Month: January 2001

ACDC News – Issue 01-24

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

“Whenever possible, we need to be there.” 

So concluded the president of North American Agricultural Journalists in a recent thought piece about the drawbacks that confront journalists in this communications age. “We live in an era when technology of communication has never been easier, more cost-effective or profuse,” said Laura Rance of Manitoba Co-operator. Then she asked, “So why do we find it so hard to stay connected with our sources? Why is it getting harder to tell a story?”

“A pitfall of having access to so much information.is that we mistake an exchange of information with true communication. . For us to truly tell the stories of the people we cover, we need to truly communicate with them, not simply exchange information and data. Whenever possible, we need to be there. We need to get out of our offices and into the lives of the people we cover so we can accurately portray who they are, and what they have to say. . We have to create ways to overcome barriers that technology creates.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Communications age has its drawbacks”) or author search (Rance) for the full citation. Posted online at: http://naaj.tamu.edu/naajJul01.htm

Food safety – the environmental issue of this decade? 

John Wright, senior vice-president of public affairs for Ipsos-Reid, Canada, put it this way in a recent report on consumer attitudes: “At the outset of the last decade it was rocks, water, lumber and recyclability. Now we’re less concerned about the bottle as what’s in it.” This poll indicated that 74 percent of Canadians worry about the safety of their food.

Reference: Use a title search (“Food safety worries Canadians”) or author search (Foss) for the full citation. Archived (October 10, 2001) at: www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/fsnet-archives.htm

Neglected stakeholders in biotechnology discussions. 

A commentary in Nature Biotechnology suggests that the needs, interests and concerns of primary stakeholders – the “commoners” – have been neglected in the biotechnology arena.

“Biotechnology’s future ultimately relies on governing institutions listening and responding to the public, rather than discounting key stakeholders as irrational, scientifically illiterate, or technophobic.” Authors offer suggestions for doing so.

Reference: Use a title search (“The tragedy of the commoners”) or author search (Sagar) for the full citation. Posted at: http://biotech.nature.com

Scientists “will earn public trust by not betraying it. 

We must conduct only those experiments we know to be meaningful and reject those we know aren’t. If an experiment is unlikely to contribute data increasing our understanding of a GMO, then it is not worth doing.” Alan McHughen, University of Saskatchewan, offered this advice to fellow scientists at the close of the 6th International Symposium on the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms. He asked what will replace scientific analysis in evaluating risk if the public rejects the legitimacy of it. His answer: “Non-science, or nonsense. Witchcraft.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The road ahead”) or author search (McHughen) for the full citation. Posted online at: www.ag.usask.ca/isbr/Symposium/Proceedings/Section11.htm

Extension reports from Australasia Pacific. 

Thanks to ACDC Staff Associate Liz Kellaway for alerting us to the proceedings of an interesting recent Extension conference. The 2001 International Conference of Australasia Pacific Extension Network (APEN) took place October 3-5 at the University of South Queensland, Toowoomba. We are entering into the ACDC collection more than 70 refereed papers presented during that conference. A few sample topics:

  •     “Challenges for contemporary extension: the case of biofertilizer in Vietnam”
  •     “Assisting indigenous extension services”
  •     “How to win growers and influence change”
  •     “The role of science communication in natural resource planning”
  •     “Information in extension: a poverty of theory”
  •     “Reflections on the development of Landcare in the Philippines”
  •     “Rethinking action research: theory and extension practice”

Reference: Citations for these and other papers from the conference are being processed into ACDC and will be accessible by subject, author and title. You can see the full proceedings online at: http://www.regional.org.au/au/apen/2001/

Indigenous knowledge: is it scientific?

In Naked Science, anthropologist Laura Nader asks:

“If knowledge is born of experience and reason.and if science is a phenomenon universally characterized (after the insight) by rationality, then are not indigenous systems of knowledge part of the scientific knowledge of mankind?”

You can follow developments in this important field of rural communications through “IK Pages – Gateway to Indigenous Knowledge on the Internet.” http://nuffic.nl/ik-pages/index.html

“The age of the ‘specialist’ in our business is over.” 

Barry Jones offered this view recently when he accepted the ACE Professional Award, highest recognition given by the Agricultural Communicators in Education organization. Speaking to communicators who work in colleges and universities, government agencies and development organizations, he said:

“The communicators of tomorrow are coming to the workplace with a set of skills that is far broader than what we have ever demanded before, and they are flexible enough to apply those skills in many ways. I could not have imagined in the 1970s or 80s that I would have writers and publications editors or graphics artists who would become ‘new media specialists’ or ‘Web content developers’ or ‘digital image editors’.”

Reference: Use a title search (“ACE Professional Award”) or author search (Jones) for the full citation.

How to make working from home work. 

That is the title of a recent article by agricultural writer Susan K. Davis. She offered six suggestions, based on her 13 years of working from home.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Davis) for the full citation.

Helping you gain online, full-text access.

You may have noticed that, increasingly, we are trying to provide you with online access to full-text documents that we are entering into the ACDC collection. Using the live links that we identify, you can visit web sites on which an increasing amount of literature about agricultural communications is being posted. We hope this service is useful to you and welcome your reactions and suggestions.

For archiving purposes, we collect such materials in paper and/or electronic format so they will be available to you after their often-brief, elusive web life ends. We want to help you gain access to them in the future – 5, 10, 50 years or more from now.

As you tap into more online information 

You also will find increasing value in searching the ACDC database to identify the full range of items in the collection that may be relevant to you.

Thanks for your continuing encouragement.

As this year draws to a close, we ACDC team members want you to know how much we appreciate your interest and encouragement. Words of encouragement (such as the following recent comments) mean much to us, as do your suggestions about how ACDC can serve you better:

  •    “Your operation is great..;
  •    “I find it very useful.”
  •    “I really appreciate receiving this information each month.”
  •    “.inevitably there’s something in here I am interested in.”
  •    “Thanks for managing this important service.”

Season’s greetings and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

ACDC News – Issue 01-23

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Protecting food from bio-attacks –

New focus for crisis communicators. Effective communicating comes to the forefront as the food industry considers how to increase biosecurity. “Communication is one of the most important areas for dealing with any biosecurity threat,” public relations executive Jere Sullivan is quoted as saying in a news report added recently to the ACDC collection. He described five criteria for a crisis communication plan.

Reference:  Use a title search (“Biosecurity and crisis communication”) or author search (Russell) for the full citation. Archived online (October 15, 2001) at: www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/fsnet-archives.htm

Social movements – 

Powerful voices in the biotech debate. In a “perspectives” article for FarmWeek newspaper, Ann Reisner of the University of Illinois highlighted social movement organizations that are expressing concerns about genetic engineering in agriculture. Among them: health food movement, alternative agriculture movement, consumer and health movements, environmentalists, peace organizations, labor, human rights, international and nationalist, and animal rights organizations.

“.unusual is the degree to which various organizations are adopting and using arguments typical of other organizations,” she observed, and added: “Incorporating each other’s concerns increases the likelihood that these organizations will work together in other arenas.” She argued that to ignore their concerns in the ongoing debate on biotechnology “would be a move with potentially disastrous consequences.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Social movements raising opposition”) or author search (Reisner) for the full citation.

“.. it’s still a face-to-face, hard-copy world.” 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Services recently funded a survey project among members of cooperatives in the upper Midwest, USA, to learn their preferred sources of cooperative news.

“Face time with co-op employees and managers ranked first and second on a list of 10 communications preferences,” reported researcher David Trechter. “So informal communications channels are still hugely important.” Cooperative newsletters ranked third. Electronic communications channels ranked tenth, prompting this advice to cooperative communicators: “.don’t rely too heavily on e-mail or a Web site to keep members up-to-date.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Communications linked to loyalty”) or author search (Campbell) for the full citation.

Growing gaps in stocks of scientific knowledge.

A report from the International Food Policy Research Institute assesses evidence regarding new knowledge being generated through investments in agricultural research and development by public and private agencies. Findings suggest that growth in R&D spending during the 1990s slowed dramatically in many parts of the world. And “the large and growing gap in research intensity between rich and poor countries continues to widen further in terms of total (public and private) spending.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Slow magic”) or author search (Pardey) for the full citation. Posted online at: www.ifpri.org/pubs/pubs.htm#fpr

Internet being under-used for online meetings? 

The question arises in a report prepared recently for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation in Australia. Authors observed after a two-year pilot study of joint research involving farmers and their advisers:

“There appears to be a general under-appreciation evident of the potential to conduct highly interactive online meetings, within agriculture. There are plentiful references to web pages, web page content, interactive web pages, and chat facilities; however, there is little if any reference to using the internet for interaction between people for the purposes of completing time sensitive tasks at reduced cost.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farmers, advisers & researchers interacting on the net”) or author search (Hargreaves) for the full citation. Posted online at: www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HCC/00-54.pdf

Don’t forget giveaways. 

An article in the Cooperative Communicators Association newsletter, CCA News, offers five tips from members about planning successful annual meetings. Free food tops the list, but “giveaways – from cash prizes to cars – are as important as free food to boosting attendance.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Making meeting magic”) or author search (Simmons) for the full citation.

Clouds over commodity promotion. 

A news article in Rural Cooperatives discusses implications of a U.S. Supreme Court decision siding with those who oppose mandatory checkoff programs for commodity promotion. The decision “puts in question a dozen generic product marketing programs with a combined budget of about $500 million to promote fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Supreme Court ruling clouds commodity marketing promotion”) for the full citation.

Here are topics raised in some recent inquiries that have come to the Center:

  • Sample television spots for corn herbicides during the past few years
    ·        Impact of the Internet on agriculture, now and in the future
    ·        Historical tapes of radio farm broadcasts
    ·        Factors influencing the farmer adoption process
    ·        Techniques for crisis management planning
    ·        Effectiveness of radio advertising among rural audiences
    ·        Careers open to agricultural communicators

Welcome to a new staff associate. 

This month we welcome Liz Kellaway of South Australia as a new staff associate in the Center. Liz is general manager of Turnbull Porter Novelli Adelaide, a public relations consultancy that specializes in rural and regional communications. She also is regional vice-president/South Pacific of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ). We became acquainted during 1999 when, as a Churchill Fellow, Liz visited the University of Illinois and the Center during her study of agricultural communications strategies and methods in various countries. An avid learner, she knows the value of sharing professional knowledge and appreciates the mission of this international knowledge-sharing endeavor. In turn, we keenly appreciate her interest and volunteer support, and we look forward to working with her. You can reach her at LizK@porternovelli.sa.com.au.

“This is the place in time.”

We close this issue of ACDC News with a poem presented by Pirjo Kontio at the farewell dinner of the 45th Annual Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists, Savonlinna, Finland, on September 9. The poem, cited in a recent issue of IFAJ News, was written by Finnish poet Tommy Tabermann.

This is the place in time.
For a moment
lightning is frozen in the sky
and the cranes discover
the south in their feathers.
This is the moment in the night,
filled with us to the brim.
This is the place in time.
Forward we cannot
proceed, backward
we would not want to go,
here we are unable
to stay for long.
In this place
I would like to lay my head to rest.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-22

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

U.S. agricultural writers report increasing advertiser pressure.

Findings of a 10-year comparison suggest that agricultural writers are facing increasing pressure, in terms of advertiser influence on editorial matter. An article in the Journal of Applied Communications reports on research examining trends in power relationships among agricultural advertisers, periodicals and producer readers. Researchers Steve Banning and Jim Evans analyzed the current perceptions of American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) members. They also used results of an identical study a decade earlier as the basis for a 10-year comparison. Findings suggested that advertisers are becoming more aggressive in requesting editorial space and that writers see agricultural publications increasingly catering to advertisers.

Reference: Use a title search (“Fading voices”) or author search (Banning) for the full citation.

” Will agriculture’s Woodward and Bernstein please stand up?” 

The question heads a recent article in the newsletter of North American Agricultural Journalists. Author Mike Warner, a North Dakota farmer who has had many dealings with journalists, challenged readers:

“You are the journalists who cover this immense, great, absolutely fascinating mega-industry called ‘U.S. and World Agriculture.’ It is an industry of such profound importance, scope and magnitude that it makes Bill Gates and his little company, Microsoft, like the corner drug store. It is the stuff of which governments lock horns and argue to stalemates. Food remains a major piece in the great political chess game of the world, as it always has and probably always will. The ability to feed people drives not just individual economies, but is arguably the lynch pin of the entire world economy.”

“World agriculture is filled with all the basic elements of great investigative journalism.”

Warner urged NAAJ members: “So if you have been doing this, I challenge you to do more. If you haven’t, I say ‘Get into the game’.” He also offered questions that he thinks need to be answered through good journalism.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Warner) for the full citation. The URL for online access is: http://naaj.tamu.edu/naajJul01.htm

Don’t focus on stopping a practice or urging change.

That is the advice given by researchers who studied how to communicate with farmers about skin cancer. Reporting in Human Communication Research, the researchers recommended what they described as the behavior adaptation model. That is, they said, “acknowledge the practice and advise one that ‘when you do that, also do this.'”

Reference: Use a title search (“Communicating to farmers”) or author search (Parrott) for the full citation.

Ahh, the rural life: less Type A tendency?

A research report that we entered recently from Norway was “supportive of the view that people living in the countryside express less of the Type A tendencies than do those living in urban settings.” Researchers reporting in Psychological Reports attended to the competitive, hard driving component of Type A behavior that has been implicated in the development of coronary heart disease. They examined the prevalence of such behavior in a rural and urban sample of Norwegian men.

Reference: Use a title search (“Type A/B behavior pattern”) or author title (Mellam) for the full citation.

“The danger of the dance.”

“We may end up at the end of this process as nice, brown white people – just part of the melting pot,” says a former president of the Dene Nation in an article about problems in bringing radio and television to the Canadian North. This article explores the issue of cultural dominance as broadcasts from the U.S. reach into other cultures.

Reference: Use a title search (“Joining the global village”) or author search (Denton) for the full citation. For additional information about this general subject, use subject searches on terms such as “cultural dominance” or “intercultural communication.”

Farmers as environmentalists. 

Results of a study reported recently in Human Organization identify areas of similarity in viewpoints of farmers and environmental professionals. Researchers Michael Paolisso and R.S. Maloney conducted an anthropological study of environment and pollution on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. They observed that a “dominant perception” of area farmers as being polluters “contrasts sharply with how they perceive themselves – as stewards of the land.” Even so, one Eastern Shore farmer commented, “.all the gun has to do is be smoking and you’re guilty.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Recognizing farmer environmentalism”) or author search (Paolisso) for the full citation.

Wake-up call to journalists (and journalism educators) 

In Issue 01-17 we mentioned a graduate thesis by Thomas F. Pawlick examining agricultural reporting and agricultural journalism training in three global regions: North America, the former Soviet Bloc and Africa. Pawlik’s research led him to conclude that current issues involving food and agriculture are “not only newsworthy, but crucial to the future of the human species itself.” Also, “.both farm coverage and the resources available for training farm journalists are inadequate – in some cases, grossly inadequate.” Well, that research report has come off the press as a new book: Thomas F. Pawlick, The invisible farm: the worldwide decline of farm news and agricultural journalism training. Burnham Inc., Publishers, 222 N. Canal Street, Chicago, Illinois 60606. 2001. 202 pages. $23.95 paper.

New edition of Writing for Agriculture 

The popular textbook by Claron Burnett and Mark Tucker is now available in a second edition, published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 4050 Westmark Drive, Dubuque, Iowa 52002. 2001. 243 pages. The book (formatted for use in a ringbinder) was planned for writing classes in colleges of agriculture. Chapters feature gathering, writing and editing information for news stories, reports, business letters, broadcast media and personal columns. Other chapters focus on illustrating the news and carrying out public relations efforts. Each chapter includes discussion topics, assignments and exercises. And all examples and assignments involve agricultural and environmental subjects.

A new appendix is designed to help writers address contemporary agricultural issues in balanced and objective ways. A four-dimension “ecological paradigm” encourages agricultural writers to consider whether solutions or recommendations being reported:

  • Maintain production efficiency
  • Are economically viable
  • Are environmentally compatible
  • Are socially responsible

New ACDC associate. 

Welcome to Yiqi Zhou who joined the Documentation Center team in mid-November as graduate research assistant. A degree candidate in the School of Library and Information Science, Yiqi brings to ACDC a variety of valuable skills and experiences. She majored in arts in literature and linguistics at Hunan University, China, earning honors for scholastic excellence. Her experiences include teaching, news translating and editing, cataloging, database management, web design and online searching. She looks forward to helping the Center grow and serve.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-21

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Wising up to the limits of an “information approach.” 

Recent research from the United Kingdom points to a “fundamental limitation of information provision in assisting public enlightenment on new technologies or products.”  Researchers at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, examined public interactions with new technologies such as biotechnology and information technology.  Results led researchers to call for industry and government to change their approach to market communication – from “information” to “interactive understanding.”  Some requirements for such a change:

  • A revised understanding of people – as “people” first and “consumers” second
  • A shift from the understanding of technologies and their associated products as “tools” to an understanding of them as “social processes”
  • More “socially sensitive antennae” incorporated into the very processes of technological innovation
  • A “new spirit of humility by ‘experts”

Reference:  Use a title search (“Wising up”) or author search (Grove-White) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Ineffective information systems in rural development.

A theme similar to the one noted above appears in a book that we identified recently for the ACDC collection.  The book explores lessons from rural development projects of the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development.  A sample point:

“Information has become confused with knowledge: more information is assumed to yield more knowledge.  In practice, this has led to an increasing dependence on technology, that is, the more processed information is, the better it is assumed to be.  But is it?  And, if so, for what purpose can it be used?  More information in itself is worthless unless the capacity exists to analyze, criticize, and reflect on it.”  (p. 177)

Reference:  Use a title search (“Ineffective information systems”) or author search (Gow) for the full citation.

$1.5 billion for bridging the digital divide.

We have added to ACDC a description and background study about the Virtual Colombo Plan that was announced during August.  The Australian Government and the World Bank announced this $1.5 billion partnership to combat global poverty with a state-of-the-art distance education initiative.  Key principles cited:

  • Provide assistance that is demand-driven and locally appropriate.
  • Design activities that test innovative concepts and make full use of modern monitoring and evaluation techniques to provide regular feedback on performance.
  • Allow for technical, institutional and financial sustainability as critical considerations.
  • Mainstream gender considerations.
  • Ensure that expertise is properly adapted to developing country circumstances.

Reference:  Use a title search (“Virtual Colombo Plan”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

A caution for rural communities investing in telecommunications.

“…rural communities and policy makers are investing in telecommunications projects without good data on positive and negative impacts and the comparative efficacy of different implementation models.”  That finding comes from an analysis by Gwen H. Wolford and C. Ann Hollifield of existing literature on telecommunications and U.S. rural development.  Their 1997 conference paper also lays out an agenda for future research.

Reference:  Use a title search (“Impact of telecommunications”) or author search (Hollifield) for the full citation.

Seven myths about GMOs.

Research among European publics has prompted Marris Claire, social scientist at the French National Institute for Agronomy Research, to identify seven myths about public reactions to genetic modified organisms:

  1. The public either accepts or rejects GMOs.
  2. People who oppose GMOs are irrational; if only they understood the science better.
  3. People are obsessed with the idea that GMOs are “unnatural.”
  4. People are concerned about the use of GMOs in agriculture, but not about their use for the production of pharmaceuticals.
  5. Reactions against GMOs are due to an unfortunate series of previous and ongoing food scandals in Europe.
  6. People demand “zero risk.”
  7. People do not realize that GMOs can improve food production in developing  countries, and would prefer to block such use.

Reference:  Use a title search (“Public views on GMOs: deconstructing the myths”) or author search (Claire) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Agricultural sellers as losers:  “the curse of knowledge.”

Results of a recent laboratory market experiment suggest that “there is evidence of a curse of knowledge for sellers…when quantity traded for the entire market is known.”  Researchers found that public information may improve the bargaining position of buyers relative to sellers in private negotiation trading with spot deliveries.  This finding holds special interest in an era when “trading institutions in agriculture are evolving from auction to private negotiation.”

