Metatheoretical perspectives on satellite television and development in India

Noshir Contractor, Arvind Singhal, Everett M. Rogers · Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · 1988

The role and impact of satellite television in the recent national development of India is explored from four metatheoretical viewpoints: the utopian view that technology is intrinsically good for humankind, the dystopian view that technology is an unmitigated curse, the neutral view that technology per se has no important effects on society, and the contingency view that the potentially desirable and undesirable impacts of a technology are differentially determined by the context in which the technology is introduced at a particular time. The contingency viewpoint is stressed and used to analyze the Kheda experimental communication project in rural India.

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