“The paper examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in contributing to climate change awareness in rural areas. It is based on a cross sectional study that was conducted in Seke and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe.
The findings indicate that the majority of respondents in the two districts are aware of climate change. Significant differences in the level of climate change awareness were observed between those who had access and those who did not have access to ICTs, with those who had access having a higher level of awareness than those who did not have access. However not all ICTs were found to significantly influence the likelihood of a respondent being aware
of climate change. The following ICTs were found to have a significant positive influence on the likelihood of an individual being aware of climate change: reading farming/environmental
magazines (really old ICTs); access to radio (old ICTs); access to mobile phone (new ICTs). An inverse relationship was observed between access to television and the likelihood of individual awareness of climate change. Access to television rather decreased the likelihood of respondents’ awareness of climate change. These findings highlight not just an important aspect of ICTs as tools that facilitate information dissemination and communication, but how these technologies and their capabilities are utilised is dependent on the users.”