Reference:  Use a title search (“Bilateral trading and the curse of knowledge”) or author search (Menkhaus) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Rural learners as losers: a case of misdirected education.

“Education programmes appear to oppose nomadic culture at all levels,” according to a review of literature about education for nomadic pastoralists.  Saverio Kratli’s analysis revealed, for example, that most of the education provision as conceived, designed and delivered:

  • “competes (from a position of power) with the generation, distribution and reproduction of pastoral specialisation, and in so doing creates a threat to the livelihood of the pastoral household…”
  • “undermines pastoral societies’ potential for endogenous change – paradoxically, at the very moment in which it presents itself as an instrument of change…”
  • ignores the “unintended social, political and economic effects that may result from the [educational]policy and its implementation.”

The 2001 report includes a Mongolia case study and identifies nine key issues for future policy.

Reference:  Use a title search (“Education provision to nomadic pastoralists”) or author search (Kratli) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Requirements of a healthy rural journalism.

A book from India, Rural press: problems and prospects, puts it this way:

“Healthy rural journalism is 100 per cent purposive, promotional, field-based and result-oriented.  It is expository, incisive and interpretive, it is investigative and educative – all packed into one.  It requires the ability of a news-hound, the professional skill of a quick-witted and resourceful editor, a fleet footed reporter, an agile publisher, a fairly good printer, a creative typographer and lay-out artist and an enterprising circulation and advertising manager.  It also warrants the quality of a roving and sensitive cameraman, a competent interviewer, prober and researcher and a persuasive writer.  In short, rural journalism is instantaneous and participatory, requiring barefoot and missionary zeal, spontaneity, resourcefulness and innovativeness on the part of rural journalists.”

Reference:  Use a title search (above) or author search (Press Institute of India) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching:

November 14-18, 2001
“Every day is game day: there is NO off season.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information:www.nafb.com

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-20

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Agricultural journalists share thoughts following September 11.

Members of the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) organization are using their web site to share thoughts following the terrorist activities of September 11. The collection begins with a special posting by NAAJ President Laura Rance of Canada.

Reference: http://naaj.tamu.edu

Remarkable materials contributed by the Donald S. Watson family.

Users of ACDC and the University of Illinois Library will benefit greatly from the efforts of a U.S. agricultural journalist who had a special sense of history. The family of Donald S. Watson recently contributed a remarkable research collection that includes:

  • Samples (including some bound volumes) of more than 65 farm journals, dating back as early as 1823.
  • Dozens of books, including some notable histories of various cattle breeds. These books were published as early as 1853. Most are new to the UI Library.
  • Detailed information about more than 9,600 farm periodicals published in the U.S. during the past 200 years.

A unique view of agricultural journalism.

Donald Watson’s career began at one of the nation’s pioneer farm periodicals, the New England Homestead published at Springfield, Massachusetts. After completing undergraduate studies in agricultural journalism at Iowa State University in 1949, he joined New England Homestead as associate editor. In 1956 he became editor/publisher, a position that he held until late 1963. He served as president of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association during 1959. His career also included experience in agricultural advertising, public relations and organization management. He died in 1996 at the age of 74.

How (and why) did he collect all of that information about farm periodicals? 

He wanted to update the widely used Stuntz List of Agricultural Periodicals of the United States and Canada Published During the Century July 1810 to July 1910. So he carefully gathered details about all U.S. farm periodicals that he could identify, with emphasis on the period between 1910 and 1993. Communication researchers at Iowa State University now have these research materials with the intent to create (in database) the kind of useful, comprehensive bibliography that Donald Watson envisioned. We are pleased to help preserve and extend his effort, through the generosity of his family.

Three lessons on impacts of telecommunications for rural areas.

Editors of the recent book, Having all the right connections, say they identified several lessons from their research involving differential impacts of telecommunications for rural areas. They noted:

  • Unequal access to technological infrastructure, hardware and software to deliver or access needed services.
  • Patterns of negative as well as positive, intended as well as unintended, consequences of technologies when they can be accessed.
  • Dominance of vertical influences driving local telecommunications development, adoption and use.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Abbott) for the full citation.

How will the poor get access to new information technologies?

The International Food Policy Research Institute examined this question in a September 2000 review entitled, “Bridging the Digital Divide.” The report cites a recent World Bank Study indicating that “The digital divide is not only enormous – dwarfing even the per capita income gap ratio between high- and low-income countries – but it is increasing.” The report also includes examples of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for rural development in India, Jamaica, Bangladesh and other nations. It closes with a summary of some ways to overcome barriers to universal access.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Mohan) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Biases of extension communication.

A 1984 doctoral dissertation that we identified recently for the ACDC collection echoes the lessons mentioned above. In a development setting, Srinivas R. Melkote analyzed extension messages and attitudes of extension workers. The messages and attitudes “exhibited pro-literacy, source-orientation, top-down message flow, and pro-innovation biases.”

What would an analysis today reveal in varied extension settings?

Reference: Use a title search (“The biases of extension communication”) or author search (Melkote) for the full citation, including reference to Dissertation Abstracts International.

People – “right bang in the centre.”

These themes remind us of a need expressed more than 15 years ago by Nora C. Quebral:

“We badly need a development communication model that puts people not at one end as sources or at the other end as receivers, but right bang in the centre where the media channels are… With such a model perhaps the media will cease to seem larger than life…”

Reference: Use a title search (“People, not media, communicate”) or author search (Quebral) for the full citation.

Digital age raises legal questions for agricultural freelance journalists.

Are electronic rights included in “first rights” for which writers and photographers are paid? Can a publication that buys a story for print also use it in electronic form or sell it for online use without the freelancer’s additional permission? A recent article in American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) ByLine newsletter explores this matter, including recent legal action by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reference: Use a title search (“All for Tasini”) or author search (Sapp) for the full citation.

Some other quandries for U.S. agricultural reporters.

Several types of potential bias are on the minds of U.S. farm broadcasters these days. Here are bias-related challenges raised in a recent issue of National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) Chats newsletter:

  • Providing equitable coverage of various rural interest groups.
  • Avoiding limited, static pools of information sources.
  • Interpreting agriculture-related issues to urban listeners.
  • Reporting on activities and perspectives of protest groups.
  • Dealing with pressures between reporting roles and advocacy roles.

Reference: Use a title search (“Your bias”) or author search (McRee-DeSha) for the full citation.

Thanks and best wishes to Hui Liu

Who leaves the Center this month to take a new position with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications here at the University of Illinois. Hui served the Center most ably during the past 2 1/2 years as graduate research assistant and Center coordinator. This summer he completed his master’s degree in library and information science. He has been instrumental in redesigning the ACDC web site, managing the database and collection, strengthening information services and building the collection to a current level of more than 18,000 documents.

Professional activities approaching:

November 2, 2001
Deadline for abstracts of research presentations proposed for the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) to meet February 2-6, 2002, in Orlando, Florida.
Information: Edith Chenault at e-chenault1@tamu.edu

November 14-18, 2001
“Every day is game day: there is NO off season.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-19

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Small Town U.S.A. – a destination of choice.

“Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults, or 87 million, have taken a trip to a small town or village within the past three years,” according to the Travel Industry Association of America. This recent report in American Demographicsmagazine described why adults visit rural America and how they vary in age.

Reference: Use a title search (“The Mayberry effect”) or author search (Gallop-Goodman) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Media pitfalls and shortfalls.

Following are several recent books that explore challenges facing mass media in communicating about rural topics. Use author or title searches in the ACDC collection to get full citations.

  • David Murray, Joel Schwartz and S. Robert Lichter, It ain’t necessarily so: how media make and unmake the scientific picture of reality. 2001. Features critical analysis and case reports of media coverage of selected public issues, including meat safety and irradiation.
  • Michael Meadows, Voices in the wilderness: images of aboriginal people in the Australian media. 2001. Touches on indigenous knowledge, media bias and other information issues.
  • Kirk Johnson, Media and social change in rural India. 2000. Traces effects of television in the context of rural community life and complex social structures.

“Working together, creating knowledge.” 

That is the title of a recently published study sponsored by the American Council on Education and the National Alliance of Business. It “is intended to help clarify the issues involved with such collaborations and to provide thoughtful, balanced, and useful guidance that will increase the number and quality of research collaborations.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Report examines challenges facing research collaborations”) for the full citation of a news release, including URL for online access to the release and more information about the full report.

Research bias and conflicts of interest: concerns on the flip side.

An analysis reported in the August issue of Nature Biotechnology summarizes concerns about research bias and conflicts of interest as industry-supported research is “skyrocketing.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Industry-academia study lacking, say critics”) or author search (Niiler) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

“Under siege in the ivory tower”

Is the title of a Canadian newspaper article that we added recently about university-industry relations with regard to agricultural research. This article explored what critics call “the Trojan-horse effect of corporate largesse.” It cited, as an example, recent experiences and controversy at a Canadian university about the effects of financial support for biotechnology research.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Mcilroy) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

When do new electronic technologies work best in grassroots communicating?

Parallel responses to that question come from two recent books added to the ACDC collection.

  1. “Telecommunications-based development is most successful when it builds on existing organization, experience, expertise, and leadership.”

Reference: Page 290 in Peter F. Korsching, Patricia C. Hipple and Eric A. Abbott (eds.), Having all the right connections: telecommunications and rural viability. 2000. Use a title or author search.

  1. “If an organization, or the organizations within a community, are not already functioning with participatory management styles, there may be little value in introducing a communication tool that can optimize communication flow. This is an important factor for facilitators of Internet initiatives to understand.”

Reference: Pages 263-264 in Shirley A. White (ed.), The art of facilitating participation: releasing the power of grassroots communication. 1999. Use a title or author search.

“Centuries behind.”

This observation caught our eye in a newly added book chapter published nearly 20 years ago. In it, Jose A. Mayobre Machado commented on the big gap between information technology and the uses of it for human communication:

“Communication science is already in the space age as regards technology, and the instruments placed at our disposal are potentially limitless in their use. But conceptually and philosophically, communication sciences are centuries behind.”

Your thoughts?

Reference: Use a title search (“Is development news?”) or author search (Machado) for the full citation.

Financial return from an agricultural information service.

Users of FarmLine, an agricultural information and referral service in Australia, “make more informed decisions and benefit by an increase in knowledge.” Thirteen percent of surveyed farmer users indicated that their business gained between $500 and $1,000 from the service and 27% indicated between a $1 and $500 gain. Eighty-five percent of all inquirers surveyed indicated they were able to make more informed business decisions as a result of receiving information from the service.

Reference: Use a title search (“Developing an information and referral service”) or author search (MacKenzie) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

How U.S. farm journals covered social issues during the 1920s.

Here’s a research report of possible interest to those who track the editorial content of rural media. Frank J. Morgan, Jr., a doctoral candidate at New York University, analyzed the treatment of 10 social problems by six leading rural magazines of that period: Country Gentleman, Farm Journal, Farm and Fireside, Farm Life, Farmer’s Wife and Successful Farming.

The author concluded: “This study gives evidence that the farm journals were decidedly more than mere trade journals for farmers.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Treatment of social problems”) or author search (Morgan) for the full citation.

Early agricultural writing (5,000 BC).

“With the master of the field, our friend, we triumph,
may he bestow upon his cattle, horse, nourishment,
for by such (gifts) he makes us happy.”

According to a report by R. D. Sharma, “These are hymns quoted from the most ancient scripture of India called the ‘Rigveda’ (5,000 BC). These are examples of earliest writings on agriculture, which was regarded as a holy and dignified occupation.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agricultural journalism for rural development”) or author search (Sharma) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching:

November 14-18, 2001
“Every day is game day: there is NO off season.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-18

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

“Don’t get discouraged,” Smokey.

That’s the advice of April Baily, a U.S. Forest Service officer, in her 55th birthday letter to Smokey the Bear. The letter appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of Fire Management Notes and was added recently to the campaign-related documents in our ACDC collection.

Can a public information campaign be too successful? Not this one, Baily thinks. “I know lots of people lately have criticized your prevention message, saying that the years of prevention have actually made the fire problem worse by allowing fuels to build up to the point where a conflagration is inevitable when a spark is struck. But I know that your message was always aimed at keeping people from carelessly starting the fires that destroy not just trees, but also the homes of people who share your woodlands.”

Reference: Use a title search (“A birthday letter to Smokey”) or author search (Baily) for the citation, including URL for online access.

U.S. farmers to rely less on print media? 

Representatives of competitive media are pointing to indications in the 2001 Ag Media Research study that producers may consider doing so. A National Association of Farm Broadcasters news release added recently to the ACDC collection reports on responses from nearly 5,000 producers in 19 states. According to the release, “print magazines currently are rated by 84% of the producers as their primary source of in-depth information when given a choice of magazines or the Internet. . However, when producers were asked what their best in-depth source would be just five years from now, 45% of the producers that currently held magazines as their top choice, believed their use could change.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farmers predict radio and Internet to survive”) for the full citation.

Building traditions in rural broadcasting

Thanks to J. Steven Smethers of Oklahoma State University for providing two reports of his recent research on the development of rural radio and television programming traditions in the U.S. They are:

  • “Community programs: surrogate radio stations for rural Midwestern communities.” This journal article describes an era when “stringer” reporters aired death notices, birth announcements, hospital admissions, club meetings and other local news.
  • “Unplugged: developing rural Midwestern television audiences without live network service, 1949-1952.” This study documents the development of television from a local perspective – “when television was not yet a household word and the task of providing a continuous program service was much more complicated than merely building a program lineup around network programming.”

Reference: Use title or author searches (above) for the full citations.

Congratulations to the National Agricultural Library

For adding the 4-millionth record on July 9 to the AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) database of citations to the agricultural literature. AGRICOLA is the largest bibliographic database for agriculture in the world and has been available for free public use via the World Wide Web since 1998 (www.nal.usda.gov/ag98).

We search AGRICOLA to identify agricultural communications documents for ACDC, using an extensive protocol of subject search terms. It helps alert us to relevant documents from many sources.

Optimistic about e-commerce, but not using it yet.

A recent study among Ohio fruit and vegetable growers showed that 78 percent own or have access to computers and 71.4 percent use the Internet. However, researchers Stan Ernst and Mark Tucker found:

“.while these producers and distributors of fruits and vegetables generally demonstrate and claim optimism about the positive role of information technologies and E-Business strategies within their firms and overall industry, only a distinct minority are participating in the New Economy as either online buyers or sellers.”

Only 5.6 percent reported using computers “very often” for buying business inputs; 52.2 percent had never done so. Only 1.8 percent reported using computers “very often” for selling products over the Internet; 63.4 percent had never done so.

Reference: Use a title search (“Perceptions and adoption of information technologies”) or author search (Ernst or Tucker) for the full citation and details about electronic access.

A long view of farmers’ involvement in the consumer culture.

Today’s discussions in the U.S. about corporate versus family farms and farming as a business or way of life carry a familiar ring in a recent historical analysis by David Blanke. The title of his book: Sowing the American dream: how consumer culture took root in the rural Midwest. Blanke suggests that “Midwestern farmers, between 1820 and 1900, consciously took advantage of the evolving modern consumer culture in order to better compete in the marketplace. At the same time, they protected what they believed to be vital notions of the community.” His analysis highlights innovative early efforts by farmers to bolster purchasing power through their organizations, such as the Grange. His research also examines marketers, such as Montgomery Ward and Company, that recognized special potentials in rural areas and creatively developed new mail order marketing systems as rural free delivery emerged.

Reference: Use a title search (“Sowing the American dream”) or author search (Blanke) for the full citation.

Getting more than table scraps.

Findings of a new global study by Euro RSCG Worldwide suggest that pets “are now being treated as surrogate children, lavished with premium foods and a wide array of extravagant playthings and accessories.” The white paper cites a survey by the American Animal Hospital Association showing that 84 percent of owners said they consider their pets their children and that 74 percent would be willing to go into debt to provide care for their pets. A cited survey by a pet supplies retailer revealed that “28 percent of pet owners spend more on Christmas gifts for their pets than for their spouses.” It seems that communicating about companion animals holds plenty of potential.

Reference: Use a title search (“Pets are masters”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Whew. Lots of biotech communicating.

We notice that the ACDC collection now contains nearly 550 documents that involve communications aspects of biotechnology. In fact, we have added more than 70 documents so far in 2001. Many of these documents track public knowledge and attitudes about agriculture-related uses of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Some analyze media coverage and offer perspectives on the biotechnology debate. Some involve labeling considerations, publicity efforts of interest groups, education campaigns and other communications aspects of this complex topic. In total, they involve dozens of countries.

Reference: For a quick look at this growing body of literature in ACDC, use a subject search on the term <biotechnology> and scroll through the list of titles.

Conflicting interpretations (from the same survey). 

A recent article in Nature Biotechnology highlights a dilemma that faces communicators and others involved in agricultural biotechnology. The article describes two independent reports that “have, in the main, analyzed the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Chemical Use Survey.” The survey looked at herbicide use between 1995 and 1998.

  • One report, from Idaho, concluded that Roundup Ready soybeans “clearly require more herbicides than conventional soybeans” and can yield “up to 10% less.”
  • The other report, from the Netherlands, concluded that Roundup Ready soybean cultivation across the U.S. has led to “a modest reduction in herbicide-use.” It said that data available about the impacts on yield “are too small to be useful.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Jury out on environmental impact”) or author search (Heselmans) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-17

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

How Americans view the animal rights movement.

Results of Gallup’s Earth Day 2000 poll showed that 72% of Americans agreed somewhat or strongly with the goals of the animal rights movement. This level of agreement compared with other highly ranked social movements as follows: civil rights (86%), women’s rights (85%), environment (83%) and consumer rights (82%).

Reference: Use a title search (“Americans have positive image”) or author search (Dunlap) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Advice to marketers: visit “the outer edges of society today.”

In an interview added this month to ACDC, futurist Lee Shupp said: “If you really want to know what’s next in consumer behavior, don’t spend time watching mainstream consumers. . The best way to understand what most consumers will be buying tomorrow is to visit the outer edges of society today.” As an example, he said he thinks the animal rights movement will transfer into the mainstream – through the kinds of foods eaten and the treatment given to pets and livestock.

Reference: Use a title search (“Animal kingdom”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Information sources of Australian wheat producers.

Trade magazines were mentioned most often (37%) as non-personal information sources for producers, according to the Kleffmann Australia 2000 Broadacre Study. These results, reported recently in Agri-Marketing magazine, showed fewer mentions of sources such as department of agriculture publications, field days, brochures, trade literature and mailings.

Reference: Use a title search (“Marketing Australian wheat”) for the full citation.

Internet – a competitor for farm broadcasting?

“No,” says Steve Pearson, executive director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, “In fact, broadcast and Internet make a strong team.” His commentary in the April issue of NAFB Chats urged farm broadcasters to take advantage of the Internet and make it work to their advantage.

Reference: Use a title search (“The future of farm broadcasting”) or author search (Pearson) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Serious gaps in media coverage of agriculture.

Recently we added an interesting master’s thesis about the state of agricultural reporting in three global regions: North America, the former Soviet Bloc and Africa. Thomas F. Pawlick prepared the thesis for his Master of Journalism degree at Carleton University, Ontario, Canada. Results of his analysis suggested that, while agriculture is crucial to human wellbeing, farm coverage is “inadequate – in some cases, grossly inadequate.”

Agricultural journalism training -another blind spot.

Pawlick also examined resources available for training farm journalists in the three global regions. He found a “lack of available training for journalists interested in covering the farm beat, as well as.the absence in general journalism education of efforts to alert students to the importance of agriculture to allreaders.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The invisible farm”) or author search (Pawlick) for the full citation.

And a similar gap seen in India.

“There are no training facilities in farm journalism

except ill-planned, understaffed graduate and post-graduate courses at a few agricultural universities,” reported R. D. Sharma in 1994 after his review of agricultural journalism in India. According to his analysis, “Out of the 129 editors of farm-journals surveyed only 13 (10.1 per cent) had training in journalism. 62 per cent of the editors in government-owned farm periodicals had no rural background.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agricultural journalism for rural development”) or author search (Sharma) for the full citation.

Small also is necessary.

