Marketing – only a commercial activity? Time to rethink it.

Nonprofit and social marketing represent the most complex and difficult contexts in which marketing activities are carried out. Commercial application – selling products and services – is only one simplified variety. The relationship has been upside down. So argued Alan Andreasen in a Journal of Public Policy and Marketing article we have added to the ACDC collection.

This topic holds special interest for those involved in extension/advisory services, teaching and research institutions, non-governmental organizations, public agencies, and other non-commercial settings. The author suggested a new taxonomy for categorizing behavioral objectives in a way that serves all settings.

You can read an executive summary of the article at the following link. Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for further assistance. http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/AMA%20Publications/AMA%20Journals/Journal%20of%20Public%20Policy%20Marketing/TOCS/SUM_2012.1/rethinking_social_nonprofit_marketing.aspx

Singing for rural women

“Until she stopped writing music in 1972, [Loretta] Lynn was one of country music’s most ardent feminist voices,” Danny Shipka wrote in an article we added recently to the ACDC collection. It appeared in the Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy .

“Discussing such topics as war, alcoholism, marriage, sexuality, and the sexual revolution, Lynn wrote from the perspective of common rural women and the issues they faced in the volatile 1960s. Never one to shy away from a controversial subject, she translated the complexity of the changing social landscape into simple, honest, easy-to-understand lyrics that gave rural women around the country an emancipated strong voice in the public sphere.”

You can read this textual analysis of the 94 songs she wrote and co-wrote between 1960 and 1972: http://www.oalib.com/paper/2663141#.U-_Av2PgW5I

What’s new in development (from three decades ago)?

In 1982, political scientists O. P. Dwivedi and J. Nef described two decades of failure by development administration to solve problems of the Third World. They noted shortcomings of emphasis on modernization through transfer of technology. Looking forward, they suggested that the Third Development Decade must change its focus and strategy to include key goals such as:

• Self-reliance
• Human needs (food, habitat, health and education)
• Social justice
• Removal of poverty

Today, what might we add, delete, or refine in relation to these goals for strengthening approaches to economic and social development? Send your thoughts, suggestions or literature referrals to us at docctr@library.illinois.edu .

You can review an abstract of the journal article at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pad.4230020106/abstract

Internet use and public views of genomics and vaccination in livestock production

Two national surveys among consumers in Canada revealed evidence that internet use tends to increase social concerns about use of genomics and vaccination in production of beef and pork. Researchers A. H. Matin and E. Goddard reported their findings at a 2014 conference in Montreal.

“Canadian consumers’ attitudes towards animals and the use of genomics and/or vaccination can be impacted by frequent use of the internet as a source of information,” the authors reported.

You can read the conference paper at: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/168758 .

Advice to agricultural journalists

We recently added to the ACDC collection an interview with British science writer Mark Lynas after his presentation at a farm industry conference last year. He expressed this advice to agricultural journalists:

“One of the things that strikes me most of all is how broad the communications gap is between what farming is really about and what people think farming is about. And that’s one of the reasons why people fall into this chasm and end up being paranoid and fearful about the way their food is produced. I think agricultural journalists need to be better informed about agriculture when they write for the mainstream audience. So those involved in the technical farming press are those who also need to be writing for the mainstream audience.”

You can read more from this Q-A interview with Better Farming field editor Mary Baxter at: http://j-source.ca/article/what-happens-when-journalists-become-story-qa-science-writer-mark-lynas

Big rural-urban gap in home computers and internet use in China

The gap was apparent in a study reported by Qingbin Wang and Minghao Li in a 2012 issue of First Monday journal. Using United Nations data, they calculated the number of computers per 100 urban and rural households between 1999 and 2007.

• Computers in urban households grew from about 6 percent in 1999 to nearly 55 percent in 2007.
• Computers in rural households grew from less than 1 percent in 2000 to about 3 percent in 2007.

You can read the article at firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3767/3144

Science – more than a catalog of facts to be memorized

A bright green truck, “The Think Tank,” is helping put a new face on science for promising high school students with under-represented backgrounds. Tyler Alterman and Daniel Casasanto of the University of Chicago co-founded this project. The “Think Tank” visits local Chicago schools to address “a disconnect between how science is presented in schools and how it’s practiced.” It engages students in the nuts-and-bolts of neuroscience – how the mind works – and fosters curiosity for research.

Coordinators also plan to take the “Think Tank” to festivals, museums and large public events “to get the general public excited about our current understanding of the brain.”

You can read a report of this new education project in the May-June issue of the University of Chicago Magazine at: http://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/vehicle-change

ACDC collection passes the 40,000 mark

It is a special pleasure to report that the ACDC collection now includes more than 40,000 documents. We passed that landmark recently. And with our new BibLeaves online search system in place, users around the world can identify it more easily than ever.

We continue to be surprised and impressed by the amount and variety of research, news, and perspectives being generated about the communications aspects of agriculture, broadly defined. And we hope you are finding value in our efforts to identify, gather and provide this information – today and during the decades ahead.

Communicator activities approaching

How’s that again?

We close this issue of ACDC News with a communicator’s conundrum that first came to our attention in a 1973 issue of Advertising Age . It applies well beyond agriculture, yet –even today – probably sounds a familiar ring for agricultural communicators, among others.

“I know

you believe

you understand

what you think

I said.

But I’m not sure

you realize

that what you heard

is not what I meant.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . 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, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu