Reports on a study designed to discover the nature of the flow of messages about recommended agricultural practices first introduced through the mass media in a developing country, and to explore the role opinion leaders plan in the process. (GW)

Five propositions, to be considered topics for further cross-cultural research, are discussed. It is recommended that questions of who has information and what causes information to flow should be examined before studying the operative value of any particular flow pattern in a setting. The propositions are: (1) the flow of information (two-step or…

Personal interviews were conducted in July, 1967, with 315 farm operators in rural Brazil where the local extension service had been in operation for more than four years. Patron-dependence (PD) was described as the subscription to a value system, according to the individual's position in the status structure, which produces dependency at…

Selected findings from a number of communication research projects conducted by, or in collaboration with, the Economic Studies and Research Institute (IEPE), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are reported. Communication research in IEPE during the past 4 years has concentrated on mass media performance and use, because extension…