ACDC News – Issue 12-02

New ways to connect organizations and agencies that focus on climate, agriculture, and water.

New forms of media provide new opportunities for global outreach, Andrew C. Revkin emphasized recently in WMO Bulletin , journal of the World Meteorological Organization.

He observed that societies rich and poor need reliable and timely information on the weather and, increasingly, on the causes and consequences of grander-scale shifts in the climate system itself. On that front, “an enormous gap persists between what is possible and what is happening.” Part of it can be narrowed, he suggested, if scientists and scholars—and their institutions—think creatively about how to expand their communication circles and pathways. Among the examples he described:

  • National Atmospheric Space Administration’s use of Twitter to “bat down rumors and provide a swift source of updates.”
  • A “station scientist” program by the American Meteorological Society to help those who deliver weather forecasts on television.
  • A “Climate Q&A Service” to reporters from the American Geophysical Union.
  • A “singing climatologist” at Pennsylvania State University

You can read the article online at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/publications/bulletin_en/60_1_revkin_en.html


A new agricultural communications text.

Two faculty members at the University of Florida have written a new book about skills and concepts in agricultural communications:

Ricky Telg and Tracy Anne Irani, Agricultural Communications in Action: a Hands-On Approach . Cengage Learning, Florence, Kentucky.  368 pages. 2011

“Current communication trends are integrated throughout this practical, ‘how-to’ text. It also includes insight from real professionals in various agriculture-related industries, illustrating how they tackle communication issues and problems.” It is tailored to help students and professionals become better equipped to serve as effective communicators in this field.

You can read the publisher’s description here: http://www.cengage.com/search/productOverview.do?Ntt=agricultural+communications||9781111317140&N=11&Ntk=all||P_Isbn13


How farmers prefer to be identified .

Results of the recent Iowa Farm Poll suggest that in Iowa they think the term “farmers” best describes them.

Here are preferences among five terms that respondents were asked to consider:

Farmer             60 percent

Producer          18

Farm operator  18

Grower              3

Rancher             1

You can read a news brief about this survey at: http://www.agrimarketing.com/s/71892


Who’s got the phone? A five-country gender comparison. This question formed the basis of a study in New Media and Society about the use of the telephone by men and women at the “bottom of the pyramid.” Researchers used face-to-face interviews based on probability sampling in rural and urban centers of India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Telephone usage involved household fixed phones and respondents’ own mobile phones. Among the findings:

  • A significant gender divide appeared in Pakistan and India, and to a lesser extent in Sri Lanka. A divide was absent in Thailand and the Philippines.
  • Male and female respondents in India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand did not differ much in their use of telephones.
  • The core cause of the gender problem “appears to lie outside the realm of telecom, in the subordination of women in economic decision-making within families.”
  • Authors recommended policies that will enable wider telephone uptake, especially mobiles and among women.

You can read the abstract of this New Media and Society article here: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/4/549.short

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.


Photographing the fading of rural community. Thanks to Prof. Kenneth Tunnell of Eastern Kentucky University for alerting us to his new book, Once Upon a Place , that pays visual attention to the fading of community in rural Kentucky. It’s packed with photos that reveal “the downturn in family farming and to the closing of local businesses, schools, post offices, and churches; to the influx of big-box retailers; to symbols of community awash in change; and to indications of social disorganization played out as social problems.”

You can learn more about the book at: http://onceuponaplacexlibris.com/index.htm


Wondering what to do with your professional materials? Wanting to find a home for professional references and resources you’ve gathered and used—even created—during a career in agricultural journalism and communications? If so, please check with us about the possibility of using the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center as a forever home for them and as a way to help them serve others during the years ahead. Perhaps you are aware (through the Contributors section of the ACDC website) that we value private collections. Across the years, they can be an important resource for professionals, students, teachers, researchers, and others interested in agricultural journalism and communications.

You can get acquainted here with ACDC contributors and the varied kinds of resources they have provided. Get in touch with Joyce Wright at jcwright@illinois.edu or Jim Evans at evansj@illinois.edu if you wish to consider this approach.


Communicator activities approaching.

  • February 5-6, 2012
    Agricultural Communications Research Meeting at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists Conference, Birmingham, Alabama USA. Registration online at: https://store.lsuagcenter.com/p-94-saas-registration-2012.aspx
  • February 17, 2012
    “Food and Agricultural Communications – The Next Frontier.” Industry-wide symposium hosted by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and the College of Media at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Information: http://www.agcommevent.com
  • March 22-23, 2012
    Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Charleston, South Carolina. Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org

Guideline for agricultural issue managers and risk communicators. We close this issue of ACDC News with a story we noted in the archives of the Agricultural Publishers Association. Executive Secretary Victor Hayden reported it in 1932 when he spoke to staff members in the USDA Office of Information:

An enthusiastic courtier said to the king: “May your subjects all die before you.”

He was ordered beheaded by the angered king.

Another courtier with a flair for diplomacy phrased the sentiment in these words:

“May your Majesty outlive all his subjects.”

He was knighted.


Best wishes 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 12-01

Welcome to the first 2012 issue of ACDC News.

We hope you enjoy and find value in a new year of research, updates, and perspectives from the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center based at the University of Illinois. This Center began in 1982 through the frustration of faculty members who were expanding their teaching and research agenda, but lacking resources to do so.

