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H1N1 Flu? Swine Flu? – Appealing to a media ombudsman. Here is one method being used to help clear the confusion. A concerned resident in Ontario, Canada, is appealing to the ombudsman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for help in addressing this internationally pesky issue of terminology. Owen Roberts, University of Guelph, describes the effort in his blog, “Urban Cowboy.” The resident argues that use of the term “swine flu” leads to unjust bias against pork and harm to the swine industry. Posted at: http://www.urbancowboy.ca/2009/08/17/cbc-ombudsman-asked-to-intervene-on-h1n1-swine-flu-verbiage/ “Ethical food shopping is now mainstream in Europe ,” according to research from IGD, an international food and grocery firm. “Until recently, ethical food shoppers were seen as niche. Now as many as seven out of ten Europeans we surveyed buy ethically at least some of the time.” What are the dimensions of ethical shopping? Priorities vary in countries and cultures across Europe, but here are some aspects of it in the minds of consumers:
The report we added to the ACDC collection emphasized how food products with ethical credentials offer immense growth potential. Citation: British shoppers lead the way “Celebrity chefs – the new demagogues.” That is the title of a commentary we added recently to the ACDC collection from the International Public Relations Association. Pointing to the popularity of celebrity chefs in the United Kingdom, the author expressed concern about:
“Clearly the days of activist celebrity chefs are with us. Good luck to them, but for those of us charged with the challenge of communicating on behalf of the rest of the food industry, let’s try that bit harder.” Citation: Celebrity chefs Public image of U. S. farming and agriculture shown slipping . We recently assembled for the ACDC collection a six-year trend analysis of this “image” matter. Results are based on results of seven Gallup Polls among U. S. adults between 2001 and 2008. Respondents in each survey were asked to say whether their overall view of farming and agriculture is very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative or very negative.
Citation: Gallup Poll: views about farming and agriculture, 2001-2008 A widening view of agricultural communications research . The broad and scattered nature of research literature about agricultural communications became more apparent through a recent analysis by researchers Eric Abbott, Jennifer Scharpe and Jim Evans. They presented findings at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, during June. Here is some of what they learned in examining such literature published between 2000 and 2008:
Citation : Trends in agricultural communication research: 2000-2008 Tainted milk in China: struggles in coverage. A report that we added recently to the ACDC collection suggested that in early 2009 “the traditional media still had not managed to investigate and report the magnitude” of allegations regarding melamine-tainted milk powder in that country. A China-based journalist, writing under the pseudonym of Robert Chang, described in the Global Journalist how government media, “netizens,” marketers, public relations firms and other parties responded. He emphasized the impact of online forums in this matter. “Typically Chinese Internet users view cyberspace as a freer place to voice their angers, lodge complaints and expose corrupted officials,” Chang reported. He said China Internet Network Center reported in July 2008 that China has 253 million Internet users, the biggest online population in the world. Citation: Tainted Communicator activities approaching September 10-12, 2009 September 15-19, 2009 October 15, 2009 October 15-18, 2009 October 18-25, 2009 November 11-13, 2009 Aiming to be agri-pellucid. We close this issue of ACDC News with a little spice for the menu of agricultural writers. “Pellucid” is among the words MSN Encarta insists everyone simply should know – to fertilize the vocabulary. The term describes expression that is easy to understand, clear in meaning or transparent. What fresh term(s) might we use to describe the opposite? 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. |
2009-08-15
