APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNICATION: DIFFUSION OF
INNOVATION, MAGIC MULTIPLIER &
EMPATHY
YASHASVIKA YADAV
 APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNICATION: DIFFUSION OF
INNOVATION
 Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory, developed by E.M.
Rogers in 1962, is one of the oldest social science theories. It
originated in communication to explain how, over time, an
idea or product gains momentum and diffuses (or spreads)
through a specific population or social system. The end result
of this diffusion is that people, as part of a social system,
adopt a new idea, behavior, or product.   Adoption means that
a person does something differently than what they had
previously (i.e., purchase or use a new product, acquire and
perform a new behavior, etc.). The key to adoption is that the
person must perceive the idea, behavior, or product as new or
innovative. It is through this that diffusion is possible.  
 DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION
 Adoption of a new idea, behavior, or product (i.e., "innovation")
does not happen simultaneously in a social system; rather it is a
process whereby some people are more apt to adopt the
innovation than others.   Researchers have found that people who
adopt an innovation early have different characteristics than
people who adopt an innovation later. When promoting an
innovation to a target population, it is important to understand the
characteristics of the target population that will help or hinder
adoption of the innovation. There are five established adopter
categories, and while the majority of the general population tends
to fall in the middle categories, it is still necessary to understand
the characteristics of the target population.
 DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION
 Innovators - These are people who want to be the first to try the innovation. They are
venturesome and interested in new ideas. These people are very willing to take risks,
and are often the first to develop new ideas.
 Early Adopters - These are people who represent opinion leaders. They enjoy
leadership roles, and embrace change opportunities. They are already aware of the need
to change and so are very comfortable adopting new ideas. Strategies to appeal to this
population include how-to manuals and information sheets on implementation.
 Early Majority - These people are rarely leaders, but they do adopt new ideas before
the average person. That said, they typically need to see evidence that the innovation
works before they are willing to adopt it.
 Late Majority - These people are skeptical of change, and will only adopt an
innovation after it has been tried by the majority.
 Laggards - These people are bound by tradition and very conservative. They are very
skeptical of change and are the hardest group to bring on board. Strategies to appeal to
this population include statistics, fear appeals, and pressure from people in the other
adopter groups.
 LIMITATIONS OF DIFFUSION OF
INNOVATION
 There are several limitations of Diffusion of Innovation
Theory, which include the following:
 Much of the evidence for this theory, including the
adopter categories, did not originate in public health and
it was not developed to explicitly apply to adoption of
new behaviors or health innovations.
 It does not foster a participatory approach to adoption of
a public health program.
 It doesn't take into account an individual's resources or
social support to adopt the new behavior (or innovation).
DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION
 DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION
 Some cultures tend to adopt new products more quickly than others, based on several factors: 
 Modernity:  The extent to which the culture is receptive to new things. In some countries,
such as Britain and Saudi Arabia, tradition is greatly valued—thus, new products often don’t
fare too well.  The United States, in contrast, tends to value progress.
 Homophily:  The more similar to each other that members of a culture are, the more likely an
innovation is to spread—people are more likely to imitate similar than different models.  The
two most rapidly adopting countries in the World are the U.S. and Japan.  While the U.S.
interestingly scores very low, Japan scores high.
 Physical distance:  The greater the distance between people, the less likely innovation is to
spread. 
 Opinion leadership:  The more opinion leaders are valued and respected, the more likely an
innovation is to spread.  The style of opinion leaders moderates this influence, however.  In
less innovative countries, opinion leaders tend to be more conservative, i.e., to reflect the
local norms of resistance.
 For example: Cashless transaction
 Digitization of Cable TV
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 Mass Media is called the magic multiplier as it can
multiply the messages and reach a number of people very
fast.
 Mass media are important in spreading awareness of new
possibilities and practices, but at the stage where
decisions are being made about whether to adopt or not
to adopt; personal communication is far more likely to be
influential. Therefore, the general conclusion of this line
of thought is that mass communication is less likely than
personal influence to have a direct effect on social
behaviour
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 Wilbur Schramm (1964), in his book ‘Mass Media and
National Development’ which was produced for UNESCO
became almost a blueprint (program of action) for
development communication. Schramm stated that content is
the key to their use in development. Social change of great
magnitude can be accomplished when people informed,
persuaded, educated.
 Information must flow at all levels so that they can participate
in the acts and decisions of nation building. He also argued
that each person would have requirement of information of the
work he would undertake, and there being millions of workers
would require information of various types.
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 We need magic multiplier for the following reasons:
 For social change of great magnitude, people must be informed,
educated, motivated and persuaded. Information must flow, not
only to them but also from them, so that their needs can be
known and they might participate in the acts and decisions of
nation-building.
 The available channels of communication like inter-personal,
group-communication, traditional media are incapable to
undertake this task, as this will require a lot of time and
resources. For a developing country, it’s difficult to gather a large
pool of resources and wait for such a long time. Mass media with
its magical reach can do this job in less time and resources.
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 The audit found that the mass media succeeded in
reaching a vast majority of population in less time and
resources.
 Mass media as a magic multiplier did a commendable job
in spreading awareness but it could not give expected
results in persuading and educating the targeted
population.
 It was found that persuasion, motivation and education
for/on something is best achieved by close interactions
which is possible in inter-personal, group-
communications etc.
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 The scholars have identified five stages in the
process of diffusion:
 Awareness: I-phone
 Interest
 Evaluation
 Trial
 Adoption
 MAGIC MULTIPLIER
 Social Media as Magic multiplier: (Advantages)
 Mobilization- Anna Hazare Movement
 Exchange and awareness of viewpoints- #metoo
 Social Media as Magic multiplier:
(Disadvantages)
 Armchair Activism
 Doesn’t reach grassroots- #metoo
 Digital Divide
 EMPATHY
 Empathy is an important communication skill
that has been shown to affect both individual
knowledge acquisition and interpersonal
relationships
 Empathy is a fundamental way in which we
comprehend and interact with the world around
us. Our ability to understand and relate to other
people is, in part, a function of the empathetic
process.
 EMPATHY
 How well we make rapid and accurate inferences about the feelings,
goals, attitudes, motivations, beliefs, intentions, and behaviors of
other people determines, to a large extent, what we contribute in a
specific social situation as well as our perceived value to other
human beings
 Empathy is the art of seeing the world as someone else sees it. When
you have empathy, it means you can understand what a person is
feeling in a given moment, and understand why other people's
actions made sense to them.
 Empathy helps us to communicate our ideas in a way that makes
sense to others, and it helps us understand others when they
communicate with us. It is one of the foundational building blocks of
great social interaction and, quite obviously, powerful stuff.
 EMPATHY & SYMPATHY
 The terms empathy and sympathy are often confused and with good
reason. Both of the words deal with the relationship a person has to the
feelings and experiences of another person.
 Nowadays, sympathy is largely used to convey commiseration, pity, or
feelings of sorrow for someone else who is experiencing misfortune. This
sense is often seen in the category of greeting cards labeled “sympathy”
that specialize in messages of support and sorrow for others in a time of
need. You feel bad for them. but you don’t know what it is like to be in
their shoes.
 Unlike sympathy, empathy has come to be used in a more broad way than
it was when it was first introduced; the term is now most often used to
refer to the capacity or ability to imagine oneself in the situation of
another, experiencing the emotions, ideas, or opinions of that person.