ACDC Newsletter

ACDC News – Issue 11-12

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira
Issue 11-12

  • On a stand-alone basis fear, shock or sensationalism may promote verbal expressions and general feelings of concern.
  • However, shock and sensationalism overwhelmingly have a negative impact on active engagement with climate change.  They tend to disempower and distance people from it.
  • That is, unless representations are set in a context within which individuals are situated and to which they can relate.

You can read the paper here .

Creative way to educate about nature, feature public art and boost tourism. We have added to the ACDC collection a report from the Journal of Extension about an award-winning scavenger hunt that combines science education, public art and tourism.  It’s called the “Clam Trail,” an Extension Service effort in support of the Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program in New Jersey. This sample of “edutainment” helps capture public attention and involve families, residents and visitors of all ages, businesses and civic organizations in enjoyable ways as they learn and interact.

Research reports recently made available online, in full text .  Here are four agricultural communications articles that are now available online from the Journal of Applied Communications .  This journal is published by the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). It changed recently from print to electronic format with open access:

  • “‘The stuff you need out here’: a semiotic case study analysis of an agricultural company’s advertisements” by Emily B. Rhoades and Tracy Irani
  • “Photo-elicitation as a method of assessing village needs for extension planning” by Lulu Rodriguez and Denise Bjelland
  • “Penchant for print; media strategies in communicating agricultural information” by Amanda Ruth-McSwain
  • “To bother or not to bother?  Media relationship development strategies of agricultural communication professionals” by Amanda Ruth-McSwain and Ricky Telg

You can read these articles in Issue 3/4 of Volume 92.

Claude Gifford Collection now processed. Many agricultural journalists and communicators throughout the U.S, and beyond, are acquainted with Claude Gifford.  Recipient of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, this farm boy from a poor hill farm in northern Illinois contributed to his profession with distinction for a half century.  Among other parts of his career, he served on the editorial staff of Farm Journal for 23 years, including responsibilities for the editorial page.  In 1971 he became Director of Information for the U. S. Department of Agriculture where he served for more than 20 years on a personal level with nine Secretaries of Agriculture.

Claude’s extensive professional collection is now part of the University of Illinois Archives. Materials in it extend broadly across the work and role of journalism and communications in agriculture during the 20th century. His personal reports range from “What it’s like to be ignored” to “The spy who lives next door.”   These materials represent a valuable resource during the years ahead for students, teachers, researchers, professionals and others interested in effective agricultural journalism and communications. Online, you can view the detailed finding aid that describes contents of the Gifford Collection.

Historical view of “soft” and “hard” networks in New Zealand. For 20 years Janet Toland of Victoria University has examined the interplay between the soft networks created by social capital and the hard networks created by information and communications technologies. She studied this relationship in one urban and one rural region of New Zealand between 1985 and 2005.

Findings reported in a recent research paper show a clear linear progression in terms of hard networks. For example, organizations became more interconnected through mechanisms such as alliances, mergers, clusters and trade networks. However, no clear linear development could be seen during the 20 years, in terms of soft networks. The author noted a circular pattern in which the same issues may be revisited a number of times over the years.  Some rural-urban differences were apparent regarding both types of networks.

Really speaking up for agriculture (125 years ago). The National Farmers’ Alliance attracted some thundering advocates during the 1890s, according to Clarence Poe in his book, My first 80 years .  Among the most picturesque and sensational, he said, was Mary Ellen Lease, an Irish-born lawyer in Kansas.

“Her slogan, ‘Farmers must raise less corn and more hell,’ caught on and spread like a forest fire. With a powerful voice, deep and resonant, its effect startling and compelling, as was said at that time, ‘she hurls sentences as Jove hurls thunderbolts.'”

