Month: January 2003

Season’s greetings and best wishes.  

As we approach the end of 2003 all of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center here at the University of Illinois extend season’s greetings and best wishes for your year ahead.

2003 – a remarkable year for us.  

We are grateful for many developments during the past year. Among them:

• A new administrative home within the Funk Library of the University of Illinois Library system as a special collection and information service.
• New collaboration with library associates, plus a continuing partnership with associates in Information Technology and Communication Services (ITCS) and other units on campus.
• A new location – from Mumford Hall to the new Library, Information and Alumni Center of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
• An expanding collection that now tops the 24,000-document mark.

Your encouragement sparks this effort.  

Thank you for using the Center and extending your encouragement. Feedback such as this warms our hearts:

• “Ready for a rave?”
• “ACDC is awesome. You have no idea of your impact on agriculture, I’m sure. But it is wonderful.”
• “I always love receiving the ACDC electronic newsletter. … I appreciate this fun, helpful resource!”
• “Great resource”
• “I am impressed by your site…”
• “Thank you for your quick response…”
• “WOW!! What a treasure trove of articles, links, etc.”
• “…a wonderful resource on agricultural communications.”

As always, we appreciate and welcome your suggestions about how we can make this resource more helpful to you.

Consumers fearful about poisoned food?  

Recently we added to the collection part of a report of a national poll that addressed the question. An Opinion Dynamics Poll during October 2003 invited a sample of U.S. registered voters to identify what they consider the biggest terrorist threat to the United States. Nine percent cited the threat of water or food supplies being poisoned.

Reference: On the “Database Search” page of this web site, use a title search (Opinion Dynamics Poll) for the full citation.  Let us know if you are interested in the full results and do not have local access.

More freelancers these days. How they cope.  

Meghan Sapp, a freelance agricultural journalist based in Brussels, Belgium, offered an insight in a recent issue of The ByLine, newsletter of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association. According to Sapp, a recent survey among journalists in 18 European countries indicated that more than 25 percent were freelancers. Her report identified techniques that freelancers use in Europe to deal with “their own unique set of issues.”

Reference: Use a title search (Freelancers face common issues) or author search (Sapp) for the full citation.

Internet – window to the world. Community radio – mirror of local knowledge.  

Put them together in creative ways and “the two just might offer us the most powerful tool we have yet known to combine research and reflection to harness knowledge for development.” Bruce Girard explored that vision during 2001 in a workshop sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Reference: On the “Database Search” page of this web site, use a title search (Challenges of ICTs) or author search (Girard) for the full citation. The presentation was posted on:   www.fao.org

A case example during the workshop  

Described how a rural radio magazine in French language combines radio with a mix of other information technologies: e-mail, Internet telephone communication, FTP protocol file transfer, instant mailing, sharing of applications to access a remote computer and others. Content flows by Internet from rural correspondents in four African countries to coordination teams, then to about 100 African radio stations for broadcast. These technologies also permit online training of the broadcast journalists involved.

Reference:  Use a title search (JADE, a network) or author search (Ouattara) for the full citation. The presentation was posted on:   http://www.fao.org

Not television (in 1932), but approaching it.  

Decades before television came into U.S. homes, a college editor in Ohio was putting broadcast audio and sequential visuals together in a creative way for rural extension. A report in the June/July 1932 issue of AAACE newsletter described the innovation by Rensselaer Sill:

“Five rural audiences in Ohio, located in different counties, only a few weeks ago listened to a radio talk by P.B. Zumbro, extension poultry specialist at Ohio State University, and simultaneously viewed a series of pictures projected on a screen from a film strip illustrating the talk.”

The audiences “considered these meetings highly successful and requested other similar meetings on various subjects.”

Reference:  Use a title search (Not television) for the full citation.

“University structures are a poor basis for managing complicated programmes of multidisciplinary research and implementation.”

That observation came from Gerard van der Horst during a 1982 international conference about the role of universities in integrated rural development. He cited experiences in collaborative programs that involved universities in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Among the challenges (that still sound familiar, internationally):

• Wide variation in quality and interest levels of academic departments involved
• Program mandates too broad and not integrated at all levels
• Plans of operation too rigid, not open to adjustments

Reference:  Use a title search (Science as a tool) or author search (van der Horst) for the full citation.

Professional activity approaching:

February 14-18, 2004
Agricultural Communications Section of Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Information: www.saasinc.org

March 12-19, 2004
World Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in South Africa. The Congress starts in the north (Mabalingwe Nature Reserve) and ends south in Cape Town.
Information: www.agwriters.org.za

Accountability – hot new topic? Not really.  

Accountability of extension services, advertising and public relations programs, and other kinds of communicating gets more attention than ever these days. We recently noted several proverbs from Africa recognizing the timeless nature of this struggle for accountability of resources and effort:

“If nothing has been forged, then what happened to the charcoal?”
“Ten digging, ten filling – lots of dust, no hole.”
“If the machete doesn’t want to cut brush, it had best sneak back to the sheath.”

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

December 2003

Search questions coming our way. 

You may be interested in some of the topics involved in special requests that come our way in the Documentation Center. Here are several topics on which we have tried to help provide information during recent months:

• Daily newspaper reporting of issues facing rural communities
• Changing roles of extension services
• Credentials and characteristics of agricultural communications students
• How farmers decide to take part or not take part in commodity groups and other kinds of agricultural organizations
• Resources to help agricultural scientists learn how to write for journals and other information outlets
• Changes in agricultural journalism and how schools are revising programs to address those changes
• Trends in agricultural coverage by general mass media

Not sure where to look? Check with us. Let us know (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) whenever you can use help in identifying and gaining access to information about agricultural communications topics on which you are working.

Needs and potentials for new kinds of local market reports? 

What kinds of improvements in agricultural market reporting might be invited by trends such as (a) more product specialization, (b) more consumer interest in organic foods and (c) more efforts by producers to sell their products directly to consumers?

Should some local market reports be directed toward consumers?

Should new kinds of local farm products be featured, more price categories reported, new sources of price information tapped, new kinds of quality indicators used?

A thoughtful examination of disseminating market information took place during a 2001 international workshop on farm radio broadcasting.

