Most of the "talk" about the role of mass media in the Third World is generated by politicians rather than by professional communicators. The "Developmental Play Model" treats media experience as an encounter with the "self" and considers the "self" as an integral part of the mass communication process. The Developmental Play Model calls for separation of communication from information, of opinion from fact. Development is measured in terms of the growth of the self and therefore deals with matters of self-image, motivation, pleasure, and the creation of, and pride in, culture. Information processing in this model is a phase that precedes attitude formation. The process starts at the psychological level, moves to the social level, and ends at the physical level. The Developmental Play Model consists of two major stages: one that shows how the process starts at the psychological reality level and one that probes the motivational process. A major difference between this model and the dominant linear models is that the former takes attitudes as its principal component while the latter takes information or messages as its principal component. The major contribution of this model is its attempt to solve the problem of motivation, by using local culture as a principal motivator to media exposure, rather than by importing foreign cultures. (Four figures and 12 notes are included, and 28 references are attached.) (MS)