Month: November 2011

ACDC News – Issue 11-18

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

New mentoring program for agricultural journalists .  A new resource about mentoring agricultural journalists is featured on the website of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ).  Agricultural and business journalist Mechthilde Becker-Weigel describes what the Bonn State group of German Agricultural Journalists (VDAJ) offers its members.

“Given that the specialization of agricultural journalists is so varied, I became convinced that we sometimes need support,” she explains. “And that, within the network, we can do many things for each other and help each other.  This is actually how the idea of mentoring in Bonn was created.”

Her feature briefly describes the objectives, participants, contents and process involved in the program.  It addresses agricultural journalists in phases of change and reorientation in their careers.

You can view this mentoring feature in the “New at IFAJ” section on the home page at http://www.ifaj.org . Available in English and German language, it was coordinated through the professional development partnership of IFAJ and ACDC.

A call for greater precision in reporting risk data. A close look at media stories about contamination in farmed salmon has underlined the challenges that journalists face in the rhetorical practices they use. Researchers Shannon Amberg and Troy Hall analyzed the precision of data-based reporting in U.S. newspapers about results of two key scientific studies on this subject.  They found that reporters commonly tended to interpret data in ways that amplified or downplayed risks.  Examples:

“unacceptably high” levels

“slightly increase” the risk of getting cancer “later in life”

“far bigger risk” than the cancer concern

“well below” the FDA tolerance level

nutritional benefits “far outweigh” any leftover “trace” of PCBs

“Even highly precise numeric data were often presented in ways that were likely to confuse readers,” the researchers observed in this Science Communication article.

View the abstract here: http://scx.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/03/22/1075547009357599.abstract

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

Widespread use of e-book about ICT in agriculture. Thanks to Dr. Ehud Gelb, Israel, for an update about use of the public domain free e-book, ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation. We called attention to it in an earlier issue of ACDC News and are pleased to learn it is getting widespread use.

“The book was accessed last year 300,000 times,” Dr. Gelb reports. “This year the trend is towards at least double that.”

He explains that ICT in Agriculture serves those who plan, initiate, develop, design and/or adopt information and communication technology programs.  Authors are professionals with at least 20-25 years of hands-on experience with ICT adoption. In chapters of 4-5 pages, they share insights about approaches, constraints, obstacles encountered, pitfalls and other potential detrimental problems.

You can read the book by visiting the cover page at this address. Then proceed to the “Table of Contents” that includes links to the identified chapters.
http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html

What’s happening in research about digital divides .  A recent commentary in Media, Culture and Society examined gaps and advances in research about digital divides during the past two decades.  Author Panayiota Tsatsou argued that:

  • Inequalities in the adoption and usage of information and communication technologies continue to frame the concept of digital divides.
  • Many aspects and forms of divides co-exist today, leading the concept to be defined and approached in various ways by contemporary research.
  • Future research should move beyond access and usage indicators.  It should also explore socio-cultural and decision-making dynamics, including research that places within context indicators such as quality and variations in usage.

You can read the abstract of this article here: http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/33/2/317.extract

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

Another suggested survival skill for new journalists in an internet era. Thanks to Geoffrey Moss of Wellington, New Zealand, for adding this skill to the list we featured in a recent issue of ACDC News:

  • “Who you know is more important than what you know.  Spend time building networks by giving a useful service and by building trust with potential clients.”

A sampling of books we’ve reviewed recently .  Searches for information about the communications aspects of agriculture continue to take us into fascinating territory.  You may be interested in some of the books in which we have found such information during recent weeks.  You will find detailed information about those of interest to you by using title searches in the ACDC search system:
http://web.library.uiuc.edu/asp/agx/acdc/search.html

The digital divide: facing a crisis or creating a myth?

The link between animal abuse and human violence

ICT4D: information and communication technology for development

Ain’t that a knee-slapper: rural comedy in the Twentieth Century

Crisis communications: a casebook approach

African women and ICTs: investigating technology, gender and empowerment

Women and the animal rights movement

Smoke or steam: a critique of environmental issues

The electronic front porch: an oral history of the arrival of modern media in rural Appalachia and the Melungeon community

Radio: a post nine-eleven strategy for reaching the world’s poor

Digital color grading makes subtle changes more powerful . We recently added to the ACDC collection a journal article that describes the heightened potentials for digital color grading.  It mentioned, for example, a rural melodrama film designed almost entirely in brown, gray and earth tones.

