Month: January 2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-22

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Establish a CIO position.

“The working relationship between the chief executive officer (CEO) and the chief information officer (CIO)…is critical to successfully leveraging information technology in the grocery industry.”

Consultant Thomas Murphy recently urged readers of the Food Marketing Institute magazine, Advantage, to establish a CIO position, fill it with a good leader and support it as a change agent for improving business. “The combination of rigorous process improvement enabled by select technologies holds the key to success for many grocers.”

Might the same be said for other parts of the food chain, from producers onward?

ACDC Reference: The executive view: perspectives on technology for the business executive 
Author: Murphy, Thomas

Generic commodity promotion. Socially beneficial?

Yes, according to an economic analysis reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

“A strong case is developed for the social benefit of advertising regardless of one’s view of what advertising is.” This finding is in marked contrast to some other results in a lively, continuing debate about the value of generic promotion of agricultural products and the constitutionality of commodity promotion programs.

ACDC Reference: Agricultural market structure, generic advertising, and welfare
Authors: Cardon, James H. and Pope, Rulon D.

New resources from ERIC.

Free full-text non-journal resources of the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) recently became available for the first time. They include more than 105,000 documents authorized for electronic distribution during 1993-July 2004 and previously sold through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service.

Also, September 1 marked the introduction of a new ERIC web site that provides users with increased search capabilities.

ERIC is a rich resource of information about school-based agricultural education. To avoid duplication of effort, we do not include such documents in the ACDC collection. However, we monitor ERIC to help you locate information about extension communications and other non-formal types of education related to agriculture.

Reference: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ericwebportal/resources

Narrowing gap in rural U.S. Internet access.

The gap between Internet access of rural and urban areas of the U.S. decreased to about one percentage point between late 1998 and late 2001. So reported authors of a 2004 Telecommunications Policy article about wireless diffusion, mobile computing and the digital divide.

“The traditional groups of technology ‘have-nots,’ including females, rural areas, and minority groups, have made dramatic gains in Internet access,” authors reported. They found mobile telephone adoption positively correlated with income, size of metropolitan area and occupation (specifically sales and executive professions).

Reference: Wireless diffusion and mobile computing: implications for the digital divide
Authors: Wareham, Jonathan; Levy, Armando; and Shi, Wei
Posted @ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VCC-4C8NK4H-1-1T&_cdi=5951&_user=571676&_orig=search&_coverDate=07%2F31%2F2004&_sk=999719994&view=c&wchp=dGLbVlz-zSkWA&md5=a50d0fe36f143b1851e8b8071e08d165&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

“Environmental stories define problems, not solutions.”

That title of a report in the Newspaper Research Journal summarized results of a content analysis of 841 stories in 69 U.S. daily newspapers. Researchers found that 73 percent of the news leads defined the reported issue as a problem.

They concluded, “The fact that the press defines problems primarily in terms of conflict and losses instead of solutions suggests that readers are not being provided with adequate information about possible solutions to environmental problems.”

Reference: Environmental stories define problems
Authors: Major, Ann M. and Atwood, L. Erwin

The conflict language of journalists.

“Language choices by journalists and stakeholders reflected an entrenched view of the debate as a conflict,” reported a recent study about the discourse of the GM food debate. This finding is among many in a 2004 study reported by the Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom. It included analyses of articles published by four British newspapers and interviews with representatives of stakeholder organizations. Other findings came from focus group research among UK residents with interests such as health and nutrition, biodiversity and ethics/morality.

The project “is distinctive in its attention to the language as well as the content of the GM debate.”

Reference: The discourse of the GM food debate
Posted @ http://www.regard.ac.uk/research_findings/RES-000-22-0132/report.pdf

Americans are still relatively uninformed 

About genetically modified foods and the application of genetic engineering technology to agriculture. And their level of knowledge has not increased during the past three years. These insights emerged from the September 2004 survey among U.S. consumers by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Among other findings:

  • They have “heard little about genetically modified foods, and as such, have yet to roundly accept or intensely oppose them.
  • They support a strong regulatory system, although they do not know much about the current system.
  • Most support the labeling of GM food (92%) and GM ingredients in processed foods (91%).
  • They remain most comfortable with the genetic modification of plants.
  • They are most supportive of uses they feel will directly help them and their families.

Reference: Overview of findings: 2004 focus groups and poll
Author: Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology
Posted @ http://pewagbiotech.org/research/2004update/overview.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

February 1, 2005
Deadline for electronic submissions of research papers to be presented at the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE), San Antonio, Texas, May 31-June 4, 2005.
Information by e-mail: david.doerfert@ttu.edu

February 5-9, 2005
Agricultural Communication Section, annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS), Little Rock, Arkansas.
Information http://www.saasinc.org

Latest word on giant beanstalks.

Check this new twist to the popular tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. We feature here the winning entry in the “Children’s Literature” category of the 2004 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest run by the English Department of San Jose State University. As mentioned in the previous issue of ACDC News, this contest honors writers who excel in writing only the first line of a bad novel. Frances Grimble entered the following winner:”Jack planted the magic beans and in one night a giant beanstalk grew all the way from the earth up to the clouds-which sounds like a lie, but it can be done with genetic engineering, and although a few people are against eating gene-engineered foods like those beans it’s a high-paying career to think about for when you grow up.”

Reference: http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2004.htm

As this remarkable year ends

All of us here at the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center extend season’s greetings and best wishes for your year ahead. Thanks for your interest, encouragement and helpfulness.

Best wishes and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. 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 electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu )

December, 2004

 

ACDC News – Issue 04-20

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Cooperating in defense (and pleasure) of slow food.

We recently added to the ACDC collection a journal article about the formation of an international association, Slow Food, that promotes an unusual combination of “celebratory environmentalism.”
” Gastronomical pleasures – featuring unique local foods prepared with locally grown ingredients and creating a “firm defense of quiet material pleasure.”
” Environmental goals – protecting biodiversity and helping preserve thousands of endangered foods, plants and animals.

According to the article, food producers are part of the grassroots Slow Food groups that now number more than 700 in 83 countries.

Reference: Slow food
Author: Weismantel
Offered online at: http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JAFI.

An example of farmer-led journalism.

A self-supporting monthly farm magazine in India has “established a unique niche for itself, based on a philosophy of farmer participation in the generation of information.” Adike Pathrike, more than 15 years old, uses subscription and advertising income for financial support.

A research paper from the Overseas Development Institute described four distinctive features of Adike Pathrike:
” Insistence on farmer verification of technologies described in the magazine
” An adaptive and iterative approach to technology
” Active encouragement of farmer-to-farmer communication
” A counterbalance of government and industry promotional campaigns

Reference: Reforming farm journalism
Authors: Padre, Shree; Sudarshana; and Tripp, Robert
Paper posted online at: www.odi.org.uk/agren/papers/agrenpaper_128.pdf

When the Big Depression hit farm publishing. 

Want a view of the U.S. farm press during hard times for agriculture in the 1920s and early 1930s? We recommend a 1933 master’s thesis added recently to the ACDC collection. Hubert W. Smith used content analyses and surveys among farm editors to examine the relation of the farm press to social and economic trends in agriculture.

His data revealed, for example, how advertising lineage in eight major farm periodicals fell dramatically. “…in 1932 some publications carried less than one-fifth as much advertising for the month of October as they did in 1929, and none of those considered arrived in 1932 at as much as half of their peak of the preceding five years.”

Reference: Relation of the farm press
Author: Smith, Hubert W.

Scientists more willing to open up? 

“I’ve noticed a change in scientists in dealing with the media,” said an environmental journalist at a recent workshop in India. “They are more willing to open up and are ready to talk with us about their research activities.”

The workshop on “Covering biotechnology: issues and opportunities for the news media” was organized by the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), Asian Media, Information Center of India and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Reference: South Asia journalists meet on biotech reporting
Posted online at: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cbtnews/2004_issues/oct/cbt_oct_15.htm

Science journalists – crucial to development.

Participants at the recent 4th World Conference of Science Journalists in Montreal, Canada, heard that message from the leader of one of Canada’s leading aid agencies. Maureen O’Neil, president of the International Development Research Centre, argued that science journalists have a critical role to play in informing communities and influencing policymakers in the developing world.

“Journalism – and especially science journalism – can therefore make a significant contribution to ensuring that communities and their leaders implement programmes and decisions based on the best data, knowledge and evidence.”

Reference: Science journalists “play critical role in decision-making”
Author: Dickson, David
Posted online at: www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=printarticle&itemid=1642&language=1

Rural distance education – 125 years ago. 

Distance education carries new excitement and promise in an era of electronic, interactive technologies. However, the concept itself has deep roots, as evidenced by an article in Agricultural History. Author Julie R. Nelson examined distance education efforts the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle between 1878 and 1900.

The Circle, based in Plainfield, New Jersey, offered men and women in rural towns throughout the Midwest an innovative opportunity for a four-year “college” degree via a correspondence course of systematic home study. It was “one of the few practical means available for earning a four-year degree,” especially for rural women.

Reference: Subtle revolution
Author: Nelson

Narrowing the digital divide in Africa. 

Romeo Bertolini identified serious obstacles in a recent report, “Making information and communication technologies work for food security in Africa:”

  • “Limited access to telephone and electricity networks, especially in rural and remote areas. “Approximately 60 percent of African households do not have access to their national grid.”
  • “Scarcity of telecenters to offer broader ICT services and training”

Bertolini suggested steps for the public and private sectors in this report from the International Food Policy Research Institute. Suggestions included innovative ways of combining ICT-based information sources (such as agricultural information systems) with traditional ones (such as rural radio stations).

Reference: Making information and communication technologies work for food security in Africa
Posted online at: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib27.pdf

Lesson for the country newspaper publisher.

This item from a 1906 issue of Agricultural Advertising [14(4) : 363] caught our eye:

  • “Once there was a country newspaper man who mixed sawdust with the meal that he fed his hens. He thought they would never know the difference. But they got even. When he came to set the eggs, half the brood hatched were woodpeckers.”
  • “Whatsoever a newspaper soweth that shall it also reap.”

Communicator activity approaching.

February 1, 2005
Deadline for electronic submissions of research papers to be presented at the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE), San Antonio, Texas, May 31-June 4, 2005.
Information:

Best wishes and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. 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 electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu )

November,2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-19

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Stirring extension in Australia.

Thanks to staff associate Liz Kellaway for alerting us to a journal article that has stirred discussion in Australia about ingredients of effective agricultural extension. In the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture researcher F. Vanclay described 27 principles for agricultural extension in promoting natural resource management. It’s a hard-hitting list, including these examples:

• Non-adoption is not the cause of land degradation, rather practices actively promoted by extension in the past have significantly contributed to degradation.
• Farming is a socio-cultural practice and adoption is a socio-cultural process. • Profit is not the main driving force of farmers.
• Farmers’ attitudes are not the problem.
• Farmers construct their own knowledge.
• Farmers have legitimate reasons for non-adoption.
• Effective extension requires more than the transfer of technology; it requires an understanding of the worldviews of farmers.
• The 80-20 rule is a self-serving delusion. (referring to a story in extension circles that 20% of farmers produce 80% of the agricultural wealth).
• Representation is not participation.
• The best method of extension is multiple methods.

Reference: Social principles Author: Vanclay, F.

New book about North American agricultural journalists.

Fencelines, deadlines & headlines is the title of a new book in honor of the 50th anniversary of the national professional association now known as North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ). Don Muhm, a veteran agricultural reporter, coordinated and published this 240-page history. It ranges broadly across the development of NAAJ, the careers of legendary agricultural writers, ethics in agricultural reporting, global dimensions, the farm beat today and the challenges ahead.

“Today in this world, all of us are connected through our food supply,” said 2003 NAAJ President Jerry Perkins. In that context, Muhm suggested that having on duty a corps of educated, responsible agricultural reporters is vital to helping understand our modern, one-world society.

Reference: Fencelines, deadlines & headlines
Author: Muhm, Don
The book is printed by and available from McMillen Publishing, PO Box 887, Ames, Iowa 50010.
Online: www.mcmillenbooks.com

Consulting communicators.

A ground swell of interest? Professional communicators who work within extension services, advisory services and agricultural research organizations have talked about the “consulting communicator” role for at least a half-century. You will find, for example, dozens of documents about this role if you conduct a “subject” search on that term in the ACDC collection. They stretch from 1954 to date. And you can find hundreds of documents about related topics, using “subject” search terms such as <roles communicators>, “communication planning” and “campaign planning.”

Two 1976 reports we added recently to the ACDC collection noted “a ground swell” for training programs in basic communications planning. A small swell, apparently. The role of “consulting communicator” remains elusive, overwhelmed it seems by pressures on communicators to apply skills, on order, from clientele.

Reference 1: Recommendations for improved contribution of extension communication specialists
Reference 2: Background statement

Are agricultural journalists “blindfolded” by their affinity with farming?

Shouldn’t be, according to research among editors of three Dutch agricultural magazines. Wageningen University researcher Maartje Lof conducted the study initiated by the Dutch Organisation of Agricultural Journalism. Guild members wanted to know “whether they dared to write things farmers might not like to hear about issues concerning people outside agriculture.”

“We are journalists, not PR officers,” the interviewed editors said. Lof concluded that agricultural journalists should place more importance on informing their readers about what society is asking of agriculture and why.

This summary appeared in IFAJnews, newsletter of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.

Reference: Write More About Society Views, Says Research
Author: Noorduyn, Leonore

History of the Missouri Ruralist. 

In a 1958 master’s thesis at the University of Missouri, Billy C. Brantley traced the origin, development and influence of the Ruralist from 1902 through 1955. His analysis highlighted influences in improving family life and farming methods, promoting better schools and roads, preventing rural crime and encouraging youth programs.

Reference: History of the Missouri Ruralist
Author: Brantley, Billy C.

A glimpse of our purpose.

Sometimes it seems few researchers, and others, are interested in documents more than a few days, months or years old. That’s when we recall a point made by Pierre R. Crosson of Resources for the Future:

“Knowledge accumulates; it is never used up.”

This insight would suggest that the future of agriculture-related communicating, as a field of serious pursuit, rests upon skilled integration of what is known of today – and of the past. ACDC pursues a vision of helping you span both dimensions.

So you would like to review articles in the journal published by ACE.

This Center contains more than 1,100 journal articles from what is now identified as the Association for Communication Excellence (formerly Agricultural Communicators in Education and American Association of Agricultural College Editors). However, the search is not straightforward because those articles appear in journals of three different titles.

  • Current title: Journal of Applied Communications (1990 to date)
  • Replaced: ACE Quarterly (1978-1989)
  • Replaced: AAACE (1919-1977)

Here’s how you can identify articles from those ACE journals. On the “Database Search” page, use “Journal” searches on each of the three titles. Let us know if you have problems or questions.

Communicator activities approaching.

November 17-19, 2004
“60 Years of Communicating Agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nafb.com

Want to see some Gold Award entries? 

The Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) recently posted entries that earned Gold Awards in the 2004 Critique and Awards program. Yu can see entries in writing, photography, graphic design, publishing, electronic media, distance education and instructional design, integrated communication programs and information technology.

Reference: http://www.aceweb.org/award/index.html

Best wishes and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. 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 electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu )

November, 2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-18

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Farm chemical advertising – mirroring the times.

A 40-year analysis of pesticide advertising in two midwestern U.S. farm magazines identified changing images in response to changes in the socio-cultural setting. Researchers traced changes in pictorial metaphors and brand names used in advertisements during three eras – science, control and environment/nature – between 1948 and 1998.

The current trend? They found “pesticide advertisements in agricultural media create connotations and associations between pesticides and land stewardship ethics.” Biotechnology represents a “new green area for agricultural advertising.”
Author: Flora, C.B. and Kroma, M.M.
An abstract of the article was posted online at: http://ipsapp008.kluweronline.com/ips/content/ext/x/j/4478/I/25/A/3/abstract.htm

How to build coalitions.

We recently added to the ACDC collection a useful resource for education campaign planners. “How to build long lasting and effective coalitions” is the title of this “skill sheet” from the Endangered Species Coalition.

The resource offers suggestions within the context of three coalition models: endorsement, associate and partner.

Reference: How to build long lasting and effective coalitions
The resource was posted on: http://www.stopextinction.org/team/team.cfm?id=67&c=2

An invisible agricultural social science.

If you want to see where the communications discipline fit into the social science community of U.S. agriculture colleges 17 years ago, we can suggest a window for your view. Look through a document we added recently to the ACDC collection: “Proceedings of Phase I Workshop: Social Science Agricultural Agenda Project.”

This 377-page proceeding did not recognize agriculture-related communications as a rural social science. Instead, “The…areas of concern include agricultural economics, rural sociology and anthropology, agricultural history, the social science aspects of home economics, agricultural law, agricultural political science and the like.”

Ironically, reports from all four workgroups called for communications teaching and research to address information deficiencies through effective delivery and use of agricultural information/knowledge.

Reference: Proceedings of Phase I Workshop: Social Science Agricultural Agenda Project

Raising the profile of rural journalism.

“Created in 2001 and staffed in August 2004, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, multi-state effort, based at the University of Kentucky. Its job is to help local news organizations set the public agenda for their communities and cover regional issues, and interpret rural issues for national media.”

According to announcement documents we have added to the ACDC collection, a two-year, $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will permit:
” A major survey of rural media
” A popular rural journalism Web site
” A class in rural journalism
” Training for rural journalists
” A conference bringing together national experts and rural journalists.

Veteran journalist Al Cross has joined the School of Journalism and Telecommunications as interim director of the Institute. A new Web log, “Rural Blog,” went online August 9.

Reference: Creation of the Institute
Information about the Institute and links to the Web log were posted online at: http://www.uk.edu/CommInfoStudies/IRJCI/welcome2.html

Examining news models for national development.

Margaretha Geertsema recently explored five models for appropriateness in post-Apartheid South Africa:
” The Western model of journalism
” Development journalism
” Development communication
” Development support communication
” Public journalism

This analysis included a description of each model, plus a review of literature identifying perceived strengths and limitations of each. Geertsema argued for implementing in South Africa a combination of public journalism and development journalism “to help with community connectedness and nation building. The traditional Western press model does not offer a constructive framework for change and reconciliation…”

Reference: New news for a new South Africa?
Author: Geertsema, Margaretha
Posted online at:http://list.msu.edu/archives/aejmc.html (September 2003, Week 5)

Development – no longer what happens “over there.” 

It is “as much in our back yards,” argued Edna Einsiedel in Redeveloping Communication for Social Change. “There is a ‘First World’ in the so-called South as there is a ‘Third World’ in our midst. … Our work as development communicators puts us squarely in the midst of a commitment to and interest in questions of equity and equality, sustainability, and issues of social justice and social change.”

Reference: Border crossings: gender, development and communication http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/agcomdb/view.asp?ID=C19604
Author: Einsiedel, Edna

Agricultural writing of 500 years ago.

An article last year in the Journal of Business Communication revealed some agricultural writing of an English family between 1509 and about 1750. The Gawdy Papers, located in the British Library, highlight generations of activities of the Gawdy family of Norfolk. Papers include correspondence and other documentation about land acquisition and management, crop and livestock production and marketing, commodity prices, collection of rent and other agribusiness interests.

Reference: Gawdy papers
Author: Richardson

Communicator activities approaching.

October 17-20, 2004
Annual convention of Communication Officers of State Departments of Agriculture (COSDA) in Nashville, Tennessee USA.
Information: www.nasda.org/cosda/annual.htm

October 20-24, 2004
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA.
Information: www.sej.org/confer/index1.htm

November 4-6, 2004
Annual workshop of the National Market News Association in Baltimore, Maryland USA.
Information: www.ams.usda.gov/nmna

November 17-19, 2004
“60 Years of Communicating Agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nafb.com

Great idea for the dieter.

In closing, we share this piece of food journalism reported in a journal article about on-air bloopers. According to researcher Raymond Schuessler, announcer Ed Herlihy once advised listeners: “Another delicious combination for these hot days is a Kraft chilled grease sandwich with a choke.”

Reference: Bloopers
Author: Schuessler, R.

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

hard copies to:
Ag Com Documentation Center
510 LIAC Library
1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
or electronic copies to:
docctr@library.uiuc.edu

October, 2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-17

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Traveling the rocky (gendered) road of rural cooperatives. 

Pressures toward consolidation and squeezed profit margins are challenging farmers to retain the democratic roots of cooperatives, according to a recent article in the Journal of Applied Communication Research. Author L.M. Harter studied organizational communications in the Nebraska Cooperative Council, a support organization for more than 100 cooperatives. The Council provided “a particularly rich context in which to explore traditionally feminine ways of organizing (i.e., cooperative enactment) in a historically male-dominated arena (i.e., agriculture).” Findings explored “intersections between the social construction of masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and tensions embedded in the discourse of cooperative organizing.”

Reference:Masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and cooperative ways of organizing: contraditions and tensions in the experience and enactment of democracy
By: Harter, Lynn M.
Published: May 2004

Students produce a weekly Webzine for a rural county.

Dateline Pickens is a lively learning laboratory for – and valued service by – journalism students at the University of Alabama. It features what journalism professor Bailey Thomson describes as “service journalism,” focusing on local aspects of issues such as health care, job creation, education and the environment.

“His goal is to bring good journalism to a county that often is overlooked by the state’s media,” according to a news report that we added to the ACDC collection. The site has been up nearly two years and draws good readership as it helps students learn real world journalism “in a place that has good stories to tell if only someone will take the time to report them.”
The news report was posted on:http://pjnet.org/2003_10_01_pjnettodayarchive.html.

Farm newspapers – voice of the farmers?

You cannot assume so, according to a recent article by John J. Fry in Agricultural History. The article examined four Midwestern farm newspapers between 1885 and 1920. The author concluded, “Farm newspapers are better seen not as expressing the ideas of farmers, but providing a forum for reformers and farmers to debate proposed changes to country life.”

School consolidation provided an example of this role, according to Fry. Farm papers promoted consolidation, in line with Country Life Movement arguments that consolidated schools would improve rural education. Farm readers “chose to listen to some of the recommendations of progressive reformers and not to others.”

Reference: Good farming – clear thinking – right living
By: Fry, John J.
Published: 2004

The doctoral dissertation upon which this article was based has been posted online at the following URL:http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/search.
Reading, reform, and rural change : the midwestern farm press, 1895 to 1920
By: Fry, John J.
Published: May 2002

Horrendous food PR crisis.

They’re nothing new, according to case analyses by Lael M. Moynihan. The author described what two food marketers did when “the unthinkable happened” more than two decades ago:

” Some consumers around Detroit, Michigan, reported they had found razor blades in Ball Park Franks, a popular meat product marketed by Hygrade. October 1983.
One Belgian man died and a Connecticut woman became seriously ill as a result of botulism attributed to canned salmon. February and April 1982.”

Reference: Horrendous PR crises: what they did when the unthinkable happened
Moynihan, Lael M. (Media History Digest 8(1) : 19-25).

Welcome to John Sanders, new graduate assistant in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.

John’s appointment began August 16. A master’s candidate in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, he brings to the Center an academic background (bachelor and master levels) in urban and regional planning. His research experience includes an international comparative study of rural communities and an innovative comprehensive plan for rural development land-use ordinance and regulation. So in addition to his core responsibilities in the Center, he will contribute in special ways to the parts of our collection that address the communications aspects of rural community development. More than 10 years of experience in retail marketing also will help John serve the Center in unique ways.

Still roaming off the beaten paths.

As you know, we regularly monitor journals known to contain literature about the communications aspects of agriculture, food and related fields. But we continue to find pleasure (and good materials) off the beaten paths. For example, here are a few recent sources:

  • Journal of the West
  • Social Problems
  • People’s Daily
  • Media Ethics
  • Philosophy and Social Action
  • Media History Digest
  • Slovak Spectator
  • Media International Australia

If you are curious about the kinds of materials we find in such journals, use the “Database Search” page to conduct “Journal” searches, by title. You will see citations of the documents we have entered from each journal.

Face-to-face meetings – gone by the wayside? 

No way, reported Den Gardner in a recent issue of Agri Marketing. In fact, he quoted the communications manager of Case IH as saying in reference to the farm equipment firm’s recent award winning event for media: “Face-to-face communications are more important than ever because we use this method less and less.”

“The point is that companies need to stay engaged with their customers,” Gardner observed. “And you can’t do it by phone, e-mail and voicemail all the time. … You can’t do that with online teleconferences, Web-casting, and other techno-gizmos being promoted today as the way to do business.”

Reference: Face-to-face meetings – gone by the wayside?
By: Gardner, Den
Published: Jun 2004.

“Spent all my money getting here
And now I can’t get away.” 

These words by Jack Bryant in his song, “Sunny Cal,” captured part of the hardship, disappointment and homesickness of farm families that migrated to California during the Great Depression. We recently added to the ACDC collection a brief report from the U.S. Library of Congress about the perceptions and experiences of migrant workers between 1929 and the early 1940s. This summary included web links to reports, popular songs and other sources of information.

Reference: The Migrant Experience
By: Fanslow, Robin A.
Published: Apr 6 1998

The report was posted online at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme/html
Note: At the time of publication the above URL was not in service.

Communicator activities approaching

September 30, 2004
Deadline for submission of abstracts for papers and other presentations at the U.S. Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) Biennial Conference and International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) XI World Congress on May 15-21, 2005, in Lexington, Kentucky USA.
Information: www.ca.uky.edu/aic/Submit_Page.htm

October 1, 2004
Deadline for submission of research and professional papers to be considered for presentation in the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) conference during February, 2005, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Information: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/regions/southern/saas2005/callpaperssaasagcom05.pdf

October 17-20, 2004
Annual convention of Communication Officers of State Departments of Agriculture (COSDA) in Nashville, Tennessee USA.
Information: www.nasda.org/cosda/annual.htm

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

hard copies to:
Ag Com Documentation Center
510 LIAC Library
1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
or electronic copies to:
docctr@library.uiuc.edu

September, 2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-16

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Internet competing with traditional farm media?

Not necessarily, according to results of a study reported (2000) in International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. Researchers examined the use of information sources through a mail survey of 10,500 farms with sales in excess of $100,000. They reported:

“…Internet use tends to be associated with producers who have more favorable views of information sources. In five different models, Internet use increased the probability that producers had a favorable view of the information source. Based on these results, it appears that the Internet might be a complement rather than a substitute for traditional information sources, or an indicator of producers who find traditional information sources useful. Likewise, crop farms and livestock farms tend to have different attitudes toward information sources”

Reference: On the “Database Search” page of this web site, use a title search (Sources of information) or author search (Gloy) for the full citation. The article was posted online at: www.ifama.org/nonmember/OpenIFAMR/Articles/v3i2/245-260.pdf

On suppressing dissent about pesticides.

An analysis reported in Philosophy and Social Action examined the exercise of power by supporters of pesticides to silence and discredit scientist critics. Brian Martin presented several cases of attacks on critics of pesticides as illustrations of the concept of “suppression of dissent.”

“It is impossible to say how great an effect suppression of dissent has upon any particular debate, because few studies have been made of the phenomenon and it is difficult to know how deeply the patterns of power, of which suppression is a reflection, affect scientific work. In a scientific culture in which dissent is systematically discouraged, prohibition may become internalized as inhibition…. There is plenty of evidence to show that power politics does play a major role in the operations of science, but in science textbooks and media reporting this is still seen as an aberration rather than a regular occurrence.”

Reference: Use a title search (Critics of pesticides) or author search (Martin) for the full citation. The article was posted online at: www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/96psa.html

Using producer focus groups to guide information programs. 

Through input to focus groups, Iowa grain and livestock producers offered 10 suggestions for helping them make informed decisions about fertilizer and pesticide use that would offer environmental benefits. We have added to the ACDC collection an 11-page summary of procedures and findings.

Recommendations from producers identified message content they need, plus information channels and information delivery methods they prefer. Other findings provided insights about how producers make decisions in balancing efficiency of crop production and environmental benefits. Results of these four focus groups offered guidance for an Integrated Farm and Livestock Management Demonstration Program in Iowa.

Reference: Use a title search (Producer focus groups) or author search (Schultz) for the full citation. The report was posted online at: www.agriculture.state.ia.us/iflm/focusgroups.pdf

Offer alternative names.

Commenting about the role of citizens in agricultural science, Elizabeth Ann R. Bird observed:

“What you name something is important…What you name it in the context of scientific inquiry is going to shape both that inquiry and the results. So one of the ways to engage the politics of science is to figure out where the values are implicit and how things are named, and to offer alternative names.” For example:

” Is manure a waste to be disposed of or, instead, a resource to be used?
” Is sustainable farming an added labor cost or a resource that producers can use to gain more value from their farms while reducing input costs?

Reference: Use a title search (What is the role of citizens) or author search (Bird) for the full citation. The presentation was posted online at:www.csare.org/pubs/role.htm.

Attitudes toward functional health properties of GM foods.

Results of a consumer survey in Canada suggest, “…many Canadian consumers will avoid GM foods, regardless of the presence of functional health properties.” Findings reported in the Agribusiness article also revealed that consumers seem more accepting of functional foods derived from genetically modified plants than from genetically modified animals.

Reference: Use a title search (Consumer response to functional foods) or author search (Larue) for the full citation.

Don’t try to fit every dairy farmer into a single system.

University of Wisconsin Extension heard that advice from Wisconsin dairy producers who took part in focus groups. A summary of results (2000) revealed that producers recognize the University as a unique source of unbiased, high quality information.

However, producers recommended that Extension pay more attention to the needs of small and medium-sized dairy farm operators and cautioned against “trying to fit everyone into a single model of dairy farming.” They also invited help in developing better marketing skills and options.

Reference: Use a title search (Farmer recommendations) or author search (Ostrom) for the full citation. The summary was posted online at:www.pats.wisc.edu/pdf%20documents/recs00.pdf

Sincere thanks to Elena Padilla who served as graduate assistant in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center during the past year. 

This month Elena completed her master’s degree in library and information science, so will be embarking on a new phase of her career. As academic coordinator of the Center, she spearheaded an excellent year of progress in adding documents, processing newly contributed collections, enhancing the web site, and settling into our new home in the ACES Funk Library.

Communicator activities approaching

September 26-29, 2004
“Tippecanoe and Technology Too.” National Extension Technology Conference
(NETC) at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Information:http://www2.agriculture.purdue.edu/netc2004

September 29-October 2, 2004
Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Windsor,
Ontario.
Information:http://www.cfwf.ca

October 17-20, 2004
Annual convention of Communication Officers of State Departments of
Agriculture (COSDA) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Information: www.nasda.org/cosda/annual.htm

October 20-24, 2004
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Information:www.sej.org/confer/index1.htm

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

hard copies to:
Ag Com Documentation Center
510 LIAC Library
1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
or electronic copies to:
docctr@aces.uiuc.ed

September 2004

ACDC News – Issue 04-15

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Covering “the quirky side of farming life.”  

That’s how newspaper reporter Richard Chin put it in a feature article about Farm Show, a farm paper published in Minnesota. “It focuses almost entirely on new and sometimes wacky equipment, inventions, products, problem-solving ideas, money-saving shortcuts and money-making schemes invented for and often by farmers…. Imagine, in other words, a combination of Popular Mechanics, Consumer Reports and Ripley’s Believe It or Not for the combine and tractor set.”

In any case, Farm Show has about 175,000 paid subscribers and has been doing its thing for 27 years. This feature described the development, operations and editorial approach of it.

Reference: Use a title search (Farm Show newspaper) or author search (Chin) for the full citation. The report was posted on:www.coafes.umn.edu

Wireless broadband for isolated rural communities  

A 2003 report from the Alliance for Public Technology and the Benton Foundation included news about a wireless broadband service for 152 communities across Alaska. Most of them could not access the Internet via local dial-up service. This technology is similar to commercial quality WiFi, where the signal is pushed out from a central point and accessible via wireless connections in the surrounding area. “The wireless platform is a critical component in serving these Alaskan communities.”

Reference: Use a title search (Broadband world) for the full citation. The report was posted on www.benton.org

Six theses and dissertations added.  

We have added to the ACDC collection six recent theses and dissertations that involve the communications aspects of agriculture, food and natural resource management. They include:

  • Chad S. Davis, Cognitive and affective responses of West Texas Hispanics/Latinos to agricultural news: a comparison of four English and Spanish presentation methods. Dissertation for Doctor of Education, Texas Tech University, Lubbock. 2003.
  • Jason D. Ellis, High school students’ perceptions of food safety. Thesis, Master of Science, Iowa State University, Ames. 2003.
  • Susan Grantham, An ounce of prevention: the effects of critical thinking disposition and message frames on behavioral intent for low-involvement risks. Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy, University of Florida, Gainesville. 2003.
  • David H. Segrest, Jr., Evaluating the effectiveness of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Hueco Tanks State Historic Site orientation/conservation video. Thesis for Master of Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock. 2003.
  • Leslie A. Simon, The assessment and design of an agricultural communications curriculum at the masters level: a Delphi study. Thesis for Master of Science, University of Florida, Gainesville. 2003.
  • Kamy R. Williams, Areas of food safety concerning Lubbock, Texas, residents and their preferred information sources.Thesis for Master of Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock. 2003.

Reference: Use title or author searches for the full citations. The Documentation Center has these in print, but not electronic, format.

Also, here are 10 ACE research papers  

Presented at the recent Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) conference in Nevada:

  • Eric A. Abbott, An in-depth look at Internet adoption and use by Iowa farm families: implications for communicators.Contact: eabbott@iastate.edu
  • Robert Agunga, James J. Connors and Hsing-Ying Chen, A study of the Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Ecological Paradigm Model. Contact: agunga.1@osu.edu
  • Steven G. Hill, Metaphoric criticism as a tool for agricultural communicators: archetypal and conceptual metaphoric theory. Contact: shill@ksu.edu
  • Lisa K. Lundy, Tracy A. Irani, Ricky Telg and Nick Place, Are we on the right road? A formative evaluation of the Roadmap to Effective Distance Education Instructional Design. Contact: lkj@ufl.edu
  • Emily B. Rhoades, Scaling the rural-urban digital divide: agricultural trade magazine publications’ use of the Internet to reach rural audiences. Contact: ebbisdorf@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
  • Amanda Ruth, Denise Bortree, Ross Ford, Saundra Braun and Kelly Flowers, A new direction for agricultural media relations: meeting journalists’ information needs through the Web. Contact: amruth@ufl.edu
  • Amanda Ruth and Emily E. Eubanks, Reporting mad news: framing of the mad cow media coverage. Contact: amruth@ufl.edu
  • Ricky Telg and Tracy Irani, Integrating critical thinking into agricultural communication curricula. Contact: rtelg@ifas.ufl.edu
  • Mark Tucker, Stan Ernst and Coreen E. Henry, Demystifying the puzzle of applied communication research. Contact: tucker.9@osu.edu
  • Larry R. Whiting, Mark Tucker and Sherrie R. Whaley, Level of preparedness for managing crisis communication on land grant campuses. Contact: whiting.2@osu.edu

Reference: Contact authors (above) or check with us at the Documentation Center about gaining access to abstracts or full texts.

Ahhh. The functional food advertisements of yesteryear.  

An article that we added recently to the ACDC collection from Media History Digest helps us understand early years of food advertising. The featured food advertisements trace back 217 years. Some of the more interesting ones from the late 1800s offered great medicinal values. Would they be called “functional foods” today? For example:

  • A “new waste-repairing bread and gem flour for dyspepsia, diabetes, lung troubles and nervous debility.”
  • A baby food “already digested” for babies to “maintain their vigor in the summer months.”
  • Imperial Granum, the Great Medicinal Food. “A superior nutritive in continued fevers and a reliable remedial agent in all diseases of the stomach and intestines.”
  • An improved root beer. “…a delicious temperance beverage. All admit of its superiority for weak and sickly children.”

Reference: Use a title search (Food ads of yesteryear) or author search (Reitz) for the full citation.

Communicator activities approaching:

September 26-29, 2004
“Tippecanoe and Technology Too.” National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) will take place at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Information: www2.agriculture.purdue.edu

September 30-October 3, 2004
Annual meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Windsor, Ontario.
Information: www.cfwf.ca

October 17-20, 2004
Annual convention of Communication Officers of State Departments of Agriculture (COSDA) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Information: www.nasda.org

October 20-24, 2004
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Information: www.sej.org

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send hard copies to: Ag Com Documentation Center510 LIAC Library1101 S. Goodwin Avenue Urbana, IL 61801 or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

August 2004

 

ACDC News – Issue 04-14

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Getting the urban media to listen  

“With farm-media relations already at a low ebb, industry insiders believe there may be worse to come,” Owen Roberts wrote in a recent issue of Better Farming (Ontario, Canada). “That makes communications strategies and media relations more important than ever.”

The article described recent examples of libel suits and media criticisms of farming methods. It cited concerns about future antagonisms that new technologies such as nutraceuticals could create. And it described several efforts being launched, including speak-up groups, media relations initiatives and communications training for producers and others.

Reference: Use a title search (challenge for agriculture) or author search (Roberts) for the full citation. The article was posted on: www.betterfarming.com

Invest more to advertise extension programs and literature  

 That advice emerged from a study reported recently in the Journal of Extension. Research among Oklahoma (USA) farmers who use and do not use the Extension Service analyzed their preferred information sources and identified effective means of communicating with non-users.

Researchers concluded, “CES [Cooperative Extension Service] should invest more resources to advertise programs and literature using public forums that reach a larger audience than is currently served. It is the land-grant university’s responsibility to reach non CES users farmers through whatever means necessary to fulfill the mission of the Morrill Act.”

Reference: Use a title search (Comparison of farmers) or author search (Kelsey) for the full citation. The article was posted onwww.joe.org/joe/2004april/a8.shtml

A call for digital collaboration. 

The Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) consortium recently prepared a white paper identifying roles and opportunities for collaboration between the E-Extension development effort and AgNIC.

“The purpose of this paper is to suggest that these two groups have a considerable body of common interest. Further, that by working together where there are overlapping interests it is possible to create a Digital Land Grant Information System.”

Reference: Use a title search (Digital land grant information system) or author search (Gardner) for the full citation. The paper was posted on: http://laurel.nal.usda.gov:8080/agnic/members/mgardner/news_item.2004-01-23.3210

Communicators provide focus for land reform efforts  

The Kyrgyzstan Land Reform Project is getting valuable guidance from research among those on the land. We recently added to the ACDC collection a report of findings about knowledge levels, attitudes and practices of farmers and rural leaders regarding land rights issues. Eric Abbott of Iowa State University designed the study, conducted during early 2004, through a Chemonics International project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Results helped assess the impact of a first phase of the Land Reform Project. In addition, findings identified the kinds of information that farmers need next in their efforts to “take advantage of one’s ownership of land or the ability to acquire additional land.”

Reference: Use a title search (Knowledge, attitudes and practices) or author search (Abbott) for the full citation

Concerns of consumers about shopping online for groceries.  

An article by Mike Kempiak and Mark A. Fox summarized some findings of research reported about this topic during 2000 to 2002. Among the main concerns that consumers identified at this stage of e-grocery shopping:

  • Quality of produce
  • Delivery – timeliness, convenience, methods
  • Desire to see and touch the food bought
  • Online security and privacy
  • Download time of graphic displays

Authors also examined experiences and trends in e-grocery business models, ranging from pure-play online stores to e-marketing by established bricks-and-mortar supermarkets.

Reference: Use a title search (Online grocery shopping) or author search (Kempiak) for the full citation. The article was posted at: www.firstmonday.com

“Whither the Flavr Savr tomato?” 

