Month: January 2000

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/

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“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/

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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

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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/

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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)

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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?

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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

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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.

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.

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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.

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Some interesting expressions in the GMO debate

“Although food labels are much more reliable and informative than they were at the beginning of the 20^th century, modern day ‘snake oil’ claims will still be a problem in the 21^stcentury.” 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)

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“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.”

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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.

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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.

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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

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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:

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

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“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.

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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

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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

 

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Question of the week – about animals communicating.

If a hog loses its voice is it disgruntled?

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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.

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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.