Do digital technologies represent a revolution in uses of color?  Author Scott Higgins suggests not.  He advises that color grading via digital technologies “reminds us to view them against a historical background that emphasizes continuities, ancestry and the enduring sway of craft norms.”

You can read the abstract of the article here: http://con.sagepub.com/content/9/4/60.abstract
Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • November 15-18, 2011
    “Innovations in extension and advisory services.”  International conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  Sponsored by a variety of national, regional and international partners.Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int
  • January 23, 2012
    Deadline for submitting research papers for presentation at the 2012 annual meeting of the International Association of Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Annapolis, Maryland USA. Special Interest Group in Research invites papers relevant to agricultural communications.  A companion recognition program for graduate student papers also is available. Information: Prof. Courtney Meyers at courtney.meyers@ttu.edu

Sorry, but we can’t resist closing this issue of ACDC News with several more fragments of online wisdom sent our way recently, a couple of them with a “food and drink” theme.  Please forgive us.

  • A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
  • She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
  • (And for harried agricultural journalists) No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. 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 Comm Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

( N.B. We have added inline URLs (instead of embedded links) to our newsletter items based on a reader’s request. As always, if you have any feedback for us, don’t hesitate to contact us.)

ACDC News – Issue 11-17

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Survival tips for young journalists in an internet era. Veteran Canadian journalist Carol Goar suggests operating as a sheep that parts company with the flock.  Here are eight ways she suggested doing so in the internet era “with its fractured audiences, proliferating platforms, shrinking attention spans and still-unclear economic rules.”  She offered them in a new book, Media Values , we reviewed recently.

  • Learn to use your journalistic skills proficiently in whatever medium you choose.
  • Try not to personalize issues.
  • Strive not to sound preachy or look self-righteous.
  • Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
  • Be aware that one bold departure from conventional wisdom or one brilliant piece of writing won’t turn the tide.
  • Pay attention to what’s going right.  People have an appetite for positive news.
  • Be prepared to face criticism, to be unfairly labeled, to be ignored by the too-busy-to-care majority.
  • Decide which is more important to you: your moral compass or your financial security.

You can read the publisher’s summary of this book here , or get in touch with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu .  What survival tips might you add?

An overview of consumer willingness to pay for meat attributes. The International Journal on Food System Dynamics recently reported results of a meta-analysis of 23 studies about this subject between 2000 and 2008.  Researchers Gianni Cicia and Francesca Colantuoni found, for example, that:

  • Consumers are willing to pay 22 percent above the base price for the attribute “food safety.”
  • When on-farm traceability is available, consumers appear willing to pay a premium of nearly 17 percent over the base price.
  • The attribute “animal welfare” elicits a premium of 14 percent over the base price, “showing consumers’ interest about the life quality of domestic animals.”
  • European consumers are, on average, willing to pay more for meat traceable attributes than are North American consumers.

How policy disclosure and information sharing affect farm management. Thanks to agricultural journalist Masaru Yamada for contributing his research thesis about this subject to the ACDC collection.  Masaru is senior staff writer of The Japan Agricultural News and executive committee member of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. The title of his thesis, which is in Japanese:

“Challenge for communication improvement in farm management – a study on effects on farm management of policy disclosure, information sharing, and the role of journalism”

This is a valued addition. We look forward to helping preserve it and make these findings known and available, internationally. Please contact us at docctr@library.illinois.edu to gain access to this document.

“The scientists think and the public feels.” Three University of Reading (UK) researchers offered that perspective after they analyzed how experts and non-experts approach debates about crop and food genetic modification (GM).  Their analysis appeared in a 2004 issue of Discourse and Society that we added recently to the ACDC collection. Based on in-depth interviews with scientists, non-experts and other stakeholders, authors observed that people frame the subject in various ways they may find valid, such as:

  • Morally (Is it justifiable?)
  • Economically (What does it cost?)
  • Socially (Who benefits?)
  • Politically (Who controls it?)
  • Aesthetically (Does it make food more pleasing to the senses?)
  • Scientifically (Is it safe?)

