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“There’s no journalism on a dead planet”
Corporate media owners are killing local newspapers, reported Sophia Reuss in a 2019 issue of Briarpatch magazine. “You have to humanize [climate change] and you have to humanize it on a local level, and that’s where the paper comes in.”
She emphasized that when a local media ecosystem functions well, communities are often afforded more direct participation in the public process. Her report cited two case examples of citizens’ activist efforts in Canada using local media with impact.
You can read the article here.
How advanced text mining techniques “could help address critical issues in food and nutrition sciences”
We have added a recent journal article about using advanced digital text mining on social media to improve food production, food safety, and human nutrition. It was published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.
The authors provided an overview of the data sources, computational methods, and applications of text data in the food industry. They illustrated applications of text data analysis with respect to food safety and food fraud surveillance, dietary pattern characterization, consumer-opinion mining, new-product development, food knowledge discovery, food supply-chain management, and online food systems.
You can read the abstract and learn how to purchase the article via IngentaConnect.com here. Or confer with us at acdc@library.illinois.edu
Rural News Network set to launch in 2022
A new journalism consortium addressing “the most critical issues confronting America’s rural communities” will launch in 2022. Fern Siegel announced the introduction recently via Mediapost.com. Rural News Network will be part of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and already is addressing two topics:
- Water justice in the rural West
- Economic issues in indigenous communities
INN includes more than 350 nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations dedicated to public service. Rural News Network will address specific rural issues, using 60 independent INN-member newsrooms serving communities across 30 states.
You can learn more about this consortium and the initial projects here.
“Expanding broadband in the black rural south”
A recent 36-page report of that title has been added to the ACDC collection. Written by Dominique Harrison, it was published October 6 by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington, D.C. It focused on needs and potentials for broadband in 152 rural counties with populations that are at least 35 percent African American. Among the findings:
- 38% of the African Americans in that area lack home internet access, compared with 18 percent of all Americans, nationwide.
- Access is either not available or they lack the financial means to purchase service.
- Expanding broadband can help improve employment, incomes, education, and health care in that area.
You can read the report here.
How to interview a “dud”
“Unfortunately, not every person we interact with has the radiant, outgoing personality of a cooperative communicator,” observed Editor Mark Johnson in the Cooperative Communicators Association e-newsletter, CCA Connect. “Usually, we can either deal with these types quickly and move on or avoid them altogether. But what happens when we are tasked with interviewing a dud?”
“Don’t give up until you give it the old college try,” he advised. And he offered five tips about how to do so. You can read the item here.
Communicator events approaching
Uncertainties of the COVID-19 health issue continue to prompt flexible event planning. Here are plans of which we are aware, with contact information you can use for details.
February 13-14, 2022
National Agricultural Communications Symposium in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists in New Orleans, Louisiana. Information: https://www.saasinc.org
February 18, 2022
Deadline for posters to be presented at the ACE annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, June 12-14, 2022.
Information: Cara Lawson at cara.lawson@oregonstate.edu
February 18, 2022
Deadline for outstanding theses and dissertations to be recognized at the ACE annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, June 12-14, 2022.
Information: Garrett Steede at gsteede@umn.edu
June 6-9, 2022
Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Information: https://www.communicators.coop/professional-development/cca-institute/
June 12-14, 2022
Annual Conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Kansas City, Missouri. Information: https://aceweb.org
July 16-20, 2022
“On the point.” Ag Media Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Information: https://agcommnetwork.com/unveiling-the-theme-and-logo-for-ag-media-summit-2022
On revealing secrets
We close this issue of ACDC News with a bit of ever-timely Old Farmer’s Advice which Paul Hixson kindly shared with us:
“Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.”
Offering information and best regards
ACDC is a resource for you, so please feel free to invite our help as you search for information. You are welcomed to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valued international collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, 510 ACES Library, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801) – or in electronic format sent to acdc@library.illinois.edu