“That question, headlined in California Agriculture magazine, highlighted the fact that biotech horticultural crops have “all but disappeared” from supermarkets in the U.S. This brief article reported how field testing of genetically engineered horticultural crops has plummeted while field crops – such as soybeans, corn, canola and cotton – have been “wildly successful.”

Peck urged journalists to interact and engage with their communities of interest. “We can no longer put out newspapers by phone, e-mail, government reports and unnamed sources,” even in an era of corporate pressures to write “really, really fast.” Peck illustrated the growing complexity of issues by observing, “the ag beat isn’t about tractors anymore but about biogenetic engineering.”

Reference: Use a title search (above) for the full citation. The article was posted (May 17, 2004) at agnet-archives.

Vastly different images of rural America.  

Findings of a recent content analysis show that broadcast and print media portray “vastly different images of rural America.” Among the results:

  • More than three-fourths of network television news stories about rural America focused on crime.
  • Land use issues such as urban sprawl received the most attention in major newspapers and news magazines “while television ignored these issues entirely.”
  • News reports in print or in television rarely linked rural life to agriculture.
  • “Currier and Ives-like portrayals of rural charm were balanced by depictions of an economically challenged or socially marginal environment.”

Reference: Use a title search (Study: broadcast, print outlets) for the full citation. The report was posted on: www.wkkf.org

Providing a free and instant service  

“I believe that’s hard to replace,” said Jeff Nalley, president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, in a recent report to U.S. soybean growers about the role of farm broadcasting. Pointing to an increasing flow of agricultural information, he observed:

“It’s true that there are volumes of information available on the internet today, but what farmer has the time to sit and read for hours on end? That’s my job. I believe they need someone that they can trust, who understands what their needs are, who can go and find that information and present it to them in a concise and a timely fashion. …I believe farm broadcasting is a trusted source of information that producers are actually going to need more as this industry continues to evolve.”

Reference: Use a title search (Q&A with Jeff Nalley) for the full citation.

Special cows in South Texas.  

We close this issue of ACDC News with a livestock question. It came to our attention through the custodians of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, with which you may be familiar. Here’s the interview question that a sports writer of the Press-Democrat (Sonoma County, California) put to Jeff Kent, second baseman of the San Francisco Giants in March 2001:

“How does a kid from Huntington Beach wind up castrating cows in South Texas?”:

You can see dozens more featured examples of bad published writing at www.bulwer-lytton.com/sticks.htm. Fortunately, most of them do not involve agriculture.

Communicator activities approaching:

September 26-29, 2004
“Tippecanoe and Technology Too.” National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) will take place at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Information: www2.agriculture.purdue.edu

September 30-October 3, 2004
Annual meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Windsor, Ontario.
Information: www.cfwf.ca

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

hard copies to:
Ag Com Documentation Center
510 LIAC Library
1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
or electronic copies to:
docctr@library.uiuc.edu

July 2004

 

ACDC News – Issue 04-13

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Producers should pay less attention to the technology of electronic commerce  

Instead, they should think of e-commerce as “a new way of doing business, a new way of farming.” So advised a specialist cited in a report that we have added from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation about the impact of e-commerce on agriculture. The report examined what Internet access and e-commerce may mean to farms of various sizes, and to the future of food systems.

Reference: On the ACDC search page, use a title search (Impact of e-commerce) for the full citation. The report was posted on:www.wkkf.org

News from Washington “can’t just be recorded  it has to be reported,”

Said Ken Root in a recent issue of Chats newsletter from the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. He was describing challenges that NAFB reporters faced in hunting for answers to tough questions during their annual “Washington Watch” event. In one case, there “wasn’t a single sound bite from a man who is paid not to give you what you want.”

Reference: Use a title search (Farm broadcasters) or author search (Root) for full citation.

Sending wrong messages about food safety.  

Television cooking programs show lots of “negative food handling behaviors,” according to results of a study reported in Food Protection Trends. Researchers recorded and reviewed 60 hours of television food and cooking programs aired during June 2002 and 2003. The programs, mostly on Food Network Canada, had been produced in Canada, United Kingdom and United States.

Findings revealed 916 poor food-handling incidents, or about 13 negative behaviors aired for every positive one. Authors identified the most common food safety errors and recommended improvements in television food and cooking programs.

Reference: Use a title search (Spot the mistake) or author search (Mathiasen) for full citation. The abstract was posted on: fsnet-archives, (May 25, 2004).

Despite the unique decentralizing features of the Internet  

Governments continue to be capable of controlling information flows in rural development. So indicated the results of field research in Indonesia (1998), Peru (1999) and Vietnam (1998). Robin Van Koert found “the level of interactive use of [electronic media] in rural development appears, to a large extent, to be determined by the state of democracy in a nation-state.” Governments used political or economic restrictions to control information flows.

Reference: Use a title search (Impact of democratic deficits) or author search (Van Koert) for the full citation. The report from First Monday journal was posted at www.firstmonday.org

Lots of NPAC resources.  

“AAACE was changed forever by the formation of NPAC,” said Mason E. Miller in a recent issue of ACE Signals newsletter from the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences. He described the remarkable professional development program, National Project in Agricultural Communication, which served ACE members and others from 1953-1960, and beyond.

If you are interested in NPAC we can report that the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center contains much of the material generated from that program. You can identify it through online ACDC searches such as:

Title search. Use terms such as:
The First Seven Years, 1953-60
Written communication training program
Writers workbook
Diffusion process
Guide communication training program
Campaigns in agricultural extension programs
Subject search. Use the term:
“National Project in Agricultural Communication”
Journal search. Suggested terms:
AGRICOM
AgriSearch
Search
Communique

How civic journalists may save the media.  

Get out and get connected with your communities, the editor of The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington) urged journalists in a speech that we have added to the ACDC collection. Chris Peck described a “coming transformation, perhaps even revolution, in the newsrooms of America’s newspapers, TV stations and online news operations.”

Peck urged journalists to interact and engage with their communities of interest. “We can no longer put out newspapers by phone, e-mail, government reports and unnamed sources,” even in an era of corporate pressures to write “really, really fast.” Peck illustrated the growing complexity of issues by observing, “the ag beat isn’t about tractors anymore but about biogenetic engineering.”

Reference: Use a title search (Transformation from within) or author search (Peck) for the full citation. The speech was posted on: www.pewcenter.org

Like playing in a parade band.  

“Telling the cooperative story is like playing in a parade band,” a colleague once told Susie Bullock, executive director of Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA). “The song is the same, but the audience changes as the band moves down the street.”

She made this point in a recent article about how cooperative communicators can deal with the challenges of change, adding that issues cooperatives face and tools communicators use change along with audiences.

Reference: Use a title search (Executive directors) or author search (Trinkl) for the full citation.

