some attention, the evidence here suggests that the general media reaching most of the people of the country hardly touched on it” (Kipp, 1967, p. 5””). Diaz Rangel (1967) analyzed U. 8. print media coverage of the Dominican Republic crisis in 1962: an insurgence against the military that had overthrown the country's first elected President after the 98 assassination of Trujillo. The researcher found that misbehavior of U. S. invasion troops against Dominican civilians went unreported, as did protests of intellectual Latin American groups against that invasion. He also found that information had been suppressed and distorted to favor the conservative military group and to discredit its military and civilian opponents, both of which groups were often indiscriminately identified as communists. Similarly, the president of the Washington Post condemned U. S. coverage of the 1969 war between Honduras and El Salvador. Said Mrs. Graham (1969): As for the press of the United States, on the whole it veered wildly from first mocking the conflict as "the soccer war" to grossly sensationalizing the battles when they did occur, to under—reporting the peace when it was achieved with the help of the OAS (p. 3). The Locus of Systematic Bias in U. 8. News About Latin America It appears evident that there is systematic bias in the reporting and editing of Latin American news for U. S. consumption. It might be asked whether it is more or less likely to occur at one point or another in the process of creating and processing the story. There are no good comparative data on that question; however, there are data that suggest problems at each step of the international communi— cation process. Lewis (1960, p. 6”6) concluded that the news agencies had provided enough wire copy to tell "the long, continuing story of the Cuban revolution," but that the three U. S. dailies he monitored "made little use of it until the last six days of the struggle." Casey and Copeland (1958) have studied criteria some editors used in rejecting slightly 99 more than ”0 per cent of the foreign news wire copy they received. The researchers found that —— in addition to being restricted by space and time limitations —— the wire editors decided not to use stories because of their belief that stories lacked appeal or interest to readers, or lacked news value and significance. Analyzed together, these two studies would suggest that the views of the newspaper or radio— television editor of what is important would affect his use of Latin American news. In the case of a parochial editor, little use of foreign news would be expected. On the other hand, Gieber (1956), though not analyzing foreign news, did study 16 telegraph editors of U. S. dailies, and concluded that they play only a passive role; i.e., they print whatever the news service sends them. Gieber concluded that wire desk editors were mechanical men, almost automatons, and that the real selector of news is the news association. Other researchers (Kruglak, 1957; Barnes, 196”; Kayser, 1953; Diaz Rangel, 1967) agree that the news agency is the dominant gatekeeper in the flow of news. In particular, Kayser and Diaz Rangel were both highly critical of the domination of international news flow by the agencies. It seems reasonable to accept the assumption that the news agency is central for, after all, four of the five steps in the proc— essing of news occur within the agency. Little is known as to how the agencies decide to forward or reject, to rewrite, etc. Barnes (196”) reports an illustrative anecdote given him by a former AP Bogota bureau chief. The bureau chief described his own decision— process: 100 For the A wire I file earthquakes, student riots, general 'strikes, assassination attempts, and plane crashes. These I send "urgent" if a reasonable number of people have been killed. Most features, which I send by mail, also get put on the A wire...Por the regional and secondary news wires I include items about coffee, oil -— Texas is most inter— ested -- and banditry. A story about the economic readjust— ments caused by the devaluation of the peso would not be of A wire interest. It would probably move to the B wire (p. 5). Finally, the originating point, the newsgatherer, cannot be ignored as a source of distortion. After studying the UN radio system, Bass (1969) suggested that the news collection stage is where most decisive gatekeeping operations take place. In fact, for example, much of the news is provided by poorly paid stringers in the host country; further— more, some of the regular correspondents often appear willing to resort to "bar stool reporting." Barnes (196%) noted that much of reporting style itself leads to coloration of the news. He suggested that the pyramid structure itself is conducive to distortion since lead selection follows prevailing organizational biases and important background information is relegated to the end of the news item. He also objected to the "nutshell epithet" to convey briefly the position of persons, feeling that the product of such name-tagging techniques is "the creation of a virtual pantheon of heroes and bogey men in the world of U. 8. press imagery" (p. 6). Research Required Research is needed which traces the development of news stories through the gatekeeping processes. In particular, research is needed which will study both the importing and exporting processes, as filtered through major news agencies. Research is also needed which gauges the extent to which inadequate information in the media may lead lOl their audience to develop cognitions, feelings, and overt behaviors harmful either to Latin America or to the U. S.,; for instance, reductions in aid to the former, and attacks on the embassies of the latter. Summary Mutual knowledge between people in the United States of America and people in Latin America leaves much to be desired. The image of Latin America in the United States focuses on superficial aspects of life in that region, personality stereotypes, and derogatory evaluations. The image of the United States in Latin America is less negative but is also composed of misconceptions, prejudice, and some hostility. Neither image is a fair and balanced one. The mass media were found to play no small part in the formation and spread of such images. Coverage of Latin America by the U. S. print media is most unsatis— factory; dailies and magazines assign minimal space to news from the region to which their country is a neighbor. By contrast, Latin American print media coverage of the United States is characterized by a high level of attention, although too much of it goes to official and economic matters. The U. S. is mostly a provider of news while Latin America is essentially a consumer of it. The United States and Latin American dailies have as their major source of news about each other the same two U. 8. news agencies: UPI and AP. These agencies dominate the news flow in both directions, as well as controlling the intra—regional traffic of news. There are no operative Latin American news agencies able to compete with those 102 which monopolize the import and export of news. And, save for a few cases, the dailies of the region do not have special foreign correspond— ents to serve them. Both the news inflow from Latin America to the U. S. and the treat- ment of that news by this country‘s dailies and magazines exhibit deficiencies. The biases affecting the handling of Latin American information appear to be systematic. Sensational, violent, bizarre, and trivial events are preferred over matters significant to the existence and development of the region. Some information is suppressed and other information is distorted. This seems to occur in particular with events denoting social non—conformity with the ruling minorities or with the dominant influence of the United States. Indeed, biases are very noticeable at the time of Latin American political crises in which the U. S. is involved, such as the Cuban revolution and the U. S. invasion of the Dominican Republic. Systematic bias in the situation studied here is attributable to economic interests, ideo- logical preferences and cultural pre—conceptions. But it is also attributable to organizational factors, such as limitations in the number of correspondents in the field or ethnocentric attitudes of wire editors in the dailies. Little is known yet about the nature of the "gatekeeping" process in the international flow of news. At which stages of it does most of the alteration of news occur and why? What are the motivations behind that phenomenon? What are the procedures through which it takes place? These are among the fundamental questions for communi— cation research in Latin America. 103 Research also needs to become concerned with the specific conse— quences of such states of affairs. As it exists today, the inter— American flow of news appears to have negative implications for both the U. S. and Latin America. Much in that process is contrary to the understanding and cooperation which should, and could, prevail between those neighbors. There is, however, a major difference between them: while the situation presents for the United States merely some aSpects which are undesirable, it constitutes a most serious problem for Latin America's development. As noted in Chapter 1, the U. S. exerts eco— nomic, political and cultural domination over the Latin American coun— tries. And inter-American mass communication appears to perform a key instrumental role in the service of that domination. This is illus- trated in the present chapter's description of the unrestricted and monopolistic power that U. 8. news agencies hold over information dis- tribution in Latin America. It is also illustrated, in other chapters, by brief references to the fact that commercial advertising and tele- vision operation are in this region, directly or not, under excesive control and influence of U. 8. business interests. Up to here, data have been presented which show that, domestically as well as externally, the process of mass communication in Latin America is structured in manners and directions that, for the most part, can— not be deemed contributory to theattainment 0f human development and societal change. The two following chapters will describe whatever Latin Ameri- cans have been able to do so far in order to at least alleviate the situation, as well as point out additional avenues for improvement. Chapter 5 ATTEMPTS AT IMPROVING DEVELOPMENTAL COMMUNICATION This study's appraisal of Latin America's mass communication system has, up to this point, revealed a series of deficiencies in relation to the needs of national development in the region. Attention was first placed on those aspects of the system which are internal to the region. The immediately preceding chapter has added to the picture by providing information about the ways in which Latin American mass communication is related to communication systems of other countries and, in particular, of the United States. It is now important to place attention on what Latin Americans have been able to do so far in order to correct at least some of the noted deficiencies, and to improve their mass communication system in the service of development. Such is the purpose of this chapter. Of the main functions of communication, production of messages appears to have absorbed most of the energy and resources, followed by distribution. Other than in journalism, the training of professionals has had a low priority. Research is still a much neglected function, but there has been some increase in it during the present decade. Func— tions of institutional consultation, professional exchange, and 2227 motion of communication as a discipline have also been performed but not in any intensive way. Planning and evaluation functions have been extremely neglected. ION 105 The Main Production-Distribution Activities Since about 1950, there have been three strong lines of activity within the production-distribution function: audio-visual education, agricultural information, and radiophonic—school communication. Stim— ulation in the case of the former two activities appears to have stemmed from the U.S. and from some inter—American and international organi— zations. Radiophonic schools also had foreign support, but they started from native initiative. Audio-Visual Education. — A large number of Latin American formal education systems have incorporated audio-visual methods of teaching in their regular programs. About the same can be said of several health education agencies. One of the promoters of this movement has been UNESCO. Another was the U.S. Agency for International Develop— ment. Between 1955 and 1965, approximately, AID operated large centers of production of audio-visual materials in some countries; e.g., Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Ecuador; AID still operates a Regional Technical Aids Center in Mexico. In other countries, the Ministries of Education and of Public Health established similar centers of their own. Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, and Costa Rica are among the countries having those centers. But Mexico seems to be the country that has made the greatest progress in this area, especially through the Direction General of Audio—Visual Education of the Ministry of Education. For a while, there was also very important activity in this area in the Public Health Ministry; and, to a much more limited extent, in the Latin American Institute of Educational Cinematography, a Mexico-UNESCO venture . 106 Agricultural Information. - This area became active with the establishment of agricultural extension services, sponsored in most countries of the region by the U.S. Agency for International Develop— ment. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also made some contribution, mainly in radio work, and so did private foundations such as Kellogg, Rockefeller, and Ford. A major stimulus, however, has come from the Inter—American Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS, from Project 39 of the Technical Cooperation Pro— gram of the OAS, and from the Inter—American Popular Information Pro— gram (the latter two are no longer in operation). The main activities of the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences in this area have been in training, consultation, exchange, promotion and publish- ing activities. A few countries have excelled in organizing agricultural inform— ation offices. The following are the best known among them: OTIA, the Office of Technical Information of Peru; the Service of Rural Communi— cation in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil; INIA, the National Institute of Agricultural Investigations of Mexico; INTA, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina; and INCORA, Colombia's Nation- al Institute of Agrarian Reform. The list is not exhaustive. An important recent addition is Mexico's Peasant Productivity Pro— gram, an activity co-sponsored by the country's National Center of Pro- ductivity and the Inter—American Development Bank. This is the first time that the Bank has supported a rural communication operation. The project can be regarded as a pilot for the region; if it works according to its blueprint, its usefulness may reach beyond Mexico's frontiers.* *For a complete description of this program, see Beltran (1968b). 107 Another promising input is represented by the recent establishment of CIAT, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, in Cali— Palmira, Colombia. This agency is sponsored by the Rockefeller, Ford, and Kellogg Foundations. CIAT expects to do promotional work in agricultural communication. Information on the radiophonic school activity will be included further in this study, as it appears to deserve a more detailed con— sideration.* The Training Activity Except for journalism, the training of communicators has not been the main concern of national institutions in Latin America. Most of the training impulse —- especially for agriculture, education, and health -- has come from agencies external to the region or inter— American in nature. Those most active in this area have been the U. 8. Agency for International Development, the Inter—American Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS, the Inter—American Popular Information Program, and the International Center for Superior Studies of Journalism 3 Although not limited to communication with the rural people, activity in the area of communication for family planning is starting to be— come important in Latin America. The promotion of family planning is mostly in the hands of private or semi—private associations in most of the Latin American countries that have such programs. Re— search on the functions of communication within such programs is so far very scarce; for a Puerto Rican study, see Back and others (1957). But some countries, especially Costa Rica, are becoming active in training. UNESCO appears to have in mind a pilot project to be car— ried in one or two countries of the region and the University of Chicago includes Latin American students in its special courses on family planning communication. .. ...... 