Let us know at docctr@library.illinois.edu if you would like to learn more and don’t have access to the book.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • August 15, 2011
    Deadline for entries: print and electronic journalists and media specialists of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.  “Innovations and Advisory Services,” in Nairobi, Kenya, during November. Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int/sites/default/files/Journalist-Call-for-Submissions-Ext-Conf.pdf
  • 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
  • November 9-11, 2011
    “Insight for agriculture…every day.”  Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com
  • November 9-12, 2011
    “Innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management: global extension experiences.”  Conference of the International Society of Extension Education, New Delhi, India. Information: http://inseeworld.com/conference.htm
  • November 15-18, 2011
    “Innovations in extension and advisory services.”  International conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  Sponsored by a variety of national, regional and international partners. Information: http://extensionconference2011.cta.int

Yes, better left unsaid. We close this issue of ACDC News nodding in agreement with rural writer Lee Pitts who recently described in Progressive Cattleman what happened during a livestock auction in Utah.

Bidding was slow on a particular horse. A friend of the owner stood up in the crowd and said, “You’re just penalizing this horse because of the way he acted in the preview.  He’s not that way normally.”  The auctioneer was unable to get another bid.

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

ACDC News – Issue 11-11

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

How farmers are viewing and responding about climate change. We have been monitoring this topic, internationally.  Here are titles of sample reports from recent research:

  • “Factors influencing adoption and continued use of long-term soil and water conservation measures in five developing countries” (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Peru, Bolivia, Mali)  View the abstract here . Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

Please alert us to related documents that can help strengthen this important part of the ACDC collection.

“The nation needs better coverage of the farm bill.” An editorial during late 2010 in Columbia Journalism Review urged the U. S. press to commit to prominent, sustained, and substantive coverage of the 2012 Farm Bill.

“As the 2012 Farm Bill takes shape, journalists should devote less time to the incremental, insider drama on Capitol Hill, and more to explaining the issues and their consequences to a public that has little contact with the farm, but a huge stake in what happens there.”

Read a brief summary of it here , or get in touch with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu about full-text access.

International directory to online farm media .  World-newspapers.com provides links to 19 farming and agriculture magazines, newspapers and news services that offer open, online, full-text access.  They are based in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Some provide general coverage. Others are specialized “verticals,” ranging in interest from specific crops and livestock sectors to the green industry.

You can review the list and gain access to them here .

New Agricultural Communication Oral History Project goes online. Natalie Daily Federer, extension educator and doctoral candidate at Purdue University, has completed her first round of oral histories in this field of interest.  And you can now view her introductory work online in a new special section of the ACDC website.

“I am passionate about history,” Natalie explains in introducing this ambitious research project. She is pursuing it through support from the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). The main goal is to capture and preserve the voices, experiences, memories and insights of those who have retired from academic and professional work in the agricultural communication community.  To date she has conducted individual interviews with five retired professionals, as well as one group interview.  Her first four audio podcasts (10-14 minutes each) are available online for classroom and other professional development uses. A sample course exercise accompanies them.  You can explore the new Oral History section here .

Some keys to sustainable telecenters .  Researchers Rajendra Kumar and Michael Best found that telecenters and kiosks in five rural villages of south India were being used by a relatively small share of the village households.  This was the case even after the facilities had been in use for well over a year.  Users tended to be young, male students from relatively higher income households and community areas.  However, the researchers found significant planning and operational strategies that helped broaden the use of telecenters and make them more sustainable.  Those strategies included:

  1. Locating telecenters close to “socially and economically backward communities” and to champions within them.
  2. Placing them within a context compatible with use by women.
  3. Providing localized content and services.
  4. Making those services more affordable.

An overview of consumer willingness to pay for meat attributes. The International Journal on Food System Dynamics recently reported results of a meta-analysis of 23 studies about this subject between 2000 and 2008.  Researchers Gianni Cicia and Francesca Colantuoni found, for example, that:

  • Consumers are willing to pay 22 percent above the base price for the attribute “food safety.”
  • When on-farm traceability is available, consumers appear willing to pay a premium of nearly 17 percent over the base price.
  • The attribute “animal welfare” elicits a premium of 14 percent over the base price, “showing consumers’ interest about the life quality of domestic animals.”
  • European consumers are, on average, willing to pay more for meat traceable attributes than are North American consumers.

Communicator activities approaching.

  • 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

When funding fizzles .  We close this issue of ACDC News with an insight attributed to Lord Ernest Rutherford, renowned scientist of the early 1900s.  We feel sure this strategy applies to entrepreneurial agricultural journalists and communicators as well as the scientists he addressed:

“No money.  Well then, we must use our brains.”

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

ACDC News – Issue 11-10

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Consumers wary of advice from food experts . Those who communicate with consumers about food can take note of findings from a 2010 “Food and You” survey in the United Kingdom. Responses from more than 3,000 adults across the United Kingdom showed them holding mixed opinions about food experts.  For example:

“I am fed up with experts telling me what I should eat.”  (47 percent)

“Experts contradict each other over what foods are good for you.”  (73 percent)

You can review these and other findings from the 2011 Food Standards Agency report here .

Prime issues facing communicators in animal agriculture. An economic analysis of animal agriculture, 1999-2009, for the U. S. United Soybean Board revealed five issues that emerged repeatedly, across multiple states.  They are “issues with which state agricultural organizations are grappling – and will likely continue to face – in the years ahead.”

  • Raw milk legislation
  • Animal welfare legislation
  • “Locavore” driven demand for small-scale, local processing
  • Action on climate change/pollution
  • Illegal immigration/labor issues

Effective communications is central to success as the animal agriculture industry addresses these issues at local to global levels.  You can read the full 2010 report here .

Rural areas to benefit most from mobile telephony. Authors of a 2008 World Bank report offered that conclusion after examining the role of mobile telephones in sustainable poverty reduction among the rural poor.  They identified studies throughout the world that documented how the mobile phone can:

  • Reduce negative aspects (such as corruption, exploitation, crime, and high and inequitable prices)
  • Increase positive aspects (such as education, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, productivity, business expansion, tax revenue, cost saving, health services, disaster relief and social cohesion).

You can read the full report here .

Tips for extension professionals – on walking beyond the comfort zone. A journal article we added recently to the ACDC collection from Australia suggested that agricultural and natural resource extension personnel can improve their effectiveness by increasing empathy with their constituents. Pennie Scott identified several fronts for attention:

  1. Learn, experience and practice risk-taking, “a situation the self-employed face almost every day in their operating environment.” Explore the unknown in unison, she advised, as learning partners with an attitude of expecting the unexpected.
  2. Be sensitive to women’s ways of knowing, indigenous ways of knowing, radical ways of knowing, ecological ways of knowing and emotional intelligence.
  3. Appreciate differences in the language of managing natural resources and in the intimate relationship with the land.

The agricultural journalist’s higher calling. Writing interesting and informative articles about agriculture may be the agricultural journalist’s role, says Canadian rural journalist Henry Heald.  However, he adds, “giving people the tools to make informed decisions about life should be the vocation of every journalist.”

Now the longest-serving member of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation, Heald offered these and other career perspectives in a recent issue of The Farm Journalist published by the Federation.

Congratulations to Paul Hixson , an Agricultural Communications Documentation Center associate who has been instrumental in the direction and development of it.  Earlier this month Paul was named interim chief information officer for the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. He retired last August as assistant dean and director of information technology and communication services for the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. His experiences will help him oversee campus efforts to coordinate a highly complex, dynamic communications system. You can read the news report here .

Communicator activities approaching.

  • 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

Fearful of writing and tending to trifles. We close this issue of ACDC News with a story told by Xu Bing in the journal, Visual Communication .

“The story goes that, in ancient times, when there were no written characters and no drawing, Cang Jie created writing.  The heavens were so frightened that they rained millet, and the ghosts were so terrified that they wailed throughout the night.  Heaven feared that from that point onward people would attend to trifles and neglect essentials, that they would abandon agriculture for the petty personal profits to be gained from deploying ink and manipulating language.  Needless to say, if the heart and mind became thus perverted, the stomach would go empty.  The millet was sent from the heavens not only as a practical precaution, but also as a warning.  Thus comes the phrase ‘to frighten heaven and earth and make the spirits cry’.”

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 11-09

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

How new mobile media are fitting into schedules and activities . Results of a recent diary-based study help reveal how U.S. adults are using their mobile communications devices.  Among the findings reported:

  • Newer mobile communications media and traditional news media “occupy different niches within the news domain.”
  • Traditional media exhibit a familiar time-space pattern – newspapers in the morning, radio during morning and afternoon drive time, and television or cable news in the evening.
  • Multimedia mobile and cell phones serve needs of consumers “for news and information when they are on the move in space and time.”

Authors encouraged research involving audiences living in urban and rural areas.

You can read the abstract of this New Media and Society article here .  Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining full-text access.

What?  Buy advertising to announce Extension programming? Tight budgets make that idea sound unworkable.  However, a team of extension educators in Idaho tested the approach and found that paid advertising can be a good value for increasing a return to their invested time and effort.  Among the findings of their research, using comparison pairs:

  • Enrollments in programs that were promoted using free outlets only: 4.5 persons
  • Enrollments in programs promoted by paid advertising: 31.8 persons

“A particularly striking contrast was a program on osteoporosis, which was canceled for lack of enrollment without paid advertising, but drew 64 attendees when it was advertised in the newspaper.” More .

India tackles language challenges in using the Internet. Access to the Internet often falls far short of serving rural residents.  A recent research report, “Role of ICTs in India rural communities,” emphasized that most people in developing countries cannot read and understand most of the English-centric Internet content. Author Siriginidi Subba Rao reported that the adult literacy rate in India is about 59 percent, with the female literacy rate at about 47 percent.  India officially recognizes 18 languages, each having a different character set.  About two-thirds of India residents speak Hindi and less than 5 percent understand English. Lack of standardization of software code for major Indian languages creates interoperability problems between programs involving distinct codes.

You can read about challenges and current efforts to address them in this 2009 report.

Signs of “general confusion” about functional foods. In a survey reported recently, young adults in southern Italy revealed what researchers described as general confusion about the term “functional food.” One-third of the sampled young consumers said they had never heard the term used.  After researchers explained what functional food was, 12 percent of the respondents with science backgrounds were enthusiastic about the capabilities of such foods, 78 percent were trusting and 10 percent mistrustful.  Among those with humanities backgrounds, 2 percent were enthusiastic, 38 percent were trusting, 46 percent mistrustful and 10 percent incredulous.

Findings also revealed how the channels through which these young consumers learned about functional foods appeared to influence willingness to accept them.

Two routes – two outcomes – in constructing rural identity. Two case studies in rural Queensland, Australia, examined efforts to use rural mythologies (“The Outback,” in this case) for economic or social benefit.

  • One project involved an online discussion group, welink , for rural women.  It grew on the basis of grassroots interaction and shared stories (somewhat along the line of the party-line telephone system) and proactive solutions to isolation.
  • The “Bushlink Internet Café” involved a small community in remote western Queensland. It was launched with high visibility as a collaboration of state government, private enterprise and a proactive, energetic community. However, within two years the café had closed, “mired in controversy and argument.”

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu if you are interested in gaining access to this conference paper.

Why consumers hesitate to buy meat and poultry at farmers markets. Researchers Lauren Gwin and Larry Lev used Rapid Market Assessment “dot” surveys among more than 1,100 consumers in Oregon to address this matter.  They found that 49 percent of all respondents had never purchased any meat or poultry at any farmers market.  Responses identified seven main reasons, topped by “price” (28 percent), “don’t eat it” (19 percent) and “inconvenient” (17 percent).  They also revealed the price premium those shoppers would pay for meat and poultry at the market versus “non-local” meat and poultry at the supermarket.  Authors of the report suggested four ways to encourage more meat and poultry sales at farmers markets.

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

Always a close call. We end this issue of ACDC News with a Spanish proverb that came to our attention recently. It helps express the mission of communicators in agriculture:

“Civilization and anarchy are only seven meals apart.”

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 11-08

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 .

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