A 1986 document that we added this month speaks to our current era when consolidation and bigness are powerful themes for firms and organizations around the world. At a development communication seminar, Sean Cooney reviewed three models of development:

  • “Big” theory of economic development and social progress
  • “Small” theory of the small, largely self sufficient local economy
  • “Multiple” theory of synthesis between the Big and Small economies

“We need to reconcile the big and small and not have them in conflict with each other,” Cooney argued, so the scope of development can broaden. He identified two special features of communication in the Multiple Economy. (1) It will be horizontal as well as vertical. (2) It will take place from south to north as well as north to south.

Reference: Use a title search (“Small is necessary”) or author search (Cooney) for the full citation.

Agricultural biotechnology: public attitudes in Mexico and the Philippines.

We hear regularly about how the European or U.S. publics view agricultural biotechnology. A recent research report from the Center for International Development, Harvard University, helps reveal public attitudes in other countries that “often find themselves in an uncomfortable position in the middle.”

Survey findings in Mexico and the Philippines indicated public respect for the potential of biotechnology to address problems in agriculture, nutrition and the environment. Findings also showed concern “about corporate control of the technology, and the potential impact of such crops on their countries’ rich biological diversity.” Furthermore, “the surveys indicated that existing expectations and concerns.differ significantly from those expressed in the transatlantic debate.” And perceptions differed between these two countries.

Reference: Use a title search (“Public attitudes towards agricultural biotechnology”) or author search (Aerni) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Digital super-trails to rural areas?

A new report from Net Action describes some of the alternative Internet access technologies that might serve rural areas of the U.S. Examples: spread spectrum technology, digital radios, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, stratospheric telecommunications services. Will Internet access technologies really “trickle down” to all Americans who want them? Not by the network economy itself, according to this report – which identifies some public incentives that might be helpful.

Reference: Use a title search (“Will technology trickle down to rural America?”) or author search (Manohar) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

“Let go” in e-communications planning. “Let the process unfold.” 

A recently added document offers that advice to corporate public relations professionals. Ross S. Irvine of ePublic Relations Ltd. describes how social activists use e-mail, Internet and other electronic resources to create special interest networks involving biotechnology and other topics.

“Broad distribution of both the information and the tools means that no one can control the communications process,” Irvine says. “The recipients are free to undertake any communications activity at any time. Once this uncontrollable communications process has been unleashed, it cannot be corralled. While it is uncontrollable, and unpredictable, it has been effective for social activists.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Information, training and trust”) or author search (Irvine) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

And a reminder about cultural factors.

“Cultural baggage is as relevant in cyberspace as it is on paper and ink,” notes F. Cutitta, a global communications professional writing in Open communications in the 21st Century. “The age-old question of ‘How do I keep global advertising interesting without offending anyone?’ does not go away.” (p. 158)

Professional activities approaching:

October 8-10, 2001
“Agribusiness Forum” in Washington, D.C. Senior agribusiness management, association, government and academia representatives “engaging in a cross-industry dialogue on issues facing our industry.” Communications aspects include discussion of media coverage and activist efforts.
Information: www.nama.org/forum

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-16

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

Congratulations to Farm Journal magazine on its 125th birthday.

This is a remarkable achievement – a vivid testimony to valued service provided since the first issue appeared during March 1877. More than 9,600 agricultural periodicals of many types have been published in the U.S during the past 200 years. Very few have matched the vigor, service and longevity of Farm Journal.

Interested in learning more about it?

The Agricultural Communications Documentation Center and University of Illinois Library contain a wealth of historical information about this magazine and the people associated with it. Examples:

  • Bound volumes of issues dating back to Volume 1, Number 1
  • Books about it, including the autobiography of founder Wilmer Atkinson
  • A doctoral dissertation
  • Articles, readership reports, content analyses and other information featuring Farm Journal

You can identify such information in the ACDC collection through:

  • Title searches on terms such as: <“Farm Journal”>
  • Author searches on terms such as: <Atkinson>, <Quebral>, <Palmer> or <Harvey>
  • Subject searches on terms such as: <history “farm journals”>

In addition, feel free to check with us. We will help you identify information of interest and gain access to it.

On the importance of agricultural journalism.

Members of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists recently gained a thoughtful perspective on the importance of their work and their shared interests. Writing in IFAJ News from Moldova, Patricia Orlowitz emphasized the importance of agricultural journalism and effective agricultural journalists in a struggling democracy. She challenged members from the 29 nations represented in IFAJ toward:

  • providing examples of good agricultural journalism
  • developing the standards and ethics of good journalists
  • demonstrating how professional organizations such as IFAJ can serve members.

Reference: Use a title search (“IFAJ influences opening”) or author search (Orlowitz) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Negative information outweighs positive in food safety controversies, according to a research report added recently to ACDC.

A study by three economists used an auction-type design to monitor how perceptions of 87 food shoppers changed as they gained new information about irradiated meat. Some of the information in this experiment was positive, some negative. Results “suggest that when advocacy groups indicate that new food technologies are unsafe, consumers avoid these foods even if scientific bodies say the technologies are safe.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Negative information outweighs positive”) or author search (Hayes) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Most Americans aware of (and concerned about) mad cow and foot-and-mouth diseases.

Results of a March 2001 Gallup Poll showed that 77% of Americans had heard a moderate amount or great deal about foot-and-mouth disease in livestock. And 88% about mad cow disease. Of those who had heard about either disease, three-fourths said they were somewhat or very concerned. About one-fourth of those interviewed said they have cut back or stopped eating certain types of meat.

Reference: Use a title search (“Foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease”) or author search (Moore) for the full citation.

Finding nuggets off the beaten path.

We often are surprised where our searches for information about agriculture-related communicating take us. You may be interested in several unlikely periodicals in which we have found articles recently for the ACDC collection:

  • Public Roads
  • Civil Rights Journal
  • Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
  • Journal of Hazardous Materials
  • Geographical Review
  • Fire Management Today

Please let us know whenever you find agricultural communications information “off the beaten path.” We appreciate your company along the way in helping bring together this widely scattered body of important literature.

Slippage in environmental reporting?

That question arises from a recently added article from Newspaper Research Journal. The article described results of a survey involving more than 500 U.S. environmental reporters. What researchers found: “Many environmental reporters have reduced their own commitment to the [environment] beat, and see their news organizations as doing likewise.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Changing work environment of environmental reporters”) or author search (Detjen) for the full citation.

“Kicking Extension up a notch.”

Extension communicators at the University of Hawaii are using the Internet to provide an innovative Food Network. It features video streaming to show more than 50 Video Cooking Techniques. Jim Hollyer reported on this service in the May 2001 issue of the Information Technology Special Interest Group newsletter of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE). “The clips are presented in Quicktime and RealVideo. They have the text next to the video clip and also have a non-video write-up with still images for those with slow connections.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Bam! The Food Network is kicking Extension up a notch”) or author search (Hollyer) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Food Network is at http://www.foodtv.com.