108 in Latin America. Additional contributions have been made by the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan State University, by FAO and UNESCO, and by the United States Information Agency. Other contributors yet have been the Inter—American Press Association, the American Newspaper Guild, and the Inter—American Federation of Working Newspapermen's Organizations. Communication training is required in Latin America at several levels and in diverse sub—specialties.* Most training has so far occur- red at the sub—professional level through short courses concentrating on communication skills. At times this may have produced only pseudo— experts in communication; at other times, it has been geared to pro— vide developmental field personnel, such as agricultural extension agents, with at least the rudiments of communication. In both cases, the train- ing agencies were responding to what the national institutions appeared ready and able to provide: non—professional practitioners of communi- cation. Perhaps there is no need to educate thousands of communication specialists at the university level. But there is some necessity to educate some. Today, this is restricted almost exclusively to journal— ism. According to Carty (1969), the region has some sixty university programs of journalism education, with study programs ranging from one to four years. Several of them include training in television, radio, advertising, and public relations. But the majority of them are yet very week in teaching communication as a social science and in training their students in communication for development. I *For an analysis of these necessities, see Beltran (1965). 109 In rare cases, programs are actually becoming schools of communi- cation sciences and arts. Perhaps the clearest cases of that are those of Mexico's Universidad Ibero Americana and of the schools of Communiv cation in Sao Paulo and Brasilia. The transition is being actively stimulated by the International Center for Superior Studies of Journalism in Latin America (see Day, 1966). CIESPAL offers a yearly high level course at its headquarters, runs short seminars in the countries, organizes technical meetings, and promotes mass communication research. It also produces Spanish trans— lations of textbooks and studies in communication. A penetrating and comprehensive analysis of the state of journalism education in Latin America has recently been completed by Dr. Raymond Nixon (1970), of the University of Minnesota. Outside of journalism, the only other known effort in communication training at the university level is that of the Inter—American Institute of Agricultural Sciences. A few years ago, this OAS agency established a program designed to help the seventy—odd agricultural colleges of Latin America establish communication training. The idea of the program was to promote communication as a minor area of study for those who, in graduating, would want to become involved in agricultural information work. The program appears to have met with little success so far. Sub—professional training of communicators for national development has been a frustrating enterprise;* lowly-ranked and poorly paid in *For instance, Thomason (1967) reports that of 200 Latin Americans trained in four AID-sponsored regional audio—visual workshops, less than 25% of them were able to make the expected use of that training. llO their organizations, they hardly can use their training to change the communication activities of those institutions. Formal university training would help up—grade some of them and thus make them influential. But, except for a few specialists who had high—level training abroad, the region does not have communication scientists that can teach at the undergraduate level. Therefore, paradoxical as it seems, Latin America must, for a while, give less attention to the bottom level of training and make an intense effort to offer that training at the post graduate level. These graduates, then, would be able to take care of the undergraduates and, in turn, those at the lower level could multiply the capacity at the sub—university level. On the basis of considerations of that order, two universities have established graduate training programs in communication: the Agrarian University of Peru and the Graduate College of Chapingo, Mexico. Both offer now the Master's degree in communication. Although most of their students come from the agricultural professions, admission is not restricted to them. It is not without great difficulties that they are doing so for their needs are multiple and their resources very limited. Some support has been provided to them by a consortium of U.S. universities and by two Inter—American organizations, but much more technical and financial assistance is required if the programs are to survive. It is vital that they survive since they are forming what can become a nucleus of high-level development communication strategists trained in the science and art of communication as it applies to the needs of Latin America's modernization.* *One university in Colombia and two in Brazil now have very advanced plans for the establishment of graduate programs which may at least be conducive to offering a "minor" in communication. 111 No less could be said of the annual course that CIESPAL offers in Ecuador to train mass media practitioners. Given that the region already has so many undergraduate schools of journalism, it appears justifiable for CIESPAL to establish a graduate program of mass communication to give long—term, science—based, and development-oriented training to the most competent alumni of those schools. Communication Research The scientific investigation of communication started in Latin America with the start of the decade, although a few studies had been conducted before. The following have been the major nuclei of communication research efforts in Latin America: (1) The Inter-American Popular Information Program, in association with the Communication Department of Michigan State University. (2) The University of Wisconsin, through its Land Tenure Center, its School of Agricultural Journalism, and its School of Journalism. (3) UNESCO and AID, mostly through contracts with universities like Michigan State University. (4) Mexico's National Institute of Agricultural Investigations, National School of Agriculture, and Graduate College of Chapingo, in association with the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat and with the cooperation of the University of Wisconsin. (5) The International Center for Superior Education in Journalism of Latin America. (6) The Graduate School of the Inter—American Institute of Agricultural Sciences. 112 (7) The Institute of Communication Research at Stanford University. The single major contribution to communication research in Latin America has been made by scholars interested in the process of adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations. Rogers (1966) has published, in Spanish, a review of several of those studies and has included them in his world—wide summaries of that kind of research (Rogers, 1962). Myren (19643) has published many of the diffusion studies conducted in Mexico. Among those who have done brief and partial reviews of develop— mental communication research in Latin American countries are Fonseca (1968), Felstehausen, and others (1965), Whiting (1969), and McNelly (1966). There have been far more correlational studies than experimental investigations. More attention has been given to mass media exposure than to mass media effects. Insufficient attention has yet been placed on questions of content and code of mass media messages. Research on interpersonal communication situations is rather limited, as is research on channel combinations such as radio forums and radio schools. In general, what has been accomplished so far is valuable. In fact, all the studies need now to be collected, summarized, comparatively analyzed, and published, so as to gain a wide distribution of them among all those concerned. This should be done in Spanish and in Portuguese, though there may also be considerable interest in English versions of such materials. On the basis of them, it would be possible to design new policies for further communication research in the region. The information would also facilitate graduate training. It is important to note that, up to now, researchers appear to have emphasized personality variables within a psychosociological approach. at 113 This is useful but it needs to be integrated now with the study of situational or structural variables within a macro sociopolitical framework. Much of the behavior of Latin Americans in relation to development—— affected or not by communication——cannot be simply explained by personality variables. The influence of cultural factors within the prevailing social structure appears to play a dominant role in the behavior of this region's people. That dimension has indeed been neglected and, to some, the problem is a product of the conservative orientation of many researchers. To others, perhaps relatedly, the problem is explained by the attempt to employ a social science basically concerned with adjustment and conformity, such as that of the U.S. and Western Europe, to understanding a society where non-conformity and change are the central issues of the day. The question needs, obviously, serious and immediate consideration. When that happens, concepts as the following of Rogers (l969b)should prove of clear utility: Overhaul of diffusion research methods must largely be done by scientists from less developed countries, rather than by sojourning scholars from abroad...Rather than engaging in "data-mining" operations, as has often been the case in the past, Western researchers should seek to improve the research capability of the host country in— stitutions in less developed nations, so that future investigations can be competently conducted after the sojourner leaves. Our goal is clearly to develop an international social science, an approach based upon indigenous adaptation of theories and methods (p. 90). Satellite Communication and Educational Television It is expected that, by 1973, an Inter—American Telecommunication Network will be in full operation. The system will connect the national 114 telecommunication networks of the countries in the region, and will link them with.the rest of the world. The multiple linkages will be achieved through a combination of microwave stations, submarine cable, and satellites. The system will provide telephone, telegraph, and telex services, as well as radio and television channels. The project is being completed with financial assistance from the United Nations Development Program through the Inter-American Development Bank. Its estimated cost will be $300 million. Eight earth stations for satellite communication are included, four of which are already in operation. The rest are being constructed. The potential of the facilities to be gained from such enormous investment in "hardware" has multiple aspects. A major one is certainly the prospect of employing the system for developmental mass education purposes through radio and television. Fortunately, something also is being done about the "software". The Organization of American States has established a Multinational Project of Educational Television, essentially intended to educate Latin Americans in the uses of television for education. The program is operating by strengthening and coordinating existing national programs of educational television. The countries that appear most advanced in this area are Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Brazil is virtually ready to start satellite-ETV programs. In some of those countries, the OAS is establishing regional training centers; one of the first courses is now being offered in Colombia. It is the manifest intention of the program's managers to lead the countries to use television as a part of the total educational program, which, in turn, ought to be well integrated with the general development schema of each country. 115 Other Indicators of Progress A few other advancements of importance in Latin American communications are the following: (1) At long last, a Latin American News Agency has come into existence. (2) Associations of professional communicators are growing, both at the national level and at the Inter—American level; newspapermen, public relations experts, and broadcasters count now on regional organi— zations; agricultural communication specialists are becoming organized in several countries as are audio—visual minded teachers. (3) The Organization of American States has just established in Colombia a center for the production of technological and scientific materials to be periodically distributed among the Latin American mass media institutions. (9) The Organization of American States has sponsored a meeting of experts on the transfer of technology and is considering the establishment of an Inter—American Data Bank and Technological Diffusion Center. (5) Professional exchange among communicators is being highly activated by numerous meetings of experts. (6) Progressive groups within the Catholic church are becoming involved in revitalizing the systems of social communication on which the institution depends. (7) The United Nations Development Program has established as a policy the necessity for every national development project to include a "communication component" before its financing by that agency is approved. It is also considering the possibility of establishing a center for the promotion of developmental communication in Latin America. 116 The efforts just mentioned are meritorious; unfortunately, how— ever, they do not yet take place within a broad framework of communi- cation policies designed to serve the aims of national development. In the absence of some such contextual and organized approach, the Latin American countries confront the risk of making a less than ef- ficient use of their scarce resources to improve their communication institutions. The necessity for those policies is the concern of the final chapter of this dissertation. But, prior to it, special attention needs to be payed to a particular communication syb-system native to the region: the radio schools. That experience will be reviewed in some detail subsequently, along with others also consid— erably significant. Chapter 6 ALTERNATIVE AND SUPPLEMENTARY COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS The preceding chapters have described the mass communication sys— tem of Latin America, underlying its deficiencies in relation to the aims of human development. They have also provided information on the growth of mass media institutions and on some valuable advancements towards improving the system. In general, it is not feasible to ex— pect rapid and substantive changes in the media system. On the other hand, developmental communication cannot rely on the traditional face—to—face methods prevailing yet in much of the Latin American territory. These methods offer the advantage of immediate feedback; however, they do so at the expense of rapidity and scope in reaching a population which is increased by more than six million hu— man beings every month. Indeed, communication in Latin America fits Lucian Pye's model (1963) of the communication process in "transitional" societies: Structurally the key consideration is its bifurcated and frag— mented nature, for it usually involves in varying degrees one system which is based upon modern technology, is urban—centered, and reaches the more Westernized segments of the population, and also a separate complex system which conforms in varying degrees to traditional systems in that it depends upon face—to—face re— lations and tends to follow the patterns of social and communal life (p. 26). Pye stresses the inarticulation of the process -— the lack of integration between the mass media system and the system of interper- sonal communication. He notes that, within the latter system, frag- mentation also prevails. In other words, not only are urbanites dis- connected from ruralites, but ruralites are also poorly interrelated among themselves. People living in the provinces, including those who 117 118 are not devoted to agriculture, are likely to know less about other people in the provinces than about people in the country's capital. Social integration, commonality of objectives, and cross—country coor— dination of actions are thus made very difficult to attain. Therefore, in many respects, the Latin American people constitute groupings which, in several cases, are not really nations yet. Evidently, under such conditions, communication cannot facilitate overall development. On the contrary, it does act at times to impede it. What can be done to at least alleviate the problem? One possible solution is to combine mass channels of communication with interper- sonal ones.