Category: ACDC Newsletter

ACDC News – Issue 00-03

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

New research from agricultural communicators at SAAS.

Here are the titles of some of the interesting conference papers added recently to the ACDC collection. They come from the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS), which met January 30-February 1 in Lexington, Kentucky.

  • “May I take your order? Marketing Extension information in the commercial world”
  • “The Florida agricultural community’s communications efforts during the 1997 and 1998 infestations”
  • “Lessons learned on the journey to ‘team management’ in the agricultural communications unit”
  • “A working strategy to inform urban public opinion leaders about agribusiness and its impact on economic development: a case study”
  • “Hit me baby! Attracting readers to educational web sites through commercial partnerships”
  • “Effective information campaigns that meet the needs of diverse audiences”
  • “Firefighter public information officers’ communication effectiveness with the media during the 1998 Florida wildfires”

You can view the texts of these and other papers online at http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/

“Making wise choices” was the theme and purpose

Of a 1997 conference about telecommunications and rural community viability. A copy of the proceedings went into the ACDC collection recently as Document No. C10352. You can view the proceedings online at http://www.soc.iastate.edu/rdi-tech/

How to organize dialogue meetings.

Here is an informative source of information about how to achieve dialogue through round table meetings. It comes from “Dialogue in biotechnology,” a report of a workshop conducted in Belgium during April 1998. And it offers specific “how-to” information, organized within a 10-point framework.

The European Federation of Biotechnology Task Group on Public Perceptions of Biotechnology and three other organizations sponsored this workshop. The report can be viewed online at: http://www.kluyver.stm.tudelft.nl/efb/tgppb/main.htm

Does public information drive private information providers out of business?

Not necessarily, according to four agricultural economists. S. Wu, D. Just, D. Zilberman and S. Wolf presented a paper, “Demand for agricultural economic information,” at the annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association in August 1999.

They found that the government provides the very general information input used by private information providers to bring a specialized piece of information to a specific audience. Intermediaries (such as media, commercial information vendors, commodity associations and brokers) rely heavily on the government for information. However, end users (such as farmers, banks, elevators and input suppliers) do not.

Details are available online at http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/

More interesting quotes in the GMO debate

“Let’s stop eating plants and animals altogether. It’s a shame we did not have this information millions of years ago. It would have been so easy to avoid the perils of life.” Barbara Hohn, Friedrich Miescher Institute, in response to a call for a ban on transgenic crops containing a certain promoter. (Title: Scientists avert new GMO crisis)

“Biotechology isn’t science.” B. M. Alfred, National Post. (Use title search: Biotechnology science)

“I have more respect for a critical, informed opponent than for a blind follower.”

Alan McHughen. (Title: The role of geneticists in the public debate over genetically modified organisms)

Making money communicating with pets.

A three-CD set of calming tunes for pets has been a fast seller since its release in June 1999 by a marketing firm, Incentive Media. Pets hear soft instrumental music blended with pleasant nature sounds. Forbes Magazine considers this business idea one of the most “idiotic” of the year, but more than 50,000 units had sold by year-end.

Is this uptake surprising to agricultural communicators who know how many producers play music to livestock in dairy barns and other buildings?

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several U.S. professional agricultural communicator organizations:

March 7-9, 2000
Back to the future.” Annual meeting and professional development conference of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Orlando, Florida. Information: arc@nama.org

April 12-14, 2000
“All that jazz.” National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) conference and trade show. Site: Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nama.org

May 21-24, 2000
Fast chips and hot salsa.” National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in College Station, Texas.
Information: http://netc2000.tamu.edu

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.

ACDC News – Issue 00-02

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Remembering Larry Tennyson.

Our thoughts are with the family of Larry Tennyson, recently retired South Dakota State University faculty member who died January 10 of a heart attack. He will be missed. Larry’s interests included preserving and sharing information about agricultural communications. He had, in fact, visited the Documentation Center last March to discuss progress and plans.

The Internet is an efficient, preferred response medium

According to a speaker at the recent Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) workshop at the University of Illinois. Craig Pessman, business partner technical manager for IBM, offered data that compared the cost per lead from messages delivered by print, direct mail and the Internet.

ACDC reference: Use Title search (Communications & marketing in the e-life) to get the citation. Contact Center for a copy of the presentation.

Some interesting expressions in the GMO debate

“Although food labels are much more reliable and informative than they were at the beginning of the 20th century, modern day ‘snake oil’ claims will still be a problem in the 21stcentury.” Bruce Silverglade, Center for Science in the Public Interest (Title: Are food labels Y2K ready?)

“The quality of information provided by many of the most easily accessed (Internet) sites is poor.” E.S. Allen, J.M. Burke, M.E. Welch and L.H. Rieseberg, Indiana University.
(Title: How reliable is science information on the web?)

“Where does the university come down on biotechnology? Are we for it or against it?” Chris Sigurdson, Purdue University, and Tom Knecht, Mississippi State University.
(Title: The academy and biotechnology)

“The biotech companies danced into this minefield with all the grace of an elephant in jackboots.” Maria Margaronis, The Nation. (Title: As biotech ‘frankenfoods’ are stuffed down their throats, consumers rebel)

“Kinder, gentler” communications with animals

(Article by John Hiscock in the National Post, Canada). Author suggests that “kinder, gentler cattlemen are heading for a showdown with traditional cowboys over the use of ‘holistic’ herding.” This story explained that “sensitivity is now the watchword on the range. No longer are the cowpokes allowed to shout “git along” in case they hurt the animals’ feelings. Instead, they must speak softly, talk nicely and give them space and respect.”

Some public relations lessons the tobacco industry has learned.

Jay Poole, vice president for agricultural relations, Philip Morris Management Corporation, offered these lessons at the AAEA convention in July 1999:

  • Lesson 1 Opponents aren’t enemies.
  • Lesson 2 Don’t view yourself as a victim
  • Lesson 3 Be careful where you choose to make your stand.
  • Lesson 4 Never stonewall. Issues don’t go away if you ignore them.
  • Lesson 5 Never try giving anybody the silent treatment.
  • Lesson 6 Whenever possible, be first with an issue.
  • Lesson 7 Work to understand the groups and individuals who are making public opinion.
  • Lesson 8 Look for allies.

“The real question,” he says, “is whether we can broaden our own vision. Those of us who communicate for a living pride ourselves on our ability to see an issue from many perspectives, to be objective and non-judgmental. But when we’re honest with ourselves, we discover that each of us has a position we gravitate toward, a perspective we tend to think of as the ‘right’ one.”

Title: Public relations lessons from the tobacco industry.

A new edition of The Communicator’s Handbook is available.

This Fourth Edition, written by members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE), covers topics such as: writing, photography, graphic design, video and radio production, presentation visuals, exhibits, media relations, media campaigns, crisis management, instructional design for distance learning, the Internet, organizational marketing. It is available as a book or as a three-hole punched, shrink-wrapped package suitable for placing in a notebook. Information: ace@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several U.S. professional agricultural communicator organizations:

January 30-February 2, 2000
Agricultural Communications Section, annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists. Site: Lexington, Kentucky. Information: http://cals.agnis.vt.edu/~saas/

February 10-11, 2000
Roads to the future.” Workshop offered by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) for communications and member relations professionals involved in cooperative communications within the Midwest Region. Site: DoubleTree Club Hotel Riverport, St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: lgunlock@pla-corp.com

March 7-9, 2000
Back to the future.” Annual meeting and professional development conference of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Orlando, Florida.
Information: arc@nama.org

April 12-14, 2000
“All that jazz.” National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) conference and trade show. Site: Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nama.org

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.

ACDC News – Issue 00-01

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Best wishes to you as a new year begins.

Those of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center will continue to do our best to gather information that can be useful now and in the years to come.

How many years?

We can reach back 100 years and more to find considerable information about agriculture-related communications. Will we be able to do the same 100 years and more from now? If so, what forms will the information take, what technologies will it involve and through what channels will it flow? Depositories such as ACDC face serious challenges in trying to select valuable information from the torrent passing by, then preserve it in ways that can assure it will be available across all of the changes that our future may bring.

Improved access to historical materials about farming and agriculture 

Is available through a new U.S. Department of Agriculture web site. A searchable guide helps users explore more than 200 years of U.S. farming history (1761-1994) in the Agriculture History Collection. Totaling 650 cubic feet, the collection includes a wealth of reports, statistical tables, speeches, biographies, audiovisuals, photos and other materials. Many involve communications. Some examples: attitudes and opinions of farmers, promotion campaigns, newsletters (e.g., Farm Paper Letter), press releases, marketing research, food consumption surveys and campaigns against animal and plant diseases.

The URL: http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collect/history/index.htm

What ethical issues are reflected in agricultural communications literature these days?

Here are some topics of ethics-related documents that have been added recently to the ACDC collection:

  • Manipulation and interpretation of scientific data (by scientists and others)
  • How much the public should know about agricultural and environmental biotechnology
  • Ownership of agricultural information (e.g., related to precision farming)
  • Ethics of agricultural relations
  • Relationships between agricultural editors and their information sources
  • Influence of advertisers on the editorial content of agricultural publications
  • How the reporting of agricultural college research (e.g., access, completeness, timing) may be compromised by corporate funding

You can identify specific documents by using the term “ethical issues” in an online Subject search of the ACDC collection.

“Can we not all just get along?”

That’s the title of an article by an agricultural public relations professional in the October 1999 issue of ByLine, newsletter of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association. Gary Vincent, vice president of public relations at Thomas C. Porter & Associates, has 22 years of reporting experience and 10 years of public relations experience. He says that editors and public relations practitioners can get along and, in fact, help each other be more effective in their work. He offers some guidelines for doing so.

