Month: January 2007

Award-winning network of internet kiosks serves 3.5M farmers in India.

A recent news report about eChoupal helps stretch the mind of innovative rural communicators.  eChoupal is a network of more than 5,200 internet kiosks established by ITC, one of India’s largest exporters of agricultural commodities.  Using the kiosks in 31,000 villages, rural families can, in the local language:

• Gather information about market prices and weather
• Learn farm management techniques
• Check input costs
• Order farm supplies and sell farm products
• Gather healthcare and educational information

This initiative has received several awards for innovative use of satellite communications, solar energy and other information technologies serving rural people.

Title:  Indian farmers gain from internet access
Web site:  http://www.echoupal.com

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When media air VNRs and ANRs without disclosure.

Are you monitoring discussions about appropriate use of video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs), as used to convey information about food, agriculture and rural interests?  If so, you may find interest in this report added recently from the Center for Media and Democracy.  Please let us know (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) of other reports that come to your attention.

Title:  Video news releases: the ball’s in the FCC’s court
Posted at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3790

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How consumers respond to information on food labels.

We find useful reports of research about this subject from the United Kingdom.  The Food Standards Agency recently reported several insights it identified through research about consumers’ response to marketing terms used in food labeling.

Some respondents claimed they would choose between similar food products based on these terms: quality, finest and homemade. However, other pieces of information on the label were cited as more influential.

• Nearly one-third of the respondents felt that the brand was the most important piece of information when making a purchase decision.
• One-fourth felt that information about ingredients was most important.
• Only 6 percent claimed that the product descriptor (such as natural, fresh, pure) was most important.

Title:  Consumer research on marketing terms
Posted at: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/foodlabelling/researchandreports/labelresearch0106

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“What is the best way to get your message across to people?”

Geoffrey Moss, veteran communicator in New Zealand, tells us he usually asks that question when he runs workshops.  After discussion, he explains, participants realize there is no “best way” in a general sense.

Geoffrey recently contributed to the ACDC collection some informative books and tip sheets to help communicators choose appropriate messages and media.  They include:

• “Get your message across“
• “Modify your message for each audience“
• “Different ways to get publicity“
• Persuasive ways: “tricks of the trade” to get your ideas across
• A rolling stone (featuring the author’s career experiences)

He has led workshops involving more than 2,500 participants in many settings including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Samoa and Singapore.  In Singapore he has run 31 workshops for Asian managers at the Singapore Institute of Management.

“The participants have taught me much,” he says.  “I have indeed been fortunate.”

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Agriculture — rooted deeply in typographic history.

Printed newspapers trace back nearly 1,300 years in China, according to a macro history published in the Gazette: the International Journal for Communications Studies.  And, according to researcher S. A. Gunaratne, a treatise on agriculture (Nong Shu) contained the first description of movable type in the printing process.  That advancement took place in China during 1313.

Title:  Paper, printing and the printing press

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Cultural history of some words we use often.

Thanks to Professor Steve Shenton for alerting us to a brief but fascinating cultural history of key words we use often.  It comes from Raymond Williams as a one-page appendix in his book, The country and the city, published by Oxford University Press in 1973.

Williams described the derivations and modern meanings of terms such as: country, city, suburb, rural, farm and pastoral.

Title:  Country and the city

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Communicator activities approaching

March 29, 2007
“The nuts and bolts of ag communication.”  Midwest regional design and writing workshop sponsored by Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) in Des Moines, Iowa.
Information: dianej@flash.net

March 29-31, 2007
Winter meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Information:  www.agrelationscouncil.org

April 11-13, 2007
“Think big.”  2007 Agri-Marketing Conference (and 50th Anniversary observance) of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Dallas, Texas.
Information: www.nama.org/amc

April 15-17, 2007
Annual meeting of North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D.C.  Information: www.naaj.net/meeting.html

May 1-3, 2007
Eighteenth annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Savannah, Georgia.
Information: www.toca.org

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Here’s some ‘creep’y advice for communicators.

