ACDC News – Issue 98-14

Hundreds of added documents have come into the farm broadcasting collection since mid-September at the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC).

Our staff members are identifying these materials from the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) archives, which are located here at the University of Illinois.  The documents include newsletter features, trade journal articles, reports, media use surveys, audio tapes, CDs and materials in other formats.  They trace from today back to the early days of radio.  And they contain a wealth of information about farm broadcasting methods, trends, listenership, issues and impact.

You can see citations for these new documents by searching under subject terms such as “rural broadcasts,” “broadcasters,” “radio programs,” “listenership,” “television methods” and “television viewing.”


Here’s a useful way to narrow your search for documents in ACDC. 

Try using more than one subject term in a search.  For example, if you want to identify documents about the role of farm broadcasting, you simply enter two terms under “subject” in the search form, as follows: role rural broadcasts

You need to use no quotation marks or punctuation.  Instead, you type in the first term (role), move one space, then type in the second term (rural broadcasts).  If you are uncertain about what subject terms to use, you can check the thesaurus by clicking on the “thesaurus” hot link above the search form.

Let us know if you have questions or would like help in conducting your searches.


A new online magazine contains some literature about communications aspects of agricultural biotechnology.

AgBioForum http://agbioforum.missouri.edu/AgBioForum , a quarterly online magazine devoted to the economics and management of agricultural biotechnology, is published by the Illinois Missouri Biotechnology Alliance.  The Alliance is supported by a congressional special grant to “provide funding for university biotechnology research directed at placing new products in the marketplace.”


Resources from the 1998 Cooperative Communicators Association Institute.

We are in the process of adding some interesting documents from the CCA Institute, which took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during June. Among these presentations and resource materials:

  • “30 low cost, practical ways to show communication’s impact on your cooperative’s success”
  • “Professional development needs for cooperative communicators”
  • “How well are you adapting to these shifts in cooperative communication?
  • “Examples of strategic communication research tools”
  • “Meeting and convention planning packet”

Look for these new documents under subject terms such as “cooperative information,” “cooperatives ” and “professional development.”

Thanks to CCA Executive Director Susie Bullock and her associates for assembling these resources from the Institute and making them available.


Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several agricultural communicator organizations.

Nov 1-3
Annual Meeting and Communications Clinic of American Agricultural Editors’ Association at Hyatt Regency Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: www.ageditors.com

Nov 11-15
Annual Convention of National Association of Farm Broadcasters a t Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: nafboffice@aol.com

Dec 11
1998 Telstra Rural Media Awards program of Rural Media Association of South Australia.
Information: rbmitch@ozemail.com.au


The perils of rural-urban migration.

Early in the 1940s a resident of a large U.S. city was said to have claimed that he preferred to live in a rural area, but wouldn’t make the move because he heard that the country was at war.  (Adapted from NAFB Chats Newsletter, April 1982)


Best regards and good searching. 

Please let us know if we can help you find information and/or if you can suggest documents that we might add to this collection.

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