ACDC reference: Use Title or Author search for full citation. Contact the Center if we can help you gain access to the article.

If you have opportunities to talk with young people about careers 

In agricultural communications you should know that a PowerPoint presentation is available online. The Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow organization added it recently to the ACT web site. This presentation deals with the need for agricultural communications as a career field and identifies some schools that offer study programs to prepare for the field. The site: http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~natact/presentationpages.html

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several U.S. professional agricultural communicator organizations:

January 14, 2000
Making Lemonade in January.” Risk communication workshop organized by the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA). “To help you navigate tricky topics, earn audience trust and squeeze the most from situations gone sour.” Site: Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.
Information: thimsen@collemcvoy.com

February 10-11, 2000
Roads to the future.” Workshop offered by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) for communications and member relations professionals involved in cooperative communications within the Midwest Region. Site: DoubleTree Club Hotel Riverport, St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: lgunlock@pla-corp.com

March 7-9, 2000
Back to the future.” Annual meeting and professional development conference of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Orlando, Florida.
Information: arc@nama.org

 

Question of the week – about animals communicating.

If a hog loses its voice is it disgruntled?

Thanks for your kind response to improvements made recently in our web site.

We welcome your suggestions about how to make the site more attractive and user-friendly, our service more effective.

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-14

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

A new look on the web site.

You may already have noticed more color and graphics, improved readability and easier movement within the ACDC web site. The staff team redesigned it this fall and put it “on line” December 1. We hope that you enjoy it. As always, we welcome your reactions and suggestions.

And, yes, you can almost see the Center if you look in the far-left area of the campus photo. See those arms waving “hello”?

In Canada, a pioneering academic program in agricultural communications

Recently gained financial support that will help it develop at the University of Guelph, Ontario. A news report from the CanAdapt program http://www.adaptcouncil.org/new.html says that a three-year grant will launch a drive to establish Canada’s only university-level, integrated communications program. CanAdapt is Ontario’s portion of the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development fund of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The initiative is being led by Owen Roberts, the University of Guelph director of research communications, course instructor and coordinator of an award-winning program, Students Promoting Awareness of Research (SPARK).

ACDC reference: Use Title search (Integrated agricultural communications program launched with CanAdapt support).

“The mouse that roared: health scares on the Internet”

Is the arresting title of an article published this summer by the International Food Information Council Foundation. It identifies several recent scares, urges caution and suggests ways in which the “cyber-citizen” can judge validity of such information on the Internet.

“While the Internet can be a valuable source for scientifically accurate health information, it can also be a frontier town with no sheriff for assuring the truth of the information presented.”

The article also summarizes research showing how the information channels from which consumers get most of their nutrition information (television, magazines, newspapers) are quite different from channels they consider most credible (doctors, dietitians).

ACDC reference: use Title search (The mouse that roared) for citation details.

Twenty-nine percent of U.S. farms now have Internet access

According to a recent report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Findings came from a survey conducted during June 1999. Internet access on U.S. farms has more than doubled since 1997 when only 13 percent reported access. Forty percent reported that they now own or lease a computer, up from 31 percent in 1997.

View online at: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/us…/nassr/other/computer/fmpc0799.txt

After 40 years, food consumers “more sophisticated and skeptical.”

A report from the American Council on Science and Health notes that 40 years have passed since the cranberry scare of 1959 set off a national food panic. Several scientists cited in the article review progress in public understanding since then. Says one:

“In the past 40 years – having endured nearly a dozen similar food scares – Americans have become more sophisticated and skeptical about claims of ‘carcinogens’ in food.”

ACDC reference: use Title search (40 years ago this month) for details.

Communicating by name, shame and blame.

“Whilst open information is a laudable aspiration, and one all workers in communicable disease surveillance and control would aspire to, ‘name, shame and blame’ may not be the best, and is not the only way to get there,” according to a respondent on the ProMED web site http://www.promedmail.org. The respondent says that commonly used approach may cause many countries to withdraw from collaboration in surveillance activities as they fear the economic consequences of admitting a problem. The document identifies other possible approaches.

Concerns among consumers about biotech label messages.

Here are some research findings reported at a conference during late October by Sylvia Rowe, president of the International Food Information Council:

  • Most labeling messages proposed worldwide would not be understood
  • “Contains genetically modified X” is misinterpreted and evokes concern
  • Many messages are “complex, unreadable”
  • “Do not contain X” puts down competitors
  • “May contain” – manufacturers should know

ACDC reference: Use Author search (Rowe) or Title search (Understanding the consumer) for citation details.

