Ninth reading

Community media: International perspectives

Edited by: Linda K. Fuller

Ch. 5 - Use of television as a community media by farmers in Bangladesh

By: M. Abdul Kashem

This chapter presents a case study of how television used by farmers in Bangladesh enhances their knowledge of agriculture. I will skip out on mentioning the raw data facts and try to summarize what I found interesting.

In the beginning of this chapter the author talks generally about media and its uses in Bangladesh and explains how radio Bangladesh and Bangladesh television broadcasts shows to inform the rural masses about how they can develop their socioeconomic status. Thus suggesting that media is used as an educational tool for the people. Many of the programs that are shown focus on informing about education, agriculture, family life, religion, health, and the like.

The study that was conducted about television showed that 46% of 100 randomly selected farm families saw television as a highly useful information medium. This suggested that television was a highly useful tool to distribute information about agriculture. The author thoughts about this are that the government should take this into consideration and distribute television sets into the rural masses.

Though this chapter focuses on something that can seem way behind our own advanced media society, I still think that it’s important to take into consideration on how much power media holds. That using media technology in the right ways can improve the quality of life.