Abstract:

The paper attempts to answer the questions - are farmers 'different' as an audience for persuasive communication? and do any differences impose a radically different approach and methodology on the communicator? The basis of the paper is consciously empirical rather than the result of formal analysis. The paper concludes that, like all groups to which persuasive communication is addressed, farmers have a unique 'culture' in the sociological sense. The problem is that whereas with other groups the communicator himself has some personal point of contact with the culture, the culture in which farmers live is notably 'foreign' to most communicators. The appropriate language and mechanisms of communication have to be learned through a sympathetic, even an empathetic understanding of the world in which the farmer lives.