“Conversely, scientists tend to see only the frame of empirical objectivity as legitimate.  Other frames are viewed as irrelevant, or even dangerously anti-science…”   Authors found that GM scientists tended to see communication “very much as the transfer of information, and the main concern was with how their technically complicated understanding of GM could be simplified to become accessible to the scientifically uneducated.”

Read the abstract here . Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.   Do you have thoughts, or other references to suggest, about this topic?

New global overview of farmer-to-farmer video .  Special thanks to Paul Van Mele of AGROinsight, Ghent, Belgium, for alerting us to a new 47-page report , “Video-mediated farmer-to-farmer learning for sustainable agriculture.”  It includes a comprehensive, timely summary of feedback during 2011 from more than 500 people across the world who responded to his online survey. The report highlights these topics:

  • Video in agricultural extension
  • Models of producing and disseminating farmer training videos
  • Agricultural videos on the internet
  • Feasibility of web-based platform for video sharing: need, proposed content, opportunities and challenges

Rhetoric or reality? The mobile phone “revolution” in Africa .  The continent is home to 350 million mobile phone subscribers, reported Sebastiana Etzo and Guy Collender in a 2010 article in African Affairs .  Moreover, “their numbers are growing faster than anywhere else in the world.” Penetration rates at the time of reporting averaged over 33 percent across Africa. The authors reported sample agriculture-related uses:

  • Veterinarians in Zanzibar collecting health information by mobile phone
  • Foresters in Ethiopia monitoring tree planting projects
  • Rural health workers collecting data, calling ambulances, educating, diagnosing
  • Growers gathering market and weather information, as well as trading

Authors also identified limits and risks, such as:

  • Contributing to widening the gap between the poor and the poorest
  • Literacy and language issues

Advanced technologies can be used in positive or negative ways, they cautioned.

For access from the publisher, visit here . Or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access.  Please let us know if you can recommend other references about rural uses of mobile phones.

Thanks to Fred Myers for Running the Gamut. This veteran agricultural journalist recently contributed to the ACDC collection a copy of his new book of writings.  In fact, he kindly provided not only the published book, but also a loose-leaf paper copy and a CD for electronic access.  Recipient of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Fred has assembled more than 120 professional development columns he wrote for the AAEA newsletter and his own website during the past 20 years.  We already have more than 40 of his columns in the ACDC collection, so will be able to add another 80-plus for future reference.

Across the years, Fred has been an active mentor, cheerleader and conscience for agricultural journalists.  His writings have ranged broadly across topics as diverse as:

  • “What a few words can do”
  • “Giving wings to the eagle within”
  • “The erosion of truth”

We are entering into the ACDC database not only his new book, but also his individual columns. So you will be able to identify all of them and gain access through an Author search (Myers) on the ” Document Search ” page of our website.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • November 9-11, 2011
    “Insight for agriculture…every day.”  Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com
  • November 9-12, 2011
    “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences.”  Conference of the International Society of Extension Education, New Delhi, India. Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm
  • November 15-18, 2011
    “Innovations in extension and advisory services.”  International conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  Sponsored by a variety of national, regional and international partners. Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int
  • January 23, 2012
    Deadline for submitting research papers for presentation at the 2012 annual meeting of the International Association of Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Annapolis, Maryland USA. Special Interest Group in Research invites papers relevant to agricultural communications.  A companion recognition program for graduate student papers also is available. Information: Prof. Courtney Meyers at courtney.meyers@ttu.edu

A subtle way to say, “Get busy.” We close this issue of ACDC News with a remark quoted in Eleonora Gullone’s book chapter, “A lifespan perspective on human aggression and animal abuse.”

“The difference between what we know and what we do
is greater than the difference between what we know and don’t know.
Therefore, our need for action is currently greater
than our need for more research.”

Source: Andrew Linzey (editor), The link between animal abuse and human violence. Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, UK.  2009.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. 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 Comm Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu