Category: ACDC Newsletter

ACDC News – Issue 99-07

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Recent research about the roles of husbands and wives in farm decisions.

Thanks to Professor Lydia Zepeda, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin, for providing several reports of research in which she has been involved recently on this subject. They include:

  • “The role of husbands and wives in farm technology choice”
  • “The results of four Wisconsin focus groups: roles of husbands and wives in farm decisions”
  • “Women on dairy farms: juggling diverse roles and responsibilities”

You can find the full citations for these documents by searching the collection online. Use either a title search or author search (Zepeda) to do so.

Some other recent acquisitions about farm decision-making.

During recent months we have added more than 25 new documents that relate to farm decision-making, diffusion and adoption. Here are titles of some:

  • “Economic effect of imperfect information on conservation decisions”
  • “Who are you going to call? As more and more university staff members work as paid consultants, it’s difficult to find ‘independent’ advice”
  • “Weather markets: U.S. corn and soybeans”
  • “Uncertainty and the regulation of nitrate pollution from agriculture”
  • “Predictors of the farm wife’s involvement in general management and adoption decisions”

Concerns aired about access to results of privately funded university research.

The May-June 1999 issue of Farm Industry News reports growing concern about research that is conducted at public universities but funded by private business. The article identifies some communications-related issues that may emerge from arrangements under which researchers agree to conduct industry-funded research. Among the issues: agreements that involve delays in publication of research results and/or allow sponsors to remove information from research at publication. Here is the citation for this article in the ACDC collection:

Dale B. McDonald, “Risky research: is corporate money compromising public research?” Farm Industry News 32,8 (May-June 1999), 8-9.

New literature about telecommunications for rural communities.

Thanks to Professor Eric Abbott, Iowa State University, for contributing a copy of the following proceedings during recent weeks:

  • Eric A. Abbott (ed.), “Telecommunications for rural community viability: making wise choices.” Proceedings of a workshop sponsored by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, February 25-27, 1997, Kansas City, Missouri. 83pp.

Among the topics of keynote presentations made during the workshop:

  • “Electronic highways and byways: converging technologies and rural development,” by Heather Hudson, professor and director, Telecommunications Management and Policy Program, University of San Francisco.
  • “Information technologies and rural community viability: lessons from the past,” by Paul Yarbrough, professor of communication, Cornell University.

All keynote presentations are entered individually into the ACDC collection, along with a group of community case studies. You can locate them by using terms such as “community development” or “information technology” in your Subject search.

We look forward to seeing some of you 

At the ACE/NETC conference in Knoxville, Tennessee (conference details below). Jim Evans will describe ACDC during a scheduled workshop, “Introducing a new agricultural and rural communication research database.”

Professional meetings approaching.

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

June 12-16
Joint conference, Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and National Extension Technology Conference (NETC), at Knoxville, Tennessee.
Information: http://web.utk.edu/~utia/ace-netc99

June 17-19
South Region meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
Information: Chuck Zimmerman at czimmerman@learfield.com

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

Great news about handling hard times on the farm.

The farm owner and operator were talking about their cash rental arrangement for the coming year.

“I’m going to have to raise your rent,” the owner announced.
“Great!” the operator replied. “I sure haven’t been able to.”

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 99-06

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Thanks and best wishes to Laura Cheline

Student assistant in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center during the past year. Laura is completing her undergraduate degree in agricultural communications here at the University of Illinois this month and has accepted a position in marketing communications with AGCO Corporation in Georgia. She has contributed much to progress in the Center this year and will be missed.

National Agri-Marketing Association makes presentations available.

Twenty-five presentations made during the 1999 NAMA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, are available in the form of audio cassettes for purchase. Here are some of the presentation titles:

  • “Creating marketing techniques that reach the global consumer”
  • “How do farmers and ranchers use farm media?”
  • “Food safety – answering consumer concerns”
  • “Data driven direct on-line marketing services”

Check with NAMA headquarters at www.nama.org for a list of presentations and details about how to order audio tapes.

In development, “the over-riding need is communication.”

A vigorous call for improved development communication appears in two recent journal articles by Professor Robert Agunga, Department of Human and Community Resource Development, Ohio State University. Thanks to Professor Agunga for providing copies of these articles for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center:

  • “Talking it out: a communication-based approach to sustainable development,” Harvard International Review, 21(1), Winter 1998/1999.
  • “Communication for development in Africa: a clarion call,” Communicare, 17(1), June 1998.

University Library adds 9 millionth volume.

Somehow, it seems appropriate that the 9 millionth volume added recently to the University of Illinois Library involves agriculture. Published in 1616 as two works bound, it is an original German Baroque treatise, with illustrations, on the breaking and training of royal cavalry horses and on the fitting of their bits and bridles.

No, we aren’t identifying it as a piece of agricultural communications literature. All documents in the ACDC collection involve some aspect of communications as well as some aspect of agriculture. At the same time, this milestone reminds us that the large University of Illinois Library provides a remarkable source of literature for ACDC.

New documents about information technology for agriculture and rural areas.

Here are the titles of some documents that we have added recently on this subject:

  • “Row crop producers’ perceptions of the Internet as a preferred and valid source of  information for their enterprises”
  • “Effective use of new media communications systems in remote places” (Japan case)
  • “Using computers to improve farm management decisions”
  • “Food marketing in an electronic age: implications for agricultural producers”
  • “County agents’ perceptions of the new media mix: a Missouri perspective”
  • “How to achieve value from information technology investments (wood industry)”
  • “The role of agricultural research networks in small countries”
  • “Economic effects of information technology on dairy farms in the Netherlands and Israel”
  • Information fax centers for farmers”

Professional meetings approaching.

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

June 12-16
Joint conference, Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and National Extension Technology Conference (NETC), at Knoxville, Tennessee.
Information: http://web.utk.edu/~utia/ace-netc99

June 17-19
South Region meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
Information: Chuck Zimmerman at czimmerman@learfield.com

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

July 29-31
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

No winner.

A man entered a pun contest sponsored by his local newspaper. He sent in ten different puns in the hope that at least one would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

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 99-05

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Welcome to Hui Liu, new Graduate Research Assistant

In the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Hui brings excellent credentials to the Center. His experience includes computer work with the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), which administers a Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois. So he is familiar with gathering and processing information from varied sources, updating databases, maintaining web sites and providing information services to clients. His interest and experience in computer science and electronic information systems, processes and services have developed since 1995.

Please feel free to get in touch with Hui at liuhui@uiuc.edu when you have questions and are interested in help from the Documentation Center.

Recent conference papers are available online.

The Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists has posted nine papers from the recent annual meeting of SAAS. This event took place January 31-February 2 in Memphis, Tennessee. The papers involved topics such as research magazine readership, outsourcing graphic design services, streaming media for instructional delivery and developing effective program success stories for enhanced accountability.

You can review the papers at http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/

Thanks to Professor Kris Boone

Kansas State University, for contributing seven documents recently to update our collection of scholarly material of which she is author or co-author. These refereed documents were published between 1995 and 1998.

We welcome materials that you have written

About agriculture-related communications. Here’s how you can check quickly to see which of your journal articles, reports and other documents already are in the collection:

On the search page of this web site, type your last name in the “Author” field. Press “Search.” The search will produce a list of documents under your name. We recommend searching only on your last name because of varied ways in which first names or initials often appear in citations.

New web site for communications managers.

The communications management special interest group of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) recently added a web site to the ACE server. URL: http://www.aceweb.org/com_sig/ace_mgt.htm. It includes a list of good reading about management in organizations and communications units.

Agricultural publications in Canada.

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation is creating a comprehensive database of Canadian agricultural publications to be posted on the CFWF web site. Information is available from Owen Roberts at owen@ornet.or.uoguelph.ca

Keen interest in public reactions to biotechnology.

One of the fastest-growing parts of our collection these days involves the communications aspects of biotechnology, genetic engineering and related developments, globally. We are working hard to collect current literature about these topics. For example, you can now identify more than 100 of such documents by searching under subject terms such as “biotechnology” and “risk communication.” You can identify nearly 150 documents about food safety communications by searching under the subject term “food safety.”

Please let us know when you see gaps and can help strengthen the collection in this important area of interest. The human, interactive aspects of biotechnology are as important as the technological aspects.

Universities producing problems?

“The split between nature and culture as institutionalized in universities is producing a lot of problems,” according to an author in issue 39:1 (1999) of the Sociologic Ruralis journal. The comment by P. Kaltoft appeared in an article entitled, “Values about nature in organic farming practice and knowledge.”

Your thoughts?

Professional meetings approaching.

