Awareness Regarding Mass Media among Rural and Urban Women: A Comparative Study

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Page: 684-689

Himanshi¹, Jatesth Kathpalia², Rashmi Tayagi³, Jyotika⁴, and Ajay Sharma⁵ (Department of Sociology, College of Basic Science and Humanities, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana^1,2,3,4 and Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Basic Science and Humanities, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana⁵)

This study outlines the related socioeconomic aspects and examines the degree of mass media awareness among rural and urban women in the Hisar area of Haryana, India. A sample of 120 women, 60 from rural and 60 from urban areas, was chosen using a descriptive research approach. Frequency, percentage, t-tests, and chi-square tests were used to gather and analyze the data. 41.66% of the women showed a high level of mass media awareness, according to the data, with urban women showing noticeably greater awareness than their rural counterparts (53.00% vs. 30.00%). Compared to urban women (16.66%), a greater proportion of rural women (55.00%) exhibited low awareness. Several socio-economic variables, such as material possessions (χ²=33.740, p<0.01), age (χ²=8.058, p<0.05), socio-economic impact (χ²=11.690, p<0.05), social participation (χ²=20.252, p<0.05), education (χ²=5.548, p<0.05), family type (χ²=10.088, p<0.05), and family size (χ²=11.434, p<0.05) were found to be significantly correlated with mass media awareness, according to chi-square analysis. On the other hand, there was no discernible correlation between awareness and occupation, landholding, caste, or annual income. The study emphasize the differences in rural and urban women’s awareness of the media, highlighting the impact of socioeconomic circumstances. It emphasizes how crucial focused treatments and educational programs are to raising media awareness and literacy, especially among rural women. These results are consistent with earlier studies showing the important influence of socioeconomic position and education on media awareness.