Mass Media and Symbolic Adoption Behavior of Rural Women

Abstract

The present study experimentally examines the effectiveness of mass media viz., radio, television, print, and internet in influencing the symbolic adoption behavior of rural women on rabbit farming technologies. The 144 rural women belonging to self-help groups of Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu, India formed the sample. Results indicated that all the four mass media formats were effective enough in convincing the respondents to mentally adopt the technologies. Of the technologies, 'recommended breeds' had higher percentage of adoption followed by feeding, housing, disease management and rabbitry management practices. There existed significant differences in the effectiveness of the four channels in 'recommended breeds' and 'feeding' technologies and the radio-exposed group had differed significantly from the other three groups in terms of symbolic adoption. While identifying radio as the most effective and superior treatment, this paper offers guidelines for extension agents while utilizing this medium.

Keywords: mass media, Internet, radio, television, newspaper, rabbit farming, symbolic adoption, India

JEL Classification: Q16