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

April 25-27
Washington Watch, sponsored by National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Washington, D.C.
Contact: Kelly Lenz at 785-272-3456.

May 3-4
“Communicating creatively,” D.C. Regional Workshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education, Washington, D.C.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org

May 14-16
West Regional Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Rochester, Minnesota.
Contact: Donna Schmidt at 507-477-2577.

June 12-16
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education and National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) at Knoxville, Tennessee.
Information: http://web.utk.edu/~utia/ace-netc99

Would you like for us to help announce future meetings related to agricultural communications? We will be glad to do so.

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 99-04

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Special thanks go this month to Jianhua Dong

Who has provided valuable service in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center as graduate research assistant during the past 3½ years.

Jianhua is completing his doctorate in Library and Information Science this semester and already has taken a new Internet-related position in California. The position fits nicely with his dissertation research, which centers on the capabilities of search engines. And this Documentation Center has benefited greatly from his expertise, interest and dedication. The collection has grown 25 percent during his period of service and has become available to many more users, through the searchable web site that he helped develop. We are most grateful to Jianhua, wish him the best and will miss him.

A new Agricultural Communication Case Study web site is now online.

Professor Ricky Telg of the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida, has developed it to serve as a resource for students, teachers, researchers and practitioners. You can view it at: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~agcommcase/.

First two case studies deposited here.

This month Professor Telg deposited hard copies of the first two case studies in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, which is serving as repository. These two include:

  • “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner” Case Study. April 1995, 59 p. Summarizes efforts by the U.S. Beef Industry and Leo Burnett Company to plan and carry out a campaign of “improving target consumer attitudes about beef and halting declines in their beef usage.” A national beef media plan for 1992-1995 involved a media budget of more than $75 million. Study includes strategic research, objectives and marketing solutions through advertising, direct marketing, retail marketing and foodservice.
  • “Building an Environmental Writing Resource.” This writing case study is posted on the Case Study web site. A final report is available in printed form here at the Documentation Center: Nancy Riggs and Peggy Britt (eds.), Exploring Science Writing: An Environmental Focus. Illinois-Indiana and Michigan Sea Grant College Programs, December 1998. 75 p.

Another new document about commodity promotion.

Thanks to Noel Blisard of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, for providing a copy of Evaluation of Fluid Milk and Cheese Advertising, 1984-96. Researchers estimated that gross returns to dairy farmers increased by $5.33 for each dollar spent on generic advertising.

Get a full view of the NAFB Archives.

A new web site permits you to see an index of all materials in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Archives, which are maintained at the University of Illinois. Here is the URL of this new site: www.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/. Scroll to the NAFB collection.

In addition, you can identify more than 700 articles and reports from the NAFB Archives by searching the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center web site. Use “NAFB” or other broadcast-related subject terms.

We suspect that, through these services, NAFB offers one of the most accessible, user-friendly organizational collections in existence. As one broadcaster put it this week after reviewing the results of a “broadcasters” subject search, “WOW! I am impressed.”

Professional meetings approaching.

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

April 7-9
Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show involving National Agri-Marketing Association and Agricultural Relations Council. Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia.
Contact: www.nama.org

April 25-27
Washington Watch, sponsored by National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Washington, D.C.
Contact: Kelly Lenz at 785-272-3456.

May 3-4
“Communicating Creatively.” Workshop sponsored by the D.C. Region, Agricultural Communicators in Education. White House Conference Center, Washington, D.C.
Contact: www.aceweb.org

May 14-16
West Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Rochester, Minnesota.
Contact: Donna Schmidt at 507-477-2577.

Notes from grade school English class. Ah, the memories.

“Here is some English to be known. Whom instead of who. Never ain’t. Diagramming also.” (Response from a youngster in English class, cited in: Harold Dunn, The World According to Kids. Spectacle Lane Press, Georgetown, CT, 1992, p. 59)

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 99-03

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Prof. Claron Burnett contributes documents.

Special thanks go this month to Claron Burnett, professor emeritus of agricultural journalism, University of Wisconsin USA. Professor Burnett is co-author of several widely used references, including Agricultural News Writing and Writing for Agriculture: A New Approach Using Tested Ideas.  He recently contributed 10 of his documents (published 1957-1990) that were missing from our collection.  Examples of his recent contributions:

  • “Differential knowledge gain among Wisconsin dairymen”
  • “Highlights of agricultural writing,” a paper tracing the development of agricultural writing in the United States.
  • Leader guides and member manuals for a popular four-unit 4-H photography series.
  • Instructional Improvement Handbook for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 New reference on science writing.