Reference: On the “Database Search” page, use a title search (Marketing and rural finance) or author search (Shepherd) for the full citation. The presentation was posted on: www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6721e/x6721e22.htm

Four “key researchable issues” for communicators 

A new report has highlighted several high-priority needs for communications research on university-industry relationships that involve agricultural biotechnology. These issues, among others, emerged through an expert workshop sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

• Have academic scientists allowed their work plans, research objectives or publications to be changed by industry funding?
• How often are university scientists denied access to research materials or information?
• Is there a decrease in the free exchange of knowledge and information, and if so, what force(s) are driving it?
• Are publication delays due to intellectual property issues prevalent?

Reference: Use a subject search (University-industry relationships) for the full citation. A report of the proceedings was posted on: www.pewagbiotech.org/research/UIR.pdf

Same data – different media takes. 

As we collect documents in ACDC we often are struck by differing ways in which media and organizations interpret and use research data. Here’s a recent example of headline and lead-in treatments that caught our eye. Both drew upon the same research report:

“Farmers say no to GM crops in survey. Australian farmers are yet to embrace genetically modified crops with a new survey finding overwhelming opposition to the new technology.” (Australian Associated Press) This treatment picked up on a finding that 74 percent of farmer respondents said they would not consider growing GM crops at this stage.

“Farmers ‘back’ GM crops: survey. A new national survey of farmers’ attitudes to genetically-modified crops has found the majority support the technology…” (Australian Broadcasting Corporation News) This treatment picked up on a finding that 58 percent said they would consider planting GM crops if their perceived problems were overcome.

“Agriculture and innovation” is the title of an interesting radio program started during 1999 in Tunisia.

“Usually it was researchers and technical advisors who passed on information and recommendations to farmers,” explained the authors of a journal article that we added recently to the ACDC collection. “Agricultural extension in Tunisia meant teaching and training farmers, not listening to and learning from them.”

This program invites farmers to describe their innovations on air. Listening farmers, researchers and others are invited to interact with the innovators, by call-in or letter. Listeners who respond receive prizes and each broadcast generates feedback from 20-30 listeners. A first-year review of the program showed that it is well accepted among listeners. Also, it is influencing the attitudes of researchers and development agents.

Reference: Use a title search (Local innovation) or author search (Nasr) for the full citation.

Four-part mission for rural lifelong learning.

Shiojiri City’s Agricultural Academy in Japan features an impressively broad vision of continuing education for agriculture in the 21st century. A report that we added recently to the ACDC collection cited the following motto for the Academy, which the city has operated since 1985:

• Offer dreams to people on the farm (people formation)
• Give a boost to the farming area (land formation)
• Give power to the producing center (product formation)
• Give unction to the regional community (hometown formation)

This report by Suzuki Fukumatsu described the development and progress of the Academy, including courses offered.

Reference: Use a title search (Lifelong education) or author search (Fukumatsu) for the full citation.

“Traditional media training simply cannot win debates with GMO advocates,”

Concluded a commentary by the International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources. The commentary described an October 27 segment of the NBC-TV “Today” show featuring the controversy over genetically modified foods. It included interviews with a food scientist, a consumer, a biotechnology industry advocate and an anti-GMO author.

“Unfortunately, biotech failed to seize its moment of glory,” the commentary concluded. “Its representative reacted exactly the way the NGOs predicted and allowed the opposition to steal the trophy.”

Reference: Use a title search (Why biotech advocates lose) for the full citation. The commentary was posted on:www.biotech.ifcnr.com/article.cfm?NewsID=439

Professional activity approaching:

February 14-18, 2004
Agricultural Communications Section of Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Information: www.saasinc.org

On being a professional communicator. 

We end this issue of ACDC News with thoughts expressed 45 years ago by David Berlo, a respected communication scholar at Michigan State University. He wrestled with this matter in a thought-provoking presentation to educational communicators at a training session of the National Project in Agricultural Communication (NPAC).

“We can never be sure that we are responsible, that we are wise, that we speak the truth, that we analyze validly, that we conclude beneficially. All we can do is worry about it. All we can do is think about it, whenever we communicate. … [If the professional communicator] can be convinced that responsibility is his personal concern, that he must manipulate, but that he must strive to do this responsibly, if he is frustrated continually, and always faced with self-doubt, and self-criticism, we will come out all right.”

Reference: Use a title search (Philosophy of communication) or author search (Berlo) for the full citation

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

December 2003

On the economic value of agricultural public relations. 

A disease outbreak in strawberries gave Timothy Richards and Paul Patterson an opportunity to analyze the economic impact of media reports about it. They analyzed coverage by the top 50 newspapers in the U.S.

Adverse information reduced grower profits, the researchers found, and positive information from growers could partially offset the effects of negative information. “…both negative and positive media exposure had significant effects on commodity prices, but their impact is not symmetric.”

Reference: One the “Database Search” page, use a title search (“The economic value”) or author search (Richards) for the full citation.

More specialization coming (returning) in journalism education? 

A recent analysis of journalism education and national media systems in Europe led researchers to observe:

“In the long run, differentiation and deregulation of the national media markets will result in a higher specialization of journalists that has to be considered in journalism education. Again this development may lead to a segmentation of the profession, which means that journalists will no longer be provided with general and/or basic knowledge of journalistic skills but instead will be trained for a specific field or for specific media.”

Reference: Use a title search (Summary: challenges for journalism education) or author search (Frohlich) for the full citation.

Needed: rural radio education in Africa. 

A 1999 survey involving 18 African countries showed that 14 had at least one training institution for radio work, public or private. However, with only one exception, “there are no formal training institutions on the continent specializing in rural radio” and “very few trainers in rural radio.”

This situation exists despite the fact that “rural radio in Africa is considered the best means of communicating with rural populations” that make up a majority of African citizens.

Reference: Use a title search (Training needs for trainers) or author search (Kamlongera) for the full citation. A summary of the survey was posted on: www.fao.org

How news media cover small-town violence. 

“An examination of big-city newspaper coverage of violent crimes in small towns during a recent five-year period reveals a remarkable degree of uniformity in the language reporters use to characterize life in these places.” So reported Russell Frank in a recent issue of Rural Sociology. He found that newspapers deployed four core motifs in stories about crimes in small towns:

• Everyone knows everyone else.
• The front door is unlocked; the key is in the ignition.
• Small towns are “sleepy” places.
• Terrible things are not supposed to happen there.

Frank argued that small towns described in the news are symbolic landscapes reflecting a pastoral orientation among journalists and the culture at large.

Reference: Use a title search (“When bad things happen”) or author search (Frank) for the full citation.

