Locale, Population and Sample The study was conducted in Kalihati Upazila of Tangail district. The area was selected because of availability of a handful number of fish farmers in different unions (local administrative unit, consisted of a few villages), while fair availability of mass media and facilities in the Upazila was reported by the concerned Upazila Fisheries Officer. This Upazila was purposively selected based on the above criteria and other management issues of the research. Out of eleven unions of the Upazila, Birbasinda union was randomly selected as the specific study location. All fish farmers of the Birbasinda union were the population of the study. An up to date list of all fish farmers of the union was prepared by the help of UFO (Upazila Fisheries Officer) and assistants of the UFO office. Records were checked for this purpose and it was found that there were 367 fish farmers in the union in June 2015. These 367 fish farmers constituted the population of the study. From this population, 33% or one-third of the fish farmers, i.e. 120 fish farmers were selected as the sample for the study. Random sampling method was used to select the farmers to be used as sample of the study. A reserve list of 37 fish farmers (10% of the population) was also prepared for using in case of unavailability of the sample farmers during data collection.
Variable and their Measurements The focus variable of the study was the extent of use of selected mass media by the fish farmers in receiving technological information. Six mass media were selected for the study, namely radio, television, farm magazine, leaflet and smart phone for using internet. A four point rated scale was developed by using the six mass media. Each respondent was asked to indicate her/his extent of using a specific media for receiving technological information by indicating any one of the four responses viz. “frequently”, “less frequently”, “rarely” and “not at all”, while scores were assigned as 3, 2, 1 and 0, respectively. Finally, for measuring extent of use score, the obtained scores of a respondent against all selected media were summated together. Thus, the use score could range from 0 to 18, where 0 indicating no use of mass media and 18 indicating highest level use of mass media in receiving technological information by fish farmers. In order to make a comparison of use among the mass media, a “Media Use Index” was developed by using the following formula:
Media Use Index= N1×3+N2×2+N3×1+N4×0
where, N1= Number of the ‘frequently’ responses N2= Number of ‘less frequently’ responses N3= Number of ‘rarely’ responses N4= Number of ‘not at all’ respons
On the other hand, nine characteristics of the fish farmers were selected for the investigation. They were age, education, family size, farm size, pond size, annual income, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness and attitude towards use of mass media. Standard methods were used for measuring the selected characteristics.
Data Collection and Analysis Data were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire during September, 15 to October, 20, 2015. SPSS software was used for data management and analysis. Descriptive statistical measures were used to describe th data as and where possible. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses of the study.