An attractive new 75-page teaching reference, Exploring Science Writing: An Environmental Focus,” came off the press in December. It is published by the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Michigan Sea Grant programs and co-edited by Nancy Riggs of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Peggy Britt of the University of Michigan.

The purpose of the reference is to “introduce students to writing for the lay public about a few of the many public issues that affect the ecosystems in which we live.” Chapter 1 introduces readers to science writing techniques. Four following chapters offer writing samples and assignments about environmental topics such as water quality, exotic species, fishery problems and coastal economic development. Contact: Nancy Riggs at nriggs@uiuc.edu

Familiar advice from media.

Not much has changed in 28 years.  Science information still isn’t getting the coverage some feel it deserves.  Arthur J. Snider, science editor of the Chicago News, addressed this issue in 1971 at the National Seminar on Agricultural Science Communications.  His topic: “How the media make decisions regarding science information.”

The same intrinsic qualities that made news in 1971 make news today.  As Snider stated, science information is no exception.  His reasons for lack of media acceptance also sound familiar.  Here are a few examples:

  1. Space is limited and science news gets no special privileges from media gatekeepers who demand some element of applied
    science.
  2. Scientific jargon deadens reader interest, however sacred it may seem to scientists.
  3. Citizens “will not subject themselves to an effort to understand science simply as a bugle cry to duty.”

For more information about media use of science information, contact us at the Center or search the database.  Use subject terms such as “scientific communication” or “writing skills.”   (by Laura Cheline)

 Sample requests for assistance.

  •  During recent weeks a university faculty member invited help from the Center in getting access to documents about courses and curricula in agricultural journalism and agricultural communications.  Documents of interest also involved trends in agricultural communications and education, internationally.  We were able to make photocopies and forward them.
  • A student working on a history project asked for information about the impact of farm broadcasting during the early years of radio.

 Public attitudes about ethanol for fuel. 

Here’s a new survey report in the Center that sketches attitudes of U.S. citizens toward the use of alternative fuels such as ethanol.  Findings are based on 1,003 telephone interviews conducted during September 1998.

“America speaks out on energy: foreign oil dependency.”  Published by the Sustainable Energy Coalition, Takoma Park, Maryland.  October 1998.  101pp

Tracking farmer adoption of information technologies.

A recent national survey among more than 2,300 U.S. corn growers helps track their growing use of new technologies.  The survey, conducted by Novartis Seeds, Inc., reveals the extent to which growers were using GPS mapping systems, yield monitors on combines, personal computers and the internet for agricultural information during 1998.   Results of a similar survey conducted during 1997 show trends in adoption.  If you are interested in the results, inquire about:

“Summary of Novartis Seeds Farm Technology Survey Findings”

 Professional meetings approaching.

Here are the approaching meetings of some agricultural communicator organizations:

March 4-5
“Marketing to agriculture: building the essential foundation.” Conference sponsored by National Agri-Marketing Association at Westin O’Hare,  Chicago, Illinois.
Details: www.nama.org

April 7-9
“Brave new world.” Agricultural Relations Council annual meeting at  Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia.
Contact: Donna French  Dunn, ARC president, at donna@aaea.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 99-02

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

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.

ACDC News – Issue 99-01

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Happy new year from all of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. May you have a fine year ahead.

 New study on attitudes about biotechnology in Japan.

We recently received the following report of a study designed and analyzed by a researcher at North Carolina State University:

“Japanese consumers’ awareness and attitudes about biotechnology”
June 1998.  20pp.

The project, sponsored by Monsanto, involved telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 Japanese consumers.  It paralleled a similar study conducted three years earlier.  Among the results:

  •  Support for agricultural biotechnology tends to have risen between 1995 and 1998.
  • Awareness of biotechnology among Japanese consumers remains low.
  • Overall, consumers continue to trust independent, scientific experts.  Trust of government agencies has dropped since 1995.
  • Japanese consumers who were better educated were more positive about biotechnology.

Contact us if you would like more information about the study.

“Connecting the Country” conference in Australia.

Several Australian organizations sponsored a rural communications conference on September 28-29, 1998.  It explored the uses and potentials of new communications technologies and services in rural and regional Australia.