We close this issue of ACDC News with an expression that caught the ear of communicator Amy Keith McDonald during a 2006 meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council.  She later shared it on the ARC ACCESS Board Blog.

“Scope creep” – describes the inevitable changing parameters of a project as changes are made by a client or better (alternative) options are presented.

Advice for communicators:  “Scope creep can be good, but always keep communication between Clients and Agencies current, including cost change, timelines changes, etc.”
Posted at http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/blog.html

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Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Tell us the titles and/or document numbers.  We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.  Feel free to invite our help as you search for information.  And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection.  We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu

February 2007

“How the Swiss media report on farming issues.”

We appreciate receiving notice from Markus Rediger about an article of this title in a 2006 issue of AGRARForschung, the Journal of Swiss Agricultural Research.  Authors analyzed the frequency, depth and range of agricultural coverage in 586 newspaper articles and 55 television features during 2004.

“In general, the coverage consists of factual journalism such as news articles and reports,” according to the summary.  “Opinion-based journalism, such as comment or analysis, rarely features in the coverage.  …  The reporting across all media analyzed in the study can be described as ranging from balanced to positive in 2004.  However, judging from the scope and volume of coverage, topics selected and journalistic presentation, it may be concluded that media coverage of farming issues is somewhat superficial.”

Title:  How the Swiss media report on farming issues
Summary posted in English, German and French at: http://www.agrarforschung.ch/en/inh_det.php?id=1150

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Some topics we helped ACDC users explore during 2006.

We always enjoy getting requests from professional communicators, students, researchers, teachers and others as they search for information about agriculture-related communications.  Here is a scattering of topics among the dozens we helped address during the past year:

• When farmers establish web sites for direct marketing
• How folk media can fit into today’s rural communications
• Surveys about farmers’ use of media
• Consumer information services offered by Extension
• Rural-urban conflict in the 1920s and 1930s
• How to enliven annual meetings of rural organizations
• Information services for migrant farm workers
• Generic pork advertising
• Impact of environmental education on conservation practices
• Ethical relations among agricultural reporters, publishers and advertisers
• Contemporary mass media portrayals of farmers
• Relationship agri-marketing
• Crisis communication planning
• Core competencies needed by professional agricultural communicators

Please call on us (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) whenever we can help you search.

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How Europeans and Asians view risks of avian flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, reported this month the results of research conducted during late 2005.  Results are based on surveys among 3,436 residents living in five European countries and three East Asian areas.

You can see a report of findings at:
http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/2/288.htm

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Is information technology ready for the avian flu?

Not in the U. S., according to an article in a recent issue of Computerworld.  It cites findings of a survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions during early December 2006.  Among 163 U. S. employers surveyed, most (68 percent) said their companies are very concerned about a flu pandemic.  However, only 52 percent said they have adequately planned to protect themselves from the effects of a flu pandemic.  Only 45 percent felt confident their companies are prepared to manage a flu pandemic outbreak should one occur.

“Ultimately, dealing with a pandemic is a problem that must be coordinated at the executive management level through a cross-functional team,” author Robert L. Mitchell concluded.  Information technology will not be the full solution.  “But it is part of the solution.  And in a true emergency, information systems might just be the glue that keeps employees in touch – and holds the organization together.”

Title:  Heads in the sand: IT isn’t ready for the bird flu
Posted at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=277375

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How public/private contracting for agricultural extension is working.

An international conference paper presented last year analyzed outcomes of such contract arrangements in the many countries using them.

Authors William Rivera and Gary Alex observed that contracting for extension is a positive development and a vital strategy for agricultural knowledge transfer.  However, “we stress that it should not be considered, and cannot be, an answer to unresolved management problems or the incapacities within an institution.  In short, despite its advantages and benefits, contracting is no panacea.”

Title:  Contracting for agricultural extension
Posted at http://www.aiaee.org/2006/Accepted/570.pdf

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‘Raw is natural’ messages worry food technologists.

