Comparing the Intracity and Extracity Information Flow as City Development Indicators of Joghatai city

The present study aims to determine the type and level of utilizing information and communication technologies and their effects on constructing Joghatai citizens‟ information flow in order to classify them as city development indicators (CDI).
The current study is an applied survey whose target population covered all employees, businessmen, farmers and university students in Joghatai City. A sample of 357 people (66 employees, 185 farmers, 28 businessmen, and 75 university students) was selected in order to collect needed data. Convenience sampling was applied and the participants were randomly referred to. A researcher-developed questionnaire, whose validity was confirmed by the supervisor, the advisor and the faculty members of the Department of Information and Knowledge Sciences and whose reliability was approved through the application of Cronbach‟s alpha, was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software.
Findings: The findings indicated that %97.1 of sample size had TV, while only %4.2 had satellite receivers. The highest accessibility to the phone was %77.4, and the lowest was %10.6. People used TV at most 64/2 to obtain their needed information and used satellite receivers at least (%0.15). Participants believed that getting access to the Internet had the most (%4.45) and satellite receivers had the least efficiency (%0.42) from individual, social and economic dimensions in city development of Joghata i . The most significant studied samples for gathering intracity information were face-to-face dialogue (%6.16) and traditional information and communication technologies, while the most significant ones for collecting extracity information were TV (%8.15), face-to-face dialogue (%4.41) respectively. The Internet was used in various economic, political, health and so forth fields. Intracity information flow in Joghatai was mostly associated with face-to-face dialogue (efficiency mean: %2.84; utilization mean: %6.16), while extracity information flow was related to TV (efficiency mean: %2.91; utilization mean: %8.15). Internet and face-to-face dialogue are two other significant factors in extracity information flow. Library and satellite receivers were rarely taken into account. Furthermore, the obtained findings demonstrated that the studied groups (employees, businessmen, farmers, and university students) in this research expressed different opinions in four aspects of ownership, accessibility, utilization, and efficiency of information and communication resources and channels. In other words, the type of job had impact in ownership, access, efficiency and utilization of information and communication resources.
Although Joghatai is a relatively small city located in a remote area, information and communication technologies are of considerable importance in both intracity and extracity connections, especially among employees, businessmen and university students.