* Another is to strengthen the use of mass channels by change agents who presently operate mostly through interpersonal channels. Latin America has accumulated considerable experience with both of those alternatives. A system of "radiophonic schools" is operating in several countries in the region. And agricultural extension ser— vices exist in all of those countries. To a lesser extent, there is *Bebermeyer and Rogers (1966) have done a comprehensive analysis of research on channel combinations for national development, including studies from several countries. The method was apparently started in Soviet Russia,combining print media with small group discussions, but it was in Red China where it achieved its highest development in the form of radio-study groups (Hiniker, 1968). In non—communist coun— tries, Great Britain started the use of farm-radio forums. Later, Canada brought the method to a high level of advancement (see Nicol and others, 195%). France and Italy experimented successfully with teleclubs and teleschools (see Cassirer, 1959). As the use of these methods decreased in developed nations, they came to be incorporated in the mass education efforts of countries like India and Ghana. In general, these channel combinations appear to be effective. But their impact is heavily dependent upon technical skill, administrative efficiency, and financial ability not common in underdeveloped coun— tries. 119 also some Latin American experience with "rural radio forums." In all cases, the central preoccupation has naturally been to reach the rural audience with messages adequate to its development. The System of Radiophonic Schools This system consists basically of organized radio—listening to special educational programs by relatively formal and stable small groups. The strategy appears to be Latin American in origin: the first radiophonic schools were established in Sutatenza, a village in the Andes of Colombia, by a Catholic priest, Father Jose Joaquin Salcedo, in 1947. His main initial purpose was to teach literacy to the many peasants, children and adults, for whom there were no regular schools available. What he has been able to accomplish in twenty years, however, has exceeded by far that initial goal. Monsefior Salcedo presides today over what is one of the world's largest and most sophis— ticated systems of rural mass education, based on radio but not limited to that medium. Father Salcedo installed the first transmitter (less than 100 watts) of "Radio Sutatenza" in 1947 and started his programs with only three battery—powered receiving sets, very limited broadcasting time, and no more than 45 students. Cultural Popular Action (Accion Cultural Popular, ACPO)*, the organization that emerged from that initial experience, counts now on one of the most powerful sets of transmitters in Latin America. ACPO has its headquarters and the main transmission center *For detailed information on the organization, see ACPO (1964), ACPO (1965), Houtart and Pérez (1966); ACPO (1968); and ACPO (1969). 120 in Bogota, and has similar centers in three other cities of Colombia. Together, those centers have 11 transmitters that total up to almost 650,000 watts. Eight of the plants are operated on long—wave fre— quency. The other three use short—wave frequencies. The total oper— ation of the network, which now has almost uninterrupted broadcasting schedules, is estimated to be able to influence twelve and a half million people (Accion Cultural Popular, 1969, p. 25). By 1964, over 900 towns had radiophonic schools. The receiving sets numbered close to 10,000; the regular students, nearly 240,000; and the yearly total of transmission hours, 26,000. ACPO distributes the receivers, at cost price and on an installment basis, to individuals, informal groups, or formal associations. Between 1963 and 1966 alone, 100,000 receivers were sold. What is a Radiophonic School? - The nature of ACPO's chief educa— tional technique can be summarily described as follows: A radiophonic school is a channel—combinationstrategy of communication for rural development consisting of a small group of neighboring peasants, men and women of different ages, who listen to radio programs especially prepared for them. Listening is voluntary but systematic: the group meets for one hour, six days a week, during ten continuous months, and studies under the guidance of a trained local assistant and with the aid of written and visual supplementary materials especially produced for it. The basic components of the broadcast content are notions of literacy, arithmetic, health, agriculture, and religion; complementary content includes cultural, civic and social materials. The radiophonic school is still at the heart of ACPO's operation but the system amounts today to a multi—media approach to rural mass education. It includes, for instance, a weekly farm newspaper, a service of tapes and records, a series of textbooks, manuals and 121 booklets, and visual aids. Moreover, ACPO has its own training institutes to capacitate rural community leaders and radio—listening "monitors" or guides. Finally, radio operations are no longer limited to the "school" programs. They now include a wide variety of programs ranging from news and entertainment to civic education, agricultural information, hobbies, and home economics. The system is operated by a large professional staff at the headquarters, the centers, and the institutes, and through the assistance of parish priests, trained helpers, and voluntary leaders across the country. The multi-media approach becomes highly intensified with the use of campaigns for promoting specific improvements in home life, agricultural production, and community action. The Effectiveness of the System. - There have been several appraisals of the system, including periodic administrative evaluations by ACPO itself. However, rigorous empirical investigations of the impact of the "radiophonic schools" are not abundant. Initial attempts at understanding the system and evaluating its influence were conducted by Ferrer (1951 and 1959), Ozaeta (1960), and Torres and Corredor (1961). Ferrer found that the schools had appreciable influence in raising the literacy levels of some sectors of their audience. Torres and Corredor found some indications that the degree of developmental communal activity was positively related to the extent of apparent influence of the radiophonic schools; Sutatenza, the village with the most dynamic "school", was found to be also the most active village in terms of locally initiated development. 122 More systematic research was done by Primrose (1965) and Bernal (1967). Working with a sample of Sutatenza peasants, Bernal compared the adoption rate of 14 farm and home innovations between (a) radiophonic school participants and non-participants and (b) land— owners and non—landowners. A correlation between the adoption of the innovations and the participation in the radiophonic schools was found by the researcher, although he noted such adoption could not be attributed exclusively to the radiophonic schools. Peasants who were members of those schools were more likely to adopt; landowning peasants were better adopters than landless ones. Peasants who did not have land but who attended the radiophonic schools were better adopters than were equally landless peasants who did not attend those schools. Bernal also found that the short—run effects of the campaigns promoted by the radio—schools were very small, but that these schools were helping create, in the long run, the conditions for intensified rural development. Two other studies which included some evaluation of ACPO's activity and influence are those of Havens (1965) and Jiménez Cadena (1965). The latter researcher found that one in seven respondents regarded ACPO as an effective instrument for the diffusion of modern agricultural practices and as a facilitator of economic progress. Respondents who were priests emphasized the religious and moral influence of the system. In general, the penetration of the radiophonic schools, and of ACPO's farm newspaper, was found to reach a high level. Between 1968 and 1969, a team of six experts of the German Institute for Development conducted a very comprehensive study of ACPO's 123 operations, including the radio schools, in different parts of Colombia. The independent variables included in the study were: (1) ACPO's influence on radio—school members and on non-members; (2) degree of regional development; (3) ownership patterns; (4) ethno— cultural structure; (5) family size; and (6) size of farm. The dependent variables were: (1) modernity of attitudes; (2) number of innovations adopted; (3) level of income; and (4) degree of integration to the economy. The original results were published only in German, but Spanish reports of them are soon to become available. Criticisms of ACPO. — The system created by the energy and talent of Father Salcedo has received much praise, considerable support from Colombian, European and international sources, and even commercial advertising for its broadcasts. It has also been the object of some criticisms. Some people feel that rural mass education should not be in the hands of private institutions, and least of all in the hands of a confessional and conservative one. Other observers condemn the fact that the receivers ACPO distributes are of a fixed frequency type which forces their users to listen only to the ACPO broadcasts. This is seen as undemocratic in the sense that it involves restrictions on cultural freedom and it implies the possibility of forced persuasion.* Perhaps the most important criticism of ACPO's system, especially its radio schools, is that most of its messages appear restricted to proposing only functional changes; that is, they do not foster the peasant's liberation from the rural oligarchy and thus they may not *However, the sets appear to be convertible to general reception. Moreover, given the present kind of transmitters of ACPO, its broadcast can be received by any standard receiver. 124 lead to human development. The charge does not seem untenable, although ACPO's philosophy includes postulates of social redemption for the peasantry. Specific content analysis is not available to safely pass definite judgment on this important matter. The merits and deficiencies of ACPO, as a whole, and of its radio— phonic schools, in particular, deserve the careful attention of scien— tific analyses. The importance of the experiment for Latin America, however, cannot be questioned. In fact, the system already has numerous followers throughout the region. To different extents and with some variations, "radiophonic schools" are in operation in at least the fol— lowing countries: Mexico, Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador*, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. In several cases, those "schools" are about the only nexus that certain population segments have with the rest of their countries. This is particularly so for many of the Andean peasants in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, as well as in the case of some Amazonian tribal communities, and of indigenous groups in countries like Mexico and Guatemala. Through the initiative of the Maryknoll Fathers, Bolivia is one of the most advanced followers of the Sutatenza examples. It has now a Federation of Radiophonic Schools which includes several stations. *Rhoads and others (1963) conducted a survey of the radiophonic schools of El Salvador and Honduras. They found the schools have had some impact in teaching literacy but that what satisfied the students most was the agricultural content of the programs; nearly nine tenths of the subjects had gained from it some information on crops. Almost two thirds of them said they had put into practice some of that information. 125 Some of them transmit in the two languages native to the indigenous population of the country, in addition to having programs in Spanish; others are serving specialized sectors of the provincial population, especially the miners. The federation has plans to establish soon a research, training, and production center. It is, however, Brazil's system which ranks second only to Colombia's ACPO in magnitude of operation. Brazil: The Experience of M.E.B. — The system in this country constitutes the most important imitator of ACPO. At the same time, it is the most significant case of deviation from the Colombian model. M.E.B.'s organization is imitative of ACPO's but its orientation is very different from it, if not radically opposite to it. M.E.B. stands for Movimento de Educacao de Base (Basic Education Movement). Its director, Marina Bandeira (1968) explained: Seven years of practice have shown us how to transform the radio schools into nuclei of "popular animation" where men can excercise their creative capacity, their capacity to communicate with other human beings on equal terms, whereby they can discover their full dignity as persons and develop their critical capacity to analyze their situation (p. 163). Almost from the start, then, M.E.B. attempted to do in Brazil what ACPO has been criticized for not wanting to do in Colombia: to awaken the peasants so as to enable them not only to master nature but also to be full and free participants in social existence. MEB's central aims are not just to teach how to read and write, to compensate for the lack of schools in the rural areas, or even to promote innovative agricultural practices. Without euphemisms, Marina Bandeira says 126 What we will not do is become another literacy campaign trying to mold the people to the requirements of the power— ful. We refuse to act as buffer between the aspirations of the people and the present unjust social structures. (p. 165) Paulo Freire (1969a), the chief inspirer of MEB's philosophy explained the rationale for it as follows: "We needed a Pedagogy of Communication with which to defeat the acritical disaffection of anti— dialogue...The option for it was...between an education for domestication, for alienation, and...an education for freedom...Education for man— object or education for man—subject" (pp. 97 and 14). He called such pedagogy "conscientization," since it's aimed at creating in man an awareness of his role in the historical process. Accordingly, basic education was defined (Bandeira, 1968, p. 163) as that which can offer: elements enabling man to understand what he is (consciousness of self), what other men are (communication of persons as subjects), what the world is; elements enabling man to assert himself as a human person, a participant in the transformation of the world, a creator of culture; elements capable of enabling man to satisfy the basic material needs without which he cannot live on a human level; elements which will lead to community action aimed at transforming the social structure of competition into social structures of cooperation. Subordinated to such objectives, MEB's radiophonic schools' con- tent is of three types: instruments of analysis, instruments of pro- duction, and instruments of organization (Oliveira, 1969). ACPO's content policy appears to conform to the state of affairs in society but MEB's approach looks subversive. It can be asked, there- fore, how has MEB been able to exist and to survive at all? 127 The answer is that the movement has been staunchly supported by the Brazilian Catholic hierarchy, a position that has infuriated the country's oligarchy. MEB was, in fact, born in 1958 as a service of Brazil's National Conference of Bishops which established a National Association of Catholic Radio Stations through which the movement operates. There were 25 stations in 1964, serving more than 7,300 radio—schools with 180,000 pupils. MEB's national, state, and local staff had 471 members (Bandeira, 1964). What has happened since? For one thing, Paulo Freire is in exile, after having been imprisoned (Freire, 1969a, p. 15). Presently, MEB operated only 21 of its original 59 "systems" (regional branches). The radio schools are reduced in number to about 1800, the pupils, to 30,000 (Oliveira, 1969). In the words of MEB's director, Marina Bandeira (1968) ...today, January 1968, MEB is only a ghost of what it has been and of what it could be. MEB has been about to stop operations time and again. The level of efficiency has deteriorated. MEB suffers the fate of so many other organizations that provoke the fear of those in power. But although MEB is only a pallid shadow of what it used to be, we believe that it is better to do something, while we may, rather than do nothing at all. (p. 165). Devoid of popular support as the conservative governments of Latin America are, Diaz Bordenave (1967) observes, they see with fear the utilization of forces like radio and television which introduce desires of change in society without providing, at the same time, the manner to control the consequences of it. As Diaz Bordenave points out: Since, on the other hand, they (the governments) are not willing to make those drastic changes, to control which they would need a mistic and a revolutionary mass oriented towards them,they prefer not to agitate too much the 128 problem of a rapid and general education of the masses (p. 3). I The position and role of the church in the situation would, however, appear at least as decisive as that of the governments. Nothing seems to threaten the impressively growing operations of the Catholic-inspired ACPO's organization in Colombia. But the damaged experiment of MEB seems to survive in Brazil only because of the Catholic church's commitment to real societal change. It looks, in summary, as if the pro status quo orientation that was found to prevail in the mass media of Latin America also pervades attempts at establishing channel combinations meant to reach the for- gotten masses and help them become truly modern. Rural Radio Forums in Latin America A rural radio forum is a group of adult peasants who meet regularly to listen to educational radio programs especially prepared and broadcast for them, and to carry on among themselves——immediately thereafter and usually under the guidance of a trained leader——an organized discussion. The expectation is that the combination will lead the group members to collective and individual decision-making and action—taking. The radio forums are, therefore, a relatively formal method of rural educational communication. Its members are not "students". They take no examination, receive no certificates, and the content of the programs is not of a ”school" type.