Submitted to: Dr. Siverlyn Camposano, Ph.

D
Submitted by: Sir Shawn Marcel Medina
Chapter 1: SOCIETAL PROBLEMS

A Third World Legacy

The problems that our generation of baby boomers attempted to solve 30 years ago are still
virulent as ever. Living in a developing country, you have been encountered these condition on a
daily basis. There is a strong tendency for us to become insensitive or desensitized to these problems.
As student of development communication is important for us to resist this tendency. An unrelenting
awareness and consciousness of these problems provides the impetus for our practice.
Third World Problems
Development sociologists would tell us that problems such as the ones described in the prologue are
pervasive in the third world and hence associated with under development. Decades of
development experience prove that they come in cluster, occurring and recurring with alarming
consistency and tenacity like a collective nightmare that refuses to pass. The virulent nature of these
problems has desensitized our society. What is more alarming is the pathetic attitude adopted by
many of us.
The Dev Com Response
Development communication grew in response to these societal problems. One of its
underlying assumptions is that these problems may be traced to root cause and these root causes
may in turn be remedied by information and communication.

Problems
What exactly are the problems that plague developing societies?
How grave, how profound are their imprints on our lives?
Poverty
The most menacing of these problems is poverty. Poverty is a problem that brings with it a host of
other virulent problems, such as societal instability, vices and diseases. Being poor means being
unable to eat properly, clothe yourself properly, purchase medicine for your ailments, or dwell in a
safe comfortable shelter.
Unemployment
You are unemployed when you do not earn a living. You are underemployed when your job requires
skills that are way below what you trained for. Consequently, you are paid way below your worth.
High Population Growth
World population has reached the 6th billion mark and is rapidly increasing; reflect for a moment that
at the end of the 18th century, there were only 900million people in the entire world. This nearly
doubled a century later with 1.6billion. Today, however, after another hundred ears, this figure
ballooned almost four times.
Inequality
Contrary to myth, all men are not created equal. Some are born rich, some are born poor. Some are
born healthy; others are born with the specter of disease continually haunting them. However,
everyone should be equally provided with the opportunity to develop, to realize his or her full
potential.
Environmental Degradation and the Loss of Arable Land
The Philippines should not be poor. It is very rich in natural resources. Being in the tropical zone, it is
also over rich in genetic resources. Biodiversity is of the fall marks of its major ecosystem – upland,
lowland, and coastal. Yet these ecosystems are surely being degraded at an alarming rate.
Malnutrition
According to food researchers malnutrition wears two faces: under nutrition and over nutrition. Under
develop countries are cursed with the former while the latter is prevalent in the West where the poor,
who cannot afford gyms and duct programs, are obese.
Societal Priorities
Giving the gravity and extent of our societal problems, one would think that a concerted and
comprehensive effort to solve all these problems would be conducted by the community of nations.
It deed several initiatives have been formed, particularly during the turn of the millennium.
Chapter 2: Under development Problematique

The Vicious Cycle of Poverty

The poverty cycle can be called the "development trap" or "poverty trap" when it is applied to
countries.