Ferraz de Oliveira Nicholas

ACDC News – Issue 11-08

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Urgent need to match research and information delivery – dollar for dollar. Julian Cribb offered this recommendation in his 2010 book, The coming famine: the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it , that we added recently to the ACDC collection:

“One of the vices of the present global research and development system is that it values, and invests in, knowledge creation much more highly than knowledge sharing.  As a result, the communication of knowledge with farmers continues to lag far behind and if the world is serious about solving the food crisis it will need to match every scientific research dollar with a dollar to deliver that knowledge to farmers and consumers.

You can learn more about the book and author here .

View a PowerPoint presentation of highlights from the book by visiting the Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc. website here .

Spider plots take us to new heights .  We’re pleased to report that the ACDC collection recently passed the 36,000-document mark. Honors went to a 2010 journal article about using spider plots for extension learning.  We might note that spider plots are not outlines for creepy mystery novels. Instead, they are handy tools that communicators and educators can use to involve learners in assessing the performance of organizations, programs and other entities that have multiple functions and stages.

Keys to staging large agricultural field events. A recent article in the Journal of Extension featured methods behind a successful series of theme-based expos in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa during the past decade.  The expo format includes four components, each focused on the production management theme of that expo:

  • Side-by-side field demonstrations of equipment and practices
  • Static displays of equipment and information booths
  • Presentations by researchers and other specialists
  • Panels of farmers experienced in the area or practice addressed by the expo

Beyond the boosted attendance, authors of the report noted how these expos strengthen relationships among Extension, researchers, farmers, agri-marketers and crop consultants.

Lots of “cause marketing” in the food sector.  How do consumers view it?

Marketers are ramping up the use of campaigns through which product purchases lead to donations for worthy causes. Food marketers seem especially active on this front. Recent analysis in Germany, for example, showed that the food industry was accounting for 35 percent of all cause-related promotions there.

A 2009 survey that we added recently to the ACDC collection revealed considerable question in the minds of German consumers about the “cause” value of those campaigns.  More than half (54 percent) said they believe that a maximum of 6 percent of the price premium reaches the cause.  Authors concluded that consumers want more transparency and efficiency from food marketers that use this tool.

Kinds and sources of corruption facing farm households. We seldom see research about rural corruption, even though it is widely recognized as a nagging barrier for development in any country.  So we have added to the ACDC collection, with special interest, a paper presented during September at an international conference in Switzerland. Researchers A. R. Anik, G. Breustedt and S. Bauer analyzed corruption facing farm households in six districts of Bangladesh as they interact with public service delivery organizations.  Among the findings of this survey research among farm households:

  • Seventy percent of the farm households reported having experienced corruption.
  • Land administration (92.5 percent), law enforcement (90.9 percent), judiciary (90 percent) and local government (60.5 percent) were sectors in which the households experienced most corruption.
  • Bribery (61.8 percent) was the most common form of corruption the households faced, followed by negligence of duties (21.5 percent) and nepotism/favoritism (10.7 percent).
  • Relatively wealthy farm households faced greater amounts of bribery.

Strong research agenda in the history of rural radio. Professor Steve Craig of the University of North Texas has developed a strong research agenda in media history, including an emphasis in rural radio.  For example, his 2009 book, Out of the dark: a history of radio and rural America , reflects the most thorough, definitive research effort we have seen in this important field.

The ACDC collection contains more than 2,200 journal articles, books, reports and other documents involving agricultural/rural radio, internationally. We can recall seeing none so historically and analytically rigorous as Out of the dark .  You can gain full-text access here to other papers and journal articles he has written on the history of rural broadcasting.

Unusual way to understand how rural youths view their media worlds .  Researchers at the University of Westminster, UK, used identity boxes to learn how 14- and 15-year-olds in Alston Moor, Cumbria, view media in their lives. In their 2010 conference paper , Fatimah Awan and David Gauntlett reported on their methods and their findings. Insights touched on views about television, cinema, magazine and book reading, music, new media, internet/computers and rural culture.  You can read the paper here.

ACDC Open-House: Connecting with the Community.

Staff

(L-R: Gemma Petrie, Robert S. (Pat) Allen, Joyce Wright, Jim Evans)

The ACDC recently held an open house for the University of Illinois and the greater Champaign-Urbana community. The ACDC received a mini grant from the Library Strategic Communications and Marketing Committee to produce a promotional materials and the ACES Advancement Office provided funds for refreshment for the event. The well-attended event served as an opportunity to unveil our new website and our new online database system. Feel free to look around and send us your feedback. The old database will be gradually phased-out over the next few weeks. (Please note: We are putting the finishing touches on the new database and we anticipate that users may experience slow load-times over the next few weeks as we work on it.  This will not be a lasting issue.) We look forward to sharing more information on the new database in future issues of the newsletter.

Communicator activities approaching

  • June 10-14, 2011
    Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA. Information: http://www.aceweb.org
  • June 19-22, 2011
    “Caliente!  Hot ideas for cooperative communicators.”  Cooperative Communicators Association Institute in San Antonio, Texas USA. Information: http://communicators.coop
  • July 3-7, 2011
    “Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.”  2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia. Information: http://www.aiaee.org
  • July 23-27, 2011
    “Jazz it up!”  Agricultural Media Summit involving the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agri Council of American Business Media and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com
  • August 30-September 3, 2011
    20th European Seminar on Extension Education in Helsinki, Finland. Information: http://esee-2011.blogspot.com/
  • September 14-18, 2011
    “Experience new world agriculture.”  2011 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Guelph, Canada, and Niagara Falls. Information: http://www.ifaj2011.com

Framing a persistent enemy .  We close this issue of ACDC News with an expression reported by Clarence Poe, a 50-year editor of The Progressive Farmer during the early 1900s.  He explained how some farmers described their battle with Bermuda grass, usually called wiregrass at that time:

“Even when you try to burn it, wherever the smoke hits the ground, another crop of wiregrass is started!”

We can relate to that image, on many fronts.

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-07

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Rural and urban audiences – not “two opposing groups.” Jean-Pierre Ilboudo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations emphasized that perspective in a book chapter about the role and use of rural radio. This case study and others in The one to watch were among the earliest to examine the convergence of radio with new information and communications technologies for rural development.

Reality is more refined than a rural-urban face-off, he observed. The “differences and differing lifestyles which are specific to ethnic or community membership – language, gender and age – play an increasingly important role.  He described a “new radio landscape” and some of the special roles that radio can play within it. You can read this chapter, and others, here .

Naming the flu – more than meets the eye. Researcher Orla Vigsø has tried to identify theoretical underpinnings for the 2009 flu epidemic that featured a war of names: Mexican flu, Swine flu, New flu and H1N1 flu  Reporting in Observatorio Journal , Vigsø analyzed this name battle in terms of the ancient rhetorical theory of stasis, and the more recent concept of frames and counter-frames. Findings?  “It turns out that what may have looked like a mixture of scientific debate and language use was indeed a number of economic and political conflicts taking place simultaneously, and with the flu as a proxy.  World trade, protectionism, tourism and religious persecution are just some of the factors at play in this intensive episode.”

“To all of the stakeholders dealt with here, the naming of the pandemic was in fact a case of crisis communication, as the choice of name for the disease could have severe implications for each stakeholder’s continued business.  But at the same time, the stakeholder was not just facing a crisis due to the development of a disease, but even due to deliberate attempts from other stakeholders to inflict damage and favour their own interests.  And in most cases, these attempts were performed under cover of a concern for health and stability.  To grasp this and make it clear in one theoretical approach is, indeed, a challenge to crisis communication theory.”  You can read the journal article here .

Understanding the U.S. generic advertising system .  Ronald Ward, among the most active researchers in this field, provided an overview in a recent issue of the International Journal on Food System Dynamics .  Citing examples of beef, flowers, honey and watermelon promotion, he described the structure, theory, common characteristics and experiences of generic programs of commodity promotion in the U.S.

21 lessons learned when Extension reports in controversy. Researchers Teresa Welch and William S. Braunworth, Jr., identified them in a recent journal article we have added to the ACDC collection.  They reported on experiences of a team of Extension and Experiment Station faculty members involved in publishing a report related to a water conflict in Oregon and California. Their observations and public feedback provided 15 lessons in what worked and 6 lessons in what to improve.  Several of the key lessons:

  • Use adequate checks and balances within the project team.
  • Public input is essential.
  • Communications professionals must play a key role.

More .

What about consumer willingness to pay for food information? Most research in the arena of “willingness to pay” centers on buying food products.  However, research reported during early 2010 identified willingness of consumers to pay for information about food.  Researcher Terhi Latvala analyzed responses from nearly 1,300 consumers in Finland.  Nearly 73 percent said they were willing to pay for increased information related to the safety, origin and other quality attributes of beef.

“Based on the results, it can be stated that not enough quality information is available on the markets, and that the majority of consumers are willing to pay for quality information.”

“Where do you find these reports?” Some might call it “meta-research.”  We still call it “digging.” Here are a few of the journals from which we recently identified agricultural communications literature for the ACDC collection:

Journal of Multicultural Discourses

Visual Anthropology

Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media

Food Quality and Preference

Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Please let us know at docctr@library.illinois.edu when you see articles, conference proceedings, books and other documents about agriculture-related communications that aren’t yet in the ACDC collection.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • May 26-30, 2011
    Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA. Information: http://www.icahdq.org
  • June 10-14, 2011
    Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA. Information: http://www.aceweb.org
  • June 19-22, 2011
    “Caliente!  Hot ideas for cooperative communicators.”  Cooperative Communicators Association Institute in San Antonio, Texas USA. Information: http://communicators.coop
  • July 3-7, 2011
    “Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.”  2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia. Information: http://www.aiaee.org
  • July 23-27, 2011
    “Jazz it up!”  Agricultural Media Summit involving the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agri Council of American Business Media and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com
  • August 30-September 3, 2011
    20th European Seminar on Extension Education in Helsinki, Finland. Information: http://esee-2011.blogspot.com/
  • September 14-18, 2011
    “Experience new world agriculture.”  2011 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Guelph, Canada, and Niagara Falls. Information: http://www.ifaj2011.com

Oops.  Slightly off the mark. We close this issue of ACDC News with special thanks to Gordon Collie, a veteran rural journalist in Australia.  He passed along this item about the perils of reporting (by ear):

“True story during the disastrous Queensland floods in December 2010.  Local newspaper in Rockhampton splashed a headline that a district farmer had lost 30,000 pigs, swept away in the swollen Fitzroy River.  Humble correction the following day.  The farmer had actually said 30 sows and pigs were lost!”

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-06

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

“Who really matters?”  A stakeholder analysis tool can help all members of a project team understand the role their stakeholders play, according to authors of a report in Extension Farming Systems Journal .  Nicole Kennon, Peter Howden and Meredith Hartley explained how they developed a tool designed to help project teams systematically and strategically look at the human and social capital resources required to deliver desired project goals.  They reported three case examples of using it in agricultural and natural resource projects.

All types of digital communications are playing important roles as information sources for American farmers and ranchers, according to results of a 2010 national survey we have added to the ACDC collection.  However, agricultural magazines and newspapers “continue to be the most important information sources, reaching and influencing the most farmers/ranchers – even among the younger age segment.” Readex Research conducted the survey in collaboration with the Agri Council of American Business Media. The 14 agricultural media channels analyzed in this survey ranged from dealers, farm shows and seminars to websites, radio shows and text messages. Researchers noted how the role of different media changes through the purchase cycle, emphasizing the importance of integrated communications. More .

The secret of great stories .  In the Center we search diligently for what’s new and promising in the world of agricultural communications.  Sometimes, instead, we discover insights about what’s enduring.  An example caught our attention recently.  It came from Doug Reeler of the Community Development Resource Association in South Africa.  He shared insights from a novel about a traditional Indian story teller, the Kathakali Man.

Kathakali had “discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets.  The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again.  The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably.  They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.  They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen.  They are as familiar as the house you live in. … You know how they end yet you listen as though you don’t. … In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t.  And yet you want to know again.” More .

Television – especially important media “driver” of food safety opinion. Television coverage of food safety events is an important driver of the public’s opinion regarding food safety, according to a consumer research report we added recently to the ACDC collection.  Persons who rely on television as their primary media source have generally less confidence in the safety of the food system, compared with those who rely primarily on sources such as newspapers, radio, internet and magazines. Data for this ordered probit analysis involved a 67-week period of 2008-2009.

Researchers concluded that media coverage has a significant and negative impact on consumer confidence in:

  • the safety of the U. S. food supply system and
  • preparedness of the food system in dealing with food safety events.

Barriers to open access to agricultural science information. We recently added to the ACDC collection a conference paper about factors affecting the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) for research communication among agricultural researchers in Kenya. Researchers Florence N. N. Muinde and G. E. Gorman found many researchers in the public institutions, especially the universities, hesitant to come to terms with e-communication processes in research, including e-publishing and the open access initiatives and software that can aid free sharing of agricultural science information. Here are some of the barriers identified:

  • Institutional frameworks and policies guiding online communication of government information made scientists unwilling to share research information online.
  • Low budget priority for research communication and ICT.
  • Government control of the telecommunications sector discouraged free flow of information.
  • Lack of appropriate agricultural science information.
  • The individualistic and “silent” nature of computer-mediated communication conflicted with the oral and communal nature of the Kenyan/African culture.
  • Lack of skills to search and manipulate online information systems, write, speak, organize and present research.
  • Lack of institutional repositories limited sharing of scientific knowledge.

How media freedom serves agricultural policy and public good. Here is what researchers Alessandro Olper and Jo Swinnen found in a global analysis of whether mass media have an effect on the political economy of agricultural policies, globally.  They used taxation and subsidization date from 67 countries, observed from 1975-2004.

  • Public support to agriculture is strongly affected by television and radio penetration, as well as by the structure of the mass media markets.
  • In particular, an increase in the share of informed voters and a greater role of the private mass media in society is associated with policies which benefit the majority more. It “reduces taxation of agriculture in poor countries and reduces subsidization of agriculture in rich countries.”
  • They observed that this evidence is consistent with the idea that increased competition in commercial media reduces transfers to special interest groups and contributes to more efficient public policies, as a better informed electorate increases government accountability.

What attendees do during webinars – Results ! What “extra” activities do you think the attendees reported often being involved in during the webinar? In our last issue , we asked you, our readers, to estimate the percentages. How close were you to the Cornell University study results?

ACDC newsletter readers:

  1. Checked e-mail. 21.67%
  2. Surfed the internet 15.0%
  3. Looked up information on the web related to the webinar topic. 30.0%
  4. Sent or received instant messages. 17.50%
  5. Consumed food. 40.0%
  6. Got up and left my computer for part of the webinar. 15%
  7. Answered my telephone. 6.5%

Cornell University study results:

  1. Checked e-mail. 59.7%
  2. Surfed the internet 33.3%
  3. Looked up information on the web related to the webinar topic. 30.6%
  4. Sent or received instant messages. 24.4%
  5. Consumed food. 20.3%
  6. Got up and left my computer for part of the webinar. 8.1%
  7. Answered my telephone. 6.5%

Communicator activities approaching.

  • May 26-30, 2011
    Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA. Information: http://www.icahdq.org
  • June 10-14, 2011
    Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA. Information: http://www.aceweb.org
  • June 19-22, 2011
    “Caliente!  Hot ideas for cooperative communicators.”  Cooperative Communicators Association Institute in San Antonio, Texas USA. Information: http://communicators.coop
  • July 3-7, 2011
    “Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.”  2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia. Information: http://www.aiaee.org
  • July 23-27, 2011
    “Jazz it up!”  Agricultural Media Summit involving the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council, Agri Council of American Business Media and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com
  • September 14-18, 2011
    “Experience new world agriculture.”  2011 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists in Guelph and Niagara Falls, Canada. Information: http://www.ifaj2011.com

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-05

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Using community radio in managing natural disaster. Not every community faces threats from volcano eruptions, tsunamis, floods, droughts, landslides or earthquakes. However, natural disasters take many forms and some communities prepare for them through emergency community radio.

One such initiative, Radio Punakawan, involves volunteers and others in Indonesia.  Such efforts began as emergency-response community broadcasting.  Later, they took on roles in community-based disaster preparedness, as well as in recovery and construction.

You can learn about it from this recent conference report .

“Agriculture is cool again.” That headline introduced an article describing a new University of Chicago course about agriculture.  Faculty member Kathy Morrison explained how it came into being.  She had noted that many of her students in environmental studies and anthropology were increasingly excited about topics related to contemporary agriculture.  Some took part in urban gardens. However, she said, they had an underdeveloped sense of how agriculture actually works.

An archaeologist who studies the history of agricultural change in India, Morrison introduced the course during 2010. Through it, she takes students into arenas as diverse as plant breeding, the role of farm animals, swidden and paddy rice farming, agrodiversity, intensive forms of agriculture and the cultural dimensions of agriculture. More .

Chat room feedback from rural community workers. An article we added recently from the Journal of Community Informatics reported on a pilot study in Canada involving rural community workers who used an online chat web site.  They were invited to take part in online facilitated discussions about topics linked to their specific interest groups (e.g., economic development, tourism, Chamber of Commerce).  Surveys at the end of the project revealed that:

  • 54 percent considered the topics and discussions “useful” or “very useful.”
  • Most (77 percent) said they encountered no problems with the technology.
  • Relatively few (27 percent) said they might continue to use chat rooms in their current work.  However, 65 percent gave their answer as “maybe.”

Authors concluded that new communications technologies such as chat rooms have the potential to be used productively to meet personal and community goals. However, “they must be effectively combined with other assets and circumstances in order for their benefits to be realized.”

Needs and strategies for struggling libraries in developing countries. A study across 25 developing countries revealed that libraries in them face uphill battles.  Elizabeth Gould and Ricardo Gomez found that, compared to other public access venues, libraries in those countries tended not to be perceived as important or useful places to get current information.  Nor did they hold high priority by government agencies for financial and policy support. As a result, many people, especially in rural areas, “have little or no exposure to ITCs and are not aware of their usefulness.” Authors suggested three strategies to help libraries adapt to the 21st century, draw in users and incorporate information and communications technologies.

Libraries, telecenters and cybercafés around the world .  We recently added to the ACDC collection a 2008 report that summarized public access venues such as libraries, cybercafés and telecenters in 25 countries. Researchers studied information needs and uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) in these venues, with special focus on underserved populations.

Media guidelines for agricultural safety .  Scott Heiberger of the National Farm Medicine Center, USA, described these guidelines in a feature posted recently on the website of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ). These guidelines can be useful for reporters, advertisers and other communicators who describe and show agricultural practices.  He noted that “while not intentional, what we write, say and show as images can perpetuate and even increase unsafe agricultural practices.”  The article also introduced guidelines involving more than 60 hazards associated with farm chores and other activities in which children sometimes take part. More .

Communicator activities approaching.

  • April 10-12, 2011
    Spring meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D. C. Information: http://www.naaj.net/meetings
  • April 13-15, 2011
    “Harvesting Ideas 2011.”  Conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA. Information: http://www.nama.org/amc
  • May 3-5, 2011
    “Inspiration in the Air.”  Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association in Asheville, North Carolina USA. Information: http://www.canyoncomm.com/toda/cover_story_SE11.html
  • May 26-30, 2011
    Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA. Information: http://www.icahdq.org
  • June 10-14, 2011
    Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA. Information: http://www.aceweb.org
  • July 3-7, 2011
    “Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.”  2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia. Information: http://www.aiaee.org

What attendees do during webinars. If you’ve taught or conferred by webinar have you ever wondered what’s happening at the other end? If so, you may find interest in results when Cornell University researchers evaluated an educational webinar about woodlot management.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool. Compare you answers to their findings here. We will report on the survey results in the next issue!

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-04

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Guide for creating a citizen news enterprise .  We recently added to the ACDC collection a document announcing a new online module that entrepreneurial rural journalists might use in ” Launching a nonprofit news site. ”  Brant Houston and Andy Hall wrote it for the Knight Citizen News Network, which helps citizens and journalists “amplify community news.” Videos, documents, worksheets and other resources take learners through a six-step process, from self-assessment through business models for bringing in revenue.

New insights about how European consumers view food .  During November the European Food Safety Authority published results of a new Eurobarometer survey among nearly 27,000 European citizens from 27 member states.  The report highlighted consumers’ perceptions about food and food-related risks, sources of information and confidence in those sources, and the role and effectiveness of public authorities. Among the findings:

    • Consumers were more inclined to associate food and eating with fresh and tasty foods (58 percent) and enjoyment of meals with friends and family (54 percent) than with food safety (37 percent).
    • They felt that the economic crisis (20 percent) and environmental pollution (18 percent) are likely to affect them more than food-related problems (11 percent).
    • Most (80 percent) said they have heard media reports of unsafe or unhealthy food. About one-half said they either ignore such reports, or worry about them but do not change their eating habits.  The tendency to ignore information appears greater for information about diet and health (29 percent) than about food safety (24 percent).

40 ideas in 40 minutes .  That was the title of a document we have added to the ACDC collection from a 2010 conference session of American Horse Publications.  These ideas (with 12 others tossed in for good measure) address topics such as:

  • On e-media
  • On content use
  • On making money online
  • On going green
  • 10 ways to destroy team morale

How self-fulfilling prophecies can deaden rural broadband efforts. In a graduate research project Daniel J. Brown recently shed light on areas of ambiguity and uncertainty that have limited growth of broadband services in rural Alberta, Canada. In 2005 the Alberta government completed a high-speed, high capacity fiber optic network, Alberta Supernet.  Noted as the first of its kind, it connected 242 rural communities throughout the province. However, when 2008 arrived 150 communities – many smaller than 3,000 residents – still lacked broadband access. Alberta was ranked last in Canada for rural broadband access.

Brown used a Sensemaking conceptual framework that revealed several areas of ambiguity and uncertainty that have immobilized the development of rural broadband.

On the minds of agricultural journalists and communicators. Agricultural journalists and communicators around the world addressed lots of professional topics at their meetings and events last year. The Agricultural Communications Documentation Center  staff went scouting, internationally, at year’s end. It identified 86 professional improvement sessions carried out during 2010 by 21 agricultural journalist and communicator organizations in 11 countries.  These sessions featured topics in alphabetized categories that ranged from audience relations to writing and editing, with a dozen categories in between.  You can read this professional development feature on the website of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ).

Meat and dairy products – worlds apart in the U. S. public mind . “What type of food do you believe poses the greatest risk for food-borne illness – meat, seafood, dairy products or fresh produce?”  Here are responses from more than 3,000 U. S. participants in the mid-2010 Thomson Reuters PULSE Healthcare Survey :

Meat                            51 percent
Fresh produce               23
Seafood                        22
Dairy products                4

Communicator activities approaching.

  • March 31, 2011
    Registration for the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) conference, “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences,” to take place November 9-12, 2011, in New Delhi, India. Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm
  • April 10-12, 2011
    Spring meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D. C. Information: http://www.naaj.net/meetings
  • April 13-15, 2011
    “Harvesting Ideas 2011.”  Conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA. Information: http://www.nama.org/amc
  • May 26-30, 2011
    Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA. Information: http://www.icahdq.org
  • June 10-14, 2011
    Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA. Information: http://www.aceweb.org
  • July 3-7, 2011
    “Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.”  2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia. Information: http://www.aiaee.org

Chalkboard wisdom about “participation .”  We close this issue of ACDC News with an insight we saw recently on the website of the Hivos Knowledge Programme.  Someone had left the message on a chalkboard after a meeting in Bolivia.

“I participate
You participate
He/She participates
We participate
But…
They decide”

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu .

ACDC News – Issue 11-03

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Rural women – still almost invisible on the global news scene. That seems the main message from Global Media Monitoring Project 2010, in terms of coverage related to agriculture. We have added to the ACDC collection a preliminary report that describes the media representations of women for one day (November 10, 2009) in 42 of 130 participating countries throughout the world. The report analyzed 6,902 news items and 14,044 subjects. Here are a few examples from the findings:

  • Women were subjects in only 12 percent of news items related to the rural economy, agriculture, farming practices, agricultural policy and land rights. This share was the lowest among all 52 story topics analyzed.
  • Women were central in only 1 percent of news items in this agriculture-related topic area – lowest among all 52 story topics.
  • Nearly half (45 percent) of news items that involved women in this topic area reinforced gender stereotypes.

How producers gather information about precision farming technologies.

Research among U. S. cotton producers reveals how they use varied information sources in deciding about specific precision farming technologies to use. Findings of a study we added recently to the ACDC collection revealed, for example, that:

  • Overall, information from consultants and dealers, news media and university extension (delivered in publications and events) provided information most relevant to decisions about adopting precision farming technologies.
  • Information from the internet and university events was significantly associated with adoption of yield monitors with GPS.
  • Information from consultants, news media and university publications was associated with adoption of zone soil sampling technologies.

Ways to communicate “local” when your product is undifferentiated. Take the case of wheat, milk and other core commodities. Researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, recently described two ways within the food chain to visualize and highlight some value-adding quality attributes of locally-grown wheat:

  • Use word clouds to visualize for grain buyers what wheat varieties are in specific storage facilities. For processing reasons, the more homogenous the batch, the more willing buyers may be to pay.
  • Use Google maps to highlight farms in the region from which specific batches of assured-quality (perhaps certified) wheat have been grown.

“Thomas Hargrove risked his life to feed world’s poor.” That recent headline in the Houston Chronicle newspaper announced the passing of an internationally known and respected agricultural science communicator. The international parts of this Texas native’s career included agricultural service during military conflict in Vietnam, communications leadership at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in the Philippines and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Colombia. While at CIAT he was captured and held captive for 11 months by guerilla forces. His experience formed the basis of a movie, “Proof of Life.”

You can read the article here .

Going mobile with IT toolkits for citizens. We have added to the ACDC collection a 2009 research report describing a citizen toolkit that includes many of the common tools used by professionals such as journalists, planners and scientists. The University of Illinois authors explained that cameras, camcorders, microphones, GPS units and laptop computer were chosen to support citizen professional activities that range from community-based participatory research to photovoice and digital storytelling.

Furthermore, the toolkit contained within a backpack can go wherever IT is needed at the moment.

You can learn more about the goals, components, tests and toolkit uses in this report .

Gap between thinking organic foods are better – and buying them. A recent article in Psychology and Marketing examined why consumers do not buy organic food regularly, despite their positive attitudes about it. Analysis of organic coffee, bread, fruit and flour buying revealed two other dimensions that help explain the limited accuracy of attitudes in predicting the consumption of organic foods:

  • In the case of some product categories (such as coffee) brand loyalty moderates the effects of attitudes toward organic foods.
  • Also, ideologically formed attitudes are not present in habitual, low-involvement shopping activities.

This article, “Product involvement in organic food consumption,” is available for online purchase from Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com )

Communicator activities approaching

March 31, 2011
Registration for the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) conference, “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences,” to take place November 9-12, 2011, in New Delhi, India.
Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm

April 13-15, 2011
“Harvesting Ideas 2011.” Conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

May 26-30, 2011
Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Boston, Massachusetts USA.
Information: http://www.icahdq.org

June 10-14, 2011
Joint meeting of the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Denver, Colorado USA.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org

July 3-7, 2011
“Sustainable value chain agriculture for food security and economic development.” 2011 World Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Information: http://www.aiaee.org

Pssst. Wake up. The presentation is over. We have felt and expressed concern about some PowerPoint presentations (including several of our own creation). You know them – screen after screen filled with words, lists and “busy” charts, some not readable.

Thanks to Delmar Hatesohl for sharing an apt description of this dilemma. He reports having heard of a university specialist talking about an upcoming conference. The specialist said the committee had “planned a variety of activities so that the audience didn’t suffer death by PowerPoint.”

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Let us know if you would rather not receive alerts to ACDC News.

As Year 2011 gets under way, we want to tell you how much we appreciate your interest in this complimentary electronic newsletter. We hope it is helpful, interesting and convenient for you. However, we do not want to notify you of something you would rather not receive. So at any time, please inform us if you would like to be removed from the list. You can do so by contacting us at the Documentation Center: docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Also, let us know if your e-mail address changes .

Other possible subscribers you might suggest?

Let us know of associates or others you think might like to receive online alerts to future issues of ACDC News. Or alert and refer them to us. Thank you.


ACDC News – Issue 11-02

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

How well do U.S. food exporters understand EU importers? Some shortfall appeared in recent research about trust in the fruit and vegetable trade. An international team of researchers conducted 21 interviews with importers in seven European countries and 14 interviews with exporters in the U.S. Among the findings reported in 2010:

  • U.S. exporters underestimated the importance of the product as a trust-building factor, especially in terms of product inspection as an indicator of quality.
  • They considered price to be the most important trust-building factor, although “this doesn’t seem to be of much importance for importers from the EU.”
  • They perceived that the reputation of their product is more important, as a trust-building factor, than EU importers reported it to be.
  • They placed higher value on personal relationships than did buyers in Europe.

Need help on the farm? Invite a crop mob. A special agricultural use of social media got attention in a USA Today article during the growing season last year. Reporter Judy Keen described a special kind of agritourism called crop mobs. The one featured in Missouri involved mostly urban volunteers who spend time working for a small-scale farmer, Chris Wimmer. In return, they learn about the food they consume and get tips about organic and sustainable farming.

Keen reported that more that 30 crop mobs have formed in the U.S. since 2008. Organizers use social media such as Facebook to enlist members and publicize gatherings.

Is the internet a better public sphere? This title of a recent article in New Media and Society introduced findings of a comparison of free, open and plural social communication in old and new media in the USA and Germany.

“No,” is the answer from authors Jürgen Gerhards and Mike S. Schäfer, even though internet communication has been expected by many to provide a better public sphere than “old” media such as newspapers, radio and television.

Their findings were based on newspaper and internet coverage involving some 1,900 articles about human genome research. Results showed “only minimal evidence to support the idea that the internet is a better communication space as compared to print media. In both media, communication is dominated by (bio- and natural) scientific actors; popular inclusion does not occur.” Authors noted that their findings parallel those reported in 2008 about coverage of genetically modified food.

How community newspapers are using social media. Publishers and editors of some community newspapers – large and small – in Kansas are embracing the community-building opportunities of Web 2.0. Les Anderson and Amy DeVault of Wichita State University reported several of those experiences at the 2009 symposium of the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media and the National Newspaper Association Foundation: Blogging and Tweeting. Facebook accounts. YouTube. Cell phones. Citizen reporting. Finding stories. More .

List of “50 Best Farm and Agriculture Blogs.” OnlineDegrees.com, a resource for gaining degrees from accredited online colleges, recently posted this list during 2010. The 50 chosen blogs are organized within seven clusters: news and information, sustainable farming, farming big and small, international, livestock and ranching, agricultural science and agricultural politics and policy.

Lamb promotion yields $44 per dollar invested . Econometric research reported during early 2010 revealed a 44-to-1 return to promotion through the Lamb Checkoff Program of the U.S. lamb industry. Researchers explained that most of the promotion centered on consumer relations and food service activities. Print and broadcast media coverage of lamb chefs (“lambassadors”), satellite media tours, feature pages for local newspapers and media kits were among the methods used. Researchers concluded that lamb promotion has tended to enhance the demand for lamb over the years, despite a relatively low level of investment. More .

On being transparent and up-front with the food customer . Fedele Bauccio, chief executive officer of Bon Appétite Management Company, called for “a transparent dialogue with our customers” when he spoke at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum 2010. These are among the questions he said the dialogue should address:

  • Where does my food come from?
  • Who picks our agriculture? What is the human cost of feeding America?
  • What is your business carbon footprint?
  • Is the food safe?
  • What are the environmental effects and animal welfare aspects of concentrated animal feeding operations?

Communicator activities approaching

February 21-22, 2011
“The Perfect Ten.” Southern Region Workshop for members of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Charleston, South Carolina USA. “To enhance skills in writing, photography, layout and design, social media, creativity, media relations and much more – all presented in bite-sized, top-ten lists!”
Information: http://www.communicators.coop/events/11/SRWflier.pdf

February 23-25, 2011
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Fort Myers, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/

April 13-15, 2011″
Harvesting Ideas 2011.” Conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

Rural community art around the globe. We close this issue of ACDC News with some creative rural community art that came to our attention recently. The Western Australia organization, Bank of IDEAS (Initiatives for the Development of Enterprising Actions and Strategies), is sharing these images online. You will see community art that ranges across “Bulls” in New Zealand, edible landscapes in Malaysia, farm art in America, and memorial trees and interesting toilets in Australia.

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching. We will help you gain access. This is a document center and service, not merely an online citation database.

ACDC News – Issue 11-01

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Welcome to the first 2011 issue of ACDC News .

We hope you enjoy a New Year of news and updates from the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center based at the University of Illinois. What began 30 years ago as a small teaching file for our agricultural communications faculty members has become a unique international resource and service. What you read in ACDC News only scratches the surface of information flowing daily into this online-searchable collection. It now includes nearly 36,000 documents that involve communications aspects of agriculture, food, feed, fiber, renewable energy, natural resources and rural development in more than 170 countries.

Thanks for your encouragement and support.

The Center has no huge budget. But it has an increasingly important mission and several valuable resources. Among them: a dedicated staff, an exceptional University Library resource and the inspiration of you who use the collection and help strengthen it. We look forward to a new year of identifying and providing information that helps you communicate effectively and grow professionally wherever you work in this broad, dynamic, vital field of interest. And we look forward to being in touch with you.

Persons talking — even more important in an electronic era?

Seventy years ago Paul Lazarsfeld and his colleagues examined the impact of personal influence (communications among people) on voting decisions. They found that the mass media created awareness but exerted far less direct impact than expected, compared with conversations among local residents. These insights launched thousands of studies about the two-step flow of information, including the diffusion and adoption literature of agriculture-related communications.

Does this pattern hold true today, when residents have access to an avalanche of information flowing through the Internet and related electronic media? The answer is “yes,” according to a research report presented at the 2009 meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology in Dublin, Ireland. Researchers analyzed how Americans acquire and use information these days about four topics: food and cooking, health, climate change and political affairs. They observed that greater information access appears to make interpersonal communication even more important. They concluded that gathering information cannot be separated from talking about it. More

Passionate about rural reporting .

An inspiring personal story about the importance, mission, challenges and satisfactions of rural reporting came into the ACDC collection recently via NewsLab. Rhonda McBride of KTUU-TV, Anchorage, Alaska, wrote the account for aspiring young journalists.

This 2007 Journalism Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies explained how she became a reporter by accident. Nearly a decade of cross-cultural broadcasting in one of Alaska’s most remote communities, Bethel, helped her “come to terms with what is most essential in life” and feel grateful for issues of true significance to cover. It’s a challenge to tell the stories of people nobody cares about – and give people a reason to care, she said. She acknowledged that beginning journalists may want to start out as anchors in big markets chasing big stories. However, “…in so many ways, the stories are bigger in small communities.” More

Two approaches to small-community newspapering in dynamic times.

We have added to the ACDC collection two case reports about newspapering in small, rural communities. The reports were presented at the 2009 Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium in Mobile, Alabama.

  • Resurrecting one. Starting The Valley Press after a chain had closed four local weeklies in the Farmington Valley of Connecticut was “less daunting than some might expect,” explained publisher Ed Gunderson. It’s a free weekly that emphasizes sports, school events, local government and activities involving children. More
  • A not-for-profit, cooperative approach. Patricia Berg reported on a Minnesota bi-weekly, Sunfish Gazette , which a tough group of volunteers launched in 2005 after their local paper folded. It was printed and sent free, with pdf images of each issue posted online. A financial base of small donations was not able to sustain it beyond three years. More

Farmer-to-farmer videos conveyed ideas better than conventional workshops.

Stand-alone video shows proved more powerful than conventional one-day community workshops in conveying new ideas about integrated pest management.

This outcome from research in northwestern Bangladesh was reported during September at an international conference in Switzerland. Researchers A. H. Chowdhury, P. Van Mele and M. Hauser observed that video allows better explanation of underlying biological and physical processes and stimulates learning about local innovative pest management practices. Farmer to farmer learning plays an important role and must be strengthened in the future, they concluded. More

Communicator activities approaching

January 2011
Call for papers for a session, “Information systems for indigenous knowledge in agriculture,” at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 13-18, 2011. Information: www.ifla.org/en/news/agricultural-libraries-sig-call-for-papers

January 24, 2011
Deadline for research papers, research proposals, theses and dissertations to be presented at the ACE/NETC annual meeting (Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences, and National Extension Technology Conference). It takes place in Denver, Colorado, June 10-14, 2011.
Information: Amanda Ruth-McSwain at ruthmcswaina@cofc.edu

February 5-8, 2011
Meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) in Corpus Christi, Texas USA.
Information: http://www.saasinc.org/2011-CorpusChristi/WelcomePg.asp

February 21-22, 2011
“The Perfect Ten.” Southern Region Workshop for members of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Charleston, South Carolina USA. “To enhance skills in writing, photography, layout and design, social media, creativity, media relations and much more – all presented in bite-sized, top-ten lists!”
Information: http://www.communicators.coop/events/11/SRWflier.pdf

February 23-25, 2011
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Fort Myers, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/

Headline writer’s mental lapse.

We close this issue of ACDC News with one of those headlines that perhaps any of us might have written during the late Friday afternoon of a hectic week:

“Firm recalls sautéed children”

Here’s what the announcement actually involved. More than 14,000 pounds of sautéed chicken products were recalled because they contained an undeclared allergen, whey. Thanks to Douglas Powell of Food Safety Network for calling our attention to it. Read it here .

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 Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching. We will help you gain access. This is a document center and service, not merely an online citation database.

ACDC News – Issue 10-21

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Holiday and year-end greetings to you from all of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center here at the University of Illinois. We have thoroughly enjoyed being in touch with you during 2010 and hope we have added in some way to your year.

Agricultural “infovation” happening around us. Peter Ballantyne, president of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists, used that term in a recent summary of emerging trends and issues in our field of interest. The term “infovation” emphasizes how agricultural information and communications managers need to be innovators in managing knowledge. For example, he noted how:

  • Agricultural researchers become bloggers and publish websites
  • Farmers form learning networks
  • Extension workers build wikis
  • Librarians become film-makers

You can read an abstract of this 2009 article in Information Development journal here .

Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu about gaining full-text access.

Still mighty lively and ACTive at 40. Congratulations to the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) organization that observed its 40th anniversary this year. Students studying agricultural journalism and agricultural communications at universities throughout the U.S. organized this student group during 1970 at a conference in Ithaca, New York. Thanks to all of the professionals and organizations that have encouraged and supported ACT members throughout these years – at campus, national and international levels.

Learn more about ACT and some current activities of members by visiting the ACT website here .

Ethical food and ethical claims that matter most to food shoppers . A new research report that we have added to the ACDC collection sheds light on ethical claims, and on how ethical concerns influence food purchases. During January, Context Marketing conducted this research involving 600 adults living in major metropolitan areas across the U.S.

One part of the study explored what consumers mean by “ethical food.” More than 90 percent identified these main features:

  • Avoids harming the environment (93 percent)
  • Meets high standards of safety (93 percent) and quality (91 percent)
  • Uses environmentally sustainable practices (91 percent)
  • Avoids inhumane treatment of farm animals (91 percent)

You can read the report here

What connects to the meaning of “ethical food”? An online response from TruffleMedia to the “ethical food” perceptions (above) raised concerns about how the word “ethical” is used. For example:

  • Does it mean food produced locally?
  • Is it “tied to things that are not ethics related: healthy/nutritious, trans fats, produced in USA and organically produced”?
  • “If you do not produce organic food are you unethical”?

You can read this response here .

New resource about veterinary communicating . A 2010 book we added recently to the ACDC collection focuses on communications challenges that veterinarians face in their day-to-day work. Handbook of Veterinary Communication Skills by Carol Gray and Jenny Moffett provides tips and insights about activities such as:

  • Consulting with clients
  • Working with grief
  • Dealing with delicate situations, such as euthanasia, end of life and mistakes
  • Relating to media and colleagues

Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu if you are interested in this book and don’t have local access to it.

Animation helps a rural UK community rally around an intimidating project. Who would have thought it possible for the Village of Skinningrove (on the east coast of England) to regenerate a jetty which had stood derelict and dangerous for many years? Two local activists would, with the help of a digital innovator, Steve Thompson. He suggested building and launching the jetty in Second Life. With a “go” signal, he recruited lots of local school children and others to create a film showing what a refurbished and reopened jetty would look like in Real Life. The film “premiered to great acclaim in February 2009” and the project effort began.

Producer Thompson described this innovative community media project in a conference paper you can read here .

You can view the film on YouTube here .

Communicator activities approaching

January 24, 2011
Deadline for research papers, research proposals, theses and dissertations to be presented at the ACE/NETC annual meeting (Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences, and National Extension Technology Conference). It takes place in Denver, Colorado, June 10-14, 2011.
Information: Amanda Ruth-McSwain at ruthmcswaina@cofc.edu

February 5-8, 2011
Meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) in Corpus Christi, Texas USA.
Information: http://www.saasinc.org/2011-CorpusChristi/WelcomePg.asp

February 21-22, 2011
“The Perfect Ten.” Southern Region Workshop for members of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Charleston, South Carolina USA. “To enhance skills in writing, photography, layout and design, social media, creativity, media relations and much more – all presented in bite-sized, top-ten lists!”
Information: http://www.communicators.coop/events/11/SRWflier.pdf

February 23-25, 2011
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Fort Myers, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/

New batch of favorite oxymorons . From time to time we check on oxymorons that relate to food/agriculture and communications. We close this year-end issue of ACDC News with some favorites, this time from the journalism and communications side:

  • Final draft
  • New and improved
  • Deliberate mistake
  • Brief speech
  • Expressive silence

Let us know at docctr@library.uiuc.edu when you see others you would nominate.

Best regards and good searching. Please pass along your reactions, 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 in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching. We will help you gain access.

ACDC News – Issue 10-20

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Five strategies that producers use to deal with globalizing markets. We have added to the ACDC collection a report of a large-scale study of ways in which German producers manage their farms in the face of competitive global markets. Cluster analysis identified five strategic groups in the region under survey:

  • Diversifiers . Using newly developed businesses as well as primary production.
  • Cooperators. Expanding farms with a cooperative, interfarm approach.
  • Expanding lone fighters. Large farms acting alone to grow.
  • Growth-oriented outsourcers. Looking for growth and increasingly outsourcing their farm activities.
  • Precarious farms. Not cooperating and not diversifying.

You can read this report here .

50 years at WGN – and counting. The ACDC collection now includes several news articles and a one-hour radio broadcast honoring Orion Samuelson for his 50 years of agricultural broadcasting at WGN, Chicago. He reached that historic mark on September 26, a half century after being “hired on a handshake” at the age of 27 following eight years of broadcasting experience in Wisconsin.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” Orion observed during the September 26 broadcast. Many would express gratefulness for that match-up as Orion has set exemplary standards for professional practice and for communicating with millions about putting food on their tables.

You can listen to the broadcast, “The Legend Continues,” here .

More farmers reporting how they use smartphone apps. A recent article we have added to the ACDC collection from the California Farm Bureau Federation describes ways in which members are using applications for mobile smartphones and smartbooks. Here are some of the examples cited:

  • Tracking water usage and managing irrigation systems
  • Monitoring soil types to guide cropping and fertilizing strategies
  • Recording herd information
  • Measuring the distance and area of fields
  • Learning the number of growing degree days or heat units for a given area
  • Tracking frost and wind
  • Scanning bar-code information to seek favorable prices of products
  • Monitoring markets for fuel and commodity prices
  • Gaining access to spreadsheets “and all sorts of stuff”

You can read the article by Christine Souza here .

Timid editorial voices . Many Kentucky newspapers have a timid editorial voice, according to research findings of Al Cross and Elizabeth Hansen, reporting at the 2008 Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium. For example, their analysis of 102 weeklies during September 2007 revealed:

  • Among weeklies with circulation of 2,000 and under, 47 percent had no editorial pages during that time.
  • Among all the weeklies, 38 percent of those owned independently had no editorial pages.
  • Of the 74 weeklies that had editorial pages, 69 percent did not publish any locally written editorials.

You can read “Keeping quiet or taking the lead?” online.

How agricultural journalists can check the health of media in their societies. A new feature we have added from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) website identifies five key indicators professionals can use. The feature emphasizes that an environment of free, independent and pluralistic media is widely recognized as essential for fostering social wellbeing. “It probably is safe to say that the struggle for free expression never ends – in any society, regardless of its government’s democratic position.”

A recent report by an international expert group for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) identified five indicators that are summarized in this feature. They touch on regulatory systems, plurality and diversity of media, opportunity for free and democratic discourse, training of and support for professional journalists, and access to modern media technologies. The report also highlights several rural dimensions of media development.

You can read the feature here .

You can read the full UNESCO report here .

North American media reports about organic production – seldom negative. That is what researchers observed in a recent issue of British Food Journal that we have added to the ACDC collection. Their content analysis of 618 articles in five North American newspapers between 1999 and 2004 revealed:

  • 41 percent of the articles had a neutral tone toward organic agriculture and food
  • 37 percent had a positive tone
  • 16 percent were mixed
  • 6 percent were negative

Positive comments about organic food and agriculture centered mainly on concerns about environment, human health and food safety.

You can view an abstract of the article here .

Communicator activities approaching

February 5-8, 2011
Meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) in Corpus Christi, Texas USA.
Information: http://www.saasinc.org/2011-CorpusChristi/WelcomePg.asp

February 21-22, 2011
“The Perfect Ten.” Southern Region Workshop for members of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Charleston, South Carolina USA. “To enhance skills in writing, photography, layout and design, social media, creativity, media relations and much more – all presented in bite-sized, top-ten lists!”
Information: http://www.communicators.coop/events/11/SRWflier.pdf

February 23-25, 2011
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Fort Myers, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/

Creative agri-thought of the month . We close this issue of ACDC News with an expression that Ted Haller used in a recent issue of NAFB eChats , newsletter of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting:

With twinkle in eye, he passed along something “Shakespeare once said about the Cattle Market – ‘To err is human, to Moo is Bovine’.”

Best regards and good searching. Please pass along your reactions, 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 in electronic format sent to docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching. We will help you gain access.