* The key feature of the method is *A detailed appraisal of the two techniques (forums and schools) can be found in Beltran (1968c). 129 the discussion that follows the broadcast for it is through immediate and organized interaction of the group members that the best gains appear to be made. Media forums, using newspapers as the basis for discussion, ori- ginated with the start of the Soviet revolution in Russia. Radio forums were first organized formally in England in 1928 and radio—study groups are the mark of Red China's communication system. Farm radio forums were born in Canada in 1941. The principles and techniques employed in this experience have constituted a pattern for the rural radio forums which later came to be established in several underdeveloped countries, as UNESCO (1965) reports. They have been particularly effective in India (Neurath, 1962) and in Ghana (Abell, 1968). The Latin American experience with rural radio forums has been limited, but the technique seems to be promising for this region's development. The first time that the radio—discussion combination was tested in Latin America was in the Ecuador experiment conducted by Spector, Torres, and others (1963). They compared the effectiveness of using: (1) radio alone; (2) audio-visuals alone; and (3) radio plus discussion plus audio—visuals-—the latter being closely equivalent to a "rural radio forum". The messages proposed the adoption of four innovations which varied in nature, complexity and cost. For all the innovations, the experimental groups showed clear superiority over the control groups. The rural radio forum (radio plus discussion plus audio—visuals) showed a net advantage over radio alone and was appreciably superior to audio-visuals alone. This was so, 130 however, only when the communicator's purpose was to teach skills. For providing information and promoting the decision to adopt, radio alone was superior. Resurveys conducted six and nine months later demonstrated the superiority of the "forum" technique over radio alone in terms of: (l) the continued use of the adopted innovations; and (2) the level of quality of the product made by the innovators. A UNESCO-sponsored study of the impact of communication in rural development included Costa Rica. The project involved in this country a fifty-two week program of two different communication treatments designed to generate changes in knowledge, evaluation and adoption of twenty-three practices in agriculture, health and education. Pre and post treatment measures were taken. The techniques used were rural radio forum and the stimulation of literacy by printed materials. In the former case fifty—two one half—hour broadcasts were heard and dis— cussed by volunteers in four villages. As is typical of the forum technique, feedback in the form of group reports periodically reached the project's headquarters. In the case of the print media forum, fifty—two pamphlets were distributed to households in four other communities and, subsequently, voluntary group discussions were held on the basis of those pamphlets. Reports were also produced by these groups. The researchers (Waisanen and Durlak, 1967) found changes in levels of knowledge and adoption related to participation in both the radio and print forums; participation, however, appeared to have no effect on evaluation of the innovations. The data suggested though not in a conclusive manner, that the radio forum technique had a greater impact. 131 Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development,by Michigan State University, and by several national agencies, a four— year study of diffusion of innovations in Brazil, Nigeria and India began in 1965. One of the three treatments that the study included in its third (experimental) phase was media forums, both radio and print. Their ability to induce adoption of four innovations was measured. The main pertinent finding for the case of Brazil was that: Radio forums appeared to be an effective media for transmitting information and creating favorable attitudes. The radio forum communities exceeded the control communities in terms of information gain and increase in favorable attitudes toward the four principal practices used in the experiment. In no case did the newspaper communities change as much as the control communities, and certainly not as much as the radio communities. Radio forums appear to be viable means for reaching a rural audience with fairl technical information about a riculture (Stanfield and others, 1968, p. 76). The researchers also found that the radio forums apparently stimu— lated farmers to seek out the extension agent for further information to a far larger extent than the newspaper forums did. Moreover, radio listening increased in the radio forum communities. So did credibility for radio and for newspapers as well. Peru is about to start a pilot rural radio forum project designed to serve the beneficiaries of the new land reform program of the revolutionary government. This is likely to be the first rural radio forum operation in Latin America which is not built only for research purposes. As such it may last longer and serve more people, but it would be desirable for the project to be the object of scientific observation from the start. 132 Agricultural Extension as a Mass Communication System For over a quarter of a century, virtually all Latin American countries have counted on "agricultural extension" services. Most of them were established in the region under the stimulation of the United States government's technical and financial assistance. The very successful experience of the U.S. with that type of rural development agency led to expectations that it could also help such development in Latin America. As its very name tells, the agricultural extension service is an agency of communication with farmers; it extends to the farming popu- lation, through communication, the knowledge accumulated by agricultural research. It does so through a network of agricultural experts who reside in the country—side so as to be directly available to the farmers. These experts are expected to spread agricultural information by methods of individual, group, and mass contact. The selection of methods depends upon variations in the objectives and contents of the messages, as well as on the characteristics and location of the audience. Typically, the extension agent develops high competence in the use of individual communication methods, moderate ability to use group methods, and at least minimal skill in the employment of mass communi— cation methods. This use of mass media is effective in countries like the United States where the general mass media messages are equally accessible to ruralites and urbanites and where agricultural mass media are abundant. Such is not, however, the case in Latin America. That difference causes one of the most serious limitations on the effectiveness of the extension service in this region. 133 There are no mass media reaching more than a minority of rural dwellers in Latin America; furthermore, the few agricultural farm pages in dailies and agricultural magazines that exist in the region are inaccessible to the majority of farmers and incomprehensible to them. Thus, agricultural extension agents in the Latin American countries have minimal opportunities for using mass media methods in their work. Also, there are very few agents since the universities do not emphasize agricultural training, and thus fail to produce agricultural professionals in numbers proportionate to the needs. The needs, furthermore, expand at high speed as the population grows at the highest rates in the world. Everyday, the costly and slow (though efficacious) individual and group methods of communication that the agents are restricted to, prove less helpful to them in coping with the magnitude of their task. The problem is not restricted to the lack of mass media availa— bility. There is also a problem involving the attitudes, the orienta— tion, and the training of the extension agents. Even when mass media are available, many agents choose to ignore them, or use them in an in— effective manner. Some agents fail to perceive that they are full—time professional communicators. They can hardly be blamed for that. For the most part, their academic training prepares them to deal with soils, plants, water, animals and even machines—~but not with human beings. Their university programs include few or no subjects related to the task of sociocultural engineering: e.g., psychology, sociology, and communication. For instance, Whiting and others (1968) found in Brazil that extension agents do not make much use of mass communication. Those who 134 do manifest an inclination to use the mass media tend to be somewhat more successful in their jobs than the others. Bostian (1966) studied the communication behavior of agricultural extension agents in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, a State in which mass communication is fairly developed and does reach an appreciable proportion of the rural population. Yet, as he found, most of those extension agents: (1) had had little or no training in communication, especially in mass media use; (2) were not provided with communication equipment to multiply their messages and increase their impact; and (3) showed a clear preference for face-to—face methods of communication. In addition to the problem of communication methodology, there are problems of intent and content in the extension services of Latin America. Many of these problems are attributable to the abysmal cultural disparity existing between the urban-middle class agent and the rural-lower class peasant. There are also problems of audience selection and of perception of the audience by the agents; some of these problems appear related to the nature of the social, economic and political structures prevailing in the region. It has been proposed by Freire (1969b) that: Technical assistance which is indispensable...is valid only when it is functional, and it can be so only if its program, stemming from the generating topic, the people, goes beyond simple technical training (p. 67). Indeed, most agricultural extension information in the region addresses itself to seeking technological changes in the behavior of farmers, rather than psychological or social mutations. However, many of those technological changes cannot be attained because of psychosocial impediments. Agents are often confronted with resistance to adoption 135 of certain practices by certain beliefs, habits and superstitions people have, and the agents are not trained to cope with that kind of deterrent. Other times, independent of how much the peasants would want to adopt the proposed innovations, structural limitations, such as insufficient land, lack of credit, etc., (Felstehausen, 1969) render the agent's messages useless. Thus, perhaps part of the agent's efforts should be addressed to stimulating favorable changes in those structural factors (Diaz Bordenave, 1969) before attempting to promote the technological ones. For reasons like those we have.discussed, many extension services in the region have concentrated their promotional efforts in the sector of the audience that needs such assistance the least: the rich land— owners or at least on those farmers who do not practice a strictly subsistence type of agriculture. For instance, as reported by Whiting (1969) in a region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, there was a high level of concentration of visits by agricultural agents to a few farmers who owned between twenty and one hundred hectares of land. Those who had less than ten hectares—~68% of the total——received a minimum of visits. Very often the poorest and most ignorant farmers are perceived as not worthy of the agent's efforts. And sometimes this is attributed to their being "unchangeable" and "irrational," a contention that has been seriously disputed by some analysts such as Myren (1964). From experience in extension training and agricultural information in different parts of the world, Byrnes and Byrnes (1969) concluded that: extension efforts tend to be promotional rather than educational, persuasive rather than informative or instructional; the farmer is told he ought to increase production but the extension worker lacks the competencies 136 necessary to instruct the farmer in the "how" and "why" of the innovations he recommends. As a result, "resistance to change" can be "resistance to extension workers" (pp. 36-37). It looks as if the people who need to change first are the change agents themselves. "Change agencies," whether they are extension services, land reform institutes or other similar entities, often seem to work more for continuity than for social innovation. A study of thirty such institutions in Pernambuco, Brazil, suggested that many of them were organically unsuited to promote change, some of them were anachronistic, and others almost seemed to be designed to protect against change (Diaz Bordenave, 1964). Inter—agency competition was found to be another negative factor (Brown, 1964) in Chile's rural development. All factors considered, what is needed is no less than a thorough and deep reappraisal of agricultural extension in Latin America. Its philosophy, goals, organization and methods have to be redefined in direct relation to the total Latin American reality, and not just in reference to the technical aspects of agriculture.* What may emerge from such assessment and reformulation is a rural mass education system truly instrumental to the transformation and growth of Latin America. Toward New Media of Communication This study has shown that numerous deficiencies prevail in the system of communication of Latin America in relation to modernization. That conclusion applies mostly to the mass media system; but it is also *The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has called a group of experts to attempt such an appraisal and redefinition, starting with a meeting in Peru at the end of 1970. 137 partially applicable to the channel—combinations systems, such as radio forums and schools, and to interpersonal communication systems such as the agricultural extension services. Improvements in the latter two are probably more viable than major changes in the mass media system. Realistically, the newspapers, radio stations, and television channels of Latin America cannot ever be expected to become highly developmental for the following reasons: (1) Being, for the most part, privately owned and conservatively oriented, they cannot foster radical social transformation; at best, they may learn to soften their resistance to it. (2) Depending as they do for their operation on advertising and on the audience size, they may never be able to increase the amount of substantive or high level content even if they wanted to. People do get bored and do pay also to be entertained. (3) Development is understood to be, primarily, the business of the government. Privately owned media may hardly see a reason for spending gratuitously much of their space or time in the service of official agencies. In particular, they may not see why they should be expected to be "educational." (4) Mutual suspicion and conflict of interests are not uncommon to the public and private sectors of Latin American society. Under the "free enterprise" ideology, the mass media usually see in the government the enemy of "information freedom." And they often have good reasons for that perception in this region. In summary, it may be possible to modify, slightly and slowly, the 138 behavior of the Latin American mass media in the favor of modernization, but not much.more than that could be expected. It might be concluded that the governments should be able to count on an adequate mass media system, especially designed to facilitate national development. For a number of reasons, however, the potential of that also appears very low. Even if the governments wanted to build such systems and were technically, administratively, and finan- cially capable of it, they probably should not attempt to do so. At least, not with a huge central agency in charge of the whole operation on a national scale. For one thing, the monster probably would never work. If it did, it would probably serve purposes very different from those of national development. More viable alternatives appear to reside in the multiplication and improvement of radio forums and schools, as well as in the modi— fications suggested for the agricultural extension services. In addition, small newspapers directed to limited sectors of the population, small-circulation specialized magazines and small rural radio stations may also alleviate the growing shortage of communication for development. These need not be sophisticated media for, as Brown (1964) in Chile and Aragén and others (1964) in Mexico have shown even simple mimeographed circular letters can be effective if they are properly used with specific audiences. The small mass media being suggested ought to be regional and local in nature and they should be specialized. Also they should not be purely "educational" and should probably be operated on a business basis wherever possible. . d 139 The new media must be regional or local because the developmental messages vary much according to geography and culture. They should be specialized because no single mass medium can provide sufficient content to serve every kind of technological, social and economic information need. They should not be purely educational because no human being wants to be educated all the time and because recreational materials, if they are not exaggerated, can fulfill certain positive functions for people. And they should probably be operated on a business basis because the production and distribution of information are costly propositions which cannot be exclusively financed with public funds. To the extent that it does not impede human growth and national develop— ment, there is no reason to reject communication as business. Several public agencies can establish such systems of small mass media in different parts of the countries. Small private entrepreneurs can do the same. In fact, public and private financing agencies should facilitate the establishment of these kinds of commercial but pro—educa— tional media. As they would serve audience sectors up to now neglected, they could open new markets which some day can attract the interest of the bigger mass media with whom they can co—exist. Furthermore, the small mass media can serve as a mechanism of feedback for the public and private sectors of the broader society. If they are coordinated with the large urban media, they can help reverse the direction of information flow so that urbanites can learn more about ruralites. Finally, they certainly can facilitate interaction among ruralites themselves. Is some such scheme practicable? Apparently it is, at least in the area of rural mimeographed newspapers, as a successful experiment in 140 Liberia has shown (Lawrence, 1965). Experimental research may find similar answers for Latin America. But, if such small developmental mass media can come to exist in this region, imaginative, stoic and adventurous communicators will have to open the road. Refining and expanding the radio school systems, building radio forum networks, changing the nature of the rural extension services, and fostering the existence of community newspapers and rural local broadcasting stations are all desirable devices to overcome the limi- tations of the extant mass communication system in relation to devel— opment. The execution of such tasks on a large scale and on a per— manent basis is not, however, an endeavor to be left in the hands of a few faithful pioneers. These innovators will undoubtedly need the full confidence and support of the governments if they are going to be successful. And this is something that may not be provided to them unless the governments formulate and implement overall national policies of communication for development. For without a clear and integrated vision of the behaviors desirable in a country's communi— cation institutions, there simply is no way for a government to make sure that those institutions will indeed work for development rather than against it. Chapter 7 DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY K National development can occur by relatively spontaneous generation, by highly specific engineering, or by an approach intermediate to those poles. The latter appears to be the case of the Latin American countries today. Most of them have established, in the last fifteen years or so, some kind of State organ in charge of overall planning for national development. Planned development implies strategy—formulation. A strategy is a behavioral design that involves decisions to attain given goals through specific instrumental actions. A national development strategy is a statement of collective goals and implementing procedures to effect given changes in the social and physical environment of a country in the direction of given levels of growth and improvement identified with a given state of modernity. A developmental communication strategy is a subset of the national development strategy; it consists of decisions concerning communication behaviors instrumental to the attainment of national development as conceived in the broader strategy. As Schramm (1967) has noted: After the basic economic and political questions are decided—— after a country decides how fast it wants to move, and what kind of national pattern it wants to develop toward~~then it faces a series of ongoing strategic decisions directly on communication use (p. 31). In Latin America, planning practices are considerably less sophis- ticated than concern with strategy would imply. First, just the formulation of national development strategies is in its infancy in Latin America. Most planning appears to be done at a macro level and with a strong emphasis on economic behavior. The 141 142 countries have long—term broad programs (somewhere between three and nine years), yearly plans, and specific projects, but the degree of planning ability apparently is reduced as they approach the micro level. Overall national policies seem yet neither well defined nor stable. Second, rarely, if ever, are national development strategies fol— lowed by developmental communication strategies. For instance, if a development strategy calls for the construction of a dam in a given place, the implementation of it will involve decisions affecting water, soil, plants and animals in the area chosen for the project. What about the human beings in that area? How will their existence be affected by the construction? Will they approve it or reject it? The blueprint usually says nothing about them. Given such lack of previsions concerning human behavior, plans for the strategic use of communication are usually not even considered. Hence, as Davison and George (1961) put it: "In the absence of a clear national policy on any given issue, the communicator is in the position of a swimmer treading water just to keep from going under; he is unable to strike out in any direction" (pp. 437—438). Communication: The Neglected Dimension There is reason to believe that the art of policy—definition, strategy formulation, and project—design will improve substantially in Latin America in the next decade; e.g., a United Nations developmental planning institute is training personnel for the planning boards of the countries in the region and provides the governments with useful leadership and advice in this area of activity. There are, however, no signs that improvements in strategy—making for national development will include the formulation of developmental communication strategies. The major apparent explanation of this is that in Latin America, as in many ‘4 143 other underdeveloped regions of the world, development is conceived as primarily a product of: (a) economic regplation; (b) ecological mani— pulation; and (c) technological innovation. Given a proper mix of them—— the assumption seems to be——the overall modernization of society will naturally follow. It is not that planners (mostly economists, engineers, and managers) ignore the human dimension of development. Neither can it be argued that the political leaders who set the national policies are not inter- ested in people. Rather, both policy-makers and development strategists usually tend to take for granted that material growth leads necessarily to human improvement and that economic advancement is always viable without prior changes in people's behavior. Under such perspective, control over the behavior of the market, over the performances of machines, and over the responses of soil, water, plants, and animals appear necessary and sufficient for achieving national development. Such a concept of development clearly implies a vision of the modernization process as fundamentally economic in nature; according to it, the critical variables are given by the relationships among savings, investment, demand, supply, consumption, etc. A clear indicator of the prevalence of such utilitarian concepts of nation—building in Latin America and in other regions is given by the fact that national development is basically measured in terms of goods and services that have a price. The president of the World Bank, Robert McNamara (1970), warns us of this when he proposes that, in setting the objectives, planning the programs, and measuring the progress of development: 144 ...we must look to more than gross measures of economic growth. We...require...relevant ”development indicators that go beyond the measure of growth in total output and provide practical yardsticks of change in the other eco- nomic, social and moral dimensions of the modernizing process. To limit our attention to expanding the Gross National Product, even though it be from 5% to 6% or 7%, can only lead to greater political, social and economic disequilibrium. However important an increase in GNP may be as a necessary condition for development, it is not a sufficient condition...But if we achieve the "quantity” and neglect the "quality" goals of develop— ment, we will have failed. It is an simple as that. We will have failed (pp. 8-9). H Some of the non—economic factors alluded to by McNamara have been the object of study by several scholars in recent years. For instance, Smelser (1963) has observed that, behind the economic factors, other determinant influences are in operation, such as social stratification, politics, and kinship. Hoselitz (1957) has called attention to legal, familial, and educational variables which, for instance, make increases possible in the rate of investments. McClelland (1961) has proposed that the motivation to achieve is a crucial factor in modernization. Awareness of those types of factors is no longer restricted to non-economists. M.I.T. economist Everett Hagen (1966) asserts that economic growth does not occur first and cause sociopolitical change but that they are, rather, mutually dependent. Heilbroner (1963) proposes that "economic development is not primarily an economic but a political and social process" (p. 16). A Latin American economist, Roberto de Oliveira Campos (1969), former Minister of Economic Planning of Brazil, shares that conviction: There is indeed the implicit assumption that the problem of development is primarily economic. In fact, however, it may well be said that the crucial issues of Latin American development are motivational and political in nature (p. 54). 145 Latin America would have nothing to gain from a controversy between advocates of a purely economic conception of development and supporters of a non—economic conception of it. Given that, in practice, the former position has predominated so far, room should be made now for the latter position so that a realistic compromise between them makes development in the region more attainable. This would imply an addition to the Latin American strategy-making organs of professionals who are not economists. Oliveira Campos himself has definite views on this: Although there is no immediate danger that the economists will join the army of the unemployed, it is quite clear that they have left precious little that is new or unsaid on the mechanics of development. The floor must be given to the social psychologists and the political scientists. We economists must recognize that the cross—fertilization of the social sciences is perhaps the only way for us to regain fertility (p. 54). If some such change in the composition of the planning staffs takes place, should it include the contribution of communication strategists? The answer is affirmative but certainly not because of a belief that communication can, by itself, account for development. It cannot. Communication, it must be stressed, is essentially instru— mental to modernization. But, given that communication is the social process through which other social processes take place, including social change, then its instrumental role must not be taken lightly. Yet, so far, it has been. Failure to take people and communication with people into account is expensive: A series of costly and avoidable failures has shown the planner that even well—drawn projects of modernization fail to register with the people and to produce the desired results unless they are supported by an imagi— native, adequate, and effective communication program... The full import of the dynamic possibilities of commu— " nication for programs of modernization, however, has not yet been adequately comprehended (Dube, 1967, p. 93). 146 The Attitudes of Policy-Makers and Development Planners For the most part, the Latin American countries profess to pursue modernization within the framework of a pro—democratic ideology. Their methodology, however, usually tends to be rather autocratic; i.e., planning is done from the top down and implementation occurs without securing the people's understanding and collaboration. If this dis- crepancy is to be corrected, governments need recourse to organized persuasion. This involves no less than obtaining——promptly and sus— tainedly—-the consensus and participation of almost 300 million human beings scattered throughout a large and unintegrated territory. How can the governments face such a formidable task of social engineering without counting on an adequate system of communication? If, as it seems, most of them aspire to alter their society substantially and rapidly without opting for revolution (which attains change by coercion), how do they expect to succeed without having the key tool to do so? Furthermore, how can their planning for development be realistic and democratic if they have no system detecting what people need and want, and how they react to the government's developmental actions? The answers seem to lie mostly with a marked lack of awareness, on the part of policy—makers and development planners, of the necessity for organizing effective social communication as a professional activity supplementary to each development project but indispensable to every one of them. Those officers seem to believe that investments in formal schooling and in anti—illiteracy campaigns will be sufficient and adequate to help 147 induce desirable behavioral changes in people. But formal education not only is slow; for the most part, it is also restricted to modest numbers of children and adolescents in urban centers; moreover, as it is oriented and conducted today in Latin America, it does not contribute to development. Also, given the kind of communication media now available, people need not wait to be literate in order to become modern. The lack of awareness of these realities is well illustrated by programs of land reform, a transformation which all the Latin American countries publicly proclaimed, at this decade's outset,as a sine qua non condition for their development. Most countries have passed pertinent legislation and have established agencies to implement it. But reform [has not taken place, except in a minimal degree. This can be attributed to lack of a genuine will to redistribute the land so as to break the power concentration that impedes development. However, even in the few countries in which revolution made the reform possible, such reform has been only structural, not functional. The reason is that land redistri— bution has not been followed by the provision of services indispensable for the peasantry to produce more and live better. One of the vital services that the new land owners are not receiving is communication; i.e., access to knowledge required to turn their social conquest into an economic accomplishment and a political asset. Ownership is by itself unlikely to ever bring those peasants into modernity if the term is taken to include freedom, justice, and prosperity. A contributor to the lack of awareness of the sigpificance of communication for development is the mistaken assumption that being able 148 to attempt communication is virtually equal to