Socio-Economic status and impact of mass media exposure on banana farmers: A case study

Abstract

The main objective of the agricultural communication is to find out an effective transmission from one source to another and managing messages with meaningful communication purposes. The socio economic status of the clientele decides the exposure and utilization of mass media. Hence a study was conducted to assess the demographic characters of the banana growers and uses of mass media and their satisfaction level in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. About 750 questionnaires were distributed in five selected blocks (each block 150 questionnaires) such as Thottiayam, Lalgudi, Andanallur, Mannachanallur and Tiruverambur in Tiruchirapalli District. The socio-economic background of the respondents through the distribution of profile observed that most of the respondents belong to male (96.27%)followed by female (3.73%) were highly satisfied with the use of the different media which publish / telecast / broadcast farm related programmes by newspaper/ TV / radio/ new media. The findings state that the farmers are using media to watch agricultural programmes for cultivation of banana. Among the respondent’s divisions of age groups, middle age group category of 36 -55 years are highly (65.22%) involved in following the media information on banana cultivation. secondary/ higher secondary school (24.84 %) levels of educated respondents were involved more in banana cultivation. Hence designing programmes in mass media especially Radio, the socio economic profile of the listeners should be analyzed as pilot study.