Communication and Change

In the summer of 1964, a group of scholars, representing the psychological and social sciences, met at the East-West Center to discuss the use of communication in economic and social development. The revised papers of that conference became the book Communication and Change in the Developing Countries, edited by Lerner and Schramm, published in 1967 by the East-West Center Press, and circulated widely in several editions.

The discussion that began in Honolulu in 1964 has continued ever since, by mail and in person. To many of the participants in that conference it began to seem in the 1970s that new information on the topic was so substantial, and changes in the situation so marked, that the conclusions of the 1964 meeting should be reviewed after ten years. Thus it came about that in early January of 1975, a few months more than a decade since the earlier meeting, a second conference was convened in the same room at the East-West Center, under the same chairmen and with a number of the 1964 participants, who were joined by other scholars. The purpose was to assess what has been learned in ten years concerning the use of communication in development, the changing needs of developing countries for communication support, and new priorities for communication expertise, communication research, and modern communication technology.

Out of that 1975 meeting has come this volume.