Organizers included the National Farmers Federation, the Communications Law Centre and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.  Here are some of the topics addressed:

  • “Rural and regional communications: the debate”
  • “Agriculture and the Internet”
  • “The future: key questions for rural and regional communications”
  • “Launch of the National Landcare Information Service”

You can view some of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation coverage of this conference at the following web site: www.abc.net.au/rural/connect

 U.S. farm broadcasters really gathered. 

More than 1,000 people attended the National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention on November 11-15 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The December issue of NAFB Chats newsletter reports that highlights included “a full house at Trade Talk, professional improvement sessions, marketing and promotion activities, and lively voting member business sessions.”

 More survey reports available on food safety.

We reported in Issue 98-15 having received a copy of the “1998 CMF&Z Food Safety Survey.”  The survey is conducted each year in conjunction with the Industry Council on Food Safety, a restaurant and food service industry coalition.

Now, through help from CMF&Z Public Relations, the Documentation Center also has copies of the national food safety surveys conducted during 1995, 1996 and 1997.

Special thanks to Carol Bodensteiner

President of CMF&Z Public Relations, for this contribution to our growing collection of literature about food safety communications.  And congratulations to Carol.  The Business and Professional Women of Des Moines, Iowa, recently honored her as “Business Woman of the Year.”

Congratulations to Frank Byrnes

Senior associate of Winrock International and widely recognized leader in international agricultural communications.  The College of Agriculture at Iowa State University honored him during October with the Henry A. Wallace Award for outstanding service to agriculture at the national and international levels.

You can find some of his professional literature in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, using an “author” search.  He recently contributed materials to the Center, as a way in which to make them more widely available.

Let us know if we can help you announce a meeting or event related to agricultural communications.

Contact:  Jim Evans at evansj@uiuc.edu

Unforgettable letters to Santa.

The U.S. Postal Service features on its web site what it describes as “unforgettable Dear Santa” letters that come to its attention.  We close this issue of “News and Announcements” with a letter written to Santa by a six-year-old:

“I want a racecar.
I want a electronic motorcycle racecar.
I want a lot of love.”

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 98-16

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

How accurate are the market advisory services for crops? 

Two recently added reports in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center help answer that question.  They come from the Agricultural Market Advisory Service (AgMAS) and include:

  • “1995 pricing performance of market advisory services for corn and soybeans” (published in March 1997)
  • “1996 pricing performance of market advisory services for corn and soybeans”  (published in January 1998)

AgMAS is a collaborative effort of agricultural economists at Ohio State University, Purdue University and the University of Illinois.  It began during 1994 and, since then, has tracked the pricing performance of about 25 advisory services to which it subscribes.

Results may hold special value for communicators interested in topics such as risk communications and the quality, accuracy and economic value of agricultural information.  Details are available from the AgMAS web site, which you can view at: www.aces.uiuc.edu/~agmas/

Other recent additions about risk communications.

Here are the titles of some other documents that we have added recently to the collection of literature about risk communications, as related to food and agriculture:

  • “Cognitive determinants of risk perceptions associated with biotechnology”
  • “Effect of risk perception on willingness to pay for water quality”
  • “Farmer willingness to pay for herbicide safety characteristics”
  • “Determinants of unsafe hamburger cooking behavior”
  • “Voluntary economic and environmental risk tradeoffs in crop protection decisions”
  • “Farmers’ decision processes and adoption of conservation tillage”

Feedback about the “News and Announcements” page.

We’re pleased to hear from some readers who find useful information in this news page.  Recent examples of feedback:

  • “Thank you for sending this to me.   ….  The capsulized reports of other meetings about what’s going on in our business are very, very helpful.”
  • “Great idea.  Now I just need to tap into this resource.”

History of NAFB now online.

The National Association of Farm Broadcasters web site recently added a page entitled, “History of NAFB.”   Written by NAFB Historian Dix Harper, it describes the development of NAFB during the past 55 years, from its origin in 1943 to its most recent technological development (a 1998 CD-ROM presentation about farm broadcasting).

Actually, this report traces back to the origins of broadcast information for farmers, more than 20 years before NAFB formed.  It begins with weather and grain reports aired during 1921, then briefly sketches some highlights in farm broadcasting throughout the U.S. during the 1920s and 1930s.