Farmers often know more than expert professionals about the life and world around them

Njoku Awa reported in a 1989 article about indigenous knowledge in rural development. He cited examples from two studies involving local ecosystems:

• A local informant “was able to identify by name 206 out of 211 varieties collected and could draw finer distinctions between different types of plants than the professional taxonomist for whom she was working.”
• The average adult in a group of rural residents in the Philippines “could identify a staggering 1,600 different species, which was some 400 more than had previously been recorded in a systematic botanical survey.”

“Eventually,” Awa concluded, “the transformation in human relations implicit in the true meaning of the word ‘participation’ may turn out to be a more important change than the many worthy development projects stultified over the years by their designers’ refusal to accord local peoples (and their knowledge) the respect and seriousness that true participation involves.”

Reference: Use a title search (Indigenous knowledge) or author search (Awa) for the full citation. Awa’s vision remains timely and challenging throughout the world. You can identify many other references through subject searches in the ACDC collection. Use terms such as “indigenous knowledge,” “traditional knowledge” and “participation.”

Country radio – how it developed 

We recently added a book that may be useful to those interested in rural music and radio programming:

Rick Stockdell, The development of the country music radio format.

“It simply documents the progress country radio has made since the days of the Barn Dances and tells how country radio has grown into one of the handful of mass appeal radio formats of this day.”

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

“Dialogue instead of debate”

Is the title of an article describing efforts in Australia to improve communications about rangeland management. This controversial subject easily stirs argument. Author Stephany Kersten, University of Sydney, tested a dialogue-building process among pastoralists, extension advisors and researchers.

Keys to creating dialogue? “Issues such as relationship building before and during the meeting, respect of participants for others’ understandings, acceptance of multiple existing realities and creating a non-threatening environment were crucial for dialogue to emerge. If not, debate will be the main mode of communication, adding to the frustrations already existing between the participants in the process.”

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

Professional activity approaching:

We recently added to the ACDC collection a document that examined four dilemmas facing journalists who cover risk issues such as pollution:

December 4-5, 2003
“Risk perception: science, public debate and policy making.” International conference at the Charlemagne Conference Centre, Brussels. Information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/risk_perception/index.htm

Reporting on the love life of the bullfrog. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture heard loud criticism during the early 1930s for publishing a “worthless” bulletin popularly described as featuring the love life of the bullfrog. Wrong on two counts, replied a USDA communicator in a Public Opinion Quarterly article that we entered recently into the ACDC collection. First, the USDA did not publish any bulletin on frogs. Second, the research by a Cornell University scientist (“Frogs: their natural history and utilization”) held scientific interest and commercial importance.

For communicators, this article also provided a useful description of the various information services offered by the USDA at that time.

Reference: Use a title search (Information techniques) or author search (Harding) for the full citation.

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

November 2003

Cybercafes and other local community networks 

were featured in an international conference report that we added recently to the ACDC collection. The Internet can “play a vital role in supporting local communities in social, educational, cultural, and economic development,” said reporter Madanmohan Rao. One speaker reported that nearly 5,000 cybercafes around the world are giving cyberspace a human face. They “are community centers for the 21st century.”

This document identified some local community networking projects in various parts of the world and mentioned the role of libraries, FM radio and other local channels for communicating.

Reference: On the ACDC search page, conduct a title search (Local community networks) or author search (Rao) for the full citation. The report was posted on: http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/0201/rao2.html

Networks are important, as long as they belong to the radio stations. 

That perspective about local radio broadcasting came from a presenter at the First International Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting in Rome, Italy, during 2001. It differs markedly from trends in network ownership of U.S. radio stations.

Reference: Use a title search (The action of Francophonie) or author search (Lamonde) for the full citation. The presentation was posted on: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6721e/x6721e42.htm

More than a dozen agricultural topics 

Appear in the fourth edition (2002) of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. This idea-sparking resource identifies documents, databases and techniques that reporters can use to dig into thousands of topics. Here are some of those related to agriculture: land records, agricultural programs, water pollution, soil pollution, rural utilities (electric, telephone, water), farm credit banks, food stamps, animals, biotechnology and food assistance programs.

Reference: “Database Search” page of the ACDC web site, use a title search (Investigative handbook) or author search (Houston) for the full citation.

Do the mainstream media favor quiet social movements? 

Evidence of “yes” appeared in a study by Ann Reisner about how six national newspapers covered the farm use of pesticides. The topic is one in which the interests of agriculture (a morally good occupation) and environment (nature as a moral value) conflict.

“The study showed that, contrary to expectations, newspapers supported social change (were largely critical of pesticide use and sympathetic to organic agriculture). Farmers were portrayed positively as quiet social movement participants, and newspapers suggested that government and universities were blocking infrastructural change that should be supported. The study contradicts earlier theories of the press and social movements that suggest that newspapers contain, rather than promote, social change.”

Reference: Use a title search (Newspaper construction) or author search (Reisner) for the full citation.

Extension – more than a conduit of messages. 

The “conduit” role is appropriate, but too narrow. So argued Charles Antholt in a journal article that we added recently to the ACDC collection. “If this is the principal role conceived for extension, it would be more appropriate to concentrate on reducing the unit cost of information transfer.”

The author emphasized three added roles for extension. He was applying them to extension services for farmers in Pakistan, but they seem equally appropriate and important for other audiences and settings.

1. Enhance the ability of families to use the resources available to them for their own well being.
2. Diagnose problems and articulate them as necessary to public or private sector research organization
3. Help groups organize to help themselves.

Reference: Use a title search (Strategic issues) or author search (Antholt) for the full citation.

Into the wastebasket – for survival. 

“Think for a moment of the poor editors,” urged a commentator in a 1933 issue of The Dairy Record. “Do you know, gentle reader…that the editor spends a lot of his time throwing ‘news’ from the various government departments, the 48 state colleges, the 48 state departments of agriculture and lesser fry, into the waste basket?”

“Do you know what happens to a publication that prints this stuff in too liberal quantities? I’ll tell you. They go broke in a year’s time. If the editor and advertising manager suddenly decided to print this news – technically known as blah – they would end up…with one shirt between them.”

Reference: Use a title search (Is this sort of thing) for the full citation.

On the other hand, is access to government information being limited? 

That question is alive, as it applies to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can follow it on the “USDA Media Access Issue” section of the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) web site (http://naaj.tamu.edu) The issue sparked during May when Sally Schuff, Washington editor of Feedstuffs, described two examples of USDA efforts to limit press access. In one case, reporters were told they could not seek hallway interviews after “closed-press” meetings in USDA buildings. You will find postings of interactions between mid-May and mid-July, including a response from USDA Press Secretary Alisa Harrison.

Some dilemmas for journalists covering risk issues. 

We recently added to the ACDC collection a document that examined four dilemmas facing journalists who cover risk issues such as pollution:

1. Is balance always desirable? “No.”
2. Is balance a simple arithmetic matter of giving an equal number of pro and anti statements or points of view? “Several dangers lurk in this view of balance.”
3. How does the journalist’s choice of sources affect the overall slant of his or her news story? Use “official” or ” expert” sources without question? Use fringe group sources or extreme opinions to spice up stories?
4. To what extent does or should the journalist’s or news organization’s own judgments about the merits of a particular issue influence the way a story is told?

Reference: Use a title search (Role of the media) or author search (Lichtenberg) for the full citation.

Ten millionth volume. 

The University of Illinois Library, with which the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center is affiliated, acquired its 10 millionth volume during October. With a total of all materials now at 23 million, the UI Library is the largest public university library in the world. We are thankful daily in having a great pool of resources available in our search for agricultural communications literature.

And you add much through your encouragement and help in strengthening this collection.

On serenading pigs. 

A British farmer who plays classical music to his pigs created a “bitter local row” this fall after his neighbors complained to local authorities. Too noisy, said the neighbors. However, according to the Agence France Pressearticle, farmer Raymond Collier insisted that his animals sleep much better after a symphony or two.

“It calms them down and it might even make them grow bigger.”

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

November 2003

“Hello! Can you hear me?” 

This question sounds familiar from a recent advertising campaign. But it also marked a well-publicized occasion in a Kentucky corn field during 1902. The question came from the son of Nathan Stubblefield, melon grower and inventor, during an early demonstration of the wireless telephone.

A recent book by Bob Lochte describes this development, along with “facts and folklore about Nathan Stubblefield.” The fascinating account informs as much about publicity methods and folklore generation as about technological pioneering. It examines conflicting perspectives that have swirled for decades around Stubblefield and his achievements. This account reveals a farmer/inventor who, working alone, invented two wireless telephone systems, carried out the first wireless broadcasts and foresaw that broadcasting would be an important application of wireless telephony. But was it radio?

Reference: Use a title search (Kentucky farmer invents wireless) or author search (Lochte) for the full citation.

How the rural press influences public policy: a case report. 

Recent research by Stuart Shulman highlighted the importance of agenda setting by the rural press during the early 1900s.

“Rural credit reform emerged in 1912 as a viable public policy issue only after the business and farm press favorably presented the idea of looking to European models of privately financed, cooperative rural credit,” he observed. “…The press was a powerful, though blunt, factor in the formulation of Progressive Era agrarian policy options.”

Reference: Use a title search (Progressive era farm press) for the full citation of an article in Journalism History. Chapters of the dissertation from which the article came were posted on the author’s web site at: www.drake.edu/artsci/faculty/sshulman

Media poorly equipped to cover long-term threats. 

“…the press and TV news are ill adapted for sustaining high-level coverage of long-term threats.” That was a conclusion of J. Kitzinger and J. Reilly in the European Journal of Communication. They based their finding on case studies of how news media covered the rise and fall of three risk crises: human genetics research, “False Memory Syndrome” and mad cow disease.

Reference: Use a title search (Rise and fall) or author search (Kitzinger) for the full citation.

The main gap is between minds. 

That is how Ralph Reeder, former agricultural editor at Purdue University, responded to a question about the main problems involved in research and extension publications.

“There is evidence that we are peeking timidly over the walls. (Some) states report using task groups, publications committees, etc., to study audience and distribution problems. Perhaps through these doors we can begin to base publications on programs for people rather than on subject matter. The real space-fillers we need to be…is in the sense of bridging the abyss between one mind and many minds. Most of us are not social scientists oriented by our training or our research. Yet we are editors in a time that is critical for our understanding of human needs and human reactions…”

Reference: Use a title search (Main gap is between) or author search (Reeder) for the full citation.

“Don’t use a softball as a windscreen for your microphone,” 

Advised National Association of Farm Broadcasters Executive Director Ken Root in a recent report to NAFB members. The independent journalist has become an endangered species, he argued in Chats. With many voices on the Internet (most with their own agendas) and more consolidation of media (with their own economic agendas), he said, “reporters who work in the best interest of their target audiences are one of freedom’s greatest strengths.”

“All points of view should be aired and all questions of relevance should be asked,” he said in urging farm broadcasters to “probe into an issue, obtain and give the hard truth.”

Reference: Use a title search (Freedom to speak) or author search (Root) for the full citation. Issues of NAFB Chats are posted, with delay, at: www.nafb.com

Food chains and other myths. 

Research among students has identified four misconceptions about food in the ecosystem. Communicators and educators can find value in these insights and reminders:

• Food webs are interpreted as simple food chains. (Scientific conception: food/energy relationships must be viewed as a complex web linking the organisms within an ecosystem.)
• Organisms higher in a food web eat everything that is lower in the web. (Scientific conception: organisms higher in a food web feed on some organisms lower in the food web.)
• The top of the food chain has the most energy because it accumulates up the chain. (Scientific conception: available energy decreases as one progresses up a food web.)
• Populations higher on a food web increase in number because they deplete those lower in the web. (Scientific conception: the numbers of individuals in the populations of any species decrease with each step up the trophic levels because the available energy decreases while body size generally increases as one progresses up a food web.)

Reference: Use a title search (Ecological misconceptions) or author search (Munson) for the full citation.

Words are never enough. 

“Emerging technologies will always make emerging terminologies obsolete,” Zac Hanley and Kieran Elborough observed in a recent commentary about definitions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They were reacting to proposals from two scientists for coining new, more taxonomy-based terms for genetic modification.

“Transgenic has a well-entrenched meaning to the public and attempts to redefine it spread confusion or suspicion rather than enlightenment,” the commentators said. “Only when we have done an excellent job of explaining what we are talking about can we enjoy the luxury of encapsulating it all in a pithy word or phrase like intragenic.”

Reference: Use a title search (Emerging terminology) or author search (Hanley) for the full citation. The commentary was posted online at: www.isb.vt.edu/news/2003/news03.aug.html

“Yeh, they made us quit thinking a long time ago and now they’ve made us stop talking.”

That lament came from a frustrated U.S. Department of Agriculture field communicator during the mid-1930s when poverty and economic depression triggered new, top-down rural programs that often lacked coordination.

Reference: Use a title search (Relations with various divisions) or author search (Keilholz) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

October 30, 2003
“The River Murray – cool water or hot potato.” Featured speaker Hon. John Hill at luncheon meeting of Rural Media South Australia at Adelaide Oval. Information: www.ruralmediasa.com

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the 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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

October 2003

Advisory services – beating the market? 

No, according to a seven-year study of corn and soybean marketing advice offered by advisory services in the U.S. between 1995 and 2002. Results showed “limited evidence that advisory services, as a group, outperform market benchmarks.”

However, researchers Darrel Good, Scott Irwin and Joao Martines-Filho suggested that advisory services still can help corn and soybean producers improve marketing performance. Why? Because producers appear to under-perform the market significantly on their own.

Reference: On the “Real Search” page, use a title search (Marketing services studies) for the full citation. A summary of results was posted online at: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/news/printversion.cfm?nid=2399

A loud round of applause, a cheer, a champagne toast, and thumbs up 

That is what members of Cooperative Communicators Association are extending to those who founded their organization 50 years ago. Members used their 2003 CCA Institute to celebrate this occasion during June in Madison, Wisconsin. Also, they have published an interesting 40-page history that we added recently to the ACDC collection:

CCA 50 Years, 1953-2003: Raising the Standards of Cooperative Communication.

It includes a special “Remember when?” section that features comments from those who have taken part in CCA. We add our congratulations to this lively, valuable organization of professional cooperative communicators.

Reference: Further information about the observance is available on: http://www.communicators.coop/

“Changing role of media in agrimarketing” 

Is the title of an analysis published recently in Agri Marketing magazine. Author David C. Aeschliman examined media trends such as the following that are sparked by consolidation and other dynamics in the farming and agribusiness sectors:

• Farm periodicals expanding into other media such as agricultural radio and television, Internet, direct mail, farm shows and niche publications.
• Farm publishers moving into writing, photography, design, printing, mailing and other services traditionally provided by advertising agencies.
• National farm periodicals trying to incorporate more localized and customized messaging, a role traditionally served by local farm newspapers.

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

Food scares and lost faith in official expertise. 

A recent book, Media and Health, highlighted British media coverage of two major food scares – salmonella in eggs and bovine spongiform encelphalopathy (BSE, “Mad Cow Disease”).

“Indeed, an important theme of the BSE scare has been the capacity of the critical media to position itself as the voice of ordinary people who have lost their faith in official expertise,” observed author Clive Seale.

Reference: Use a title search (Media and health) for the full citation.

How food shoppers relieve their feeling of risk. 

A research report that we added recently to the ACDC collection identified some risk-relieving strategies used by a sample of British students. The top three strategies, across all food products, included:

• Brand loyalty
• Reading consumer guides
• Reading product information

Strategies considered least useful:

• Celebrity endorsements
• Special offers

Reference: Use a title search (Consumer perceived risk) or author search (Mitchell) for the full citation.

Striking the proper balance in the academy. 

Mark Tucker, Sherrie R. Whaley and Jamie Cano have provided a useful analysis of academic programs in agricultural communications. Their 2003 report in the Journal of Agricultural Education examined several aspects of balance important to the future of such programs.

• Balance in emphasis between career-oriented undergraduate curricula and the expanding needs for research to support teaching and outreach efforts in agricultural communications.
• Balance in the roles of agricultural communications faculty members as they collaborate with private industry.
• Balance in building constructive collaborative relationships with other academic programs such as agricultural education and rural sociology with which agricultural communications programs sometimes share academic homes.

Reference: Use a title search (Agricultural education and agricultural communications) or author search (Tucker) for the full citation.

A good editor is not an adroit manipulator 

And a clever twister of words, argued Paul C. Johnson, former editor of Prairie Farmer state farm paper. Rather, he suggested, the good editor is:

• A skilled craftsman in one or more forms of communication
• A diligent conveyor of information and inspiration
• A wise counselor to others in their striving to be articulate
• A keen detector of error and humbug and a sworn enemy of such
• A eager listener for ideas new and untried
• A lover of people and a tireless student of human nature
• A believer in the power of truth

Reference: Use a title search (Our job) or author search (Johnson) for the full citation.

The greatest danger of being an agricultural journalist. 

“There are dangers in this beat,” Jerry Hagstrom told fellow members of North American Agricultural Journalists Association earlier this year, “and the biggest of them is the pressure to be a booster.” At an NAAJ awards program in Washington D.C., the veteran reporter described his career experiences, including the pleasures and challenges of agricultural reporting.

Reference: Use a title search (Hagstrom told us) for the full citation. The speech was posted online at: http://naaj.tamu.edu/naajJuly03.pdf.

Professional activities approaching

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: http://www.nafb.com/

“Shouldn’t that be ‘comprises’?” 

An alert reader of ACDC News raised the question in response to a mischievous challenge from Stephen Wilbers about appropriate wording:

“The list is comprised of/composed of 75 common errors.”

Wilbers says that either of two approaches is appropriate:
“The list is composed of…”
“The list comprises…”

He adds that “comprised of” is always wrong.

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

October 2003

“The lawyers are coming. The lawyers are coming.”

So reads the title of an article in Food in Canada magazine about expanding food law activities. Author Ronald L. Doering reported that while the food industry is highly regulated, law-related activity is “mostly invisible to the average consumer.”

He cited several reasons for rising attention to food law. Among them:

“…an unprecedented explosion of interest in food related issues with daily front page stories dealing with: genetically modified foods, major food recalls, manure management, natural health products, allergies, possible new food threats (such as acrylamide), pesticide residues, mad cow disease, and organic foods. Never mind the countless other stories (usually with conflicting information) on nutrition and diet.”

He examined several changes these issues have sparked, including “the emergence of major claims for damages for food borne illness. Most companies have not yet fully appreciated what is happening already and that far worse looms on the horizon.”

Reference: On the “Database Search” page of this site, use a title search (above) or author search (Doering) for the full citation. The article was archived online (June 13, 2003) at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

Consumer confidence in food safety declines in the U.S. 