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

December 14, 1999
Developing a marketing plan for the future of agriculture.” Workshop offered by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) at Radisson Governor’s Inn, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Information: http://www.nama.org

February 10-11, 2000
Roads to the future.” Workshop offered by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) for communications and member relations professionals involved in cooperative communications within the Midwest Region. Site: DoubleTree Club Hotel Riverport, St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: lgunlock@pla-corp.com

March 7-9, 2000
Back to the future.” Annual meeting and professional development conference of Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Orlando, Florida.
Information: arc@nama.org

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-13

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

More than 40 documents that Mason E. Miller contributed recently are being processed into the ACDC collection.

They come from the personal library of one who has effectively stimulated and strengthened agricultural communications research throughout his career in academic and government service. These documents include reports, articles, discussion papers and other valuable materials published between 1963 and 1982. Almost all are new to the ACDC collection and not easy to locate elsewhere.

Among the topics: social science research on development, consequences of innovations, group methods to actualize human potential, international communication policy and flow (bibliography), social action in community and area development, technical writing for scientists and women’s role in farming and agriculture (bibliography).

During the weeks ahead you will be able to identify these within ACDC through an online Title search using the topic titles listed above. For a complete listing of Mason Miller’s contributions to this collection, use an Author search (Miller).

Suggestions for aspiring communicators.

Here are titles of several presentations offered November 5-6 during a career-oriented workshop for Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) members. Students from Purdue University and the University of Illinois took part in this workshop on the University of Illinois campus. We are depositing the discussion materials used by professionals who led the sessions. Titles to request from ACDC:

  • “Finding your niche in ag advertising”
  • “Where do you fit in ag PR?”
  • “Developing your broadcast portfolio”
  • “Print portfolios: the best opportunity to sell your talents”

We also hope to collect materials presented during career sessions about agricultural writing, editing, photography and “online” technologies. Let us know if you would like to see some of the timely suggestions offered during this workshop.

What’s the current public image of America’s farmers and ranchers?

ACDC has obtained the summary of a nationwide consumer survey commissioned during 1999 by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Results suggest that “consumers typically rank farmers high for positive attributes and in overall job performance.” Some of the attributes examined: contribution to society; innovativeness; care about the quality and safety of food produced; care about water quality, farm animals and the land; production of genetically-modified food crops.

Title to request from ACDC: “American Farm Bureau Federation: farmers again rank high with American consumers”

Are writers evaluated on quantity?” 

That’s the title of an article in the current issue of ByLine, newsletter of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association. Author Jodie Wehrspann reports the results of her national survey among U.S. editors of magazines and newspapers. She found that half of the editors surveyed use quantitative evaluations. However, the ability to generate a lot of copy quickly was not so important to them relative to other measures such as accuracy, clarity, proper grammar/syntax and ability to generate useful story ideas.

Title to request from ACDC: “Are writers evaluated on quantity? If so, how?”

Women: untapped information source.

The October 1995 issue of 2020 News & Views(from the International Food Policy Research Institute) suggests that women may hold the key to feeding the world by 2020. However:

“Women may be a storehouse for a lot of knowledge and indigenous information that we’re not tapping into,” according to one speaker at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Bejing, China, during 1995. The article also highlights other gaps and opportunities that were discussed.

Online access: http://www.cgiar.org/ifpri/2020/newslet/nv_1095/nv_1095a.htm

Approaching deadline for proposals.

November 19 is the deadline for submitting proposals for papers to be presented at the National Extension Technology Conference May 21-24, 2000. Details are available at: http://netc2000.tamu.edu

A toxicology and risk communication symposium is scheduled

For November 17 at the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland. The National Capital Area Chapter of the Society of Toxicology hosts this one-day symposium. It may interest scientists and other professionals who have a stake in effective risk communication. Information: http://first.fda.gov/news/NCACFall.doc

Watching our kitchen sink.

A reader of the New Scientist has heard that dishwashing liquid contains substances that cause feminization of alligators. In response, however, another reader writes: “After extensive investigation at great personal risk, we have established that all the alligators entering our kitchen sink are already female. The males, like their human counterparts, shun the washing up. Hence we believe that this environment poses no threat.”

Another writer, from the Soap and Detergent Industry Association, assures that dishwashing liquids in Britain contain neither estrogen mimics nor carcinogens.

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-12

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

1998-1999 Ag Media Report added to ACDC collection.

This report highlights results of telephone interviews with 2,443 farmers in the U.S. with farm income of $40,000+. The study, sponsored by the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, featured three waves of interviews during April 1998, September 1998 and February 1999.

Findings identify farm publications read, radio listening, television viewing, electronic data service usage, Internet usage and kinds of information that farmers need and want.

Title to request: “Ag Media Report 1998-1999”

“Are agricultural communicators really listening?“

Julie Gay asked this question in a recent issue of the Agricultural Relations Council newsletter, ARCLight. She observed that in agribusiness communications the farmer’s voice is being repeatedly filtered. “Typically one farmer message must go through the following filters,” she explained.