1920 salaries of agricultural college editors  

Here are results of the first salary survey conducted by the American Association of Agricultural College Editors (AAACE). Findings were reported in mid-1920:
Editors
Range: $2,000-$3,500 a year
Mean: $2739

Assistant editors
Range: $1,200-$2,400 a year
Mean: $1,850

Communicator activities approaching:

July 18-21, 2004
Marketing and Communication Excellence Conference of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Columbus, Ohio. For electric cooperative marketers, communicators and member services staff.
Information: www.nreca.org

July 20, 2004
“Driving the focus of primary industries in S.A.” Luncheon meeting Of Rural Media South Australia in Brisbane.
Information: www.ruralmediasa.com

July 23-25, 2004
Professional development program of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Tampa, Florida. This gathering immediately precedes the Agricultural Communications Summit.
Information: www.agrelationscouncil.org

July 25-28, 2004
“Spring break this summer.” Agricultural Publications Summit involves members of the Livestock Publications Council (LPC), American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), American Business Media – AgriCouncil (ABM) and National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT). Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
Information: www.ageditors.com

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

hard copies to:
Ag Com Documentation Center
510 LIAC Library
1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
or electronic copies to:
docctr@library.uiuc.edu

July 2004

 

ACDC News – Issue 04-12

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

 

Agricultural social scientists as interlopers  

“Economists within [national agricultural research systems] are often perceived as interlopers in an establishment traditionally ‘owned’ by technical scientists.” The comment caught our eye in a conference report about the role of social sciences within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. CGIAR is an association of public and private sector donors that support a network of international agricultural research centers.

If some economists consider themselves interlopers in agricultural research systems, then this conference reflected communications researchers as absent altogether. Economics and sociology earned mentions in the report as social sciences. Communications scholarship did not, as such, despite many references to mainstream areas of communications research. Examples:

  • Understanding the perspectives of farmers regarding the management of natural resources and needs for research.
  • Fostering farmer participation in diagnosing development issues and experimenting with solutions to them.
  • Identifying the decision-making structures and processes into which information must be channeled if it is to influence research agendas.
  • Establishing and maintaining effective linkages within the agricultural research community and with the user, donor and other publics to which it relates.

Reference: Use a title search (Social science in the CGIAR) or author search (Collinson) for full citation.

Real disparities in rural versus urban access.  

A recent assessment in Bulgaria revealed “real disparities between rural and urban areas in terms of their access to both computing and connectivity.” This situation exists despite the fact that Bulgaria has the highest telephone density of any Eastern European country and “has been renowned for its technological innovative expertise, especially skilled software and computer engineers.”

The report explained how large areas of rural Bulgaria may have access to telephone lines, but the systems are likely to be poor and antiquated because they involve analogue equipment. It offered suggestions for improvement as the government privatizes the nation’s telecommunications system.

Reference: Use a title search (Bulgaria assessment) for the full citation. The report was posted on: http://www.usaid.gov/info_technology

Business brokers – a key to rural e-commerce.  

It takes more than electronic technologies to develop electronic business networks, according to Jason Henderson in a report that we added recently to the ACDC collection. Also required:

  • A rural business culture that prizes cooperation
  • Funding support for development and sustained success
  • The presence of a broker

“Brokers bring owners together and help identify a common goal or objective for the network,” the author explained. “They can come from many sources: community colleges, extension services, nonprofit organizations and trade groups among others.”

Reference: Use a title search (Networking with e-commerce) or author search (Henderson) for the full citation. The report was posted on: www.kc.frb.org

Passing of “a giant among agricultural communicators.”  

That is how a colleague described Roy Battles who died April 20 at the age of 92. The career of this native Ohio farm boy involved pioneering efforts in farm broadcasting and agricultural public relations. Among his many contributions and honors:

  • Participant in the first national conference of the National Association of Radio Farm Directors (1945). President of that organization (1950).
  • Inducted into the Farm Broadcaster Hall of Fame (1990)
  • One of the founders of the Agricultural Relations Council (1953). President of that organization (1970).
  • Longtime member of the judging panel of the Oscars in Agriculture program, which recognizes excellence in agricultural reporting.

Reference: Use title searches (“Ode to Roy Battles” and “Farm broadcasting: the first sixty years”) or a subject search (Battles) to identify information about him.

The teaspoon theory of farming.  

We recently added to the ACDC collection a classic piece by Steven Berntson about the family farmer’s dilemma in the Midwest USA. Writing for the Sunday Register (Des Moines, Iowa) in 1986, Berntson sketched this dilemma through the attitudes and operating styles of two farmers:

  • Peter Plugalong buys little new, minimizes expenses, stays debt-free, works hard, expects no guarantees from a year of effort beyond the experiences and pleasure of it, and substitutes labor for capital. “If I farmed just one acre of ground, I might farm it with a teaspoon, if I could.”
  • Fred Getahead farms big with late-model equipment to get the work done fast, whittles time and labor in any way he can, uses automated grain storage, studies the markets, operates from spreadsheets and has debts – big ones – that are hurting in a time of cost-price squeeze.

Beyond Berntson’s vivid description of these styles, he analyzed them in terms of the future of family farms

Reference: Use a title search (Hayseed and the BTO) or author search (Berntson) for full citation.

Parity – an enduringly strong message appeal.  

Nothing seems to have the staying power of the parity concept, as a message strategy to demonstrate that farmers should be getting higher prices for their products, that their purchasing power has slipped badly. Parity is the price farmers would receive if farm prices had increased at the same rate as expenses, using 1910-14 as a base period.

Many farmers watch parity ratios with interest. Some farm organizations publish them regularly.

Reference: For the current source of information concerning parity messages, check U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics at www.usda.gov/nass. Within that site, use the search system to enter terms such as “2004 parity price.”

Still want to be a journalist?  

We close this issue of ACDC News with several more food, health and other assorted headlines cited in “So you want to be a journalist.”

“New study of obesity looks for larger test group”
“Hospitals are sued by 7 foot doctors”
“Cold wave linked to temperatures”
“Red tape holds up new bridges”
“Man struck by lightning faces battery charges”

Communicator activities approaching:

July 18-21, 2004
NRECA Marketing and Communication Excellence Conference in Columbus, Ohio USA. Sponsored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association for electric cooperative marketers, communicators and member services staff.
Information: www.nreca.org

July 23-25, 2004
Professional development program of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Tampa, Florida. This gathering immediately precedes the Agricultural Communications Summit.
Information: www.agrelationscouncil.org

July 25-28, 2004
“Spring break this summer.” Agricultural Publications Summit involves members of the Livestock Publications Council (LPC), American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), American Business Media – AgriCouncil (ABM) and National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT). Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
Information: www.ageditors.com

Best regards and good searching.  

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send hard copies to: Ag Com Documentation Center 510 LIAC Library 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue Urbana, IL 61801 or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

June 2004