Modernization

Modernization is a vague concept. It is meant to indicate a process of complex social change that is taken to be linked with an increasing rationalization of the society and the individual. Modernization denotes a cluster of social processes, such as the taking over of scientifically based technologies, the proliferation of a state-sponsored system of education, urbanization, secularization, increasing interdependence within the society, an increase in political rights, and the introduction of mass media. Research on the relationship between modernization and mass media (communication and development research) emerged in the United States after World War II and had an important role in the propaganda battle between the Soviet and the nonSoviet forces for the allegiance of the peoples in the nonindustrial world.

The mass media were credited with speeding up the modernization process, whether as educational instruments or as “mobility multiplier.” It was believed that the mass media could develop modern personalities. The American development aid policy involved the convergence-theoretical idea that ultimately modernization always and everywhere will have identical effects. This policy, also aiming at keeping communism in check, ironically corresponded exactly to the thought developed by Karl Marx in the introduction to Capital: “The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future.”

Daniel Lerner's (1958) The Passing of Traditional Society has for a long time been viewed as the standard work on the theme of mass media and modernization. Moreover, it has influenced international media policy. Modernization is regarded primarily as a communications process. Local or national cultures are seen as hindrances that have to be surmounted on the way to modern society. Modernization is considered to be linked with character change on the level of the individual. Mobile personalities in modern societies are characterized by empathy. Empathy is the capacity to see oneself in the other fellow's situation and in imaging oneself as being in strange situations, places, and times. Empathy is the prerequisite for taking on new roles as well as for adjustment to new situations. The shaping of empathic personalities is fostered in traditional societies by the introduction of mass communication.

[Page 467]In The Achieving Society, David McClelland (1961) emphasized the importance of the need for achievement. Ideas are in fact more important in shaping history than purely materialistic arrangements. What really counts is human resources. McClelland recommended a free press to foster modernity and to achieve an informed public. The media are to communicate knowledge of the new norms and to foster more respect for the “impersonal other.” They are capable of punishment by publicity. An important step on the way to modernity is, further, the emancipation of women. Women must be so influenced by the mass media that they take on new norms and values.

On assignment from UNESCO, Wilbur Schramm, in Mass Media and National Development: The Role of Information in the Developing Countries (1964), sought to indicate the significance of mass media within the context of a program of concrete action. Free information was regarded as generally desirable. Mass media were seen as “a kind of temperature-controlling agent.” Through the stimulation of aspirations the “social temperature” could be raised, and by providing explanation the “temperature” could be lowered. An improved flow of information provides a climate for national development. Schramm argued a developing country should invest in a program of mass media development. The trouble with such recommendations is clear: a decision as to whether a program of mass media development and use has been well considered or not can be taken only after the fact.

...