This study examines economic development in Third World countries and the use of portable video systems in development projects. The study, conducted in 1985, attempts to measure the level of effectiveness of videotape programs as a communication tool for training rural subsistence women in Honduras in technical aspects of pig-keeping. Classical communication and development models posit a downward, vertical process from small elite to mass of receivers. Participatory communication, however, suggests the involvement of marginal groups in their own social and economic futures. From the 1940s to the early 1970s, development theories shifted from emphasizing modernization toward more choice-based economic and public-policy approaches. Most modernization programs today continue to support a relationship in which one group is economically maintained at the expense of another. International development programs develop national modernization projects that often fail to incorporate effective input from local people. By entering the global market, developing nations often deny themselves opportunities for economic self-sufficiency. It may be possible to have successful small-scale development programs which help promote self-sufficiency among marginal groups without requiring the dramatic economic, political, and social changes necessary for modernization. Advanced video technology widens opportunities for improved participatory communication. The concluding chapter suggests that the Honduran women understood and used the videotaped pig-keeping information. It recommends changes in the videotape project, however, to make it more participatory and more responsive to local needs. A bibliography with over 80 items is followed by extensive appendixes which include a questionnaire given to the Small Scale Livestock Project population who went to the United States. (TES)