Abstract

Communication is essential to human life. Apart from interpersonal media that provide opportunities for face-to-face interaction, the mass media (print or electronic) help communicators to reach a large number of persons simultaneously. For printed educational materials to be potent in communication, they must be noise-free. This paper reviewed the phenomenon of noise as barrier to communication and content-analyzed selected agricultural extension publications for presence of semantic and mechanical noise. The linguistic analysis specifically ascertained the level of adherence to semiotic rules. Findings indicate that some of the documents studied were riddled with semantic and syntactic noise elements, a situation that challenges the gate keeping ability of our editors. The paper recommends thorough editorial work to enhance understanding and foster uniform application of extension recommendations by farmers.

Key words:  Noise, semiotic rules, gatekeeping, effective communication, technical jargon.