Communication — Agriculture Extension & Communication Reviewer Questions

Sample Communication questions with answers and explanations

Board-style items taken from the Agriculture Extension & Communication bank. Every answer is explained, which is the part that makes a review question worth doing twice.

1. In the sender-message-channel-receiver model, an extension worker uses technical terms farmers do not know. Where has the breakdown occurred?

   • A. The channel -- the wrong medium was chosen
   • B. Decoding -- the farmers failed to interpret correctly
   • C. Feedback -- no response was requested
   • D. Encoding -- the message was framed outside the receiver's field of experience correct

   Why: Communication succeeds only where the fields of experience of sender and receiver overlap. Choosing terms outside that overlap is an encoding failure, and it is the sender's responsibility. Blaming the receiver's decoding reverses where the fault lies.

2. An extension worker speaks for an hour and never asks a question. Which element of the communication process is absent, and what is the consequence?

   • A. Feedback -- the worker cannot know whether the message was understood correct
   • B. The channel -- no medium was used
   • C. The message -- nothing was communicated
   • D. The receiver -- the farmers were not present

   Why: Without feedback the loop is open and communication is assumed rather than verified. Feedback is what converts transmission into communication, and its absence is why a technically perfect presentation can leave an audience unchanged.

3. A message on pesticide safety is broadcast in Filipino to a community that speaks mainly Ilocano. What barrier is operating?

   • A. A physical barrier arising from distance
   • B. A semantic barrier arising from language correct
   • C. A psychological barrier arising from fear
   • D. An organisational barrier arising from hierarchy

   Why: Semantic barriers concern meaning -- language, jargon, ambiguity. The signal arrives perfectly well but is not understood, which is a different failure from one of reach. Extension materials in the local dialect address this directly.

4. Farmers distrust a message about a new pesticide because it comes from the company selling it. Which source characteristic is deficient?

   • A. Expertise, since the company knows its product
   • B. Attractiveness of the presentation
   • C. Credibility, specifically trustworthiness correct
   • D. Similarity of the channel to farmers

   Why: Source credibility has two components, expertise and trustworthiness. The company plainly has expertise but a commercial interest undermines trust. This is why an independent extension service can carry a message the manufacturer cannot.

5. A poster on rodent control shows a rat and the words 'Control rodents now'. Farmers report they still do not know what to do. What is the design flaw?

   • A. The poster should have used a photograph rather than a drawing
   • B. Posters are never effective in extension
   • C. The message is too long for a poster
   • D. The message states an objective but gives no specific, actionable behaviour correct

   Why: An effective message specifies WHAT to do, WHEN and HOW. 'Control rodents now' names a goal the farmer already shares without telling him anything he did not know. Specificity, not medium, is the deficiency here.

6. An extension worker wants farmers to discuss and reach their own conclusion about a contentious practice. Which communication model best fits?

   • A. A convergence or two-way participatory model correct
   • B. A linear transmission model
   • C. A one-step flow model
   • D. A hypodermic needle model

   Why: Convergence models treat communication as shared meaning built through dialogue, which is what a contentious issue requires. Linear and hypodermic models assume a passive receiver absorbing what is sent, and were abandoned precisely because audiences do not behave that way.

7. An extension worker uses a flip chart with 40 words of text per page for a group of farmers seated 5 metres away. What is the most immediate problem?

   • A. Flip charts are unsuitable for group teaching
   • B. The group should have been seated closer regardless of the material
   • C. Colour photographs would have conveyed the same information
   • D. The visual carries too much text to be read or absorbed at that distance correct

   Why: A visual aid supports speech; it does not duplicate it. Dense text at distance is neither read nor listened to, so attention is split and both channels lose. One idea per page, large and legible, is the working rule.

8. Two extension workers give the same message. Farmers act on the one from the worker who has lived in the barangay for six years. Which source factor explains this?

   • A. Homophily -- shared background and sustained relationship build trust correct
   • B. Expertise -- the resident worker is better qualified
   • C. Channel richness -- the resident used a superior medium
   • D. Message framing -- the resident worded it differently

   Why: Homophily is the degree to which communicating parties are alike in background and outlook. Long residence converts an outsider into someone whose judgement can be read against known conduct, and that history does work no wording can substitute for.

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Other Agriculture Extension & Communication topics

• Adoption & Diffusion — 14 questions
• Teaching Methods — 13 questions
• Programme Planning — 11 questions
• Extension Principles — 3 questions

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