NATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FOUR BRITISH COLONIES - NIGERIA, GUYANA, SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG (MASS MEDIA, NEWSPAPER)

This study examines the roles of mass communication in development in Nigeria, Guyana, Singapore and Hong Kong. These four societies all once had the British colonial experience except Hong Kong which is still a British colony. The major research question is why Singapore and Hong Kong have developed at a faster pace than Nigeria and Guyana in the last four decades despite their similar politico-economic settings after the Second World War. A better integration of the societies of Singapore and Hong Kong is one explanation among others accounting for the faster rate of development in Hong Kong and Singapore. Mass communications is thought to play a part in the process of integration.;The methodology of content analysis of newspapers was combined in this study with an historical analysis of press development. The major focus was on newspapers. The first finding was that in all the four societies studied, the newspapers have played a dual role of disintegration as well as integration since the last century. At the present stage, the press is playing a role contributory to the goal of nation-building through a deemphasis of the socially disruptive issues of class and ethnicity. Second, the hypothesis that mass communication serves to legitimize existing social inequality was not supported. The press in the last century seemed to have played a greater role in disintegrating and integrating the people for the goal of nation-building than legitimizing existing inequality. Third, the practice of development journalism was not found to be positively correlated with economic growth. They were found instead to be negatively correlated. The practice of development journalism is probably due to the desire of the developing countries to use the media to promote their economy rather than because of a real effect of the media in improving the economy. Fourth, the hypothesis that authoritarianism/totalitarianism and development journalism are positively correlated was rejected. Finally, the thesis of an orderly progression of the media from an elitist stage to a popular stage and then to a specialized stage, delineated in terms of target audience, was confirmed. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).