Rural Communication Colloquium goes online.
Professors Eric Abbott, Iowa State University, and Paul Yarbrough, Cornell University, recently announced a new web-based colloquium for those interested in rural communication research. They demonstrated it at a workshop on June 14 during the Agricultural Communicators in Education/National Extension Technology Conference (ACE/NETC) in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“The purpose of the Rural Communication Research Colloquium is to provide a forum to assist those interested in rural communication research,” they explained. “Colloquium members represent a global network of individuals actively involved in communication research related to rural areas, including agriculture, rural and community development, extension, telecommunications and rural areas, health and nutrition, forestry and other topics.”
You can see the new web site at: http://www.jlmc.iastate.edu/eabbott/colloquium/
Various pages on the site will feature news, reports of current research, special reports on major topics, access to databases and opportunities for dialogue. Organizers invite reactions and suggestions as this project gets under way.
Workshop also features tools and resources for communication planners.
Participants in the Knoxville workshop also learned about a new collaborative effort to support communication planners. Professors Yarbrough and Abbott described plans for a database that professionals can use for strategic planning in rural and extension communication.
“Most units are now under more pressure to justify their existence and approaches, and use of communication planning can enhance this,” the presenters noted. “Second, the Web provides a wonderful way in which resources can be made available to assist in the process.”
The online system will include tools for communication planners as well as links to various kinds of completed research: research reports and generalizations, tabulated data, data sets and others. The Agricultural Communications Documentation Center will serve as an information source and depository. Presenters report that at least three universities (Cornell, Iowa State, Illinois) will serve as pilot sites to explore effective ways to make this work.
“Angles of online advertising”
Is the title of a recent article by Jackie Freundlich on the American Horse Publications web site: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/news.htm
She suggests seven ways in which to make the benefits of print and the Web work together.
New documents from ACE/NETC conference.
Following are authors and titles of some reports presented during the recent conference. Some of these presentations took the form of peer-reviewed papers organized through the Research Special Interest Group of ACE. Other documents involved research reports, executive summaries and discussion resources.
- Sunae Jo and Lulu Rodriguez, “The sources Iowans trust: the impact of involvement on credibility perceptions and channels used for environmental issues.”
- Diane Nelson and Elisabeth Schafer, “Social marketing research partners: using focus groups to design nutrition messages for low-income parents.”
- Allan Schmidt and Eric A. Abbott, “Using scenario planning to develop long-range Internet strategies for agricultural communicators.”
- Sharon B. Stringer and Joan S. Thomson, “Defining agricultural issues: daily newspaper editors’ perspectives.”
- Ron Wilson and Kristina M. Boone, “Tangled WWWeb: reaching rural community leaders with information.”
You can get the full citation for each document by searching ACDC online, using either a “title” or “author” search. Let us know if we can help you get copies of specific documents to which you don’t have access locally.
Information about 15 Canadian agricultural periodicals is now available online.
The Canadian Farm Writers Federation web site recently posted a “publications” page that provides details such as audience, circulation, frequency, type of content, deadlines for copy submission and how to make contacts. The URL is: http://www.uoguelph.ca/Research/cfwf/
Farm broadcaster newsletter on the web.
Since April, readers of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters web site have been able to read their newsletter, Chats, online. The URL is: http://www.nafb.com
Professional meetings approaching.
Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:
July 17-20
Annual institute, Cooperative Communicators Association, at Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://www.CoopComm.com
July 28-31
Agricultural Publications Summit at Denver, Colorado. Joint conference of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agricultural Publishers Association and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.
Information: http://www.ageditors.com/news/summit.html
August 1-3
East Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, at Decatur, Illinois.
Information: Jim Fleming at 217-428-1050
August 14-19
Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Copenhagen, Denmark. Theme of the Congress is “Producing for the world.”
Information: jetteholm@vip.cybercity.dk
Staying focused in fast-paced times.
Thanks to Dix Harper for this “shortie” piece of philosophy that he collected somewhere along the line:
“There are two kinds of people: those who finish what they start, and so on . . .”
Best regards and good searching.
Please let us know if we can help you find information and/or if you can suggest documents that we might add to this collection.