Examines various influences on the dominant paradigm that ruled intellectual definitions of development through the late 1960's. Chronicles the emergence of a newer conception of development which implies a different role for communication than the usual top-down development approach of the past. (MH)

Although communication research in China is in an early stage of development, an increasing number of training/research activities exist in universities and institutes. The 1982 Beijing Audience Survey, the first large-scale communication field study in China, reports how mass media audiences (newspaper, radio, and television) are rapidly…