having attained success: talking is often equated with convincing; listening, with understanding and accepting. Development planners who share that misconception are unlikely to regard as necessary investments in their country's system of social communication. Thus they fail to perceive the need for a corps of professional communicators in charge of linking effectively the people with the government and sectors of the population with one another. Many of them do perceive easily the importance of communication in securing public knowledge of government aims. Most of the official agencies that have communication specialists in their service do so essentially for public relations and propaganda purposes. These objec- tives need not be regarded as unjustified or illegitimate, especially if, rather than seeking political manipulation for narrow ends, they include in the effort the civic education of the masses to enlarge the polity in the service of democratic development. In Latin America, however, as in other parts of the underdeveloped world, that is a rare case: Governments in transitional societies generally do not have complete strategies for the roles of communication in political development. Nor do they generally have a sensitive understanding of the full potentialities of communications in building coherent polities (Pye, 1963a, p. 231). Information to obtain public support for development plans and activities is indispensable to the success of them. But so is information to inspire people to become modern and to provide them with the cognitive and affective tools that they need to do so. Yet this latter kind of communication is given a minimum of the governments' energies and resources in Latin America. The point confirms the notion of the lack 149 of relationship prevailing in the region between national development strategies and developmental communication strategies. In the rare case of a government having some communication policy at all, that policy is—-as Dube (1967) saw it to be in most under— developed countries—— "time bound" and "target-oriented"; that is, the strategy pursues limited, immediate and often unrelated objectives, rather than encompassing an overall and articulate perspective of the communication needs of the modernization process. Another influence on policy—makers is their perception that communication success depends solely upon investments in physical equipment and installations; e.g., a government will budget expenditures for telegraph posts but not for opinion surveys. Governments will spend large sums to buy film—showing mobile units, but not a cent to give utilization training to those in charge of such units. Impressed by television as a symbol of modernity, many governments do not hesitate to incur heavy expenditures to house, equip, and operate TV stations, but they are unwilling to put a little money into systematic evaluations of the TV programs or into other inconspicuous activities that would increase the social profitability of their very visible investments in hardware. In short, the development of communication itself—~if it is at all considered within the State priorities——is conceived primarily in material terms. There is a further misconception on the part of public officials as to the various functions of communication. Priorities in communication functions are arbitrarily set as is media selection. The meager operational resources of the few agencies transmitting technological information 150 for development are spent almost entirely in production functions. This is done at the price of neglecting planning and distribution, as well as research and training. Within production, print messages are dominant regardless of variations in the communicator's purposes and in the composition and location of his audience. It is usually less difficult for a rural information agency to obtain from the central government funds to buy a print—shop than to conduct studies of the effectiveness of diverse materials on different audiences. In fact, the highest percentages of effort and expenditures are indiscriminately assigned to producing written materials addressed to an audience in which readers are a minority. And, as has been underlined in this study, those messages are often irrelevant for rural people nor can the urban—biased style of the messages be understood by them. Print- shops, however, produce material objects that can provide tangible evidence of action by the agencies even if the messages they contain are of little value to the destinations. Summary National development strategy in Latin America is derived primarily from a materialistic conception of development which takes for granted the human dimension of that process; therefore, no emphasis is given to communication, particularly to persuasive appeals for modernization. De- velopment is assumed to occur by economic fiat and by technological control of the physical environment. Appropriate human behavior is ex- pected to follow necessarily. Therefore, the State sees little need to acquire a professional organization in charge of developmental commu- nication. In general, policyanakers and development planners exhibit: (l) A marked lack of awareness of the instrumentality of communication for the attainment of modernization. (2) (3) (4) (5) 151 A belief that communication can be effective without the services of professional communicators. A perception that organized communication is limited almost exclusively to propaganda and public relations. A perception of communication development as essentially based upon investments in material facilities, such as mechanic or electronic equipment. An unjustified preference for the production function in communication, coupled with an emphasis on written messages frequently unrelated to the interests and comprehension ability of the audiences that need the most developmental assistance through communication. Toward a Strategy for Changing the Changers It can be concluded from the preceding discussion that the respon— sibility for improving communication for national development rests primarily with policy-makers and development planners. It is those political leaders and professional strategists, not the communication experts, who have access to the political, financial, and administrative power required to organize social communication in a manner and to an extent compatible with the challenge of modernization. The hope that they will do so, however, is predicated following changes in their beliefs: (1) (2) From assuming communication is an activity that anybody can naturally perform well to assuming it is an activity requiring careful planning and professional skill. From perceiving communication as a minor and accessory task in development to perceiving it as a major and instrumental task in the service of modernization. From conceiving of development as a process primarily economic and physical in nature to conceiving of it as a process substantially political and social in nature. A persuasion strategy would suggest that it would be easiest to secure the necessary changes in belief by starting with the changes in 152 communication; they, in turn, may gradually lead to the more complex change concerning development. If this is a viable alternative, the responsibility for stimulating the changes rests almost entirely with communication experts. Latin America, however, has few such experts, especially of the type who combine communication competence, knowledge of how to apply it to development, and a commitment to development. That deficiency, however, is beginning to be remedied by providing opportunities for high-level training of professional communicators. As has been described in this study,at least two universities are already offering graduate training programs in communication which involve students from several countries in the region in the area of rural development communication. A third institution, regional in nature, is giving short term but high level training to mass media practitioners. Its program emphasizes developmental communication.* If these efforts are to succeed, expanded international, financial and technical assistance appears urgent. The personnel they are training can be qualified for the task of promoting the desirable attitudinal changes among top policy-makers and development planners in the Latin American countries. This training increases the professional competence of the communicator. But perhaps more decisively, the two universities granting post—graduate diplomas for advanced learning, endow communication specialists with a status adequate to the demands of the proposed mission. For one thing, those graduates are enabled to train in their countries many communication specialists at the undergraduate level. *The former of those institutions are the Agrarian University of La Molina, Peru and the Graduate College of Chapingo, Mexico. The latter institu— tion is the Center for International Studies in Journalism for Latin America, located in Quito, Ecuador. 153 Until now, this has been neglected except for journalism. Furthermore, graduate professionals of communication can attain positions of influ— ence, without which their promotional activity would be unsuccessful. Top level policy—makers and development planners are unlikely to accept advocacy for attitudinal change from people who do not have an appreciably high professional level of training themselves. In addition to valuable knowledge, graduate training will confer on those communi— cators the high credibility they must have to attempt to facilitate such crucial changes in the behavior of those leaders. Training, however, is obviously not a short—term proposition. Systematic exhortation of public officers to use communication effec— tively to spread and accelerate development cannot wait until Latin America has a substantial number of highly trained developmental communication experts. On an immediate basis, promotion of the idea can start by an intensive series of seminars at national, regional, and multinational levels in Latin America. These seminars would not be addressed to communication specialists. They can be assumed to be convinced of the idea. The seminars would be geared to bringing together a few highly expert communication strategists of development with a large number of high level policy—makers and development planners. To obtain the par- ticipation of these decision—makers the seminars would have to be very short in duration. Communication experts in charge of such seminars would have to keep well in mind that they are likely to persuade no one with speeches; their audience will demand concrete cases for analysis and expect hard 154 data as a basis for discussion. The promoters should take a specific development project and lay out for it a complete supportive communi— cation strategy. As a region, Latin America does have a small cadre of communication specialists capable of conducting such a campaign. The best communication men in the region should form a team to start organizing the dialogue from the top. Participation of these men from the beginning is essential. The first seminars should be addressed to key—decision—makers in the major international agencies that contribute to financing national development in the region; for instance, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Agency for International Development of the United States of America. One reason for such priority is the decisive influence that multinational financial agencies have on develop— ment in Latin America. Another reason is that financial support to start the promotion campaign itself should probably come from those very agencies, allied with technical support from agencies such as UNESCO, FAO, and the Organization of American States. The Integration of Strategies The goal of a campaign such as the one just suggested would be to attain a continuous integration between general development strategies and specific developmental communication strategies. This would in— clude the design of an overall communication strategy, parallel and subservient to the long-range national development plan. As Lerner (1967) puts it, the underdeveloped countries: need, first of all, a theory of economic development that clarifies what they want to catch up with. Then, immediately 155 after, they need a communication policy that shows how to catch up with what they want (p. 316). Following tightly, then,the planning of development, communication planning in Latin America would take into account considerations of space, time, and technical area of interest. The overall communication strategy would include public policy formulations in areas like the following: (a) political communication; (b) technological communication; (c) development—promoting communication in general. It would also include regulatory specifications of the relationships between the government and the privately-owned, national and foreign, communication institutions operating in the territory. And it would define the jurisdiction of communication activity to be directly performed by the government, such as the use of television for education and the operation of satellite communication systems. There are at least three indicators of the extent to which such integration of strategies takes place in a country: First, the permanent presence of communication strategists in the high—level national organs of development planning; second, the inclusion of provisions for the improvement of the country's system of social communication in the yearly budget-programs of development; third, the creation and amelioration of developmental communication units in each of the official agencies in charge of modernization in a proportion, and of a quality, compatible with the human engineering aspects of those agencies' responsibilities. Red China: An Illustrative Case An integration of the kind briefly described here has not even begun to take place in any of the Latin American countries. Experience 156 with it exists, however, in other regions of the world, particularly in Red China, as has been noted by Alan Liu (1966), a non—Communist observer: Perhaps no emergent nation except Communist China has integrated so thoroughly the development of a mass media system with national industrialization and modernization (p. 1)- Much of that integration can be attributed to the fact that Red China—-as most Communist countries do——assigns a very high level priority to communication. From the highest level of national policy— making to the grass roots levels of neighborhood or village "study groups", multiple organs of communication exist to foster development. Communication strategists have direct participation in development policy formulation and thus are able to tailor the communication principles, techniques, and resources to the needs and goals of development. Developmental communication appears to be everybody's responsibility in Red China, not just the government's duty. As Hiniker (1968) has noted "...significant proportions of the population are engaged in non-professional self—persuasion" (p. VI—3), and mass communication "...is not simply an ideological or media elite persuading the dis— enfranchised masses. It is more subtle than that, for it is the elite and the masses persuading themselves" (p. VI—4). The illustration is not intended to suggest that the Latin American governments should seek the unqualified replication of the Red Chinese communication system in their countries. It is brought into the discussion to point out that historical evidence exists to indicate that communication can be made to operate in a highly effective manner in the service of nation—building. For as Hiniker himself has 157 observed: ...the efficacy of Chinese Communist mass persuasion does not inhere in the rapid growth of her mass media production facilities, nor in the party monopoly of mass media messages. Rather, the key to Chinese Communist success in mass per— suasion lies in her unique combination of the mass media and word-of—mouth communication channels (p. VI-l). The importance of the Red Chinese experience is that it suggests that it is possible to use communication in ways that expand the potential of it as a causative agent of modernization. In no more than twenty years, Red China has moved from being a backward and dislocated country to being a true nation in accelerated process of modernization. Today it is able to challenge simultaneously the world leadership of Russia and the United States of America. Numerous factors account, of course, for such a feat. But organized developmental communication certainly appears to be one of the most decisive among them. Latin America may or may not celebrate the example, but it cannot afford to ignore it. In addition to the Red Chinese case, Cutright's data (1963) on Spain appears to offer some clues as to how communication works. Again, as in the case of Mao's China, Franco's Spain has an authoritarian government, the operations of which often curtail human freedom and offend human dignity. However, when the coercion involved in those operations is overlooked, the virtues of a well organized system of nation—building communication appear. It is this writer's conviction that communication can be made to operate in Latin America too, as a strong generator, facilitator, and accelerator of national development. On the basis of the integration of strategies that have been proposed here, the Latin American countries 158 can become able to make a highly intensive effort to organize effective social communication for their modernization. The effort would require a far higher level of expenditure than that presently assigned to communication. But, if properly managed, this could be a most productive investment. It would focuss on com— munication as a decisive spring-board for development. Once such a launching point is reached, communication development would no longer need to be supported at the original level of intensity. Conceivably, its growth level would relatively soon be paralleled and then exceeded by that of general national development. In turn, then, increased general development would provide the basis for communication development. From that point on, they should be able to grow hand in hand, each stimulating the other.* Attaining such a state of affairs is, of course, infinitely more complex and difficult than stating it theoretically. However, if the will to attain it comes to be present, the scheme need not be deemed impossible of realization. Issues in Developmental Communication Strategy If the integration of development and communication strategies is viable, and the heightening of communication's contribution is achiev— able, we need to analyze several issues central to the concept of development. Within the domain of this study, we need to attend to the functioning of such things as human value systems, the breadth of indi- vidual change, strategies in decision—making,the conflict between structural and functional change, and the possible use of communication for subversive objectives. *See Beltran (1968a) for elaboration. 159 Value Systems. — Much of the effort to induce behavioral modifi— cations toward development are confronted with resistance attributable to values people hold. A value, according to Rokeach (1969, pp. 159— 160), is an enduring belief a person has that a particular mode of con— duct, or a particular end—state of existence, is personally and socially preferable to alternative modes of conduct or end—states of existence; thus, he distinguishes between instrumental and terminal values. According to the same author, a value system is a hierarchical arrange— ment of values, a rank—ordering of them along a continuum of importance for the person. Although there are variations in value systems between and within the Latin American countries, a number of values appear to exist cross— culturally in that region.* Those values must be changed which render people uncreative, sub- missive, and conformant. In particular, developmental communication must undo what oligarchic domination, formal education and religious indoctrination have done for centuries to the personality of most Latin Americans; especially the ruralites. As a prerequisite, the promotion of such changes would, imply changes in the orientation of the communication system itself for, as Inkeles (1966) proposes, n ...we must acknowledge that the media of communication can and often do carry messages that merely reaffirm traditional values, beliefs, and ='=In the literature devoted to analyzing the Latin American reality, several studies have touched briefly and incidentally upon value systems. Coordinated systematic research on the topic is not avai— lable yet, but some studies are starting to emphasize this area of concern. See: Fillol (1961); Fliegel (1962); Gillin (1955 and 1965); Godoy (1968); Kahl (1965 and 1968); Micklin (1969); Morris (1966); Rosen (1964); Smith (1956); and Vries and Medina Echavarria (1963). From a religious perspective, Calvani (1968), Vekemans (1964) and Zanartu (1966) have also worked in this area of interest. 160 ways of acting or disseminate a concept of the new which is neverthe— less not congruent with...modern man..." (p. 148). The challenge for Latin American strategists is monumental. They will be dealing with people's innermost and deeply rooted feelings and cognitions. Of necessity, the changes will have to be slow. Moreover, research on how to accomplish value mutations is hardly in existence. There are, however, some useful initial orientations such as that in the work of Rokeach (1969). His research has suggested that, within a belief system, some beliefs are central while others are peripheral. He suggests that changing central beliefs will produce relatively greater changes in the belief system than will changing those which are not so essential. The question deserves close consideration. Not much communication in Latin America today can be regarded as geared toward inducing value changes; even specific developmental information emphasizes changes in techniques (such as those of agricultural pro— duction) without considering the value systems underlying them. Scope of Individual Change.- Most human changes towards modernity are attempted on a unitary basis; e.g., the promoters of change to especially seek to alter a specific aspect of a person's behavior, not all of it. In contrast, Rogers (1962) suggested that perhaps change agents should seek to alter their client system norms or innovativeness in general, rather than promoting single innovations. The suggestion deserves careful attention by Latin American strategists and it would not seem unrelated to Rokeach's notion of values existing in the form of systems. It may well be that the anti-change value system instilled by the oligarchy in much of the region's population is by now so 161 entrenched that no less than overall characterological change is re— quired to extirpate it. That type of total personality change has been postulated in Russia's vision of "the new Soviet man" and has been actively pursued by Red China through techniques of coercive persuasion, including what journalistic folklore has labeled as "brainwashing." Is it also attainable by techniques compatible with human dignity and freedom? Pool (1963) regards Lerner's "empathy" notion and McClelland's "achievement motivation" concept equivalent to a "daring thesis" that media can have profound characterological effects on human beings. Neither of the two propositions includes coercion, thus they could be of high value for Latin American strategists if they come to decide that the formation of "a new Latin American man" is what development demands. Decision—Making. - One of the most serious impediments to development is people's inability or reluctance to make their own decisions. This problem is particularily noticeable in rural Latin America where psychosocial, natural, and structural conditions inhibit personal decision-making. Trained by paternalistic domination to obey rather than to reason and choose, the peasant's ability has a very limited range. Overwhelmed by nature and oppressed by society, he has a child—like dependence on others——i.e., the landowner, the priest, the State—-for selecting his behavioral options. Creativity, innova— tiveness, risk-orientation, and other pro—development personality characteristics are not nurtured. In such circumstances, the adoption of modern behaviors cannot be expected. 162 Diaz Bordenave (1964) studied sociological and psychological factors related to the search for information among Brazilian peasants. He found a positive and significant relationship between the perceived range of possible decision—making of individuals, and their search for information instrumental to the attainment of improvements in their situation. This suggests the importance of communication in enabling people to expand their ability to make decisions on questions related to development. Thus Latin American strategists should explore the ways in which communication may further expand such ability, keeping in mind that limitations to it stem primarily from the nature of the social structure in which individuals exist. Structural versus Functional Change.— Latin American countries emphasize functional changes over structural ones; i.e., they seek to modify the technology of agricultural production, but they do not apply equal energy to pursuing land redistribution. Development requires both types of changes. In Latin America, structural changes appear often as prerequisites for functional ones; e.g., agricultural pro- duction cannot substantially improve unless land reform occurs first. Comparing the origins of development between the Northern industrial nations and the Latin American countries, a U. S. analyst said of the latter: In the industrial revolution, the Latin—American countries were an agrarian and mineral hinterland. Now that industrial— ization, as such, is pressing on them, they cannot adapt rapidly to the influx of complex technology. They must reconstruct certain aspects of their society before the technology can operate at all. This means that social inventions must precede the technological (Adams, 1965, p. 1). If development strategy accepts such premises, then developmental communication strategy must induce change in the social structure. 163 As a minimum, that is what public—owned communication systems should be doing. In fact, as a Brazilian pedagogue sees it, that is what formal education should be doing, too: If we...consider education as a means to the social communica— tion of culture and a preparation of man for his fulfillment in the development process, the process has a double aspect. It must prepare man for technical change, that is, for an in- crease of production and of productivity. But it must also prepare him for social change, to play a part in the trans— formation of the social structure (Tarso, 1968, p. 125). If mass communication and formal education combine to advocate social reorganization in Latin America, they would be adding fuel to the already existing social upheaval and some of the consequences may prove undesirable; however, if they do not do it, which is largely the case today, how—~other than through outright revolution——will Latin American society ever be able to change? Those are the kinds of questions in which development and com— munication strategists in this part of the world ought to be deeply involved. For the latter to restrict themselves to helping teach how to caponize chicken, fertilize the soil, or build latrines is not going to aid in facilitating changes in the crippling structure of society. Another U. S. analyst concludes pessimistically that solu— tions to the main problems of Latin American rural development "...re— quire political decisions and changes in economic and social structure that appear extremely unlikely, at least for the near future" (Barra— clough, 1967, p. 23). Is it not the responsibility of development and communication strategists to raise that likelihood? Subversion and Communication. — The roles that communication should play, through mass media and schools, in underdeveloped countries often 164 differ substantially from those that it plays in the developed nations. In the former, communication must support discovery, social criticism, and, ultimately, rebelliousness. Communication in Latin America has to reveal natural and social reality to the submerged masses and, in particular, to the rural ones. Communication has to unveil for millions of human beings their fullest potentialities as such. Communication must liberate those people from magical explanations of the forces in their physical environment and from fatalistic resignation to exploitative domination by others. As such, communication is eminently subversive and revolutionary in nature; the knowledge it spreads, the attitudes it instills, and the behaviors it promotes become indeed tools for revolution, which may or not be violent. The moment a man grasps the possibility of mastering the natural environment rather than being subdued by it, the instant he realizes that he need not live forever kneeling to honor the mighty, he has indeed taken the first step toward revolt and re— 3 demption. It is at that point that the human development of persons becomes possible. And it is then, and only then, that communication proves developmental in the fullest sense of the term. Therefore, what makes communication developmental is its power to generate rationality, its ability to induce awareness and nonconformity, its potential to endow the human person with self-reliance, with faith in a manageable future, with respect for others and for himself, and with a conception of life on earth as a worthwhile and noble adventure rather than as an inevitable calamity that one must endure in exchange for a heavenly after—life. 165 Communication which does those things for people is developmental. For those are the supreme values of human existence and the ultimate goals of progress. Such kinds of beliefs are, of course, condemned by the minorities which rule Latin America. At times, condemnation includes punishment, such as in the case of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian catholic teacher who has had to pay for his innovative concept of education as "the practice of liberty" with the loss of his own freedom. Moreover, his subversive pedagogy of "conscientization" (Freire, l969a)has earned him expatria— tion. But it has not left him with failure and obscurity; his ideas are starting to spread in Latin America. And he is not the only catholic rebel. Another is Ivan Illich, a Vienna—born humanist who established and directs in Mexico a private Center for Intercultural Documentation. His ideas (see Illich, 1969, and Schrag, 1969) on catholicism in general, on Latin America‘s society and culture, on the origins of its underdevelopment, and on the U. S. influence in the Latin American concepts of development and of education, have also brought punishment on him. He had to separate himself from his priestly duties and, after an inquisitorial session at the Vatican (see Schrag, 1969), he was dismissed as a dangerous heretic and priests and nuns were forbidden to attend the training program of his sub— versive Cuernavaca center. Freire and Illich are philosophers of human liberation, enhance— ment, and worth. They are not development strategists or developmental communication specialists. But those who are so would do well not to ignore the ideas of these christian radicals whom the oligarchy has 166 promptly branded as communists. Human Needs and Communication. — A conception which emphasizes human development does not ignore the importance of those needs of man which are of a material order. Neither does it place them at the top of the hierarchy of societal values. After man has satisfied his animal needs, Erich Fromm (1968) believes, he is driven by his human needs, the former being in the realm of biology and the latter in the domain of culture. Fromm perceives humans as needing basically: (I) relatedness as opposite to narcissism; (2) transcendence and creativity instead of destructiveness; (3) rootedness and brotherliness versus incest; (4) a sense of identity and individuality rather than herd conformity; and (S) a frame of orientation and of devotion—reason as the inverse of irrationality. The degree to which communication in Latin America, and elsewhere, appears to be aiding people to satisfy such needs appears minimal. The bulk of the development effort and of the communication energy is rather addressed to assist people in satisfying physical needs. Many of those needs have been made coterminous with social necessities which have been hyper—stimulated by economic interests organized around mass production and planned obsolence principles. The latter lead to wastage and to environmental destruction. For instance, in developed countries, the need for shelter is at times becoming identified with a necessity for homes super—equipped elec— tronically. This facility provides its owners with unobjectionable material satisfactions in terms of comfort and efficiency. But, in societies where human accomplishment is measured primarily in terms of 167 material acquisitions, that kind of home also provides its owners with social validation. Moreover it keeps active and prosperous the manu— facturers of desirable but not indispensable household equipment. Packard (1969) found from a review of advertising research in the United States, soap manufacturers do not actually sell soap anymore, they sell a promise of beauty. People no longer buy oranges, they buy vitality. In purchasing a car, a man not only pays for a vehicle, he pays for prestige. Thus marketing communication tends now less to serve real primary needs (physical and social) than it tends to dis— tort some of them and to create secondary needs as well. In doing so, it often throws people into implausible competition based on envious emulation. And it keeps them forever buying...even that which they may not need at all. Perhaps massive, uninterrupted and ever-growing consumption is convenient for further development in the advanced nations; maybe they can afford as Illich (1969) observes them doing, to let the need for satisfying thirst be translated into the need for drinking Coke. But things are very different in the countries where the purchasing power is very limited, the institutional frame is rigid and the distribution of income is very uneven; under such conditions, the "demonstration effect" gains virulence, mixes itself explosively with revolutionary propaganda, exacerbates the frustration of the masses and generates violent pressures against the old social frameworks (Flores, 1969, p. 20). The utilitarian scheme is, however, being transferred somehow to the underdeveloped countries through the emulative process known as the "demonstration effect" (see Duesenberry, 1949) in which communication media are of decisive importance: as”, e 168 The Western world has beamed the news of its material achievements around the world. Self—consciousness, expectations and a profound sense of cultural injustice have thus been heightened in 'have—not' countries; with— out proper relief, the conditions for revolution become intensified (Kean, 1967, p. 55). Mexico illustrates that situation. According to Menendez (1969), its communication system exerts psychosocial pressure on the audience towards continuous and increased consumption of goods and services. Only 20% of the people in that country have sufficient income to re— spond to the pressure with purchasing behaviors.