The effect of mass media on the short-term cognitive development on the participants at a Tarrant County extension garden seminar

The majority of the Texas population now lives in urban areas. In rural areas, the traditional Extension audience prefers to receive Extension information at an Extension meeting, from a county agent??s visit to the farm, or a farm demonstration. A rural county Extension agent can invite their target audience to a seminar and probably have almost the entire audience attend. In an urban county, most county Extension agents would not even have a location large enough to hold their target audience. The Extension seminar/meeting model has been successful for many years and will continue to meet the needs of the rural Extension audience and most urban audiences. To determine the preferred delivery method in an urban audience and test the delivery method for gain in knowledge, participants at two garden seminars were asked to complete a questionnaire after attending breakout sessions about landscape maintenance practices. The same information was delivered by different methods; newspaper, television, Extension fact sheet, and a presentation. Participants were asked questions about what they learned in each session, how they preferred to received information, what was their primary source for information, how they perceived their landscape knowledge expertise before and after treatment, and about their past contact with Extension. Results indicate a gain inknowledge from newspaper, video, fact sheet, and presentation; most participants preferred and were receiving most information about landscape maintenance from print media particularly newspaper; participants who perceived their expertise as high before and after the treatment scored higher on the landscape knowledge test; and over half the participants had some previous contact with Extension. The results may be used to guide urban county Extension agents to select education delivery methods to effectively deliver best management practice information to homeowners about landscape maintenance.