We recently added a report that aired concerns about a disconnect between public perception and the reality of food processing.  Speaking at a 2006 meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists, Dean Cliver noted:

“After we organize our safety efforts in more elegant ways, we’re still back to the idea that processing is important.  [But] the consuming public is being told that totally unprocessed foods are doing them good.”

Title:  Conflicting food messages may put consumers at risk
Archived June 27, 2006, at http://archives.foodsafetynetwork.ca/fsnet-archives.htm

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Communicator activities approaching

 March 12-13, 2007
“Out of ideas for writing, photography and layout/design?” Midwest Regional Workshop of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
Information:  Tammy Simmons at tsimmons@kaec.org or 800-357-5232

March 29, 2007
“The nuts and bolts of ag communication.”  Midwest regional design and writing workshop sponsored by Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) in Des Moines, Iowa USA.
Information: dianej@flash.net

March 29-31, 2007
Winter meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Information:  www.agrelationscouncil.org

April 11-13, 2007
“Think big.”  2007 Agri-Marketing Conference (and 50th Anniversary observance) of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Dallas, Texas.
Information: www.nama.org/amc

April 15-17, 2007
Annual meeting of North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D.C.
Information: www.naaj.net/meeting.html

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Hear the laughing dog. 

Yes, researchers are still busy trying to help us communicate with animals.  The 2007 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac alerted us to recent findings by animal behaviorist Patricia Simonet.  According to the report:

“When researchers played recordings of dog ‘laughter’ (a breathy exhalation made by pooches), barking and pacing canines at an animal shelter calmed down instantly.”
You can hear a brief sample of the “laughter” sound at: http://www.laughing-dog.org

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Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Tell us the titles and/or document numbers.  We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.  Feel free to invite our help as you search for information.  And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection.  We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu

February 2007

New series about covering threats and crises related to food and agriculture.

Last month the Center staff completed a four-part series on this subject.  We did so through generous support from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.  You can read these four professional development features by using the live links below.  The features are part of an IFAJ/ACDC partnership that began during early 2006.

• When public health emergencies hit: the special work of agricultural journalists
• Preparing to cover public health emergencies that involve food and agriculture
• “Uh-oh.  We are in an emergency.”  Tips for agricultural journalists when crises hit
• On being ‘transparent’ in dealing with public health threats and emergencies that involve food and agriculture

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Views about the “deskilling” of consumers. 

In earlier issues of ACDC News we have called attention to debates about the progressive “deskilling” of farmers.  Similarly, we are actively monitoring reports and views about what is sometimes described as “consumer deskilling” in the food system.  Both topics involve agriculture-related information, and the sharing and use of it. They hold interest for agricultural journalists and communicators.  Here we feature two perspectives reflected in recent literature:

 I. Is loss of practical cooking skills a tragedy? Not necessarily.

Authors of an article in Food Service Technology examined what happened to food preparation skills in the United Kingdom during a 20th Century marked by massive social and technological changes. They concluded that loss of such skills, while regrettable, is not tragic.  “All is not lost,” they said, “if there remains an interest in the meal as an event, and its preparation is a creative process.”  They found hope in the interest created by an abundance of television cookery programs, celebrity chefs and a steady flow of meal recipes and food-related reports published in magazines and newspapers.

Title:  Deskilling the domestic kitchen
Posted on the open web at:     http://home.edu.helsinki.fi/~palojoki/english/nordplus/Phil%20%20COOKING%20SKILLS%5B1%5D.pdf

II. Watch out for consequences and threats.

“Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets and health.” So argued JoAnn Jaffe and Michael Gertler in their 2006 article published in Agriculture and Human Values.  They pointed with concern to threats such as:

• Loss of family health and longevity, disease risk, hunger (in some settings) and low value for money
• Concentration of power and control in the food chain
• Arrested development, local and international
• Loss of connection to the land and key components of the culture
• Undermined family life

The authors observed that the “agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand.”  They found hope in the varied forms and sources of resistance, including health food cooperatives, organic agriculture, food security, urban gardening, anti-hunger initiatives, wildlife conservation and other social movements.

