ACDC News – Issue 11-12

Issue 11-12

  • On a stand-alone basis fear, shock or sensationalism may promote verbal expressions and general feelings of concern.
  • However, shock and sensationalism overwhelmingly have a negative impact on active engagement with climate change.  They tend to disempower and distance people from it.
  • That is, unless representations are set in a context within which individuals are situated and to which they can relate.

You can read the paper here .


Creative way to educate about nature, feature public art and boost tourism. We have added to the ACDC collection a report from the Journal of Extension about an award-winning scavenger hunt that combines science education, public art and tourism.  It’s called the “Clam Trail,” an Extension Service effort in support of the Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program in New Jersey. This sample of “edutainment” helps capture public attention and involve families, residents and visitors of all ages, businesses and civic organizations in enjoyable ways as they learn and interact.


Research reports recently made available online, in full text .  Here are four agricultural communications articles that are now available online from the Journal of Applied Communications .  This journal is published by the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). It changed recently from print to electronic format with open access:

  • “‘The stuff you need out here’: a semiotic case study analysis of an agricultural company’s advertisements” by Emily B. Rhoades and Tracy Irani
  • “Photo-elicitation as a method of assessing village needs for extension planning” by Lulu Rodriguez and Denise Bjelland
  • “Penchant for print; media strategies in communicating agricultural information” by Amanda Ruth-McSwain
  • “To bother or not to bother?  Media relationship development strategies of agricultural communication professionals” by Amanda Ruth-McSwain and Ricky Telg

You can read these articles in Issue 3/4 of Volume 92.


Claude Gifford Collection now processed. Many agricultural journalists and communicators throughout the U.S, and beyond, are acquainted with Claude Gifford.  Recipient of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, this farm boy from a poor hill farm in northern Illinois contributed to his profession with distinction for a half century.  Among other parts of his career, he served on the editorial staff of Farm Journal for 23 years, including responsibilities for the editorial page.  In 1971 he became Director of Information for the U. S. Department of Agriculture where he served for more than 20 years on a personal level with nine Secretaries of Agriculture.

Claude’s extensive professional collection is now part of the University of Illinois Archives. Materials in it extend broadly across the work and role of journalism and communications in agriculture during the 20th century. His personal reports range from “What it’s like to be ignored” to “The spy who lives next door.”   These materials represent a valuable resource during the years ahead for students, teachers, researchers, professionals and others interested in effective agricultural journalism and communications. Online, you can view the detailed finding aid that describes contents of the Gifford Collection.


Historical view of “soft” and “hard” networks in New Zealand. For 20 years Janet Toland of Victoria University has examined the interplay between the soft networks created by social capital and the hard networks created by information and communications technologies. She studied this relationship in one urban and one rural region of New Zealand between 1985 and 2005.

Findings reported in a recent research paper show a clear linear progression in terms of hard networks. For example, organizations became more interconnected through mechanisms such as alliances, mergers, clusters and trade networks. However, no clear linear development could be seen during the 20 years, in terms of soft networks. The author noted a circular pattern in which the same issues may be revisited a number of times over the years.  Some rural-urban differences were apparent regarding both types of networks.


Really speaking up for agriculture (125 years ago). The National Farmers’ Alliance attracted some thundering advocates during the 1890s, according to Clarence Poe in his book, My first 80 years .  Among the most picturesque and sensational, he said, was Mary Ellen Lease, an Irish-born lawyer in Kansas.

“Her slogan, ‘Farmers must raise less corn and more hell,’ caught on and spread like a forest fire. With a powerful voice, deep and resonant, its effect startling and compelling, as was said at that time, ‘she hurls sentences as Jove hurls thunderbolts.'”

Let us know at docctr@library.illinois.edu if you would like to learn more and don’t have access to the book.


Communicator activities approaching.

  • August 15, 2011
    Deadline for entries: print and electronic journalists and media specialists of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.  “Innovations and Advisory Services,” in Nairobi, Kenya, during November. Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int/sites/default/files/Journalist-Call-for-Submissions-Ext-Conf.pdf
  • August 30-September 3, 2011
    20th European Seminar on Extension Education in Helsinki, Finland. Information: http://esee-2011.blogspot.com/
  • September 14-18, 2011
    “Experience new world agriculture.”  2011 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Guelph, Canada, and Niagara Falls. Information: http://www.ifaj2011.com
  • November 9-11, 2011
    “Insight for agriculture…every day.”  Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com
  • November 9-12, 2011
    “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences.”  Conference of the International Society of Extension Education, New Delhi, India. Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm
  • November 15-18, 2011
    “Innovations in extension and advisory services.”  International conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  Sponsored by a variety of national, regional and international partners. Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int

Yes, better left unsaid. We close this issue of ACDC News nodding in agreement with rural writer Lee Pitts who recently described in Progressive Cattleman what happened during a livestock auction in Utah.

