More news, please, about which way the wind is blowing.
Writing in the Boston Globe, Monica Collins recently admonished television weather reporters to get beyond “The weather is downright weird.”
By design, the weathercast is a temperate zone, she said – a “bastion of prognosticative bromides without any controversy.” She urged television weather reporters to go further, to address worries about climate change and global warming. “Education about global warming need not be an anomaly for a TV forecaster. It should become part of the routine, when the weather is strange…”
Agricultural reporters, as sources of vital weather information for producers and others, may find interest in this commentary.
Title: When the weatherman plays dumb
Posted at
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/09/when_the_weatherman_plays_dumb/
Topics ranging from golden rice to agroterrorism
These got the attention of agricultural communications researchers at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) meeting last month in Mobile, Alabama. Here are the topics addressed and researchers involved in these papers we are adding to the ACDC collection:
- “Could it really happen? Beef producers’ risk perceptions of an agroterrorism event occurring in Oklahoma” by Marcus A. Ashlock, D. Dwayne Cartmell II and James G. Leising
- “Centralizing extension: key leader input concerning a comprehensive agricultural and natural resources awareness website” by Roslynn G. Brain and Nicholas E. Fuhrman
- “Perceptions of influence on college choice by students enrolled in a college of agricultural sciences and natural resources” by Cathy D. Herren, D. Dwayne Cartmell II and J. Tanner Robertson
- “The newest white meat: selected consumers’ attitudes and taste perceptions of “all-natural pork” by Katie Chodil, Courtney Meyers, Tracy Irani and Ricky Telg
- “Outline processor markup language (OPML) as a news reporting and organizational tool” by Blair Fannin
- “Putting a good foot forward online: working with industry professionals to analyze web site usability” by Emily Rhoades and Katie Chodil
- “Editor preferences for the use of scientific information in livestock publications” by Traci L. Naile and D. Dwayne Cartmell II
- “ACE members’ spheres of influence” by Edith Chenault
- “Evaluation of the professional development status of the Agricultural Media Summit-sponsoring organizations’ active members” by Lindsay M. West, Cindy Akers, Chad Davis, David Doerfert, Steve Fraze and Scott Burris
- “Finding golden rice in the GMO arena: the framing of golden rice and agricultural biotechnology in Philippine newspapers” by Shalom Mula
Posted at: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/saasproceedings.html
Finding hidden resources on Google.
Joe Zumalt of the Center offered some Googling tips for agricultural journalists in a recent issue of IFAJ News. You can review them on the web site of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.
Title: Hidden resources agricultural journalists can find at Google
Posted at: http://www.ifaj.org/newsletter/jan2006/PD_Google.pdf
View photos of the displaced.
We have added to the ACDC collection a feature from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) about the power, limits and untapped possibilities of photojournalism.
“With all the emphasis on new media, photography has never lost the power to move us,” observed author Norman Solomon. He pointed to the work of photographer Sebastião Salgado-Amazonas, including a photo essay, “Displaced people of the world,” that appeared in Time magazine. You can use the live links below to read the article and view those photos, including some that involve rural people and rural social issues.
Title: Power and limits of photojournalism
Article posted at: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2072
Photos posted at: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,41344,00.html
Communicator activities approaching
April 15-17, 2007
Annual meeting of North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D.C. Information: www.naaj.net/meeting.html
April 30-May 2, 2007
“Washington watch.” National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Washington, D.C.
Information: www.nafb.com
May 1-3, 2007
Eighteenth annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Savannah, Georgia.
Information: www.toca.org
May 20-24, 2007
“Internationalizing with cultural leadership.” Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Polson, Montana.
Information: www.aiaee.org
June 2-5, 2007
“Communicators unite!” Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Information: www.communicators.coop
June 15-19, 2007
“A double creature feature.” ACE/NETC joint conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Information: http://acenetc2007.nmsu.edu
Oh, for a farm of my own.
We close this issue of ACDC News with an observation that caught our eye in a 1906 issue of Agricultural Advertising magazine. Over these years, has much changed in the minds of those who work in agricultural journalism and communications?
“It is the hope of every advertiser of farm implements that some day he may have a farm of his own upon which to use them.”
Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.
Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.
Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu
March 2007