You will find a new link
On our page of web sites related to agricultural communications and agricultural communicators. It’s the site of American Horse Publications, a non-profit association dedicated to promoting better understanding and communications within the equine industry.
Here are some topics featured in recent communicator newsletters:
- “Risk Communication 101” by John Phipps. American Agricultural Editors’ Association
ByLine, November/December 1998. - “Consumer demands driving ag journalism” by Antonina Ni Dhuinn. International
Federation of Agricultural Journalists News, December 1998. - “Improve your graphic design skills” by Glennon M. Scheid. Cooperative Communicators
Association News, January 1999. - “Top 10 rules for better photography” by Jeff Joiner. Cooperative Communicators
Association News, January 1999. - “Useful websites for communicators” by Brenda Fellhoelter. Cooperative Communicators
Association News, January 1999.
We join others in noting with sadness the passing of Joe Marks
A widely respected educational communicator in the U.S. A professor and science writer at the University of Missouri, he died January 4 from internal injuries sustained in a fall in his home. He served as president of the International Association of Agricultural Communicators in Education and earned respect through his leadership, professional skills, generous service and good spirit.
An online “clearinghouse” of case studies
In agricultural and natural resource communication is taking shape. Prof. Ricky Telg, University of Florida USA, is developing this collection as an aid to students and professionals.
“It would be a place where university students can access the real-life situations you have faced,” he explains. He invites case studies for this collection. You can learn more about it on the web site www.ifas.ufl.edu/~telg/openletter.html or check with him by e-mail at rtelg@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu.
A tip on searching by subject matter.
As you search the Documentation Center online, remember that every document in the collection involves communications related to agriculture. So the collection lends itself to cross-subject searches.
For example, if you want to identify documents about public attitudes toward pesticides, you might enter two terms under Subject in the search form, as follows:
- attitudes AND pesticides
Here are a few other examples of strategies for cross-searching, by subject:
- advertising AND dairy
- adoption AND computers
- listenership AND farmers AND india
- “traditional media” AND africa
Further details and examples are available through Helps. Simply click the “Subject” button on the left side of the search box. And call on us if we can help you search.
Here are some new documents about diffusion, adoption and decision making.
We have added them to the Center during recent weeks. You can get the full citations of those that interest you by searching under “Title” on the search page.
- “Using ecolabeling to encourage adoption of innovative environmental technologies in agriculture”
- “Environmental policy and technology adoption in animal agriculture”
- “Compensating for information externalities in technology diffusion models”
- “Technology use increasing in agriculture, still shopping locally”
A closing tribute – to old fence posts.
We close this issue with a poem by John Robertson of New South Wales, Australia. He was recognized for it in the 1998 Rural Poetry Competition in celebration of National Poetry Day, an initiative of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Our thanks to Mr. Robertson and ABC Rural Online.
AN OLD POST ODYSSEY
Was young and strong, have aged since milled.
Been barked and treated, stapled, drilled.
The heat, the freeze, the rain, the dust,
Do blunt the barb, the wire rust.
Last strainer snapped, still upright, free,
But oh to be a Christmas tree.
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.