Effectiveness of Agricultural Television Programs as Perceived by Audiences: The Case of Fars Province

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural television programs based on farmers’ perspective in Fars province and to distinguish its effective factors. This was an applied research using survey technique. The study population included 280,000 farmers in Fars province that 397 of them were selected as research sample group based on stratified random sampling method. Questionnaire was used for collection of data. Its validity was approved by an expert’s panel. In order to determine reliability, a pilot study was conducted, which revealed that the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for different scales used in the study to range from 0.6 to 0.95. Perse’s model was used to investigate effectiveness of provincial agricultural television programs. Findings revealed that low percent of farmers are as the programs audiences. According to the programs audiences, provincial agricultural television programs have been evaluated about medium level regarding direct, conditional and overall effects and they have been evaluated less than medium toward cumulative and cognitive effects. Variables that have had the most important roles in predicting audiences’ opinion toward effectiveness of the programs are: Satisfaction toward provincial television network; audiences’ goals to pay attention to programs; and trust in provincial programs. Findings revealed that among audiences’ agricultural information resources, television has the forth rank. Some applicable recommendations is presented at the end of article to enhance programs effectiveness and improve program attraction for audiences.