The Drum Beat 221 - What question do YOU ask?

This is an extra issue of The Drum Beat, published on this 5th Wednesday in October 2003, just because we wanted to share with you some interesting interaction recently experienced on The Communication Initiative.

In August 2003, we conducted a Pulse Poll that stated: The most important development communication question is "Why". The results were split just about down the middle: 48.94% of participants agreed with this sentiment, 44.68% disagreed and just 6.3 % were unsure - click here to see results or participate now. Though there were only 47 participants in total, the comments as to why people chose to agree or disagree were quite intriguing. We share with you just some of these comments below. For the full comments, please click here.

 

* Please note, the country in [brackets] is the respondents' country of origin, whenever this was indicated.

AGREE

"i agree because unless the why question is asked it is difficult to get the real methods of communication. here, asking the why means trying to identify the real problem as well as the method to tackle it. if the why question is not asked, in my opinion the communicator is using his instinict rather than his intellect. therefore, the why question is very important because it ensures how thoughtful is the action done by the subject. kulubrehan " [Eritrea]

"There must be a point at which we stop asking why, and address the issues that have unfolded, but we must first keep asking why until we have a shared sense of the problems at hand. " [USA]

"If you cannot answer the question "why" then you have not thought through what you are doing or what the intended and unintended consequences will be. This indicates not only poor planning but any outcome may range from ineffective to downright dangerous and/or desctructive. "

"The question 'why?' is asked after the other important questions such as What, When, where, who and how have been answered. This means, that a subject that has left doubts in the mind even after answering so many questions need better explanation. development communication questions are such. " 

"The objective of everything is the key to its success which is ususally brought out by answering the question WHY " [Kenya]

"this is because development is about knowing why and fixing the problem " [Nigeria]

"Because asking why? question It is a high level question which makes us learn and have communication " [Philippines]

"Because it start the thought process. other questions like, how, when etc. will come through this thought process. " [Bangladesh]

"'Why ?" is an open ended question and gives space for a person to explain his/her position" [Zimbabwe]

"whenever developing a communication plan for any iniitative I ask a series of questions. Who is our audience? where are they, how do we get to them, what are they likely to listen to etc. You have to know the audience to get your point across. Next question is What do we want them to do once they've gotten the message? Take action, forward the thought, revise their behavior? We need to know the objective of the communication. Finally, it's the same question over and over again...why why why why why? In answering the why questions we get to the REAL reason we are communicating. " [usa]

"Knowing yes and no is only a part the real answer is why for that will give the clue for the reason so that amends can be made" [India]

"I agree that "why" is the most important communication development question. "Hows" without "whys" that are grounded in clear goals simply wastes time and resources " [USA]

"The developmental process begins with questioning why a situation is the way it is. It is only in questioning "why" can we arrive at some answers from where we can begin our journey. The second question then is how we can improve or change the situation (the reason why things are the way the way). " [Ghana] 

DISAGREE

"I don't think you can say that one question is THE most important! The question "why", for example, is not very important unless you know "who" is involved, and "where" the issue is taking place. Communicating several questions together, as a complete discourse, is the most important development question. " [South Korea]

"What about "how much" ???"

"there is no answer to why because in the end we just are what we are and things are the way they are... boedhism is natures way...in Gestalt the only question allowed is however 'how'... maybe you can try posting the questionnaire again.. " [Mozambique]

"Why? can elicit a number of different kinds of responses--such as an academic or policy statement answer. Perhaps more to the point in trying to change people's lives --often through attitude or behavior change, is a question that makes the answer more relevant to individuals would be "What difference does it make? (if I change or help to effect change in my family/community etc.)?" I think it goes more directly to human motivation for change. "

"The most important development question for me is "how" because this connotes capacity building which wikll just include the why and the what and the when and thwe where along the process " [Philippines]

"I'd say it is more like 'how' because the processes used are such an important indicator that the communication will really have a positive impact for the audience/s involved. Eg if representatives from the target audience are involved in identifying need and developing content for any products, any products developed are more likely to meet a real need, to be more powerful and to be effective in bringing about some kind of change."

"It's not about the 'why' anymore. It's now much more framed by globalisation (increased inter-connectedness), which prompts the questions: 'how does what happens 'here' affect what happens 'there?', and especially about 'how does what I do affect others?' and 'what can I do to make things better?' " [UK]

"The primary goal of development communication should be change in behavior through collective action. The question "Why?" might lead to the best preparation for the journey, but nobody goes anywhere until somebody asks "How?" " [USA]

"the most important question is 'what....?' ... as in - 'what do you want to achieve?', the 'why?' is often banal in a world of such inequality, poverty and abuse of human rights."

"I think the most important question is "how." "How" helps you to see who and what is involved in bringing projects to successful conclusion, for understanding how people put their worlds together, what goes wrong and so forth." [USA]

"I would think the most important development communication question is 'how?', primarily because it needs to find the common denominator and to strike a chord in the target audience in order to be effective. The 'why?' is a given, information has to be disseminated, else what use does it have?" [Hong Kong]

""Why" is an important question, but used incaus\tiously, it only gets people to rationalise their thinking and response, and the answer they may just give you the answer they think is socially acceptable or rational. Getting people simply to describe thier feelings and attitudes at the time of the behaviour, without any pressure to explain themselves can also be very revelatory." [South Africa]

"Why is an important question, but not an appropriate approach. Why connotes judgment. It implies that perhaps there were a better alternative but WHY was another path chosen instead. "Why do are so many people infected with HIV?" The most important development communication question is how. How allows one to ask, how did we get here and how do we get where we want to be. "How do so many people get infected with HIV? How do we prevent infections?" How is much more open and hence informative than than why." [United States]

"The question why alone will not give a holistic view to what ever needs understanding. In development I think personally you first need to understand what is the problem so "WHAT" becomes the key and "who" which will help who is affected and are they affected and who is responsible for what. Then once you understand what the problem is you ask what is the solution to the problem and again who should do what and when, when is also important in understanding the seriousness and extent of the problem. So to me there is a set of very important questions in developmnet and these are what, who, when, how and why. In fact is important for every step and with out the what, how and who and when it is not very useful." [South Africa]

"Difficult to compete with a simple "why", but still, I think it is: "How can good and bad practices be communicated to those who will vote for the next government?" - we need incentives for the good boyz. Most promising way are MDG indicators, see http://esl.jrc.it/envind/mdg.htm, but PRSP's also have an important role in this attempt to install "public accountability" for the use of development resources" [Belgium]

"I prefer "Why not?". We do not sufficiently challenge ourselves to look at innovative ways of meeting needs." [France]

""Why" constrains us into an eternally reactive and developing mode. Most of the population is only beginning to benefit from all forms of technological/social/economic ICT Interventions. At this juncture of human evolution, the question should be "How"?" [India]

"the "Who" is the most important development Communication question" [Philippines]

UNSURE 

"I think this is a good point, although in my experience the most important question is Who? Who can and does communicate and with whom? Who determines what is important in a project? And so on." [England]

"Before the 'why' there should be the 'what'. If there is no clue as to what development or advancement project is coming, the 'why' will not be forthcoming." [Mauritius]

 

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