Fundamentals of Extension Education

Channel

III. CHANNEL
Channel of communication constitutes the medium through which information flows from a sender to one or more receivers. Face to face, word of mouth is the simplest and yet one of the most widely use and effective means of communication, particularly for the developing countries.
As society changes from traditional to modern, the communication channel changes from oral to media system. Because of the large member of audience or receivers of information and because of physical distance of the communicator and the receivers of information, it is necessary to use different media of communication. Even in interpersonal, face to face, word to mouth communication, it becomes necessary to use some aids to make communication more effective.

The channels of communication may be classified into a number of ways according to different criteria.
According to form
Spoken: Farm and home visit, office call, meeting of all kinds, radio talk etc.
Written: Personal letter, farm publications, news paper etc.
According to nature of personnel involved
Personal localite :
They are the local leaders and local people who belong to receivers own social system. Personal localite channels are important in traditional social system.
Personal cosmopolite :
These are the channels of communication from outside the social system of the receiver. They are the extension workers of various organisations and are important in changing the farmers from traditional to modern.
Impersonal cosmopolite : 
Here the channels of communication are from outside the social system of the receiver and at the same time no personal face to face contact is involved. These are mass media, which are important in areas of high urban influence and farmers who are modern or are changing from traditional to modern.
According to nature of contact with the people
Individual contact :
The extension worker communicates with the people individually, maintaining separate identity of each person.
Examples are farm and home visit, office call, personal letter etc.
Group contact :
The extension worker communicates with the people in groups are not as individual persons.
Examples are group meeting, small group training, field day or field visit, study tour etc.
Mass contact :
The extension worker communicates with a mass of people without taking into consideration, their individual or group identity.
Examples are mass meeting, campaign, exhibition, radio, television etc.
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