1. What does Development Communication Meant?
Development Communication is defined in communication studies as an organized effort to increase control over resources and regulatory institutions by groups and movements of those hitherto excluded from those controls. It is a forum which educates and mobilizes masses to take active and intelligent participation in development activities with maximum efforts. It generally includes educating masses about their socio-economic environment, building self-reliance based on solidarity support and sharing, involvement of people in deliberations and decision making, motivating people to acquire an ability to manage conflicts and to build consensus and finally to help the people with interest aggregation and problem articulation.

2. What are the Scope and Areas of Work in Development Communication Sector?
The experience of the past sixty years has demonstrated the crucial importance of communication in the field of development. Within the perspective of development communication, two trends developed successively: an approach that favoured large-scale actions and relied on the mass media, and an approach that promoted grassroots communication (also called community communication), promoting small-scale projects and relying especially on small media (videos, posters, slide presentation, etc.).

Development communication is an extraordinarily broad field. It covers a wide range of topics, from the traditional themes of agriculture, health and public awareness, to newer areas such as governance, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), urban development, youth, and so on.

As far as the job prospects are concerned, having a Degree or Diploma in Development Communication, one can work as a Communication, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for major International or National Non-Government or Non-Profit Organizations. One can also work as a Consultant on part-time or assignment basis. You can also work as a Researcher, Extension Worker or as a Development Practitioner to deal with development problems and experimenting and implementing appropriate solutions.

3. How the PG Diploma in Development Communication is different from other communication and journalism courses? Who and how should one can take admission in this course?
The basic aim of the course is to train the students to strategize or plan communication activities based on participatory approaches including media and interpersonal communication channels which may facilitate a dialogue among different stakeholders involved in a development activity having a common development problem or goal by setting a number of activities to contribute to its solution, or its realization.

The Eligibility to take admission in these courses is generally a Bachelor’s in any stream having good understanding of socio-economic issues. The selection will be based on a Written Test of 85 Marks followed by a Personal Interview of 15 Marks. The question paper of written test is generally designed to assess the potential talent of the candidates, their aptitude, general awareness and views over a wide area of knowledge. Short listed candidates will be asked to appear for the Interview. One having a good knowledge of current happenings in development sector can get a selection. For more details kindly consult the website of MCRC www.ajkmcrc.org.

For any other queries kindly contact Dr. Pradeep Kumar, Course Coordinator of PG Diploma Program in Development Communication at his e-mail ID: pradeep.mcrc@jmi.ac.in or nairdevcom@yahoo.co.in