Development-oriented what?

Entering the world of Development Communication is a very new experience and feeling for me. I never thought that it would be really different from the things that I experienced during my Press Conference days. Writings and tasks are never that easy. Readings are never that short and easy to understand – a lot of analyses required and a lot of coffee to keep you awake. However, I find the tasks exciting. But then again, looking for and choosing a topic is a really hard decision to make.

A lot of confusion can really get in your way when choosing a topic. You may think that a topic is development-orientated, but it is really not. Now, here is something that can help you out to sort development-oriented topics from those that are not.

• Purposive – Your topic must not only be written and published but it must be written and published with a purpose. We do not only write to inform but to also influence others’ behavior on how to decide or act upon a certain issue. Whatever purpose your topic and your write-up might serve, always remember that we all must have desirable outcomes, targets and specific goals as to why we chose and wrote about a certain topic.

• Pragmatic – After setting our purpose and goals while using your topic, we have to make sure that our topic can be result-orientated. We need to make sure that we will be leaving an impression or an impact to the readers. Our topics must always be relevant to our chosen audience (know thy audience) for us to know how to stir up and generate results from them.

• Valuable – Last but not the least, always make sure that your topic is valuable and worth it. No matter how good you wrote your write-up if it is not something worth remembering or something that does not appeal to the audience, then your work will go to waste. It must be something that concerns a lot of people – their values and their ideas. The audience must also think that the topic is also important for them for you to achieve your goals and receive you results.

Well, topics can be development-orientated in a lot of ways. Basically, in development communication, we assume that there is an attached value in every message that one communicates (Jamias, 1975). As long as our aim is to reach and promote development through communication and through our writing, we are slowly reaching our goal to being the best version of our ideal development communicator.