Bidding was slow on a particular horse. A friend of the owner stood up in the crowd and said, “You’re just penalizing this horse because of the way he acted in the preview.  He’s not that way normally.”  The auctioneer was unable to get another bid.


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 Comm Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-11

How farmers are viewing and responding about climate change. We have been monitoring this topic, internationally.  Here are titles of sample reports from recent research:

  • “Factors influencing adoption and continued use of long-term soil and water conservation measures in five developing countries” (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Peru, Bolivia, Mali)  View the abstract here . Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

Please alert us to related documents that can help strengthen this important part of the ACDC collection.


“The nation needs better coverage of the farm bill.” An editorial during late 2010 in Columbia Journalism Review urged the U. S. press to commit to prominent, sustained, and substantive coverage of the 2012 Farm Bill.

“As the 2012 Farm Bill takes shape, journalists should devote less time to the incremental, insider drama on Capitol Hill, and more to explaining the issues and their consequences to a public that has little contact with the farm, but a huge stake in what happens there.”

Read a brief summary of it here , or get in touch with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu about full-text access.


International directory to online farm media .  World-newspapers.com provides links to 19 farming and agriculture magazines, newspapers and news services that offer open, online, full-text access.  They are based in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Some provide general coverage. Others are specialized “verticals,” ranging in interest from specific crops and livestock sectors to the green industry.

You can review the list and gain access to them here .


New Agricultural Communication Oral History Project goes online. Natalie Daily Federer, extension educator and doctoral candidate at Purdue University, has completed her first round of oral histories in this field of interest.  And you can now view her introductory work online in a new special section of the ACDC website.

“I am passionate about history,” Natalie explains in introducing this ambitious research project. She is pursuing it through support from the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). The main goal is to capture and preserve the voices, experiences, memories and insights of those who have retired from academic and professional work in the agricultural communication community.  To date she has conducted individual interviews with five retired professionals, as well as one group interview.  Her first four audio podcasts (10-14 minutes each) are available online for classroom and other professional development uses. A sample course exercise accompanies them.  You can explore the new Oral History section here .


Some keys to sustainable telecenters .  Researchers Rajendra Kumar and Michael Best found that telecenters and kiosks in five rural villages of south India were being used by a relatively small share of the village households.  This was the case even after the facilities had been in use for well over a year.  Users tended to be young, male students from relatively higher income households and community areas.  However, the researchers found significant planning and operational strategies that helped broaden the use of telecenters and make them more sustainable.  Those strategies included:

  1. Locating telecenters close to “socially and economically backward communities” and to champions within them.
  2. Placing them within a context compatible with use by women.
  3. Providing localized content and services.
  4. Making those services more affordable.

An overview of consumer willingness to pay for meat attributes. The International Journal on Food System Dynamics recently reported results of a meta-analysis of 23 studies about this subject between 2000 and 2008.  Researchers Gianni Cicia and Francesca Colantuoni found, for example, that:

  • Consumers are willing to pay 22 percent above the base price for the attribute “food safety.”
  • When on-farm traceability is available, consumers appear willing to pay a premium of nearly 17 percent over the base price.
  • The attribute “animal welfare” elicits a premium of 14 percent over the base price, “showing consumers’ interest about the life quality of domestic animals.”
  • European consumers are, on average, willing to pay more for meat traceable attributes than are North American consumers.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • July 23-27, 2011
    “Jazz it up!”  Agricultural Media Summit involving the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agri Council of American Business Media and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com
  • August 30-September 3, 2011
    20th European Seminar on Extension Education in Helsinki, Finland. Information: http://esee-2011.blogspot.com/
  • September 14-18, 2011
    “Experience new world agriculture.”  2011 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Guelph, Canada, and Niagara Falls. Information: http://www.ifaj2011.com

When funding fizzles .  We close this issue of ACDC News with an insight attributed to Lord Ernest Rutherford, renowned scientist of the early 1900s.  We feel sure this strategy applies to entrepreneurial agricultural journalists and communicators as well as the scientists he addressed:

“No money.  Well then, we must use our brains.”


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 Comm Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .