Design of a ‘rural information environment’ model

摘要

This paper focuses on a multipurpose model that has been developed in an attempt to reflect the ‘rural information environment’ using basic concepts and principles of rural sociology, rural psychology, communication journalism, statistics and management. A novel approach has been made to pool together all the possible determinants that make up the ‘rural information environment’. The interrelationships among these determinants have been probed and established. The model has been segmented into various phases and the process involved in the flow of information through a route connecting a wide network of diverse determinants in each phase is explained in great detail. Other salient aspects are: practical applicability of the model, features of the contemporary rural information environment and the predominance of internal information in it; uses of the environment; exogenous and endogenous forces influencing the environment; trends and shifts in the environment; examples cited to illustrate the critical concepts of the model; issues for further study and investigation.