A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF COMMUNICATION ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN A SELECTED RURAL COMMUNITY IN EAST JAVA, INDONESIA
BATARA-GOA, AMBROSIUS WAROUW; EDD
EAST TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY, 1983
EDUCATION, AGRICULTURAL (0517)
Purpose of the Study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact
of communication on the
acceptance of agricultural-technological innovations in a rural Indonesian community.
The independent
variables were identified as the following: peers, extension agents, local civil
administrators, school
teachers, commercial farm salesmen, radio, printed matter, demonstration, and
exhibition. The
intervening variables were formal education, economic status, age, length of
farming experience, and
size of farm operation. Procedure. The data were collected from an interview
guide administered by
personal interviews with 362 farmers in the Batu District, East Java, Indonesia
in the spring of 1982. The
chi-square test and correlation analysis were used to test hypotheses. Partial
correlation and stepwise
multiple regression were also used to analyze the data. Factor analysis was
employed for exploratory
purposes. Major Findings. The results of the study included the following: (1)
Interpersonal
communication channels were utilized at all stages in the innovation-decision
process. Mass-media
channels were mainly used at the awareness stage. (2) Correlation analysis revealed
that utilization of
communication channels, formal education, and economic status were positively
related to the
acceptance of agricultural-technological innovations while age and length of
farming experience were
both negatively related to the dependent variable. (3) Multiple regression analysis
indicated that
communication contributed the highest percentage (79.83 percent) to the total
variance explained in the
acceptance of technological innovations. (4) Through the use of varimax orthogonal
rotation, two distinct
factors were extracted: time span and education. Calculated on the basis of
their eigen values, time span
and education accounted for 74.44 percent and 26.66 percent, respectively, of
the common variance in
the data. Conclusions. Major conclusions of this study included the following:
(1) The effectiveness of
communication in extension work depended significantly on the farmers' level
of formal education. (2)
Each communication channel performed a specific or a number of functions in
the innovation-decision
process. Mass-media channels were of prime importance in changing the cognitive
levels while
interpersonal communication channels affected attitudinal changes. (3) Radio
was of prime importance
among the four mass-media channels in terms of its utilization as a source of
farm information.
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