Communication Theory in Australian Development Policy and Aid Context

This report examines communication theory in the context of Australian development policy and aid. It begins by outlining the rationale behind Australian development aid, including poverty reduction, international stability, and private sector growth. The report identifies key audiences for persuasion, including private companies, athletes, musicians, and various governments such as Norway, the Netherlands, and the United States, along with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like BRAC and Oxfam. The report then presents specific messages tailored to different audiences, differentiating between easy-to-sell and hard-to-sell messages. It explores communication problems such as assumptions and indirectness and how structural communication theories can help solve them by organizing information and providing a broader view of human communication. The report outlines a step-by-step approach to selling difficult messages and concludes by emphasizing the importance of structural communication theories in understanding, organizing, and planning for effective communication within the context of Australian development aid.

COMMUNICATION THEORY
By: student’s Name

INTRODUCTION
Communication is a process of passing a message from one person to another.
 Communication being a procedure involves various elements which the individual parties
involved must adhere in order to achieve the objective of their communication (Giles, 2016)
The content of this paper therefore exploits the theory of communication in relation to the
context of Australian development policy and aid.
To achieve this, the content of the present answers various question as herein.

WHY DO WE HAVE DEVELOPMENT AND
AID IN AUSTRALIA?
The major validations as to why we have development and aid in Australia include:
Development and aid helps in the promotion of prosperity of people within the country and internationally
 The Australian aid policy was also established to reduce poverty at the domestic and international level
 And to enhance stability as well as provide a guiding framework which makes any performance count (Corbett & Dinnen, 2016).
To ensure private sector growth
Promotion of the country’s interest internationally through sustainable economic development contribution

WHO ARE THE PARTIES TO BE PERSUADED
TO GIVE DEVELOPMENT AID IN AUSTRALIA?
Private company owners
Athletes and football players
Musicians

WHICH GOVERNMENTS?
Norway,
 Netherlands,
 United Kingdom
Germany
France,
 Luxembourg,
 China, and
Denmark
United States of America
 Italy, and Finland
 The government of South Korea
Canada,
Spain and Switzerland (Cole & Parry, 2017).

DO THESE COUNTRIES SHARE
SIMILAR MOTIVES WITH AUSTRALIA
These countries works to attain human development,
Ensure private sector growth,
 And promote their interests international through sustainable economic
development contribution

NON-GOVERNMENTAL AUDIENCES WORTH TARGETING IN
THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES APART FROM AUSTRALIA
These NGOs include,
 BRAC Bangladeshi
Bill Melinda Gates Foundation headquartered in Seattle
Doctors without borders located in Geneva Switzerland
 And Oxfam international located in England

IDENTIFY MESSAGES TO BE
SOLD TO WHICH AUDIENCES?
• Audience in Australia:
Message #1: doing good to the poor people within our nation and overseas helps them and
help us too.
Message # 2: share your happiness with others.
Message #3: our development aid is not cash, it is doing good things through the Australian
expertise.
• Message to other countries:
Message #4: alleviation of poverty overseas eliminates poverty at home.
Message #5: supporting development overseas through development aid eliminates threats at
home.

IDENTIFY MESSAGES THAT WILL BE
EASY TO SELL AND MESSAGES THAT
WILL BE HARD TO SELL?
Easy to sell:
Message #1: doing good to the poor people
within our nation and overseas helps them
and help us too.
Message # 2: share your happiness with
others.
Message #4: alleviation of poverty
overseas eliminates poverty at home.
Hard to sell
Message #3: our development aid is not cash it is doing
good things through the Australian expertise.
Message #5: supporting development overseas through
development aid eliminates threats at home.

IDENTIFY YOU COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS = MESSAGES
YOU NEED TO SELL, BUT WHICH ARE HARD TO SELL?
• Problem One:
Assumption and misinterpretation
• Problem Two:
 Being indirect

HOW CAN COMMUNICATION THEORIES
HELP US SOLVE SUCH PROBLEMS?
 Structural Communication theories are very critical in the understanding of communication and its process.
The knowledge gained from structural theories of communication would therefore help in solving the problems
noted above.
To begin with, Structural Communication theories helps with the organization of information based on
understanding of the individual audience communication experience.
Another function of Structural Communication theories is to provide a broader view and understanding of
human communication process (Blakar, 2018).
Therefore, through understanding of the process, problems such as giving of indirect message could be avoided.
Moreover, these communication theories provide a foundation for an individual to evaluate the communication
process and the message to be communicated before passing the message eliminating errors such as ambiguity.

HOW TO SELL MESSAGES THAT ARE HARD
TO SELL?
The design I will use to sell the message #3 and #5 is as below:
Step 1: Understand the audience who are not able to figure out the meaning of the message
Step 2: Listen to their reasoning and concerns
Step 3: Recast the erroneous assumption and misinterpretations
Step 4: Make the message interesting
Step 5: Provide interpret the message statement to the audience through a simple description

IDENTIFY COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS
THAT CANNOT BE SOLVED.
• Some of the communication problems which I believe cannot be solved include
Bad interpersonal relationship
And the lack of knowing which leads to negativity.

CONCLUSION
 Structural communication theories are important in the understanding, organizing and planning for communication.
 This communication theory communication has various functions the enable an individual to avoid simple
communication mistakes.
 The communication problems involved in the development aid in the above content would have been avoided through
the application skills and knowledge acquired from the understanding of meta-communication.
 Moreover, it is notable from the content that the application of knowledge from structural theories of communication
is critical creation and selling of pieces of information that were difficult to sell.

REFERENC
E
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