Creativity
Fuel For the Future of the Field of Development Communication
Abstract
This article emphasises and argues for the importance of purposeful creativity enhancement
and its strategic role in communicative actions (i.e. Phase P conceptualisation of the POD framework) to fuel the future of the field of development communication for social justice in directed change. Development efforts, in the last 80 years has yielded a mixed bag of results. Development communication has moved and progressed from many dominant conceptual frameworks such as modernisation, participation, empowerment, and most recently social justice to best facilitate critical social change. The POD framework is an up-to-date and robust framework for understanding the complex and dynamic field of development communication for social justice in directed change. This conceptual article argues for incremental advances by systematically including creativity into the equation and justifying its relevance and importance to fuel the future of development communication. Phase P brings together the traditional as well as radical communicative actions from areas such as participatory action research, community organisation, action research, and other related models. At the core of all these communicative actions is the creation of communicative content or messages that are highly impactful. This essay will elaborate and detail how creativity and creative skills are central to various aspects of these communicative actions. Creativity is commonly perceived as the ability to come up with novel and useful solutions. However, creativity is more than that. Creativity has an inherent enriching attribute. This sort of enrichment is enabling and empowering, and therefore, the inclusion of creativity and systematic enhancement of creativity in the field of development and social change is conceptually and theoretically crucial. In simpler words, to further the car named world development, we have no choice but to inject the fuel of creativity.
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