Traditional and Modern Media, Founders of Participatory Communication within Iran's Rural Society

Nowadays, decades after World War II, and passing the stages of reconstruction and dependency, the age of participation is started. In the meantime, the mono-directional top-to-down communication has changed into a bidirectional correlative one, so that the old-fashioned traditional model in which a limited population produced and messages and news should be changed into a model in which a vast population produces messages for a vast population. This condition, known as participatory communication, is due to the pervasive expansion of modern communication technologies in the rural areas. On the other hand, nowadays mass media, including radio, television, and magazines, applies an audience-oriented participatory strategy. This paper, using the perception of activists in rural participatory communications, including 412 managers and experts, 138 facilitators in agriculture propagations and rural centers of Women Issues all over the country, and 104 of beneficiaries of participatory plans of the province of Khoozestan, aims to verify the fact that traditional and modern media are appropriately capable of creating participatory communication within rural societies in Iran. Hence, by changing communication policies and propagation strategies, in order to include the audience and his/her active participation, the progress of moving toward the constant development of agriculture can be accelerated, and development communication can be achieved. In fact, development communication will be achieved by participatory communication in the rural society of Iran.