Consumer confidence that the food in supermarkets is safe declined slightly during the past year, according to the 2003 consumer trends study of the Food Marketing Institute. Seventy-nine percent of shopper respondents said they felt sure the food they buy is safe from contamination, compared to 81 percent in 2002. More than one-third (35 percent) said they think processor/manufacturing plants are the places where problems are most likely to occur, followed by restaurants (15 percent). Four percent cited farms.

Reference: Use a title search (Confidence in food safety) for the full citation.

Icons of agricultural advertising. 

Two producer-sponsored advertising campaigns were featured in the recent book, A Century of American Icons: 100 Products and Slogans from the 20th Century Consumer Culture. One of these generic advertising campaigns promoted a farm commodity during the 1980s, one during the 1990s.

Can you identify them? What do you think they are? Send your hunches to us at: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

No, they do not include Elsie, 

The Borden Cow made famous by Borden, Inc., during the 1930s. A producer organization, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), now holds rights to the Elsie and Borden trademarks that are used on DFA products. According to Advertising Age, she is one of the ten most successful icons of the 20th century, but we are not counting her here as part of a producer-sponsored advertising campaign.

Reference: Use a title search (Century of American icons) or author search (Cross) for the full citation.

Media coverage of food biotechnology has been highly one-sided, said Michael Rodemeyer at a workshop last November.

“Advocates on both sides of this issue do agree on [that] one thing,” he observed. “Unfortunately, they disagree on which side the media has been taking.”

The workshop was entitled, “When media, science and public policy collide: the case of food and biotechnology.” Participants probed the processes by which reporters seek to “distill the often-confusing array of opinions about the potential risks and benefits of GM foods into stories that can be understood by a mass audience.”

Reference: Use a title search (above) for the full citation. Proceedings, in summary form, were posted on:www.pewagbiotech.org.

Conflicts of interest – by the hundreds

“…most self-respecting community journalists have hundreds, if not thousands, of such conflicts by virtue of their involvement in the community,” said publisher Troy Gustavson in a commentary for the Center for Community Journalism. Organizational memberships. Financial connections. Friends in public office. The list goes on.

Gustavson said he doesn’t see how a true community newspaper can avoid ethical dilemmas. Did he advise refusing memberships and otherwise trying to avoid conflicts of interest? No. Instead: “The answer, I think, is to never let those conflicts interfere with the newspaper’s primary mission: to tell the truth at every turn about what’s happening in the community it serves. So when the ferry company calls up and says, ‘Cut out the negative coverage…or else,’ you’ve got to choose ‘or else’.”

Reference: Use a title search (Ethical conflicts) or author search (Gustavson) for the full citation. The commentary was posted on: www.oswego.edu

Roots of agricultural communicating. 

The following observation caught our eye recently as we entered a new/old document into the ACDC collection. It came from Carl R. Woodward, president of the University of Rhode Island, a half-century ago:

“We might say that agricultural communication is as old as agriculture itself. … Scenes of rural life engraved in stone by the people of ancient times, the Biblical record – Old Testament stories, the pastoral poetry of the Psalms, the rural parables of the New Testament – and the writings on agriculture by the Greeks and the Romans reflect the evolution of agricultural communications.”

Reference: Use a title search (A look back) or author search (Woodward) for the full citation.

Why agricultural programs were among the first on radio. 

From the start, radio programmers in the U.S. recognized that the new medium held special potential for rural areas. Radio promised to help break the isolation, improve rural life and bolster the efficiency of farming. In addition, research by Marcel C. LaFollette suggests another reason that agricultural programming was among the first aired on radio.

LaFollete observed that agriculture and public health were “…(not uncoincidentally) areas in which government agencies and communities of experts took an early, active interest.” Examples: weather reports as early as 1921 and regular farm market reports as early as 1922.

Reference: Use a title search (Survey of science content) or author search (LaFollette) for the full citation.

Agricultural communications students as (un)critical thinkers. 

They are about the same as non-agricultural communications students in this regard, according to a study by University of Florida researchers. Results of a 2002 survey among students at 12 U.S. universities revealed that 17% showed a strong disposition toward critical thinking while 66% were classified as weak.

“…it behooves agricultural communications educators and researchers to explore ways to activate and enhance critical thinking dispositions on the part of their students’ future success,” the researchers concluded.

Reference: Use a title search (Critical thinking dispositions) or author search (Bisdorf-Rhoades) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com

New home for ACDC. 

We are pleased to report that the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center moved during early September. It is now located in the new Library, Information and Alumni Center of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) here at the University of Illinois. You can see a photo of the new building in the upper-left corner of our home page.

Administratively, ACDC is now a special collection and information center within the ACES Library. It continues its expanding service in partnership with the Library and the Information Technology and Communication Services Unit of this college.

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

September 2003

Canada’s first “consensus conference” on food biotechnology.

An article that we added recently from Science Communication analyzed the first such application in Canada (March 1999) on the issue of food biotechnology. Two University of Calgary researchers analyzed this interactive technique involving “a small group of citizens who go through a learning process on a given technological issue, engage experts, and develop an assessment of the key issues they identify as critical.”

Authors observed that consensus conferences are “imperfect models” and “not the only means of opening up the technology process. However, this model and other tools like it represent the continuing efforts to expand the range of voices participating in science and technology.”

Reference: Use a title search (Consensus conferences as deliberative democracy) or author search (Einsiedel) for the full citation.

The 85:15 formula – advice for communicators in education.

It came from Alice Blinn, associate editor of Ladies Home Journal, at a 1949 meeting of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors (ACE). “Whenever I hear what women want discussed,” she said, “I always remember the precept laid down by Professor Burrit, director of extension in New York in my early days.”

“It was his advice to give people 85 percent of what they want and not more than 15 percent of what you think they should have. It seems to me that this is still sound advice.”

Reference: Use a title search (Alice Blinn tells) for the full citation.

Future of telecom in rural America.

“Well, I don’t pretend to be clairvoyant,” a representative of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said recently, “but I’m pretty sure it’s going to involve broadband.” Speaking to the National Exchange Carrier Association, Jack Zinman observed that thousands of new jobs could result from greater broadband deployment.

“Not surprisingly, then, broadband is an important potential source of growth and investment for rural America, our country, and for others around the world,” he said. He noted the unique challenges in rural America, with low population density and long loop lengths, and offered advice to the rural telecommunications carriers.

Reference: Use a title search (Future of rural telecommunications) or author search (Zinman) for the full citation. The speech was posted online at: www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/2002/JZNECA_91602.htm.

Farmers being left in the dust?

That was part of the title of a recent FarmWeek article about expansion of the “ag superhighway.” Author Doug Yoder, market education specialist of the Illinois Farm Bureau, cited a “proliferation of farm tools on the web.” He noted, however, that without Internet speed the web is of little use as a farm marketing tool.

“A lot of producers were telling us that it was one thing to get information over a slow connection, but if they’re expecting to conduct business, they need a much better, safer, more secure, faster connection.”

Reference: Use a title search (Ag superhighway expanding) or author search (Ross) for the full citation.

The future of agriculture-related communicating?

It’s a tidal wave of information in the important agribusiness sector of this field. Tom Taylor, president of AGRIS Corporation, highlighted some expanding dimensions of it during a presentation at InfoAg 2001. He said that information management is becoming increasingly complex and important for agricultural producers and retailers because of:

• More specialized crops
• More detailed records of applications of various fertilizers, chemicals and other inputs
• More source verification and traceability of crops and livestock
• More regulatory monitoring
• More responsiveness to consumer demands and preferences

Taylor reported that four of every five agribusiness merchants had made a major upgrade or had totally replaced their information management systems in the previous two years.

Reference: Use a title search (Efficiencies, e-business) or author search (Taylor) for the full citation. This conference paper was posted online at: www.farmresearch.com/infoag2001/presentations/pdfs/taylortom.pdf.

And too many warnings in everyday life.

“Enough already!” pleaded Shulamit Reinharz in a commentary on the pervasiveness of warnings in everyday life. “Do I buy margarine or butter, knowing, as I have learned, that both are bad? Is it better to be overweight or risk the ‘serious health consequences of dieting and yo-yoing weight’?”

This thought piece highlighted some types of warnings and examined ways in which prevention itself “intrudes on the quality of life, foregrounds danger, and makes it harder to enjoy everyday experiences.” The author also suggested four reasons for the pervasiveness of warnings.

Reference: Use a title search (Enough already) or author search (Reinharz) for the full citation.

Welcome to our new associate in ACDC.

We are delighted to welcome Elena Padilla into the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center as webmaster and academic coordinator through an assistantship. She also begins graduate studies in library and information science this semester with an excellent background of education and experience.

Elena holds bachelor and master of arts degrees in English from DePaul University and the College of William and Mary, respectively. At both institutions she was a part-time library assistant, so she has had seven years of experience in university libraries. Since 1997 she has worked with Lucent Technologies as a customer technical support engineer. In that responsibility she gained experience not only in serving customers but also in working with varied information technologies.

“They don’t come much smarter than this group,” 

Said Stephen Wilbers after conducting a writing workshop for cooperative communicators. He did so at the recent 50th Anniversary Institute of Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Madison, Wisconsin.

He put mischievous challenges such as these into a writing skills assessment:

• “The list is (comprised of)(composed of) 75 common errors.”
• “The last thing I want to do is (persuade)(convince) you that I never make mistakes.”
• “Good communication skills can help managers (affect)(effect) change.”

Did you nail all three?

Reference: You can see sample columns, writing resources and exercises on his web site: www.wilbers.com/

Professional activities approaching

September 26-28, 2003
Fall meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists Association (NAAJ) in Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://naaj.tamu.edu

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsuagcenter.com/ace.

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.

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 unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 ACES Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

September 2003

Five agriculture-related “muckraking” efforts that changed America.

A recent book, Muckraking: the journalism that changed America, includes five reporting efforts that involved rural people and issues. They included:

• John Steinbeck introduces America to the plight of California migrants, San Francisco News, 1936.
• Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper attacks the swill milk that was killing New York children, 1858.
• Nick Kotz of the Des Moines (Iowa) Register finds loopholes in federal meat laws, 1967.
• Rachel Carlson creates a firestorm by saying that pesticides are killing birds and mammals, Silent Spring, 1962.
• Voice from the hollows: Homer Bigart writes of poverty in Appalachia and sets off a war on poverty, New York Times, 1963.

Reference: On the “Real Search” page, use a title search (Muckraking) or author search (Serrin) for the full citation.

What rural reporting efforts might you add to this list?

Send your nominations to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. We will report on them in ACDC News.

And some not-so-great reporting.

“Health news that’s unhealthy” is the title of a recent piece by Mervin Block in Television Newswriting Workshop. He cited several examples of flawed medical stories on network newscasts – some inaccurate, some misleading, some mishandled.

Among the food-related items was a report on CBS about a study finding that a glass of wine a day – especially red wine – may help prevent colds. Block’s response: “A finding? Not at all. And again, who conducted the study?”

Reference: Use a title search (Health news) or author search (Block) for the full citation. The report was posted online at: http://www.mervinblock.com.

Rural news (150 years ago).

Hops production. Spitzenburg apples. Osier stripping. Kit Carson’s travel schedule. Scientific farming. These and other topics from an 1853 issue of Country Gentleman magazine came under review recently in an interesting commentary published by the New York Times.

Reference: Use a title search (Country Gentleman) or author search (Klinkenborg) for the full citation. The commentary was posted online at www.nytimes.com.

Market Information Organization of the Americas is emerging.

Sandra Cuellar of Colombia described it earlier this year at the 2003 Agricultural Outlook Forum sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Representatives from 10 countries formed MIOA in 1999 with three primary goals:

• Promote cooperation among member institutions
• Create standards for terminology, methodology and technology
• Facilitate the timely and consistent exchange of market information among the member countries

Cuellar reported that trade in agricultural products among countries of the Free Trade Area of the Americas totals $53.2 billion. More than 95 percent of that total involves the 20 countries that now take part in MIOA through working groups that are getting under way.

Reference: Use a title search (Market information organization) or author search (Cuellar) for the full citation. A Power Point presentation was posted at www.usda.gov.

Creative media partnership in biotech reporting.

A news item that we added recently to the ACDC collection featured a creative effort during 2000 that involved Oregon Public Broadcasting and several newspaper partners.

“Visitors to the www.geneforum.org site can take interactive quizzes on their attitudes toward genetically engineered food and the use of their own tissue for genetic research,” according to this report from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Efforts by the media partners also involved online focus groups, a town hall meeting, and live call-in shows.

