Rural women – still almost invisible on the global news scene. That seems the main message from Global Media Monitoring Project 2010, in terms of coverage related to agriculture. We have added to the ACDC collection a preliminary report that describes the media representations of women for one day (November 10, 2009) in 42 of 130 participating countries throughout the world. The report analyzed 6,902 news items and 14,044 subjects. Here are a few examples from the findings:

• Women were subjects in only 12 percent of news items related to the rural economy, agriculture, farming practices, agricultural policy and land rights. This share was the lowest among all 52 story topics analyzed.
• Women were central in only 1 percent of news items in this agriculture-related topic area – lowest among all 52 story topics.
• Nearly half (45 percent) of news items that involved women in this topic area reinforced gender stereotypes.

How producers gather information about precision farming technologies.

Research among U. S. cotton producers reveals how they use varied information sources in deciding about specific precision farming technologies to use. Findings of a study we added recently to the ACDC collection revealed, for example, that:

• Overall, information from consultants and dealers, news media and university extension (delivered in publications and events) provided information most relevant to decisions about adopting precision farming technologies.

• Information from the internet and university events was significantly associated with adoption of yield monitors with GPS.
• Information from consultants, news media and university publications was associated with adoption of zone soil sampling technologies.

Ways to communicate “local” when your product is undifferentiated. Take the case of wheat, milk and other core commodities. Researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, recently described two ways within the food chain to visualize and highlight some value-adding quality attributes of locally-grown wheat:

• Use word clouds to visualize for grain buyers what wheat varieties are in specific storage facilities. For processing reasons, the more homogenous the batch, the more willing buyers may be to pay.
• Use Google maps to highlight farms in the region from which specific batches of assured-quality (perhaps certified) wheat have been grown.

“Thomas Hargrove risked his life to feed world’s poor.” That recent headline in the Houston Chronicle newspaper announced the passing of an internationally known and respected agricultural science communicator. The international parts of this Texas native’s career included agricultural service during military conflict in Vietnam, communications leadership at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in the Philippines and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Colombia. While at CIAT he was captured and held captive for 11 months by guerilla forces. His experience formed the basis of a movie, “Proof of Life.”

You can read the article here .

Going mobile with IT toolkits for citizens. We have added to the ACDC collection a 2009 research report describing a citizen toolkit that includes many of the common tools used by professionals such as journalists, planners and scientists. The University of Illinois authors explained that cameras, camcorders, microphones, GPS units and laptop computer were chosen to support citizen professional activities that range from community-based participatory research to photovoice and digital storytelling.

Furthermore, the toolkit contained within a backpack can go wherever IT is needed at the moment.

You can learn more about the goals, components, tests and toolkit uses in this report .

Gap between thinking organic foods are better – and buying them. A recent article in Psychology and Marketing examined why consumers do not buy organic food regularly, despite their positive attitudes about it. Analysis of organic coffee, bread, fruit and flour buying revealed two other dimensions that help explain the limited accuracy of attitudes in predicting the consumption of organic foods:

• In the case of some product categories (such as coffee) brand loyalty moderates the effects of attitudes toward organic foods.
• Also, ideologically formed attitudes are not present in habitual, low-involvement shopping activities.

This article, “Product involvement in organic food consumption,” is available for online purchase from Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com )

Communicator activities approaching

March 31, 2011
Registration for the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) conference, “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences,” to take place November 9-12, 2011, in New Delhi, India.
Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm

April 13-15, 2011
“Harvesting Ideas 2011.” Conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

May 26-30, 2011
Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA.
Information: http://www.icahdq.org

June 10-14, 2011
Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org

July 3-7, 2011
“Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.” 2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Information: http://www.aiaee.org

Pssst. Wake up. The presentation is over. We have felt and expressed concern about some PowerPoint presentations (including several of our own creation). You know them – screen after screen filled with words, lists and “busy” charts, some not readable.

Thanks to Delmar Hatesohl for sharing an apt description of this dilemma. He reports having heard of a university specialist talking about an upcoming conference. The specialist said the committee had “planned a variety of activities so that the audience didn’t suffer death by PowerPoint.”

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. 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 .

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