TOWARD A COMMUNICATION THEORY OF MODERNIZATION:

A SET OF CONSIDERATIONS
BY DANIEL LERNER
ENCO 1101
Semester 2017/2018
Kulliyyah of Language & Management
Lecturer: Sharifah Salwa Abdul Karim
PRESENTED BY:
SITI SARAH BINTI BURHAN (1727242)

NUR ZAFIRAH AMANI BINTI MOHAMAD ZAMRI (1729936)

NURUL AQILAH BINTI SHAMSUZAMAN (1726478)

NUR SOLEHAH BINTI SULAIMAN KOK (1725760)

NIK NOR HAMIZAH BINTI NIK AHMAD (1727714)

INTRODUCTION
 WHAT IS MODERNIZATION?

• A change towards economic, political and social systems considering development

of particular society
 LERNER’S MODERNIZATION THEORY

Modernity is an interactive behavioural system

•It is vital to substitute traditional ways of thinking held by a society with modern
ones

•Mass media as an agent of modernization

ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATION
1. The new revolution of rising frustrations

The process of reviving cultures, emerging nations and new states

 Two main problems in achieving modernization

1. Mobility
The problems of societal dynamism

2. Stability
The problem of societal equilibrium
 Major forms of mobility

1. Physical/geographic mobility
2. Social mobility
3. Psychic mobility
2. The Want: Get ratio
Definition of “ The want : get ratio ”

Spread of frustration in society because they want

more than what they can get.
An American philosopher that study &
creates the achievement satisfaction
formula ( William James )
• What is the formula?

Satisfaction = Achievement / Aspirations

-This formula stress on the proposition of an individual satisfaction between
what he wants & what he gets.

• The effects of serious imbalance ( the want : get ratio ) in society:

-Eg : In some developing countries aspirations have risen so high until it revoke
the importance of achievement in the society.
• How does such an imbalance in ( the want : get ratio ) occur? How can it be
prevented or cured ?

By these 6 institutions that functions as the principle agencies of social change

1) economy
2) police
3) family
4) community
5) school
6) media
1) Economy

• Supply the economy to maintain reasonable equilibrium between achievement &

aspiration.

• If the want : get ratio can be balance by supplying all that people wants..

• There is no more frustration in our society cause they does not have any problems
in terms of money

2) Police

• Police settle the frustrations that arise in our society especially for social research

• Social research contribute in situations of over – achievement or under – aspiration

3) Family

• More complex agency of social change

• Typically in developing areas the family act as an instruments of conservatism

and the reduction of change.

4) Community

• A group of people that become the positive agents

• A powerful force that promote or impede balanced of growth in our society.

5) Schools

• They must teach what is new and modern to the students

• Their roles is important as an institutions & behavioral in our model of

modernization.

6) Mass media

• Major instruments of social change

• To perceive the communication crux of modernization

Three propositions that we must consider :

A) Mass media bring new aspiration to people

B) Despite the evident risk of frustration, the mass media continue to spread
around the world

C) The modernization
3. How and Why the Mass Media Spread
• Mass media affects modernization and democratic development

• Major condition which determine the mass media spread :

-Level of economic development in a country

• Condition that determine the functioning of all economic

processes : Capacity to produce & Capacity to consume
 Capacity to Produce

• Volume of products that can be generated by a

production plant or enterprise in a given period by using
current resources
• Items required to produced information via the mass media are
grouped under the three categories of plant, equipment,
personnel.

• The economic level of any country hinges also upon the quality
and quantity of its skilled personnel
 Capacity to Consume

• 3 factors determine whether the capacity to consume

media spreads & how fast in any country :
-Cash, Literacy, Motivation
MASS MEDIA AND POLITICAL
DEMOCRACY
Democratic governance comes late historically and typically appears as a
crowning institution of the participant society.

In countries which have achieved stable growth at a high level of

modernity the literate individual tends to be the newspaper reader, the
cash customer and the voter.

The media teaches people participation of this sort by depicting for them
new and strange situations and by familiarizing them with a range of
opinions among which they can choose.
The connection between mass media and political democracy is really
close.

People participate in the public life – having opinions about certain

matters.

The mechanism which links public opinion so intimately with political

democracy is reciprocal expectation.
4. From Vicious Circle to Growth Cycle
DEFINITION OF VICIOUS CIRCLE
A phrase used to characterize the situation in which no sustained economic
growth is possible because each specific advance is rapidly checked by some
counter-tendency in the social system.

DEFINITION OF COUNTER-TENDENCY
Counter-tendency is a natural or prevailing disposition to move, proceed, or act
in some direction toward some point (result).
Counter-tendency Excessive population growth
 How Excessive Population Growth Occurs?

R i c h c o unt r i e s
1. Any economic progress tends to prolong life by reducing famine (shortage of
food) & pestilence (a fatal epidemic diseases).
2. Reducing of these problems lead to decreasing of death rates.
3. At the same time, birth rates increases.

Low famine & pestilence Low death rates High birth rates
P o o r c o unt r i e s
1. Population growth leads economic growth by setting rates of increase
that must be attained.
2. The reason is that the society can live at its level of poverty.
3. Which then leads to:
- no surpluses (leftover) can be generated
- no tools and equipment
- no industry
- low standards of production
GROWTH CYCLE
 THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THEORIES

THAT LEADS TO DIFFERENT POLICIES & PROGRAMS

1. Balanced Growth Cycle

2. Disequilibria
 Balanced Growth Cycle

• Growth cycle reaches its climax where there is a real income collected by
the country
• Income rises rapidly enough to permit higher consumption and higher saving
 the cycle is initiated
• Real income acts as surpluses  increasing of demand and saving
• The process will be self-sustaining
 Disequilibria

• Higher income is not necessarily connected to high investment and

saving

• Some countries use the income as a:

- Consumption on the imported products
- For savings on the abroad investment
5. Looking Ahead
Our understanding begins with recognition that the revolution of
rising expectations has been a major casualty of the past decade.

Potential revolution of rising frustrations – produces aggression or

regression
Aggression in today’s transitional expresses itself through violence
based on moralistic but often inhumane ideologies.

Regression in these societies signals the return to apathy and the

narcosis of resignation.

Aggression among transitional people victimizes others, regression

victimizes themselves.
The future needs a new conception of public communication as the
crucial instrument which can promote psychic mobility, political stability
under conditions of societal equilibrium.