Reference: Use a title search (geneforum.org) for the full citation. The report was posted online at: www.pewcenter.org.

Thanks and best wishes to Center Coordinator Yiqi Zhou as she moves to a new stage of her career.

Yiqi completed her master’s degree in Library and Information Science during May and is taking a new position as librarian at Ashland Community College, Ashland, Kentucky.

Yiqi joined the Center in November 2001 as half-time research assistant and spearheaded nearly two years of remarkable progress. For example, through efforts that she coordinated the ACDC literature collection has grown at a record pace since she arrived, from 19,000 to more than 23,000 documents. The Center web site, including the searchable bibliographic database, served a record number of nearly 98,000 requests during 2002. Users from more than 30 countries visited the site and requested files during the year.

Among other contributions, Yiqi redesigned the ACDC web site, expanded the use of live links and helped implement a new “Features” page on the site. We are most grateful for her skillful, dedicated service and wish her the best in her career.

Notice of a new Center e-mail address.

You will notice a slightly different e-mail address for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Our new address is: docctr@library.uiuc.edu.

Please use this address for future e-mail contact with the Center. Also, please change any local address book entries you may have on your local computers for the Center. Security and spam-related problems account for this revision. Thank you.

Professional activities approaching

September 26-28, 2003
Fall meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists Association (NAAJ) in Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://naaj.tamu.edu

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsuagcenter.com.

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.

On sea harvests and shoe selection.

By popular request, we end this issue with two more classified advertisements. They come from a rural newspaper published in 1908.

“Wanted – a boy to open oysters fifteen years old.”
“Personal – Edward Jones has opened a shoestore on Front Street. Mr. Jones guarantees that any one can have a fit in his store.”

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 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 (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

August 2003

One-on-one consulting shows value in $$$$$.

We recently came upon one of those rare research projects that assess the economic value of agricultural information. The study invited clients to report on their use of crop management information during 1996-1998 from one-on-one consultations with Iowa State University extension specialists.

“Fifty-eight percent of crop management respondents indicated the information saved them $11 an acre or more. … At a time when both crop and livestock prices are at record lows, these savings are crucial to the producer and show the value of Extension information to the producer’s operation.”

Reference: Use a title search (Portfolio for the 21st century) or author search (Petrzelka) for the full citation. The article from Journal of Extension was posted at:
http://www.joe.org/joe/1999december/comm1.html.

Communications to be a research theme of IFPRI.

During the years ahead, communications will be one of 12 major themes for the International Food Policy Research Institute. A recent strategy document of the organization identified “urban-rural linkages” as an area of research priority.

“With urbanization and rural change, new research will address urban-rural linkages, including consumption linkages, resource flows, communications, and labor migration and gender roles, as well as policy linkages.”

Reference: The full report, “IFPRI’s strategy toward food and nutrition security: food policy research, capacity strengthening and policy communication,” was posted on: www.ifpri.org/about/ifpristrategy.pdf

First employee publication in North America was agricultural. 

Researcher Peter Johansen offered that observation in a Journalism History article that we added recently to the ACDC collection. According to his finding: “In 1885, a Toronto-based agricultural implements maker, the Massey Manufacturing Company, inaugurated the Trip Hammer, which is widely believed to be the first true employee publication in North America.” He analyzed the purpose and content of it within the context of the Massey operation.

Reference: Use a title search (For better, higher) or author search (Johansen) for the full citation.

Rural development project keeps “marginalizing women.”

“Despite its bottom-up, participatory approach to development, this World Bank project keeps marginalizing women, assuming that only men play crucial roles in processes of community and nation building,” she said. She pointed toward a multi-layered discourse of development that “reinforces patriarchal cultural codes that exclude women from active participation in development projects.”

Reference: Use a title search (Shattering butterflies) or author search (Rodriguez) for the full citation.

Farm women using the internet more than their husbands use it.

“The internet is a tool for women’s traditional activities of bookkeeping and information seeking,” observed Supriya Singh in her study of gender differences in internet use among Australian farm couples. “Women also use the internet to connect with other women and family.”

These two appeals of the internet help explain why farm women use it more than do their husbands, according to Singh. “When women are comfortable with technology as a tool for activities, they stop seeing it as technology.”

Reference: Use a title search (Gender and the use of the internet) or author search (Singh) for the full citation.

Ethical lapses in farm publishing.

In 1931, Herbert Hungerford wrote of a circulation-boosting method known as “sheet writing:”

“If you have ever attended a county fair or a city exposition, probably you have seen some of the slickest boys in the tricky circulation game ‘doing their stuff.’ As you approach the magazine booth, one of the smiling subscription salesmen holds out a flashy fountain pen and hails you – ‘Free souvenir of the fair, mister?’ But, as you reach out to grasp the pen, you find your smiling friend grasping your hand instead as he promptly explains that this ‘free souvenir’ is given away to introduce a certain magazine which you also will receive free, provided you simply pay the postage required by the Government. If you hesitate, you are now handed the pen and urged to test its merits by writing your name on a slip of paper provided by your obliging salesman. Then if you do not fall for a ‘free souvenir subscription,’ the salesman will try at least to obtain your address and you may be enrolled as a subscriber anyway.”

Reference: Use a title search (How publishers win) or author search (Hungerford) for the full citation.

“Tips for tough interviews” 

Is the title of a recent article in the ByLine newsletter of American Agricultural Editors’ Association. Author Gil Gullickson referred to “those stories that aren’t so fun.” Examples: “The one about the farmer selling out a four-generation farm due to financial pressure. The one about the grandfather who ran over his grandson with a tractor. Or the one about the farmer facing a potential prison term.” Gullickson offered six ideas to help ease that job.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Gullickson) for the full reference.

Media coverage of the mad cow scare in Canada.

A Saskatchewan farmer’s view appeared in a newspaper article during late May. Kevin Hursh observed: “…there’s often a tendency to vilify the media and the swarms of reporters and photographers can be unsettling for producers who are used to their privacy, but for the most part…the media has done a reasonable job under difficult circumstances.”

He also commended the media for casting light on practices such as rendering dead animals into animal protein for pigs, chickens and pets. “While the general public may find this unsavoury, it’s reality.”

Reference: Use a title search (Mad cow coverage) or author search (Hursh) for the full citation. The article was posted online (May 28, 2003) at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

Professional activities approaching

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsu.agcenter.com/ace

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions are open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu

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 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 (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

August 2003