  1. Local dealer
  2. District manager
  3. Sales and/or marketing manager
  4. Market research firm
  5. Market research telephone surveyor
  6. Communications agency account supervisor
  7. Communications agency account executive
  8. Communications agency creative staff
  9. Communications agency media director
  10. Top decision maker in client company

“How many of these 10 filters have actually talked to the farmer?” she asked. She said the accuracy of market research also needs to come into question because “farmers aren’t necessarily telling the truth when they answer the phone call, or fill out the form” …and “women…aren’t counted.” She believes it isn’t clear what will be needed to hear the farmer voice.

Recent references about crisis communication.

Following are several documents that provide useful background information and detailed procedures related to the growing interest in risk communication. You can see them on the AgriFood Risk Management and Communication web site http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/riskcomm or check with us.

  • “An introduction to risk communication and the perception of risk” (1996)
  • “Crisis response and communication planning manual” (1999)
  • “Crisis response and communication planning workbook” (1999)

GMO issues stirring media reports on food safety.

Here are some of the documents added to the ACDC collection during recent weeks from media coverage of this issue. You can use these titles to search for the sources or to request help from us in getting access to them.

  • “The biotech rumor mill”
  • “Protest may mow down trend to alter crops. Biotech: public outcry over genetically modified foods has the agricultural industry backpedaling”
  • “Biotechnology companies face new foe: the Internet”
  • “Consumer attitudes toward food biotechnology – Wirthlin Group Quorum surveys”
  • “Smoke and mirrors about genetic food labelling”
  • “Shoppers ‘need more assurance over food safety’”
  • “GMO labelling issue may seem funny in retrospect”

How biotech companies can ensure that consumers won’t accept their products.

Conrad Brunk, dean and professor of philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Canada, offered these tips during his presentation at the recent International Molecular Farming Conference in London:

  • Tell the public that there’s no risk with the products.
  • Cut funding to agencies which regulate the products.
  • Have a bad incident to discredit the product, which should results in a trust problem.
  • Deprive people of their control of the risk, such as opposing labelling. That creates the view that one is being exposed to an involuntary risk.
  • Create the perception that others than the risk bearers will benefit, such as that the profits from the sale of the products go to large multi-national corporations or that the products benefit the bottom lines of farmers.
  • Label critics as paranoid trouble makers.

Author and title of reference: John Greig, “The biotech equation now involves scientists, patients and grandmothers”

Working on a grant proposal related to agricultural communications?

Let us know if we can help you carry out a literature review of the subject matter involved in your proposal.

Whoa, Bessie.

The Ottawa (Canada) Citizen is carrying lively discussion about a decision by the Central Experimental Farm’s decision to stop naming its cows after women. According to a news report of October 11, “In the face of the public’s ire with the new policy, staff at the Agricultural Museum have been told not to discuss the cow-naming controversy.”

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

November 10-14
Annual conference, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-11

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

New literature about risk communications in agriculture.

Here are titles of recent documents we have added to the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center:

  • “Scare stories do us all harm”
  • “Monsanto ads censured but safety claims backed”
  • “A mutable feast: will the fight over gene-altered food products leap across the Atlantic?”
  • “Support continues for consumer food safety education”
  • “Farmers likely to be targeted in next food protest” (Canada)
  • “GM backlash leaves U.S. farmers wondering how to sell their crops”
  • “Public reaction to genetically-modified foods in the UK”

Folk media alive and well, with a modern twist.

Storytelling, music, puppetry, drama, dance and other folk media have long been recognized throughout the world as effective ways to teach. (You can see dozens of samples by searching on the “traditional media” subject term in the ACDC collection.) An extension food toxicologist at the University of California is using a folk approach with electronic technology. Dr. Carl Winter records and performs musical parodies of popular songs with a food safety/science twist. Here are a few examples of songs on his latest CD:

  • “I sprayed it on the grapevine” (to the tune, “I heard it through the grapevine”)
  • “Food busters” (to the tune, “Ghostbusters”)
  • “You’d better wash your hands” (to the tune, “I want to hold your hand”)
  • “USDA” (to the tune, “YMCA”)
  • “Food irradiation” (to the tune, “Do the locomotion”)

You can get details about this novel communications effort at the following URL: http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/music.html

New food safety information service announced.

The Food and Drug Administration has opened a new Outreach and Information Center to help inform the U.S. public about food safety.

URL: www.hhs.gov/news/press/1999pres/990909.html
Public information line: 1-888-SAFEFOOD

Center welcomes student assistant.

Rosie Subat, agricultural communications senior from near Yorkville, Illinois, joins the ACDC staff this month as a part-time student assistant. Rosie is completing the news-editorial option of her major, with special interest in photography. She will help identify, gather and process documents for the collection, as well as handle requests from clients.

Unusual communications experiences this summer.

Paul Hixson, administrative coordinator of the Center, got two valuable intercultural experiences recently.

  • As a vacationing volunteer, he worked with his son and others on an archeologist team that is doing mapping and preliminary exploratory excavations in the ruins of a large, ancient Maya city, Chunchukmil, in the northern Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. He helped create a video to explain the significance of this site to local residents.
  • Later he worked for two weeks with the faculty at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. He helped the faculty explore possibilities for expanding the distance teaching program of the College.

Internet use among rural community leaders.

Thanks to Professor Kris Boone for contributing a report about recent research among chamber of commerce directors, city mayors, county commission chairmen and business executives in 684 rural Kansas communities:

Ron Wilson and Kristina Boone, “Internet use among community leaders in rural Kansas.” Report of Progress 838, Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, Manhattan, Kansas. July 1999. 17 pp.

Results showed that nearly 62 percent of respondents said they used the Internet in one form or another. The most common use of the Internet was for finding information, with e-mail a close second. Researchers suggested that the Internet offers a significant opportunity for rural communities in reaching and serving clientele, distance learning and electronic commerce.

Farm broadcasts of nearly 60 years ago preserved.

The National Association of Farm Broadcasters archives now has examples of 1941 farm radio programs that can be heard by anyone interested. Details are available from NAFB Historian Dix Harper at dix@execpc.com The organization also welcomes samples of other early farm broadcasting.

Can we help in your research, teaching or other day-today projects?

Please let us know if we can help you, your associates, your clients or your students find information. Examples: literature searches for research projects, how-to information about various kinds of communications skills, career information, explorations of issues and trends in agricultural communications. We do our best to provide helpful, timely service.

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

September 23-26
Conference ’99, Canadian Farm Writers Federation, at Laval, Quebec.
Information: http://www.uoguelph.ca/Research/cfwf/

October 3-6
“Image and Imagination,” North Central Regional Workshop, Agricultural Communicators in Education, at Madison, Wisconsin. Features hands-on intermediate photoshop workshop, creativity workshops and tours, and strategies for enhancing personal and professional effectiveness.
Information: www.cals.wisc.edu/media/ace

October 21-22
Regional workshop, Cooperative Communicators Association, at Doubletree Club Hotel/Riverport, St. Charles, Illinois. Features employee communications, communicating about mergers, and uses of digital technology in communications.
Information: Lisa Gunlock at lgunlock@pla-corp.com

November 10-14
Annual conference, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-10

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Lively seminar for American Horse Publications members.

A record attendance and a lively program marked the recent AHP Seminar in Nashville, Tennessee. Informative reports on the AHP web site summarize the discussions and presentations about topics such as:

  • “Editors meet freelancers: a healthy exercise in group therapy.” What freelancers wish editors understood. What editors wish freelancers understood. The freelancers’ vision of the ideal editor. The editors’ vision of the ideal freelancer.
  • “Newsletter workshop”
  • “Circulation workshop”
  • “Publishing in the new millenium”
  • “Freelancer workshop”

You can see these summaries at: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/news.htm

Here are some new documents about communications aspects of biotechnology.

We have added them to the Center during recent weeks via the online journal, AgBioForum http://www.agbioforum.missouri.edu/AgBioForum/

  • Industry consolidation, public attitude and the future of plant biotechnology in Europe
  • Exploring the public’s role in agricultural biotechnology research
  • Public and private collaboration on plant biotechnology in China
  • Public/private alliances
  • Partnerships between public and private: the experience of the Cooperative Research Center for Plant Science

Losing history?

An article, “History: we’re losing it,” in the July 12 issue of Newsweek magazine addresses a question that pesters constantly here in the Center. It challenges all who try to gather and store information for access today and in the future:

How can we best preserve information and keep it accessible in the face of deteriorating documents and images, changing information formats, and inaccessible retrieval systems?

Aging print materials and fragile electronic media (such as videotape, floppy disk, CD-ROM) aren’t the only problem, this article notes. Systems used to retrieve information electronically also are disappearing rapidly. What simple, stable formats will survive or emerge?

“I keep hoping that someday I will see the farm press become what it ought to have been for a long time,”

Says Fred Myers in a recent column addressed to U.S. agricultural writers and editors. It appeared in the July issue of ByLine Newsletter, published by the American Agricultural Editors’ Association.

“The mass of dull writing shows that we aren’t thinking enough and doing enough,” he writes. “We aren’t letting our best talents go all the way in pulling out all of the stops.” He calls for livelier headlines, improved graphics and design, more “flash, fire and gut that tugs and pulls at readers… This is the most challenging time in history to write about agriculture.”

Let us know if you would like to see the article and don’t have ready access to it.

Appreciating the written word.

The challenge from Fred Myers reaches us along with a more encouraging message. It comes from a college senior who is preparing to become a professional agricultural communicator and is completing a summer internship:

“Until this summer, I never realized how much I appreciate the written word. I often find myself pondering over a sentence, searching for the perfect word that means exactly what I want to say. What a relief it is when I finally find it. I feel very fortunate to be able to gain experience in the real world and look forward to the upcoming school year.”

A new planning guide for food safety educators

Is offered online by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. It contains media materials, brochures, fact sheets, games, activities and other resources for observing National Food Safety Education Month (September).

You can see the guide at: http://www.FoodSafety.gov/September

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

August 14-19
Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Copenhagen, Denmark. Theme of the Congress is “Producing for the world.”
Information: jetteholm@vip.cybercity.dk

September 16-19
Western Regional Workshop, Agricultural Communicators in Education, at Fort Collins, Colorado. Three tracks: educational design, marketing and the WWW.
Information: http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/ace-wr99/

September 23-26
Conference ’99, Canadian Farm Writers Federation, at Laval, Quebec.
Information: http://www.uoguelph.ca/Research/cfwf/

October 3-6
North Central Regional Workshop, Agricultural Communicators in Education, at Madison, Wisconsin. “Image and imagination” theme features: hands-on intermediate photoshop workshop, creativity workshop and tours, and enhancing personal and professional effectiveness.
Information: http://www.cals.wisc.edu/media/ace

Remedy for a “bilious temperament.”

Here’s the advice offered to a 56-year-old farmer, J.W.B., whose description of his ailment appeared in the medical advice column of the September 6, 1882, issue of Family Herald newspaper: “ANS: Take of bromide of potash, four drams; infusion of gentian, six ounces. Dose, one tablespoonful three times a day in water.” If you find that it works, you might alert us.

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-09

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Information sources of large producers.

A recent national study by the Gallup Organization shows how large U.S. producers are gathering and using information for their farming operations. During early 1998 about 1,200 respondents provided feedback such as:

  • Information sources that they use (farm publications, direct mail, meetings and seminars, farm shows, electronic information sources such as DTN, radio, television and the Internet)
  • Industry sources that they use (local or farmer dealers, local veterinarians, local cooperatives, regional distributors, manufacturers and others)
  • Use of computers, modems, e-mail, the Internet and home pages
  • Current issues and concerns on their minds

The study was funded by a grant from 11 participating members of the Agricultural Publishers Association. Here is the citation:

  • Gallup Organization, “Trends in Agriculture Study: Large Producer Scorecards: Technology Trends and Industry Ratings, Benchmark Wave.”” April 1998.

This document is on file in the Documentation Center. Also, you can see it online at: http://www.agpub.org/gallup

Selected highlights from four other studies about information sources are available on the Agricultural Publishers Association web site.

Brief summaries involve:

  • A 1993 study by Purdue University
  • A 1994 Farm Media Report
  • A 1995 survey by Rockwood Research Corporation
  • A 1996 Starch FARMS study conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide

A rural communicator from Australia reviewed hundreds of documents 

At the Center during the first two weeks of July. The visitor, Liz Kellaway, is general manager of Turnbull Porter Novelli, a public relations firm in South Australia specializing in serving agricultural clients. A 1999 Churchill Fellow, Liz is studying rural communications through visits to seven countries. Her research in the ACDC collection emphasized communications techniques used to drive technology transfer in commercial and public sectors of agriculture. We enjoyed her visit and were pleased to support her studies.

Interested persons are welcomed at the Center 

And can tap a variety of services. Users often report that within a few hours or days they can easily review more agricultural communications literature than they could find through longer searches by other means.

Condolences to the family of Francis C. Byrnes

81, a pioneering agricultural communicator who died July 5 at his home in Reston, Virginia. Frank’s international career involved work in nearly 60 countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. His leadership in educational communications traces back to the National Project in Agricultural Communication (NPAC), an initiative that had great impact in the U.S. and beyond. Even decades later, NPAC is cited as a landmark effort. In 1986 he received the first Award of Excellence in International Affairs ever presented by the Agricultural Communicators in Education organization.

The Documentation Center has benefited directly from Frank’s interest and support. During recent years he contributed a variety of agricultural communications documents from his personal library.

Do you know of a turntable that will play 16-inch acetate records?

If so, the National Association of Farm Broadcasters welcomes information from you. NAFB has received several 16-inch records that feature farm broadcasts aired as early as 1941. These historical recordings need to be dubbed to audiotape or other current format. If you know of an operating turntable, please get in touch with Jim Evans evansj@uiuc.edu at the Center.

Credibility of research information from land grant universities

Was on the mind of Jack Sperbeck, University of Minnesota, last month when he accepted the 1999 Professional Award of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE). In particular, he raised questions about the impact of private sponsorship that, increasingly, supports research at land grant universities. An example cited: How should communicators in those institutions respond to requests that they submit story drafts, scripts or publications to funding organizations for approval? He emphasized the importance of operating in ways that maintain public trust and confidence.

A copy of his presentation is being processed into the Center. Search online under author or title (1999 ACE Professional Award—Acceptance Speech).

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

July 28-31
Agricultural Publications Summit at Denver, Colorado. Joint conference of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agricultural Publishers Association and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.
Information: http://www.ageditors.com/news/summit.html

August 1-3
East Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Decatur, Illinois.
Information: Jim Fleming at 217-428-1050

August 14-19
Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Copenhagen, Denmark. Theme of the Congress is “Producing for the world.”
Information: jetteholm@vip.cybercity.dk

September 16-19
Western Regional Workshop, Agricultural Communicators in Education, at Fort Collins, Colorado. Three tracks: educational design, marketing and the WWW.
Information: http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/ace-wr99/

September 23-26
Conference ’99, Canadian Farm Writers Federation, at Laval, Quebec.
Information: http://www.uoguelph.ca/Research/cfwf/

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-08

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Rural Communication Colloquium goes online.

Professors Eric Abbott, Iowa State University, and Paul Yarbrough, Cornell University, recently announced a new web-based colloquium for those interested in rural communication research. They demonstrated it at a workshop on June 14 during the Agricultural Communicators in Education/National Extension Technology Conference (ACE/NETC) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“The purpose of the Rural Communication Research Colloquium is to provide a forum to assist those interested in rural communication research,” they explained. “Colloquium members represent a global network of individuals actively involved in communication research related to rural areas, including agriculture, rural and community development, extension, telecommunications and rural areas, health and nutrition, forestry and other topics.”

You can see the new web site at:  http://www.jlmc.iastate.edu/eabbott/colloquium/

Various pages on the site will feature news, reports of current research, special reports on major topics, access to databases and opportunities for dialogue. Organizers invite reactions and suggestions as this project gets under way.

Workshop also features tools and resources for communication planners.

Participants in the Knoxville workshop also learned about a new collaborative effort to support communication planners. Professors Yarbrough and Abbott described plans for a database that professionals can use for strategic planning in rural and extension communication.

“Most units are now under more pressure to justify their existence and approaches, and use of communication planning can enhance this,” the presenters noted. “Second, the Web provides a wonderful way in which resources can be made available to assist in the process.”

The online system will include tools for communication planners as well as links to various kinds of completed research: research reports and generalizations, tabulated data, data sets and others. The Agricultural Communications Documentation Center will serve as an information source and depository. Presenters report that at least three universities (Cornell, Iowa State, Illinois) will serve as pilot sites to explore effective ways to make this work.

“Angles of online advertising” 

Is the title of a recent article by Jackie Freundlich on the American Horse Publications web site: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/news.htm
She suggests seven ways in which to make the benefits of print and the Web work together.

New documents from ACE/NETC conference.

Following are authors and titles of some reports presented during the recent conference. Some of these presentations took the form of peer-reviewed papers organized through the Research Special Interest Group of ACE. Other documents involved research reports, executive summaries and discussion resources.

  • Sunae Jo and Lulu Rodriguez, “The sources Iowans trust: the impact of involvement on credibility perceptions and channels used for environmental issues.”
  • Diane Nelson and Elisabeth Schafer, “Social marketing research partners: using focus groups to design nutrition messages for low-income parents.”
  • Allan Schmidt and Eric A. Abbott, “Using scenario planning to develop long-range Internet strategies for agricultural communicators.”
  • Sharon B. Stringer and Joan S. Thomson, “Defining agricultural issues: daily newspaper editors’ perspectives.”
  • Ron Wilson and Kristina M. Boone, “Tangled WWWeb: reaching rural community leaders with information.”

You can get the full citation for each document by searching ACDC online, using either a “title” or “author” search. Let us know if we can help you get copies of specific documents to which you don’t have access locally.

Information about 15 Canadian agricultural periodicals is now available online.

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation web site recently posted a “publications” page that provides details such as audience, circulation, frequency, type of content, deadlines for copy submission and how to make contacts. The URL is:  http://www.uoguelph.ca/Research/cfwf/

Farm broadcaster newsletter on the web.

Since April, readers of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters web site have been able to read their newsletter, Chats, online. The URL is:   http://www.nafb.com

Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:

July 17-20
Annual institute, Cooperative Communicators Association, at Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://www.CoopComm.com

July 28-31
Agricultural Publications Summit at Denver, Colorado. Joint conference of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agricultural Publishers Association and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.
Information: http://www.ageditors.com/news/summit.html

August 1-3
East Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Decatur, Illinois.
Information: Jim Fleming at 217-428-1050

August 14-19
Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Copenhagen, Denmark. Theme of the Congress is “Producing for the world.”
Information: jetteholm@vip.cybercity.dk

Staying focused in fast-paced times.

Thanks to Dix Harper for this “shortie” piece of philosophy that he collected somewhere along the line:

“There are two kinds of people: those who finish what they start, and so on . . .”

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.