* Nevertheless, the mercantile stimulation also reaches many in the low—income and majority sector of the population which can hardly buy more than food and clothing. Thus, the Mexican analyst feels, communication makes these people want what they cannot get. The frustration people experience then, the argument concludes, may lead them to aggression. And this, as Brazil's Raposo (1969) sees it, is "dysfunctional" for Latin American development inasmuch as it can generate social disruption and political instability. Those reactions are inspired by worries of development theorists such as Daniel Lerner (1967): People have been led to want what they could not get, to demand what could not be supplied. They have been taught to act like consumers in a market without producers.... The distorted want—get ration, which is at the root of current development difficulties, is the product of a spurious and erroneous communication strategy, which has led people to believe things that were not true and expect things that could not happen (p. 314). *This often occurs at the price of wasteful expenditures of the type criticized by Packard (1960), conspicuous consumption of the kind identified by Veblen (1963), and irrational endebtment, the depressing effects of which have been underlined by Nurske (1953). 169 Lerner seems convinced that the impact of such media behavior on the people of the underdeveloped countries is of a magnitude that is helping turn what Adlai Stevenson had called the revolution of rising expectations into a counterrevolution of rising frustrations. To cope with this problem, Lerner proposes that the media must now teach the people how to get what they have taught people to want. "Most important of all"——Lerner concludes--"the communication strategy must be integrated with the real development policy of the society" (p. 317). The real development policy of Latin American society, however, should not be to imitate blindly the materialistic design for growth prevailing in the developed nations. Yet, at a time when societies such as those of the United States and France are being forced by the young, the forgotten, and the oppressed to revise their notion of develop— ment, Latin America appears bent on copying their blueprint for de- humanized affluence in the service of minorities. Evaluating in a Mexico meeting communication's role in development, David K. Berlo (1970) deplored that: ...nearly everything we do now is couched in terms of how a small number of people can get the rest of the people to do what the small number wants——whether it is in the interest of the large number or not (p. 2). Converting those who have a high buying power into irrational Homo consumens is an instance of the use of a large number of people to serve the interests of a small number of people. Diverting the aspirations and the meager resources of pauper majorities from primary human needs to secondary material necessities is an even graver case of the irreverent use of some human beings by others. These are examples of how a highly profit—oriented mentality may distort the notion of human growth and 170 vitiate the concept of national development. A human being is not modern just because he is led to feel an urge for enjoying washing machines, for having a car bigger than that of his neighbor, or for flying to Waikiki. A nation is not developed when minorities in it can squander fortunes in superflous articles or ostentatious endeavors, while majorities can barely buy bread. That is the kind of modernity to which Latin America has no reason to subscribe. And communication should not keep promoting it, for as Berlo (1970) has proposed to communication strategists and practitioners: We need now to concentrate on the functions of communication, on ways in which people use messages——not, as we have in the past, on the effect of communication, on ways in which messages can use people (p. 2). Before such a change occurs, however, many mass media messages in Latin America are likely to keep on using people. For instance, those messages inducing a want—get disparity may even increase, and in fact produce frustration—aggression behaviors among Latin Americans. But these behaviors should not be regarded "dysfunctional" without quali- fication. If Lerner's fears are indeed tenable in Latin America, perhaps advertisements as well as other materials such as society columns, Hollywood news, and even publicity of developed nations are functional. Unknowingly, that is, the media could be facilitating mass mobilization for the radical reorganization of society by generating frustration that could lead to aggression in the form of total revolution. Thus, paradoxically, the conservative mass communication institutions of Latin America may be performing after all a pro—revolutionary function. And, in the absence of alternatives determined by the oligarchy's unbending resistance to change, revolution would need not be condemned _ 171 and discarded as an instrument for change. Referring to such a possibility, Sadie (1964) asserts: What is, therefore, required amounts in reality to social disorganization. Unhappiness and discontentment in the sense of wanting more than is obtainable at any moment is to be generated. The suffering and dislocation that may be caused in the process may be objectionable, but it appears to be the price that has to be paid for economic development...(p. 219). Mobilization, Organization, and Participation. - Nonetheless, revo- lution is not the preferred instrument of societal transformation (Mander, 1969) in Latin America today. Reform is the standard tool and, with very few exceptions, it has not worked well so far. This is partly due to the often unjustified expectation that economic and technological changes will generate desirable psychosocial and political mutations: i.e., social mobilization. It is also due to the lack of mass organizations, a deficiency which has become more pronounced in this decade with the debilitation of the middle—of—the road populistic parties. Finally, it is due to the lack of o ular articipation in politics; for the most part, the Latin American masses are kept absent from the political stage and, in the case of the rural sector, the exclusion is virtually total (see, among others, Horowitz, 1970; Scott, 1965; and Alba, 1965). Social mobilization is understood by Deutsch (1961) as "the process by which major clusters of old social, economic and psychological commitments are eroded and are broken and people become available for new patterns of socialization and behavior" (p. 494). The process in— volves, Deutsch specifies, numerous sub—processes of change in institu— tions, roles, ways of acting, needs, habits, relationships, occupation, etc. 172 "Communication should and ought to contribute to this whole process of change"——claims Armando Samper (1964), a top rural development strategist, and he adds: It can help to destroy barriers in the social structure, such as the opposition of groups whose special interests seem to be endangered; the inertia of emerging new groups—- such as the middle class of industrial entrepreneurs—-who fear the rich landowners who hold all the power...above all, it can awaken initiative in him (the peasant), and develop in him the creative capacity which is indispensa— ble if an individual and a society are to achieve the transition to an accelerated economic development (p. 11). Such kinds of changes that mobilize a society towards modernity appear to be occurring in those Latin American countries in which revolution is the instrument for development; that is, for instance, what Fagen (1966b) has reported about Cuba. But mobilization must also take place in the countries where reform is the instrument for change if those countries are going to develop at all. How can this be made to occur? That is probably the single most important question of strategy in Latin America. Given that the social structure in those countries is designed to protect against the occurrence of such mobilization, the question may be rephrased as follows: Is it possible to attain develop— ment by reducing——rather than eliminating——oligarchic domination? Is it feasible to persuade the ruling minority to yield in favor of change? Is there, ultimately, a way to convince the masters to stop having slaves? History is not rich with examples of mighty minorities giving up voluntarily their privileges; influence and command are habit-inducing. Thus, it is naive to expect in Latin America a redistribution of power on the basis of suasion exerted by reformist governments on the dominant 173 conservative minorities. Moreover, for some observers (Vekemans, 1969), the region is already in a defined stage of "pre—revolution." Is it true that communication cannot do with words what political organization fails to do with actions. Nevertheless, as the case of Red China well illustrates, an appropriate combination of communicatio- and organization may prove highly effective for change. In other words, perhaps that which has worked well in a revolutionary setting may also be productive in a reform—oriented situation. If communication becomes able to mobilize the Latin American masses for development, the masses may generate forceful pressure for change on the ruling minorities. As it has been acknowledged by Raul Prebisch, Latin America's renowned planner of economic development, the integration of the masses is not only a social and political need but it is also an urgent economic need in terms of industrialization and market expansion (Society for International Development, May 15, 1970).* Furthermore, the preparatory committee for the Second United Nations Decade of Development has specifically recommended that the mobilization of public opinion be recognized as an essential part of the development strategy (Society for International Development, June 15, 1970). Those are laudable statements. But "mass" and "public” are broad abstractions. Who, specifically, needs most to be integrated and mobilized in Latin America? Who is to be organized for sharing in the development task? Who is least communicated with and participates the *A valuable study of the role of popular participation in development and of what the U. S. can do about it has been conducted by M.I.T.; see Hapgood (1968). Beltran (1967) has also dealt with the topic. 174 least in community decision—making? The answer is, of course, the ruralites, since urbanites have already been considerably organized, somewhat mobilized, and appreciably participant. It is only the peasants--some 40% of the region's population-—who do not constitute an interest gpoup, who are unmobilized, and who are excluded from 'public opinion" and from participation in politics. Except for Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela, peasant organization was virtually non—existent in Latin America until a few years ago. Moreover, it was discouraged in several countries and violently repressed in others. However, as reported in Landsberger (1969), the scene is beginning to change substantially. As population multiplies uncontainably, while food and jobs do not, and as the urban parties, unions, and groups show obsolescence, the peasant movement seems to be gaining momentum—— guerrillas being a minority within it. Some governments, such as those of Colombia and Chile, have recently established agencies in charge of fostering peasant organization. The success of that promotion may largely depend upon: (1) the extent to which the governments realize and accept that——in spite of whatever risks may be involved in it--peasantsorganizations will not be productive and powerful unless they are helped to become politically conscious and operationally autonomous; and (2) the degree to which the organizations can be kept free from domination, infiltration, and sabotage from the oligarchy, especially in its rural sector. In the consolidation and enlargement of an independent and influ— ential organization of the peasant masses, communication has many vital roles to play. 175 There is no question about the importance of the peasantry for Latin America's development. Perhaps, however, the most crucial sector of its population is not composed of either remote farmers or conformant middle—class urbanites. On the edges of the cities, and often mushrooming through the heart of them, an in—between category of inhabitants——£pg slum dwellers——is growing with almost unbelievable speed. According to the Inter—American Development Bank (1970), the overall yearly growth rate of the region's population is 3%; the urban sector grows at about 7%. Latin America will have at the end of this century some of the largest megalopoles on earth, and the slum portion of the urban population increases at an annual rate of 15% in many cases. There are no higher rates anywhere else. There are no jobs, food, homes, schools and services in Latin America to cope with such phenomenal expansion. The slum population is a mixture of the depressed urban sectors and the oppressed rural ones. To a large extent, however, what is actually occurring——due to the inability of agriculture to retain people and to the lack of rural industries——is a ”peasantization" of the cities. Almost 50% of the total urban population growth is accounted for by landless and jobless refugee peasants. The blend may lead Latin America, at long last, to achieving social integration, cultural cohesiveness, and political consensus, thus helping development occur. Or it may be an explosive combination leading to further conflict, stagnation and perhaps chaos. These are major issues in development and communication strategy. Pertinent research about the inhabitants of the slums appears now to be increasing;* but, to the *See, for instance, Browning (1958); Hauser (1961); Patch (1961); 176 knowledge of this writer, it has yet paid only minimal attention to communication variables. Nor have population studies played up the communication factor in family planning. The most critical questions about the situation are political in nature. Will the slum dwellers join the cause of change? It would be natural for them to do so given their wretched conditions of life. If they do it, however, will they opt for reform or choose revolution? Will they one day seek an alliance with the peasantry? Or will they, in their eagerness to go up in the socioeconomic scale, slide rather with the forces of status quo and identify with their very exploiters? And, in any case, what roles is communication playing among them, and which functions is it failing to perform? It is not for this study to venture political predictions. But, in closing, it must at least acknowledge that millions of Latin Americans are now irrevocably awake. And that, in emerging from their forced dormancy of centuries, many of them have begun to perceive their chains—— a discovery unlikely to be inconsequential. Communication, this writer feels, has everything to do in helping those people break those chains. Soon. And forever. Rosenbluth (1963); Turner (1966); Mangin (1967); Flinn (1968); Manaster (1968); Bayer (1969); Bock and Iutaka (1969); Ray (1969); Inter—American Development Bank (1969); Frank (1970); and Goldrich 2:: El:9 (1970). B IBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Abell, Helen C. "Assesment of the project." An African experiment in radio forum for rural development. Ghana, 1964-65, Paris: UNESCO, 1968, pp. 22—72. ACPO. Informe al Gobierno Nacional. Bogota: Accién Cultural Popu— lar, 1964. . What is, what are the objectives of, what does Accién Cul— tural Popular? Bogota: Editorial Andes, 1965. . 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