How wrong we were in thinking that little of such information existed. What began as a small teaching file has become a unique international resource and service. This collection passed the 37,000-document mark during 2011. Resources in it involve communications aspects of agriculture, food, feed, fiber, renewable energy, natural resources, and rural development in more than 170 countries. What you read in ACDC News only scratches the surface of information flowing into this online-searchable collection. We hope you enjoy these selected resources.


Internet killing rural community journalism?

Not if you build a sustainable model. The successful efforts of a publisher in rural Maine received attention in a recent journal article we added to the ACDC collection. Authors described the experiences of Richard Anderson who “has found a formula for sustainable news coverage in an age when the Internet seems to be killing the news business.” Here are some of the key ingredients identified:

  • He started with a website, specializing in quick, hard news, community service, citizen involvement, and community leadership. “We were organizing affinity groups.”
  • He then added weekly newspapers, developing software that could convert Web content into print content. They attracted print advertisers and provided context for the timely information that online news service provided.
  • “We put feet on the ground.” (skilled editorial staffing to provide local news and build trust)

You can read the article, “VillageSoup: sustaining news in a rural setting,” at: http://ojrrp.org/journals/ojrrp/article/view/232/112


A scenario approach to communicating about climate change .

Recently we added a commentary about how to communicate in a world of massive climate change “drivers” and unending options for responding to them. Ricardo Ramirez invited consideration of staging climate scenarios. That is, develop “what if” and “what next” stories—perhaps on stage—using rich narratives by characters with whom citizens can identify.

“You will see people like yourself in probable situations in the near future, you will identify with the bold decisions of some, and with reluctance to change of others. … sometime soon you too will be ‘on stage.'”

You can read this commentary, “Climate change communication—time for the stage?” at: http://64.141.2.205/en/node/327719/bbc


More about “when the digital data die.” Thanks to Steve Shenton for these thoughts and suggestions regarding our recent item in ACDC News about this matter:

“On the digital recopying issue, lots of stuff I have on disks and CDs cannot be read on newer computers as software updates exclude files made in older software. So having a paper copy of research that can be scanned into new software is of critical importance. Also, if your archive manager has a passion for throwing out…old stuff, guard your paper copies with your life.”

If you have thoughts on this subject please pass them along to us at docctr@library.illinois.edu


How food risk managers view efforts toward traceability in Europe.

A team of researchers from the Netherlands used Delphi methodology to understand how food risk managers view the efficiency of existing traceability systems in Europe. Findings reported in the British Food Journal revealed that:

  • Effective food and ingredient traceability systems have the potential to improve food safety.
  • Further refinements in operationalisation are required.
  • Efficient communications with consumers about the advantages of traceability will be necessary if they are to gain confidence in the safety of their food.

You can read the journal publisher’s abstract at : http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1847003

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.


Viewing rare breeds of poultry. Recently we became aware of what is described as the largest existing single collection of portraits of rare poultry breeds. The WATT collection includes 57 framed oil paintings created by three American artists between 1926 and 1950. J.W. Watt, founder of Watt Publishing Company and long-time publisher of the Poultry Tribune , commissioned them.

You can view a brief video showing some of them and describing them at: http://www.wattnet.com/ArticleDisplay.html?menuid=15&id=507


Honoring their ag communications teacher. Former students, associates, and other friends are grieving at the recent passing of an exceptional agricultural communications teacher here at the University of Illinois. Bob Siebrecht taught agricultural photography and reporting for nearly 30 years, inspiring a generation of students with his insights, skills and caring spirit.

You can see a display of their photos and letters posted in Bevier Hall on the University of Illinois campus: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150493537851843.373922.204857546842&type=1


Welcome to Stephanie Pitts-Noggle , new academic coordinator and webmaster in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. As new ACDC graduate assistant, Stephanie joins us during her master’s degree studies in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She holds special interest in data curation and archival work. Her prior studies include a M.A. degree in art history, University of Chicago; and a B.A. in art history and classics, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada).

Stephanie also brings to the Center her useful skills and experience in website management, relational databases, editing and proofreading (including cookbooks), and online research—plus a full measure of enthusiasm.

Picture of Stephanie Pitts-Noggle


Communicator activities approaching.

  • January 23, 2012
    Deadline for submitting research papers for presentation at the 2012 annual meeting of the International Association of Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Annapolis, Maryland USA. Special Interest Group in Research invites papers relevant to agricultural communications. A companion recognition program for graduate student papers also is available. Information: Prof. Courtney Meyers at courtney.meyers@ttu.edu
  • February 5-6, 2012
    Agricultural Communications Research Meeting at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists Conference, Birmingham, Alabama USA. Registration online at: https://store.lsuagcenter.com/p-94-saas-registration-2012.aspx
  • February 17, 2012
    “Food and Agricultural Communications: The Next Frontier.” Industry-wide symposium hosted by the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the College of Media at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Information: http://www.agcommevent.com
  • March 22-23, 2012
    Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Charleston, South Carolina. Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org

Word of caution to professionals. We close this issue of ACDC News with a piece of advice from a veteran agricultural communicator, Gene Hemphill. He offered it during a session at the 2011 Agricultural Media Summit:

“Don’t ever think you’re so good in your profession that you can’t pass out the doughnuts.”


Thanks for your interest, encouragement, ideas and help .

We look forward to a new year of identifying and providing information that helps you communicate effectively about agriculture and grow professionally in this broad, dynamic, vital field of interest. And we look forward to being in touch with you. 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