Ferraz de Oliveira Nicholas – Page 12 – Funk Library

ACDC News – Issue 10-09

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

International excellence in agricultural broadcasting . The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists recently presented the inaugural IFAJ Star Prize for Agricultural Broadcasting to Kerry Staight for her television feature aired on ABC-TV. Based in South Australia, this Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist did an exceptional job of addressing the sensitive issue of succession planning by farm families. She drew upon the insights and experiences of families and consultants that cooperated with her.

You can view this Star Prize program, “All in the Family,” here .

Top radio honor. Click here to listen to the award-winning radio entry by Sarina Locke, an ABC rural journalist based in Canberra, Australia. “Surprising developments in West Timor, Indonesia” is the title of this program. You will find that it features an engaging topic, a strong human touch and especially effective use of functional sounds.

Powerful portfolio of water photos. World Water Day on March 22 inspired the Boston Globe to arrange for an online set of 43 remarkable images “all of water, here at home – Earth.” The National Geographic Society shared some of them.

You can review them here .

Digitizing agricultural weeklies . Something approaching 15,000 issues of 12 U. S. agricultural weeklies have been digitized to date by the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library here at the University of Illinois. As a group, they involve a time span between 1841 and 1939 – and the project continues.

Anyone with access to the Internet can browse these farm papers by date or search by keyword across articles, advertisements and photo captions, according to an article we are adding to the ACDC collection. Access to the repository is free. “The University of Illinois Library houses one of the world’s premier collections of agricultural newspapers,” the article reported. “The collection is valuable not only for students and scholars researching the history of agriculture or agricultural economics, communications and technology, but also for historians of education, historical sociologists, environmental historians, and social and cultural historians.”

You can visit the “Farm, Field and Fireside” repository h ere .

Why care about small town newspapers? Professor Terry Besser of Iowa State University offered nearly a dozen reasons in a commentary we added recently to the ACDC collection. For example, he argued that small town papers can:

Reflect, affirm and help build a positive community atmosphere
Help local citizens define what it means to be a member of the local community
Remind communities of their history
Report the important events in common peoples’ lives
Identify local needs, highlight local talent and recognize local achievements
Reveal deviant and unacceptable behavior as well as exemplary behavior in the community
Create forums for discussion of local policies and issues; encourage participation
Dispel rumors

“Let people chuckle about the kind of news covered,” he concluded. “Perhaps [laughter] is another contribution of small town papers in community life.”

You can read the commentary here , via The Hometown Weekly.

Chinese farmers calling for more useful information. That is the theme of feedback from farmers who took part in a recent training course. Writing in the Rural21 journal, Wang Dehai of China Agricultural University reported challenges such as:

Information too theoretical and not adapted to producers’ local conditions
Extension personnel – few in number, limited qualifications, overloaded with administrative work
Commercial trainers – accessible, but seen as holding conflict of interest

“Training need assessment is a fundamental tool to improve rural training to suit Chinese farmers’ needs and change the trainers’ mentality, perceptions and capabilities,” the author concluded.

Read this brief journal article here .

Condolences to the families of Hal Taylor and Don Gomery. The recent passing of these two professional agricultural journalists/communicators holds special meaning for us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, as for many others.

Hal was a long-time mentor, associate and friend through his activities as an effective, highly respected communications leader in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. During retirement he contributed valued documents to the ACDC collection, including materials from the influential National Project in Agricultural Communications (NPAC) during the 1950s and 1960s. Learn more about Hal’s career here .

Don associated with the Center during the past five years through his service on the executive committee of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. As chair of the IFAJ Professional Development and Education Committee, he helped establish a productive IFAJ/ACDC partnership. We valued his friendship and, with many others, respected his farm journalism career in the UK and 26-year service as honorary secretary of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists of Great Britain. Learn more about Don’s career here .

Communicator activities approaching

June 14-17, 2010
“Meet us in St. Louis.” Annual conference of the Association of Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in St. Louis, Missouri USA.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org/meetings/ace2010.html

June 22-26, 2010
60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Singapore.
Information: http://www.icahdq.org

July 24-28, 2010
“Rolling on the River, AMS Style.” Ag Media Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota USA.
Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com

Yes, talkative hair . We close this issue of ACDC News with another “Sentence of the Week” from the University of Chicago Writing Program:

Head teacher Nigel Pott said the school had been trying to resolve the issue of Chloe’s hair since before Christmas. Despite liaising with Chloe and her parents, her hair had stayed a pink colour, Mr. Pott said.

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 10-08

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

A “hole rent in the fabric of the community.” That’s how Marc Haddock of the Deseret News described the demise of five community weekly newspapers in Utah during early 2009.

“The history of Utah’s cities and towns – as it has been written week after week in the pages of their hometown papers – captures the day-to-day life of the community in more depth and detail than could ever be compiled in a single book. It is an unparalleled record of births and deaths, weddings and funerals, major news events and small-town happenings. Anyone who has subscribed to one of Utah’s more than 50 weekly or biweekly newspapers will recognize the hole that will be rent in the fabric of the community when these papers cease to exist.”

You can read the article here .

Media training boosts confidence of producers. Evidence came recently from a study reported by agricultural communications researchers at Texas Tech University. Results of a one-day, interactive media workshop among Texas cotton producers revealed significant positive change between the pre-test and post-test in their:

attitude and perception toward the news media
confidence about presenting an accurate view of an agriculture-related topic
comfort level in being interviewed by media

You can read this research report here .

Development journalism – giving soul to media. “As issues facing the developing world grow ever more complex and difficult, the task of good journalism should be to throw light on them.” A recent feature by Sue George in The Guardian ( UK) addressed this challenge and included some “how to.”

Development journalism is especially complex – and under threat – because “international development is complex, slow, non-prescriptive and uncertain. It requires the reporter to appreciate and explore the interplay of diverse realms such as health, education, environment, governance, local and national economics, and culture.”
It is not “an entirely uncritical publicity vehicle for any organization or institution.”
It is not “making people into victims by treating them without dignity or sensationalizing their lives.”
“We are looking at big policies affecting developing countries,” a cited reporter explained, “and looking at how this relates on the ground to those who expect to be benefiting.” Another cited reporter put it this way: Development journalism “gives soul to media, it gives it a human face.”

You can read this article here .
Also, here is another perspective on development journalism that we added recently to the ACDC collection.

New Chickens magazine hits the newsstands. “How much more basic can you get than providing your family with food from right outside your backdoor?” asked Roger Sipe, editor of the new Chickens magazine, in a recent news release. We received word of it via the AgriMarketing weekly update. Published by BowTie, Inc., this periodical will focus on the common backyard chicken. It will feature products and services, breed profiles, poultry keeping tips and other information for the novice or experienced poultry keeper.

You can read the news release here .

Remarkable international portfolio of water photos. World Water Day on March 22 inspired the Boston Globe to arrange for an online set of 43 remarkable photos “all of water, here at home – Earth.” The National Geographic Society shared some of them.

You can review them here .

Here’s another response when friends ask, “Do you talk to animals?” You can affirm it – and explain that animals also are talking to you, using social media.

“Even cows are tweeting now,” announced reporter Sharon Hill in a recent issue of the Windsor Star ( Ontario, Canada). She was reporting on an innovative experiment by the Critical Media Lab, University of Waterloo. Staff members teamed up with the Buttermine Farms in Brant, Ontario, to make this possible. How?

The farm uses a volunteer milking system, in which cows “volunteer” when they wish to be milked
A robotic milker does the milking
Each cow wears a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that coordinates her activities with a computer
Staff members prepared a Twitter profile for 12 cows and created a “voice” for each.

So, for example, a Holstein cow named Frosty Lace tweets online:

“Thought I would sneak in for some good feed. No way.”
“All this milking makes me hungry. Ate 1254 kg.”
“Fastest teat is my left back which milked in 2:50 secs”

Want to read some of the reports about this project?

“About ‘teat tweet'”
“Tweets reveal an udder world”
“Teats and tweets”

Communicator activities approaching

May 4, 2010
Midwest Regional Design and Writing Workshop for members of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT). Takes place in West Des Moines, Iowa USA.
Information: Jennifer Bremer at jbremer@hpj.com

May 5-6, 2010
“Desert Discoveries.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Tucson, Arizona USA.
Information: http://www.toca.org

July 24-28, 2010
“Rolling on the River, AMS Style.” Ag Media Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota USA.
Information: www.agmediasummit.com

Insight from Pootwattle, the Virtual Academic ™. We close this issue of ACDC news with a key communications insight. It falls outside our agricultural focus, but seems profound enough for us to think you will appreciate it. And we pass it along with thanks to the University of Chicago Writing Program for use of its random sentence generator. Virtual Academic uses words and phrases pervading academic journals these days. Here it is:

The sublimation of narrative communication is homologous with the teleology of unsituated knowledge.

Yes, you can create your own impressive insights through the Virtual Academic .

ACDC News – Issue 10-07

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Eleven new agricultural communications research reports from SAAS. It’s a pleasure to call attention to 11 timely research studies that were reported during February at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) conference in Orlando, Florida. Here are the authors and titles of papers presented in the Agricultural Communications Section of the conference:

“Arkansas agritourism business operators: who they are, how they communicate, what they want to learn and how they want to learn it” by Jefferson D. Miller, Stacey W. McCullough, Daniel V. Rainey and Biswaranjan Das
“Students of tomorrow: agricultural students’ use of selected social media” by K. Jill Rucker, Traci L. Naile and Bryan K. Ray
“Pick me! Aligning students’ career needs with communication about academic programs and available careers” by Lauri M. Baker, Tracy Irani and Katie Abrams
“Animal rights vs. animal welfare: is society able to distinguish the difference and make informed decisions on animal care legislation?” by Joy Goodwin and Emily Rhoades
“Framing the U. S. Sugar buyout to restore the Florida everglades: a comparison of national versus state newspaper coverage” by Angie B. Lindsey
“Agricultural communication students’ perceptions, knowledge and identified sources of information about agritourism” by Katlin N. Amaral and Leslie D. Edgar
“Competencies needed by agricultural communication undergraduates: a focus group study” by A. Christian Morgan
“College students’ perceptions of rural America based on selected photographs” by Dru Glaze
“Social agriculture: adoption of social media by agricultural editors and broadcasters” by Emily Rhoades and Kelly Aue
“Relative effects of visualized and verbal presentation methods in communicating environmental information among stakeholders: Okavango Delta, Botswana” by Olekae T. Thakadu, Tracy Irani and Ricky Telg
“Readership habits and needs of a major beef cattle breed association publication” by Melinda Norton, Leslie D. Edgar and Don W. Edgar

You can view these papers here .

In the face of disasters: Communicative planners meet resilience thinkers. Have you had contact with scholarship in resilience? We have seen little of it in our searching for agricultural communications literature. So a 2009 journal article about it caught our eye. Author Bruce E. Goldstein reported on a symposium that explored ways to combine resilience concepts with communicative planning. What happens when your planning goes awry during an emergency – or when resilient responses lack direction during a disaster? The intent of the article was to examine how these two converging fields of practice might, in tandem, help provide rational decisions in the face of environmental threats and catastrophes. You will not find it a light, how-to piece. However, it may spark creative thinking about communicating effectively in emergency situations.

You can read the Ecology and Society article here .

Agricultural legislative interests outflanked on YouTube . A content analysis by agricultural communications researchers Joy Goodwin and Emily Rhoades revealed that agriculture had very little presence on YouTube during the recent California Proposition 2 campaign. California voters passed the proposition in 2008, banning the use of battery cages for laying hens, gestation crates for sows and veal crates for veal calves by 2015.

These researchers found, for example, that

69 percent of the 103 sample videos posted on YouTube were sponsored by animal rights organizations – only 1 percent by farming/commodity organizations
89 percent of the videos supported the proposition – 4 percent opposed it
Sponsors often used emotional appeals, such as guilt (58 percent)

“Agricultural communicators must be up to the challenge when campaigning against larger groups” in such campaigns, the authors observed.

You can read this research report here .

CowTime Shed Shake-up – a “timely,” innovative extension success story. Seventy-four percent of Australian dairy farms that took part in a program to reduce milking time made changes within 6-8 weeks. Here are key elements described by Darold Klindworth and Diana Carr in the Extension Farming Systems Journal :

A research project identified helpful practices.
Forty-four Shed Shake-up events (called “Shorter Milking Secrets”) provided tips via video, PowerPoint slides, verbal presentation and group discussion.
Producers received timers to take home to determine how long their slowest cows took to milk and how much time they spent milking their cows.
A random selection of producers was interviewed about six weeks later.

On average, the farms where changes were made saved 15-20 minutes per milking

You can read this journal article here .

Agricultural public relations entries invited. May 1 is the deadline for entries in the Golden ARC Award program, sponsored by the Agricultural Relations Council. Thirty-eight categories are available to recognize the work of members and nonmembers. These categories range from various types of campaigns to specific components ranging from traditional media releases to social media. ARC sponsors the program to recognize and promote excellence in agricultural public relations.

See further information here .

Communicator activities approaching

April 17-21, 2010
“Between passion & press ure” 54th Annual Congress, International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) hosted by the Belgian Association of Agricultural Journalists at Ostend, Belgium.
Information: http://www.ifaj2010.org

April 21-23, 2010
“From America’s Heartland to the Rest of the World.” 2010 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nama.org

April 26-29, 2010
XIIIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) in Montpellier, France. Organized by Agropolis International.
Information: http://iaald2010.agropolis.fr

May 5-6, 2010
“Desert Discoveries.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Tucson, Arizona USA.
Information: http://www.toca.org

July 24-28, 2010
“Rolling on the River, AMS Style.” Ag Media Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota USA.
Information: www.agmediasummit.com

An ever-current insight about learning. We close this issue of ACDC News with a Chinese proverb that associate Paul Hixson brought to our attention recently.

Tell me and I forget.
Show me and I remember.
Involve me and I understand.

In sharing this ancient wisdom with us, Paul observed, “This particular saying surely would have resonated with those pioneer Extension workers who used the early field test demonstrations as one of their primary teaching methods, as well as those of us who’ve spent a career advocating more respect AND fuller, more active involvement for our students/audiences in the learning/discovery process.”

ACDC News – Issue 10-06

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

New reports about extension methods and results. Thanks to ACDC staff associate Liz Harfull in South Australia for alerting us to papers presented at a November 2009 conference of the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN). These interesting, useful papers are in the latest issue of Extension Farming Systems Journal , published by the Australasian Farm Business Management Network. A few of the topics included:

Extension tools preferred by growers, agronomists and consultants when searching for cropping information
Four discourse themes among producers and agricultural consultants concerning climate change
Using Web 2.0 techniques to enable practice change in Australian agriculture
Blogs about bugs: communicating with grains industry clients

You can read these reports, and others, here .

Taking time for non-change . With all the emphasis placed on change in agricultural science and technology, communicators may find it enlightening to think about the role and importance of non-change. We find little literature about this, so were especially interested recently in adding an article by Pascal Byé in the journal Science Technology and Society . Approaches commonly used to analyze change fall short, the author argues.

“They mask the role played by cultural heritage, organizations and representations in the progression of techniques. They minimize the fundamental role played by time. The most visible changes are often, paradoxically, the product of non-change, of permanence and of continuity.”

Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu if you wish to read this article.

Stronger angles on understanding consumer concerns about food and health. Studies about such concerns commonly focus on location, gender, age and other demographic factors. A research report we added recently from Australia reveals the added value of understanding food concerns and personal values.

Researchers Anthony Worsley and Emma Lea surveyed 1,000 adults to identify concerns about 20 health and food issues. Results revealed four food concerns and six personal value factors. Researchers concluded that psychographic market segmentation approaches may be stronger predictors of consumers’ concerns than demographics. They recommended more use of psychographic information in communications planning that involves food and health.

Also, you can request it from the publisher here .

Add to the “safe, cheap food” narrative . That suggestion came from Professor Ed Pajor, University of Calgary ( Canada) during the 2010 Banff Pork Seminar. He said the pork industry needs to connect with a public that has growing interest in livestock production practices. The “safe, cheap food” narrative is strong, he said, and it needs to be supplemented with a narrative about “how animals are being cared for.”

You can hear a SwineCast audio report of his presentation via Truffle Media Networks here .

You may notice in the title a reference to “animal husbandry,” a care-oriented expression that the term “animal science” tended to replace during the past half century.

Creativity – not so rare, really. “Creative work is not as rare as had been assumed,” said Raymond Gozzi, Jr., in ETC: A Review of General Semantics . “In fact, everyday life is a creative product. Everywhere we look we see people being creative, if we only have eyes to see. …When we think about our creative processes as we speak, cook, strum guitars, exercise, etc., it helps us appreciate the creativity in what we are doing and how to refocus it to other parts of our lives.

“Science is good at describing trends from past events, but creativity is about stepping outside of those trends. … Let us see [creativity] clearly wherever it appears and try to nurture it in others.”

Read the commentary here .

Communicator activities approaching

May 5-6, 2010
“Desert Discoveries.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Tucson, Arizona USA.
Information: http://www.toca.org

July 24-28, 2010
“Rolling on the River, AMS Style.” Ag Media Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota USA.
Information: www.agmediasummit.com

“Sentence of the Week.” We close this issue of ACDC News with an agriculture-related “Sentence of the Week” from the University of Chicago Writing Program. We feel sure none of our readers created this sentence:

A cheap industrial chemical at the heart of a massive food recall in China following its detection in infant milk powder, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced that sweets containing melamine at levels of 11.25 mg/kg, 152 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg respectively had been detected on the shelves.

You can see it and other recent “Sentence of the Week” candidates here .

ACDC News – Issue 10-05

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

“Who is doing the investigative science stories?” Not mainly the known science reporters, Paul Raeburn observed recently in Knight Science Journalism Tracker. He based that observation on who wrote some top-ranked investigative pieces of 2009 in the U. S. (including a series on school lunch safety). “Why aren’t we writing the investigative pieces?” he asked in this commentary we have added to the ACDC collection.

You can read his report here , along with some responses and suggestions.

New media + old media = fresh means. These times are bringing not only a batch of new media, but also an explosion of opportunities to intermix new and old media in innovative, effective ways. John James of Queensland, Australia, sketched an example in an extension journal article we added recently to the ACDC collection.

The goal : Improve knowledge, skills and attitudes of beef producers concerning animal nutrition.
The traditional method : Provide a two-day workshop on cattle nutrition.
He asked : Why not use new media to engage the producers before, during and after the workshop? For example:

An eSurvey to determine the background of potential participants and their learning needs.
A targeted email or blog to share the organizer’s thoughts about running the workshop and to invite producers to offer thoughts and ideas.
Web conferences to engage industry representatives, suppliers and other extension officers in planning the content and support materials.
A wiki to help planners collate information and resources.
An eSurvey among participants after the workshop, plus continuing interactions by web conferences, blogs, podcasts, Second Life and other means.

You can read his article here .

Agriculture Leadership Summit 2009 urges improved communications in India. Key recommendations of the Summit in New Delhi included needed efforts to strengthen communications. Among them:

Educate farmers and stake-holders on the global market scenario and implications of the World Trade Organization.
Provide a more balanced crop protection policy and incentives to farmers for adopting an effective crop protection umbrella.
Help other developing countries in their research, extension, education and institution building, and thus earn money and goodwill.
Establish an exclusive DD (direct-to-home terrestrial network) channel on agriculture to focus on farmers’ issues and technology transfer.
Reorient the extension systems with effective participation of the private sector with the government sector.

M. J. Khan, chief editor of Agriculture Today , was a member and convener of the Summit.

Read the Summit report here .

Yes, a new poultry magazine . In an era of large-scale poultry production, it may seem surprising to see a new poultry magazine emerge. The premier issue of Chicken hit the news stands during late February. Published by BowTie, Inc., it focuses on the common backyard chicken. Editor Roger Sipe says it is designed to appeal to “a new generation of people who want to reclaim their attachment to nature and become more sustainable.”

You can learn more about the magazine here through a news release via AgriMarketing Update.

“Words that can hurt.” A matter of agricultural terminology caught our eye recently through the diversity committee of the Society of Professional Journalists. Television news coverage of a confrontation involving Latino migrant workers in California prompted this suggestion from a member of the committee:

“Using the highly-charged language of the Minutemen, the TV field reporter described the Latinos as ‘illegal aliens.’ A far better description would be to refer to them as ‘migrant farm workers,’ or possibly, ‘undocumented immigrants.’ These descriptions take the prejudicial sting out of the phrases.”

Citation: Words that can hurt Latinos
View the document online here .

Communicator activities approaching

May 5-6, 2010
“Desert Discoveries.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Tucson, Arizona USA.
Information: http://www.toca.org

July 24-28, 2010
“Rolling on the River, AMS Style.” Ag Media Summit in St. Paul, Minnesota USA.
Information: www.agmediasummit.com

Ode to agricultural advertising . We close this issue of ACDC News with an appreciated contribution from K. Robert Kern. “This isn’t an original bit of doggerel,” he explains, “but one I began to use in training sessions with county agents maybe 50 years ago.”

The cod fish lays a million eggs,
The little hen but one.
The cod fish doesn’t cackle
When her noble deed is done.

So we praise the artful hen.
The cod fish we despise,
Which clearly says to thinking ones:
It pays to advertise.

ACDC News – Issue 10-04

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

63 case studies feature innovative ICT projects. A report from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa highlights 63 innovative farmer advisory services, using information and communication technologies. Featuring a wide range of agricultural topics, they fall into these categories:

Voice information delivery services
Radio broadcasts and dial-up services
Extension services based on mobile phone and database monitoring
E-learning for basic skills, including video-based approaches

View the report online here .

Farming scholar studies risk communications in six countries. We have added to the ACDC collection a recent report by David Cussons, a producer in Western Australia. He carried out this study through the Farming Scholars program of Nuffield Australia. His travels took him to Japan, England, Sweden, USA, Canada and New Zealand where he conferred with dozens of communicators and others. We were pleased to host him in the Center during his U.S. visits.

Case examples and insights highlighted in his report undergird his six recommendations about risk communications in agriculture. Among them:

Understand the demographics of the public
Improve the selection and training of agriculture spokespeople
Embrace the latest social media techniques
Use electronic traceability to promote agriculture

Read the report here .

$500,000 agricultural promotion campaign boosts incomes $2.9 million. We see relatively few research efforts that identify the economic impact of specific agriculture-related promotion efforts. That’s why a report from two Clemson University economists caught our eye recently. C. E. Carpio and O. Isengildina-Massa evaluated the impact of the South Carolina agricultural promotion campaign after its first season (2007). Analysis of the survey data revealed that consumer demand for state-grown produce increased by 3.4 percent, increasing producer surplus by an estimated $2.9 million.

Read the paper by visiting this web site , then searching on the title: “Measuring the potential economic impact of a regional agricultural promotion campaign”

“Make every Pakistani a blogger.” That was the advice of Ghazala Khan in a recent blog about the challenges that print and broadcast journalists face in covering rural and remote areas of that nation.

“Here mobile phone companies, NGOs and civil society should provide a platform to the locals to use texting and camera phone video to report from rural areas. … Citizen journalism is so easy to implement, and this would empower the people.”

Read the commentary here .

Winners honored in “Future of Family Farming” photo contest . Photos from the Philippines, Nigeria and Rwanda earned top recognition recently in a contest focused on sustainable agriculture. The contest was sponsored by ILEIA Centre for Learning on Sustainable Agriculture, based in the Netherlands. An independent organization, ILEIA aims to enhance knowledge on small-scale sustainable agriculture, particularly in developing countries.

View the winning photos here .

More than matters of science and emotions. A commentary we added recently from Drovers emphasized several dimensions to agriculture’s interactions with consumers about animal welfare and other issues. Writing after the passage of Proposition 2 in California, Suzanne Bopp said that producers across the country are likely to hear the call for more industry outreach and consumer education efforts. She emphasized:

“The case cannot be made with science alone – those arguments failed against Proposition 2. These judgments fall into the realm of ethics and values. Yet those things have not been much discussed of late. We’ve improved safety, efficiency and traceability, but not consumer trust.”

Read the commentary here .

New Student Photo Gallery on the ACDC web site. We are pleased to call attention to a new online gallery of photographs taken by students in an agricultural photography course here at the University of Illinois. Agricultural communications faculty member Bob Siebrecht teaches this popular course, which has been offered for about 40 years. It uses methods that uniquely help students learn to “see” in new ways, with special emphasis on revealing the diversity of agriculture and rural life.

The first photo featured in the Gallery was taken by L. Brian Stauffer. You can learn about the course and see Brian’s photo here .

Communicator activities approaching

May 5-6, 2010
“Desert Discoveries.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Tucson, Arizona USA.
Information: http://www.toca.org

Easier than ever these days. We close this issue of ACDC News with a remark offered at a recent communications research conference during discussion about new social media:

“It’s gotten easier to be stupid and evil in public.”

ACDC News – Issue 10-03

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

“Why hyperlocal journalism is easier – and harder – in rural areas.” That is the title of a blog by Mark Coddington, reporter for the Grand Island Independent (Nebraska USA). He noted that such coverage is easier in rural areas because you are starting off with a clearly defined community that already identifies itself as such. However, coverage is more difficult because in most cases “you don’t own the conversation around your news, and people aren’t used to going online to talk about it.”

ACDC News – Issue 10-02

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Big lovers of fast food. The first 2010 issue of British Food Journal included an article that sheds light on the dramatic increase in fast food consumption in the U. S. during the 1990s. Authors used government survey data to analyze demographic and socioeconomic factors that influenced this growth. Findings revealed that fast food consumption:

Increased until consumers reached age 20-30, then decreased
Increased as household income grew to about $50,000-60,000, then decreased
Decreased as household size grew
Was highest among males living outside central cities of the Midwest and South

Presentations at the 2009 ACE/NETC conference . We are adding to the ACDC collection about 30 presentations from the recent conference of these two partnering organizations: ACE (Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences) and NETC (National Extension Technology Conference). Sessions ranged across international communications, leadership and management, marketing, media relations, photography, publishing, research, video, web content and design, and writing. A few samples of presentations you can review online:

Issue management
Media usage by farmers and ranchers
Wrangling scientific writing
Trends in agricultural communication research
Creative commons licenses
Writing and editing effective web content
How a web page is seen
Three options for sharing presentations online

View sessions online here .

You can now read the Journal of Applied Communications online . It is available in full text from ACE. Until now, only the abstracts have been available online. Articles in the latest issue feature:

Case study on use of blended e-learning tools
An educational partnership for genetics outreach
Voter confidence in the agricultural industry
Educational efforts to serve producers with disabilities
Organizational learning in response to an anthrax outbreak
Readership of extension publications in digital and printed formats

Read them here .

A research review: information needs and seeking patterns in developing countries. A recent article in the International Information and Library Review reported results of a literature review of studies done on the information needs and information-seeking behavior of rural and urban residents of eight developing countries. Among the findings and conclusions:

“Basic human needs make up the majority of information needs across all countries investigated.”
“Lack of education remains the primary obstacle to meeting the information needs of the working poor in developing countries.”
“The disparity in information needs between urban educated and non-educated citizens compared to those who live in rural areas in developing countries is staggering.”
“Informal information networks are by far the most preferred means of gathering information that individuals feel is reliable and authentic.”
“While extension workers and rural libraries are considered to be good options for finding good-quality information, they are not as heavily relied on.”
“A digital divide continues to exist in an increasingly digital information world.”
“In rural communities, the public library could become an important resource center because it is through the library that citizens will be able to take control of their lives and careers by becoming more knowledgeable.”

Citation: Information needs and information-seeking behavior
Author contact: Renee Dutta at rd2397@gmail.com

Media guidelines from Chuck Zimmerman . We have added to the ACDC collection a summary of five useful guidelines that Chuck Zimmerman of ZimmComm New Media offered in AgWired early in 2009. He noted there has been a lot of talk about how the media room of today should be configured and managed. “I just thought I’d throw out some ideas to help move the conversation along.”

Citation: Media room guidelines
View his suggestions here .

“Makeover” TV concept not always for home building and decorating . A Kenyan television series introduced recently uses the makeover principle to show smallholders how to improve their livelihoods. Writing in the February 2008 issue of Developments , Louise Tickle described how “Shamba Shape-Up!” explores “some of the typical problems encountered by smallholder families on the outskirts of Kenya’s towns and cities,” then “brings in a crack team of experts to sort them out smartish.” The word “shamba” means “smallholding.” By the end of the third series, five million viewers had watched the half-hour program.

Citation: 30 minute makeover
View this report online here .

Communicator activities approaching

February 6-9, 2010
Research and professional development meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section, Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists in Orlando, Florida.
Information: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas

April 21-23, 2010
“Celebrating success in America’s heartland” 2010 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA
Information: www.nama.org

Ah, to be a tech rep . We close this issue of ACDC News with an agricultural example of why we should tip our hats to the “customer care representatives” who field questions from computer users. This is a real exchange, as reported on citeHR.com:

Tech rep: What’s on your screen right now?”

Caller: “A stuffed animal my boyfriend got me at the grocery store.”

ACDC News – Issue 10-01

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Two new studies of computer and Internet use among U. S. producers . You may be interested in these reports we added recently to the ACDC collection:

1. “Farm computer usage and ownership.” Survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. August 2009.

View the 28-page report here .

2. “NAFB Internet usage study.” Telephone survey by Ag Media Research during August and September 2009. Developed and funded by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

View the summary presentation here .

Read a summary news release here .

Telling agriculture’s (or someone’s) story. A new feature from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) highlights 40 examples of rural-urban communications approaches used by organizations to advance their interests and views. Authors Jim Evans and Owen Roberts explore “how point-of-view communicators can contribute in the complex maze of rural-urban issues and relations.” This fifth feature in their series examines techniques such as these used around the world:

Events and occasions
Media-based efforts
Action groups
Educational approaches
Partnering with media
Local farm initiatives

You can read this feature on the IFAJ web site.

How a small newspaper uses social media in a rural area. Mark Coddington and Stephanie Romanski of the Grand Island Independent (Nebraska USA) recently used a podcast to discuss creative uses of the Web and social media. The Independent (20,000 circulation) serves a city of 45,000, along with 16 rural counties around Grand Island. Presenters described their experiences with tools such as Twitter and CoveritLive to get news faster, extend their presence, humanize the paper and build trust. One example involved live reporting from a “Rural Harvest Days” event.

Listen to their podcast here .

“Enormous gaps in technological achievement remain” among nations of the world, according to a recent World Bank report: Global economic prospects 2008: technology diffusion in the developing world . Authors of the 224-page volume noted the promise of diffusion through new information technologies such as mobile phones and, to some extent, computers. However:

“Even upper-middle-income countries have less than one-third of the level of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of high-income OECD countries, and low-income countries have only 7 percent. The gap in TFP levels between high-income countries and Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa has widened since 1990. Moreover, the gap between major centers and lesser cities and rural economics remains large even in the most successful countries.”

View the document online here .

Winning with a shot in the dark. Jason Jenkins of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives earned national “Photographer of the Year” honors recently for a shot in the dark. His photo, “Gigging by Firelight,” was recognized by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA). He had joined a small group of fishermen for an evening of following a fishing tradition of the Missouri Ozarks culture, using all-traditional equipment.

View the photo and description online here .

“Americans oppose most farm subsidies.” That is the title of a research summary we added recently from the Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland. A nationwide survey during March-April 2009 revealed that 61 percent of citizen respondents said they oppose U. S. subsidies going to large farming businesses. Only 36 percent said they favor such subsidies. This pattern was similar among Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

However, 77 percent said they favor subsidies to small farming businesses (those under 500 acres). They expressed support for such subsidies in farm states (79 percent) as well as non-farm states (75 percent).

View the citation here .
View a summary of findings online here .

Communicator activities approaching

January 25, 2010
Deadline for submitting research papers, research proposals and theses/dissertations for the 2010 Conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). The conference takes place June 14-17 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: Emily Rhoades at rhoades.100@cfaes.osu.edu

“Would you and your beautiful daughter like some mountain oysters?” This may not be the ideal way to improve rural-urban relations, columnist Lee Pitts confided in a Farm World column we read recently. He has been urged out of the PR circuit, it seems, after the response he got to this question from a visitor named Reginald – and after his wife’s efforts failed to undo the public relations damage he had done. “…I do miss serving the townies fresh fried mountain oysters and then watching them turn green when I tell them what they are,” Pitts admitted.

Citation: Playing nice with the “townies”
Search here on “mountain oysters” to learn about them.

ACDC News – Issue 09-22

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

H1N1 flu off the Top Ten news story list again. After being on the Top Ten list of news stories in U. S. media during parts of 2009, H1N1 flu dropped off it during November and early December. We are referring here to the News Coverage Index of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, supported by the Pew Research Center.

H1N1 (identified as swine flu in these reports) ranked first in the Top Ten list during late April and early May, accounting for as much as 31 percent of the newshole.
It appeared again during October – ranking fourth or fifth – and accounting for five percent of the newshole.
It was not among the Top Ten topics for news coverage during November or early December.

View these lists and trends online here

A pioneer in getting information to small-scale farmers around the world. George Atkins, founder of Farm Radio International, died November 30 in Ontario, Canada, in his 93rd year. A farm and gardening host on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the 1950s and 1960s, he established the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network in 1979. An obituary we are adding to the ACDC collection explains that this service collects advice from farmers and farming experts, produces radio scripts based on the information and distributes them to other broadcasters who reach millions of Third World farmers every month.

You can learn more at the FRI home page here .
Also, from that site you can view a You Tube video (8:53) in which he reflects on his 30 years of experience in developing the network.

“Twittering from the tractor” was the title of a CNN article we have added to the ACDC collection. Internet-enabled phones are making their way into rural America slowly, reporter John Sutter explained, “because it’s difficult to send Internet data over cellular networks in some sparsely populated areas where wireless service is spotty.” Even so, his article highlighted the growth of smart phones on the farm and some ways producers are using them.

Citation: Twittering from the tractor
View the article online here .

Listeners turn up in droves when this radio soap opera hits the road. “The crowd is quiet in the town of Masaka [ Rwanda] as hundreds of faces peer up at a scene unfolding on the stage in front of them.” That statement introduced a feature posted on allAfrica.com about what happened earlier this year when a health-oriented radio drama, “Urunana,” was aired out of studio. Many of those watching this edu-tainment program had arrived hours earlier, hoping to see their favorite actors.

Patterned after the popular “The Archers” program in the United Kingdom, “Urunana” has been aired on BBC and Radio Rwanda for 10 years. By 2004, an estimated 60 percent of Rwanda’s population tuned in. Two documents we have added to the ACDC collection describe this program, including how producers use continuing feedback from listeners to guide program content.

Citation: Urunana goes to the village and people turn up in droves
View this report online here .

Citation: Health soap opera: country life
View this report online here .

How Europeans view animal cloning. We have added to the ACDC collection an October 2008 report of research conducted among more than 25,000 citizens in the 27 European Union Member States. Among the findings:

Nearly all (93 percent) had heard of animal cloning and most (81 percent) knew the meaning of the term.
Faced with several statements regarding the ethics of animal cloning, most respondents agreed that animal cloning was morally wrong (61 percent), the long-term effects of animal cloning on nature were unknown (81 percent), animal cloning might lead to human cloning (77 percent) and cloning might decrease the genetic diversity within livestock populations (63 percent).
Fifty-eight percent said that animal cloning for food production purposes should never be justified.
Most (86 percent) felt that the food industry would benefit from animal cloning for food production purposes. They were more in doubt about the possible benefit for farmers and consumers.
Most (70 percent) doubted that using cloning for food production would improve efficiency in the long run and lower the cost of food products for consumers.

View this report online here .

Communicator activities approaching

On communicator trust . We close this issue of ACDC News – and our reports for 2009 – with a comment by Jeff Jarvis in What would Google do?

“Trust is earned with difficulty and lost with ease.”

News Archive