EFFECTIVENESS OF MASS MEDIA ON PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF FARMERS IN KHEDA DISTRICT OF GUJARAT STATE
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Date
1997
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AAU, Anand
Abstract
Present age is the age of science and technology and we need an effective communication media to transfer the technology to the farmers' fields. So far, mass media have emerged as the best mass communication avenues throughout the world and India has also witnessed its vast potential since its inception in our country. It is recognised that if progress has to be achieved in agriculture, the farmers are to be modernised in knowledge, attitude, adoption and other psychological attributes. Mass media communication has been considered as an important element for the development of psychology of the rural people. Kheda district is one of the most progressive districts in Gujarat state. The farmers in this district have been exposed to mass media for substantial period. It was therefore, with a view to studying effectiveness of mass media on the psychological attributes of farmers in Kheda district of Gujarat state, the present study was carried out with following specific objectives. 1. To study the level of mass media exposure of the respondents. 2. To know the psychological attributes of the respondents. 3. To study the variation in different psychological attributes among two categories of the respondents. 4. To find out the relationship between selected psychological attributes and level of mass media exposure of the respondents. 5. To study the suggestions expressed by the respondents for the improvement in their mass media exposure. The present study was conducted in randomly selected twelve villages of Anand and Nadiad talukas of Kheda district. A sample of 120 farmer respondents, having their own TV and Radio sets and cultivated tobacco as a major crop was selected for the study. The data were collected with the help of interview schedule by conducting personal interview. For the measurement of dependent and independent variables, appropriate scales developed and adopted by other research workers were used with due modifications. The statistical tools used for analysis of the data were percentage, mean, standard deviation, 't' test and co-efficient of correlation. The important findings of the study are summarised as under : 1. Majority (55.00 per cent) of the respondents had favourable mass media exposure. 7 The respondents with favourable mass media exposure were significantly superior to the respondents with unfavourable mass media exposure in psychological attributes viz., level of aspiration, educational aspiration for son, role taking empathy, non-fatalism, cosmopoliteness, economic motivation, risk orientation, scientific orientation, market orientation, credit orientation, innovation proneness, attitude towards modem agricultural practices, knowledge about HYV bidi tobacco cultivation, adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization. 3. The variables namely mass media exposure, level of aspiration, risk orientation, adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with favourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their knowledge. 4. The variables viz., occupation, education, mass media exposure, non-fatalism, cosmopoUteness, risk orientation, credit orientation, adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with mifavourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their knowledge about HYV bidi tobacco cultivation. 5. The variables namely mass media exposure, level of aspiration, scientific orientation, market orientation, knowledge of HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with favourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their level of adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation. 6. The variables namely education, mass media exposure, role taking empathy, non-fatalism, cosmopoliteness, risk orientation, credit orientation, knowledge about HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with unfavourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their level of adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation. 7. The variables namely scientific orientation, credit orientation, innovation proneness, attitude towards modern agricultural practices, knowledge about HYV bidi tobacco cultivation, adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with favourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their mass media exposure. 8. The variables namely occupation, risk orientation, market orientation, credit orientation, innovation proneness, knowledge about HYV bidi tobacco cultivation, adoption of recommended HYV bidi tobacco cultivation and overall modernization of the respondents with unfavourable mass media exposure were significantly correlated with their mass media exposure. 9. Local farmers should be involved while, formulating TV and Radio programmes, more emphasis should be given to the local crops, more success stories should be telecast and broadcast, articles should be timely and written in more simple language with short paragraphs and short sentences were the important suggestions expressed by the respondents for the improvement of their mass media exposure.
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Extension Education, Agriculture, A Study