Title:  Victual vicissitudes

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How bioscience firms are addressing ethical decision-making.

A 2006 article in PLoS Medicine journal reported results of a two-year study that involved interviews with more than 100 managers and executives of 13 bioscience companies. These companies were approached because they were known to have used mechanisms for ethical decision making.  Here are five approaches identified. All require effective communicating:

• Ethical leadership – via ethics departments and leader emphasis on ethics
• External expertise – via consultants or advisory boards
• Internal mechanisms – via hiring practices focused on ethics, employee performance evaluations, ethics education, forums for discussion and ethical reinforcement techniques
• External engagement – via ethics-related agreements with suppliers/partners, transparency with stakeholders, transparency of science, strategic philanthropy and efforts to influence industry standards and regulations
• Ethics evaluation and reporting mechanisms

Title:  Lessons on ethical decision making from the bioscience industry
Posted at: http://tinyurl.com/2oee7j

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Driving a TeleTractor.

A recent article in Technology in Society described use of wireless information technology for agricultural producers on the move.  This TeleTractor project, supported by the UK government and described briefly in the article, is designed to “create offices in tractor cabs.”  The goal is to improve business activity by providing data and information to producers in the field.

Title:  Diffusing wireless applications in a mobile world

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“We will carry the agricultural school to the farmer.” 

With that stated goal James Wilson, U. S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, announced plans nearly 95 years ago to develop what soon became a nationwide Cooperative Extension Service.  A 1912 Chicago Tribune newspaper article we added recently explained that the new program would provide farm management study to farmers in the North.  The planned program used a “co-operative demonstration” approach already introduced with promise in the South.

Title:  Teach farmers at home

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Communicator activities approaching

March 12-13, 2007
“Out of ideas for writing, photography and layout/design?” Midwest Regional Workshop of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
Information:  Tammy Simmons at tsimmons@kaec.org or 800-357-5232

March 29-31, 2007
Winter meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Information:  www.agrelationscouncil.org

April 11-13, 2007
“Think big.”  2007 Agri-Marketing Conference (and 50th Anniversary observance) of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Dallas, Texas.
Information: www.nama.org/amc

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A New Year’s tip about writing advertising copy.

We close this issue of ACDC News with an enduring piece of advice offered in Agricultural Advertising magazine nearly 101 years ago:

“In writing an advertisement,
tell the truth;
then if you cannot think of anything else,
repeat it.”

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Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Tell us the titles and/or document numbers.  We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.  Feel free to invite our help as you search for information.  And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection.  We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu

January 2007

Happy New Year and welcome to this first 2007 issue of news from the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.

We look forward to helping you communicate effectively and grow professionally in this dynamic field of interest during the year ahead.

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Starting the New Year at a new hallmark.

Last month the ACDC collection passed the 30,000-document mark. Who might have believed this possible when the concept of an electronically-managed resource featuring agriculture-related communications began to take shape more than 25 years ago?

• Our thoughts turn in appreciation to dozens of graduate research assistants, document contributors, associates and other friends who have given generously of their skills, support and encouragement.
• And our thoughts turn ahead to helping identify and share this rapidly-growing, global body of knowledge that is increasingly essential to societies.

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Successful first year of partnership with IFAJ.

Last June we announced a new education partnership with the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.  Since then, our Center has provided a variety of resources to help IFAJ members grow, professionally.

If you are interested in seeing the activities carried out during this pilot phase of the partnership you can use this live link to read the 2006 Review.

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Offering virtual tours of Canadian livestock farms.

“Visit a dairy farm without leaving your home,” read the headline of a recent press release from two Canadian farm organizations.  Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) and the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) have announced bilingual virtual tours of two types of dairy farms: one featuring a tie stall barn and one a free stall barn. Planners consider them “an important way of making agriculture more interesting and accessible to the general public.”

Visitors can take the dairy farm tours at:
www.dairygoodness.ca

In addition, visitors can take 13 virtual tours of farms that feature a variety of other classes of livestock – from beef cattle to goats and from elk to veal.
www.farmissues.com/virtualtour

Title:  Visit a dairy farm without leaving your home

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Budget at least 15 percent for communicating.

“Every protected area conservation project should have at least 15% of its budget designated for communication,” said Marco Sanchez Lira in a paper we added recently to the ACDC collection. Furthermore, “this should be included from the beginning of the project, with the understanding that communication is not the solution to problems arising from specific occurrences but is an integral component of the whole process.”

The paper focused on efforts of the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas in Mexico.

Title:  Strategic communication and visual identity
Posted at:  www.iucn.org/themes/cec/themes/protected_cases.htm

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No real pre-requisites for innovating.

Farmers innovate regardless of their farm size, farming enterprises or amount of farm experience. Viktor Janev came to that conclusion after studying farmer innovation in Macedonia.

His report in LEISA Magazine concluded: “I believe that farmer innovation needs to be seen as the basic cornerstone of any research and extension system.”

Title:  Old skills and new ideas
Posted at www.leisa.info

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How media portray immigrant farm workers.

A recent article in Cultural Geographies revealed thought-provoking findings about media coverage of farm workers in rural Ontario, Canada.  Several “interlocking narratives” emerged from researcher Harald Bauder’s content analysis of Ontario daily newsprint media between 1996 and 2002:

• “Offshore workers are represented in the newsprint media as alien elements in the village and agricultural landscapes of rural Ontario.”
• “On the workplace/living space scale, migrants are valorized as workers but devalued as human beings, making them a desired labour force but unwanted people.”
• “On the farm/community scale, migrants are depicted as a structural necessity for Ontario’s farming operations and a valuable asset to the local retail sector, but as a nuisance and cultural threat to the rural community.”
• “On the Canada/homeland scale…the economic inferiority of the country of origin justifies substandard working conditions in Canada as economic opportunities for the foreign workers and as development assistance to the origin countries.”

Title:  Landscape and scale in media representations

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Communicator activities approaching

February 5-6, 2007
Agricultural Communications Section of the 2007 Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) conference in Mobile, Alabama USA.
Conference information:  http://www.saasinc.org
Ag Com Section web site: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/

March 12-13, 2007
Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) Midwest Region Workshop in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
Information:  Tammy Simmons at 800-357-5232

March 29-31, 2007
Winter meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Information:  www.agrelationscouncil.org

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Appreciating the warm fuzzies.

We always appreciate learning the experiences and reactions of those who use the resources and services of the Center.  Here is some of the recent feedback that encouraged us:

• “Wow–a lot of info.”
• “I just want you to know how much I enjoyed the latest ACDC News.  It’s jammed with good stuff!”
• “This is great.  Thank you so much for the quick response.”
• “I am sure this database will be helpful in our programming and I have shared it with our staff.”
• “Thanks for making the effort to keep us all connected.”
• “I got good materials from the web sites you suggested to me.”
• “Perfect!  This is just what I was looking for.”
• “The list of contributors to the collection looks like a Who’s Who of dev comm!”
• “I have appreciated everyone’s willingness to help a graduate student find the resources I need for my thesis.”
• “Very cool name by the way – rock on, ACDC”

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Please let us know if you would rather not receive ACDC News.

As Year 2007 begins, we want to tell you how much we appreciate your interest in this e-newsletter.  We hope it is helpful, interesting and convenient for you.  However, we do not want to send something to you that you would rather not receive.  So at any time, please let us know if you would like to be removed from the list.  You can do so by contacting us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu  Also, let us know if your e-mail address changes.

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Would you like to suggest other possible readers? 

We will be pleased to send ACDC News to your associates or other persons you think might like to receive it.  You can either refer them to us or send us their names and e-mail addresses.

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Also, get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Tell us the titles and/or document numbers.  We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.  Feel free to invite our help as you search for information.  And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection.  We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu

January 2007