Putting faces on dairy farming . A commentary we added recently from CattleNetwork.com explained how the California Milk Advisory Board is taking steps to “show consumers the real lives of California dairy farmers.” Television commercials feature varied perspectives such as:

• A 5th generation dairy youngster who shows cows with his sisters
• A “Dairy Lady” who did not grow up on a farm but married into it and has grown to love dairying
• A young dairy couple that wants to put the “culture” back into “agriculture”

You can read the commentary here .

Eight new agricultural communications research papers. Here are the authors and titles of eight research papers presented at the 2010 conference of the International Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in St. Louis, Missouri. Check with identified authors about gaining access to papers of interest to you.

Karen Cannon and Angie Lindsey, “Critical issues: understanding the challenges facing Florida’s agricultural and natural resources sectors as perceived by identified opinion leaders.” Contact: karenjcannon@ufl.edu

Courtney Meyers and Tracy Irani, “Examining the influence of message framing: a comparison of agricultural and science communicators’ attitudes toward agricultural biotechnology information.” Contact: courtney.meyers@ttu.edu

Erica Irlbeck, Cindy Akers, Matt Baker, Mindy Brashears, Scott Burris and Lee Duemer, “A case study and framing analysis of the 2008 salmonella outbreak.” Contact: erica.irlbeck@ttu.edu

Erica Irlbeck, Cindy Akers and Ashley Palmer, “A nutty study: a framing analysis of the 2009 salmonella outbreak in peanut products.” Contact: erica.irlbeck@ttu.edu

Jason Ellis, B. Lynn Gordon and Lana Johnson, “Using data to inform a home horticultural web site redesign process.” Contact: jellis2@unl.edu

Allyson McGuire, Leslie Edgar and Don Edgar, “A philosophical view of teaching and learning in the digital world with an application base for Second Life.” Contact: leslie.edgar@simplot.com

Kori Dunn, Cindy Akers, Courtney Meyers and Todd Chambers, “Usability testing and evaluation of (university) sorghum research initiative web site.” Contact: kori.a.dunn@ttu.edu

Dru Glaze, Leslie Edgar, Tracy Rutherford and Emily Rhoades, “Visual communications: an analysis of university students’ perceptions of rural America based on select photographs.” Contact: cglaze@uark.edu

“A win-win model for facing activist pressure.” We recently added to the ACDC collection two case studies in which researcher Adrienne Cooper reported how two-way communicating influenced outcomes when Greenpeace, McDonald’s and Unilever interacted. The author concluded:

“Both cases provide examples of L. Grunig’s (1992) theory that two-way symmetrical communication is the best way to create a win-win situation when responding to activist publics.”

You can read the report here .

Tips on covering fall harvest in a record hot year. Melissa Preddy recently offered on the National Center for Business Journalism web site some advice for business reporters about covering the approaching fall harvest season. She suggested news angles (such as weather records; effects on local producers, agribusinesses, the food trade, retail prices; status of harvest progress) and varied sources for information.

You can read the article here .

Persistent rural-urban divide in online health searching. A 2010 article in the American Behavioral Scientist reports on rural-urban differences in factors associated with using the Internet for general and health-related purposes. Authors found the gap associated with educational level, income and diffusion of broadband.

You can review the abstract and order the article in full text from the journal publisher here .

Welcome to a new ACDC associate.

It is a special pleasure to introduce Gemma Petrie, new staff member in the Center. Her appointment as a half-time graduate assistant began August 16 as she enters the master’s degree program in Library and Information Science here at the University of Illinois.

A philosophy graduate from Reed College, Portland, Oregon, Gemma brings to the Center an excellent combination of experiences and skills. They include coordination of development activities (Onward Neighborhood House, Chicago) and publications (University of Chicago); extensive experience with computers, web sites and software; professional writing and editing – and special interest and expertise in foods. Gemma commented that she is, “Excited for this opportunity to combine my interests in food and special collections. I look forward to working with the ACDC staff to add documents to the Center, update the website and improve the database system this year.”

Communicator activities approaching

September 30-October 2, 2010
“Big land. Big sky. Big business.” Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Information: http://www.saskfarmwriters.ca

October 1, 2010
Deadline for papers to be presented in the 2011 Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists conference, Corpus Christi, Texas, February 5-8, 2011. Two categories – research papers and professional papers – are invited.
Information: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/ Click on “Call for Papers for 2011 Meeting.”

November 5-9, 2010
“Science writers 2010.” Joint gathering of the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Development of Science Writers in New Haven, Connecticut. Information: http://www.nasw.org/meeting/index.htm

November 10-12, 2010
“Beyond the microphone.” Sixty-sixth annual conference of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

Croc art and brumbies on the bolt. We appreciated learning recently about the creative photographs, paintings and sculptures of Wayne Miles and Peter Torr in the Northern Territory of Australia. You can see some dramatic images in sections such as these of their web site:

• “Croc art”
• ” Buffalo bull”
• “Thunder in the tropics”
• “Flying foxes twilight”
• “Brumbies on the bolt”

Visit their web site here .

Best regards and good searching. Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching. We will help you gain access.