New agricultural telecommunications projects funded.

The American Distance Education Consortium (A*DEC) recently announced seven newly funded projects. They involve varied applications of agriculture-related telecommunications.

  • “Dairy beef: maximizing quality and profits”
  • “RadioSource.NET”
  • “Internet-delivery of context-specific food safety modules”
  • “International food law distance education program”
  • “Internet2 applications to enhance the management of natural and agro-ecosystems”
  • “Weed science electronic library modules”
  • “Using advanced Internet technology to promote soil health information exchange”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agricultural telecommunications program projects funded 07/01”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Professional activities approaching:

September 13-16, 2001
“CFWF 2001: An Atlantic Odyssey.” Meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Information: farmfocus@klis.com

October 8-10, 2001
“Agribusiness Forum” in Washington, D.C. Senior agribusiness management, association, government and academia representatives “engaging in a cross-industry dialogue on issues facing our industry.” Communications aspects include discussion of media coverage and activist efforts.
Information: www.nama.org/forum

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

ACDC News – Issue 01-15

Posted on by Elizabeth Ray

New – Francis C. Byrnes Memorial Collection.

It is a special pleasure to announce that nearly 800 new documents entered the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center collection recently through the generosity of Francis C. Byrnes and his family. Following the death in 1999 of this pioneering agricultural communicator, the family contributed his personal library of professional information to the Center.

How it may help you. 

The Byrnes Memorial Collection adds a wealth of useful information about planning, producing, and managing communication and training programs in agricultural research, extension, education, and development. You are likely to benefit from this collection whenever you search the ACDC collection using subject terms such as:

  • agricultural communication
  • development communication
  • rural development
  • consultants
  • training programs
  • communicators
  • extension communication
  • intercultural communication
  • management communication
  • research organizations
  • and many others

A career of global service and impact.

Frank Byrnes contributed for more than 60 years by applying communication as a behavioral science to agricultural research, extension, education, and development programs implemented by various development assistance organizations. Raised in rural Iowa, he earned an undergraduate degree in agricultural and technical journalism (Iowa State University, 1938) and Doctor of Philosophy degree in communication arts (Michigan State University, 1963).

His leadership in educational communicating traces back to the National Project in Agricultural Communications (NPAC), for which he served as associate director (1953-1960). In 1963, he began a 20-year affiliation with the Rockefeller Foundation. As a field staff member, he carried out communication, training, and management responsibilities at the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia; and the International Agricultural Development Service, New York and Arlington, Virginia. After retiring from the Foundation in 1983 he continued as an active international consultant and as a senior associate of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development. Responsibilities throughout his career involved teaching, consulting, and other development-related activities in dozens of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Early in his career he also edited a weekly newspaper, served in the U.S. Signal Corps and U.S. Air Force during World War II, and worked as an agricultural editor at Ohio State University.

Recognized for excellence. 

In 1986, he received the first Award of Excellence in International Affairs ever presented by the International Association of Agricultural Communicators in Education. Among numerous other honors: Fellow in the Society for Applied Anthropology; Outstanding Alumnus in Communication, Michigan State University; and Honorary Founder of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia. From Iowa State University he received the Henry A. Wallace Award for Outstanding Contribution in Writing, Teaching, Research, and Leadership, and the James W. Schwartz Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism. In 1997 he received the Outstanding Service Award from the Association for International Agricultural Education and Extension.

We are pleased to help make his resources available

During the years ahead to other scientists, scholars, and practitioners through the Francis C. Byrnes Memorial Collection of ACDC. Among these resources you will find the professional papers Byrnes wrote while working or consulting with the Ohio State University, Michigan State University, International Rice Research Institute, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, International Agricultural Development Service, Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, and other international organizations.

What about the nontraditional materials in such a collection?

What about the notes, teaching materials and correspondence, for example? What will find use and value in the future? An insight struck us this week as we read Rising from the Plains. It is John McPhee’s biography of David Love. Love, whom Pulitzer Prize-winning author McPhee calls one of America’s most influential geologists, spent his career studying the Rocky Mountains for the U.S. Geological Survey. This biography highlighted the geologist’s scientific rigor, intellectual power, and creativity. But its greatest liveliness and sharpest focus emerged through insights that came from personal journals kept by Love’s mother and from McPhee’s travels with Love.

A first for farm television.

Farm broadcaster Dan Wilkinson, WRAL-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina, recently helped pioneer newscasting in high definition (HD) video. The June issue of NAFB Chats from the National Association of Farm Broadcasters reports that Wilkinson produced a segment of the world’s first complete newscast in HD. Reporting from the North Carolina State Fair, he used this new technology to help “move the viewer one step closer to your story and one step closer to being on the farm with you.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Technology in broadcasting”) or author search (Frenz) for the full citation.

A new Rural Programming Initiative.

An update in Community Radio News describes progress on a new Rural Programming Initiative by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (U.S.). This three-year initiative is designed to help rural radio stations not effectively measured by Arbitron improve their public service. It will involve 20 stations, a group buy of audience research, a new manual for rural program directors and an online rural programming center.

Reference: Use a title search (“Rural programming initiative”) for the full citation.

New research papers from ACE conference.

Thanks to Joan Thomson, chair of the Research Special Interest Group of Agricultural Communicators in Education. She has provided the Center with the following nine research papers presented during the late-July ACE conference in Toronto, Canada. We are pleased to help announce them and make them available.

  • Lulu Rodriguez, “Food safety vs. food security: how the African media shape the GMO debate”
  • Susan Grantham and Tracy Irani, “Off the radar screen: examining the effect of critical thinking on perception of low level environmental risk”
  • Daniel H. Henroid, Jr. and James J. Huss, “Educating consumers on food safety via the World Wide Web”
  • Tracy Irani and Ricky Telg, “Building it so they will come: assessing universities’ distance education faculty training and development programs”
  • Stan Ernst and Mark Tucker, “Perceptions and adoption of information technologies: implications for Ohio’s produce industry in the New Economy”
  • Sharon B. Stringer and Joan Thomson, “The importance of agricultural news sources in framing the news”
  • Kristina M. Boone, Mark Tucker and Jackie M. McClaskey, “Reaching opinion leaders on the Hill: results from a mixed-methods study”
  • Randy Weckman and Deborah Witham, “What Kentuckians believe about genetically engineered foods”
  • Kristina M. Boone, Karen Penner and Becky Zenger, “Communicating with Latino immigrants on safe food handling”

Reference: Use title or author searches (above) for the full citations. All are available in electronic or paper formats.

A livestock behaviorist: 

Someone who pulls habits out of rabbits.

Professional activities approaching:

September 8-12, 2001
2001 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists at Savonlinna, Finland.
Information: www.ifaj.org

September 13-16, 2001
“CFWF 2001: An Atlantic Odyssey.” Meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Information: farmfocus@klis.com

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.