You can see this history page on the NAFB web site: www.nafb.com

Here are calls for papers to be presented at two approaching conferences related to agricultural communications:

  1.  Agricultural Communications Section, Conference of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, January
    31-February 2, 1999, at Memphis, Tennessee USA.  Suggested topics: practical applications of new communications
    technology; publications, videos and special projects; measurement and accountability; and media relations.  December 7 is
    the deadline for abstracts, to be sent by e-mail.  For details contact: Ned Browning, Mississippi State University, at
    nedb@ext.msstate.edu
  2. 14th Annual Red River Valley Student Communication Conference, “Communication, Culture and Change,” April 18-20,
    1999, at Fargo, North Dakota USA.  Keynote speaker is Everett M. Rogers, noted communication scholar who will
    respond to a panel presentation about his research in health communication.  Undergraduate and graduate students are
    encouraged to submit essays and proposals for papers.  Information: Dr. Deanna Sellnow, Department of Communication,
    North Dakota State University, at: dsellnow@badlands.nodak.edu

Let us know if we can help you announce a meeting related to agricultural communications.

Contact: Jim Evans at evansj@uiuc.edu

 Spelling? 

It’s quite easy.  “Most words are easy for me to spell once I get the letters right.”  (Response from an elementary student in English class, cited in: Harold Dunn, The World According to Kids.  Spectacle Lane Press, Georgetown, CT, 1992, p. 59)

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 98-15

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

What are the ethical duties of those who communicate with consumers about agriculture?

A new audiotape in the Documentation Center addresses this question, through a presentation made during September at the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Issues Forum, “Ethics in Agriculture,” in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The speaker, Dr. Kris Bunton of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, emphasized these three ethical duties of professionals in agricultural relations:

  1. Minimize harm to people (those reached and those represented).  Avoid “using” people to convey a story and respect the dignity and diversity of people featured in messages.
  2. Tell the truth.  Maximize the truth of what you tell and minimize efforts to manipulate audiences.
  3. Minimize conflict of interest.  Tell who you are and whom you represent.

Dr. Bunton, of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, also offered several tests to evaluate the ethics of one’s persuasive communications.

Let us know if you would like to learn more about this presentation.  Ask about the audiotape entitled, “The Ethics of Ag Relations.”

Three other ethics-related presentations from Issues Forum. 

Here are the titles of three other communications-related presentations that have been added to the Documentation Center from that conference, in the form of audiotapes from NAMA:

  • “Precision farming: who owns the information?”
  • “Consumers: how much do they know and how much should they know about food production?”
  • “Meat processing and handling: how much should be told?”

A copy of the “1998 CMF&Z Food Safety Survey” has just arrived, through the generosity of CMF&Z Public Relations, Des Moines, Iowa.

The Food Safety Survey was conducted in conjunction with the Industry Council on Food Safety, a restaurant and food service industry coalition.  CMF&Z has helped monitor food safety issues in the U.S. since 1993.

This 39-page report summarizes results of a survey among newspaper editors and a random sample of American consumers about a range of food safety issues.
Examples:

  • Perceived importance of food safety.
  • Beliefs of editors about how informed the American public is about food safety.
  • Food safety issues of greatest concern and most open to consumer action.
  • Consumer perceptions of media credibility on food safety issues.
  • Attitudes of consumers and editors toward the role and credibility of interest groups.
  • Perceptions about how effectively various groups communicate with the media.

A word of thanks from Turkey. 

“I would like to thank you for your kind help,” wrote an online agribusiness user located in Turkey.  “It became very useful for us.”
In this case, the Documentation Center staff had provided service in the form of a referral to another information source.

New scanner in the Center.

A new scanner in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center will help us provide more materials and images to you, in electronic form.  Let us know if you would like to explore this possibility as you gather information for your projects.

Where are we finding agricultural communications literature these days? 

Well, from many sources.  But interlibrary loan is one of the most interesting (and labor intensive).

For example, during early November we reviewed documents loaned to us from libraries at the following institutions: University of New Mexico, Virginia Polytechnic University, Chicago Public Library, North Carolina State University, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Illinois Benedictine College, University of Iowa and Purdue University.

We appreciate efforts of the University of Illinois Library in helping us carry out this time-consuming process.  Interlibrary loan helps us identify materials that might not otherwise be available to users of the Center.

 Would you like our help in announcing a meeting related to agricultural communications?

If so, let us know.  We will be glad to call such meetings to the attention of online readers of the “News and Announcements” page.

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 98-14

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

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.