ACDC Newsletter

“Hello! Can you hear me?” 

This question sounds familiar from a recent advertising campaign. But it also marked a well-publicized occasion in a Kentucky corn field during 1902. The question came from the son of Nathan Stubblefield, melon grower and inventor, during an early demonstration of the wireless telephone.

A recent book by Bob Lochte describes this development, along with “facts and folklore about Nathan Stubblefield.” The fascinating account informs as much about publicity methods and folklore generation as about technological pioneering. It examines conflicting perspectives that have swirled for decades around Stubblefield and his achievements. This account reveals a farmer/inventor who, working alone, invented two wireless telephone systems, carried out the first wireless broadcasts and foresaw that broadcasting would be an important application of wireless telephony. But was it radio?

Reference: Use a title search (Kentucky farmer invents wireless) or author search (Lochte) for the full citation.

How the rural press influences public policy: a case report. 

Recent research by Stuart Shulman highlighted the importance of agenda setting by the rural press during the early 1900s.

“Rural credit reform emerged in 1912 as a viable public policy issue only after the business and farm press favorably presented the idea of looking to European models of privately financed, cooperative rural credit,” he observed. “…The press was a powerful, though blunt, factor in the formulation of Progressive Era agrarian policy options.”

Reference: Use a title search (Progressive era farm press) for the full citation of an article in Journalism History. Chapters of the dissertation from which the article came were posted on the author’s web site at: www.drake.edu/artsci/faculty/sshulman

Media poorly equipped to cover long-term threats. 

“…the press and TV news are ill adapted for sustaining high-level coverage of long-term threats.” That was a conclusion of J. Kitzinger and J. Reilly in the European Journal of Communication. They based their finding on case studies of how news media covered the rise and fall of three risk crises: human genetics research, “False Memory Syndrome” and mad cow disease.

Reference: Use a title search (Rise and fall) or author search (Kitzinger) for the full citation.

The main gap is between minds. 

That is how Ralph Reeder, former agricultural editor at Purdue University, responded to a question about the main problems involved in research and extension publications.

“There is evidence that we are peeking timidly over the walls. (Some) states report using task groups, publications committees, etc., to study audience and distribution problems. Perhaps through these doors we can begin to base publications on programs for people rather than on subject matter. The real space-fillers we need to be…is in the sense of bridging the abyss between one mind and many minds. Most of us are not social scientists oriented by our training or our research. Yet we are editors in a time that is critical for our understanding of human needs and human reactions…”

Reference: Use a title search (Main gap is between) or author search (Reeder) for the full citation.

“Don’t use a softball as a windscreen for your microphone,” 

Advised National Association of Farm Broadcasters Executive Director Ken Root in a recent report to NAFB members. The independent journalist has become an endangered species, he argued in Chats. With many voices on the Internet (most with their own agendas) and more consolidation of media (with their own economic agendas), he said, “reporters who work in the best interest of their target audiences are one of freedom’s greatest strengths.”

“All points of view should be aired and all questions of relevance should be asked,” he said in urging farm broadcasters to “probe into an issue, obtain and give the hard truth.”

Reference: Use a title search (Freedom to speak) or author search (Root) for the full citation. Issues of NAFB Chats are posted, with delay, at: www.nafb.com

Food chains and other myths. 

Research among students has identified four misconceptions about food in the ecosystem. Communicators and educators can find value in these insights and reminders:

• Food webs are interpreted as simple food chains. (Scientific conception: food/energy relationships must be viewed as a complex web linking the organisms within an ecosystem.)
• Organisms higher in a food web eat everything that is lower in the web. (Scientific conception: organisms higher in a food web feed on some organisms lower in the food web.)
• The top of the food chain has the most energy because it accumulates up the chain. (Scientific conception: available energy decreases as one progresses up a food web.)
• Populations higher on a food web increase in number because they deplete those lower in the web. (Scientific conception: the numbers of individuals in the populations of any species decrease with each step up the trophic levels because the available energy decreases while body size generally increases as one progresses up a food web.)

Reference: Use a title search (Ecological misconceptions) or author search (Munson) for the full citation.

Words are never enough. 

“Emerging technologies will always make emerging terminologies obsolete,” Zac Hanley and Kieran Elborough observed in a recent commentary about definitions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They were reacting to proposals from two scientists for coining new, more taxonomy-based terms for genetic modification.

“Transgenic has a well-entrenched meaning to the public and attempts to redefine it spread confusion or suspicion rather than enlightenment,” the commentators said. “Only when we have done an excellent job of explaining what we are talking about can we enjoy the luxury of encapsulating it all in a pithy word or phrase like intragenic.”

Reference: Use a title search (Emerging terminology) or author search (Hanley) for the full citation. The commentary was posted online at: www.isb.vt.edu/news/2003/news03.aug.html

“Yeh, they made us quit thinking a long time ago and now they’ve made us stop talking.”

That lament came from a frustrated U.S. Department of Agriculture field communicator during the mid-1930s when poverty and economic depression triggered new, top-down rural programs that often lacked coordination.

Reference: Use a title search (Relations with various divisions) or author search (Keilholz) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

October 30, 2003
“The River Murray – cool water or hot potato.” Featured speaker Hon. John Hill at luncheon meeting of Rural Media South Australia at Adelaide Oval. Information: www.ruralmediasa.com

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

October 2003

Advisory services – beating the market? 

No, according to a seven-year study of corn and soybean marketing advice offered by advisory services in the U.S. between 1995 and 2002. Results showed “limited evidence that advisory services, as a group, outperform market benchmarks.”

However, researchers Darrel Good, Scott Irwin and Joao Martines-Filho suggested that advisory services still can help corn and soybean producers improve marketing performance. Why? Because producers appear to under-perform the market significantly on their own.

Reference: On the “Real Search” page, use a title search (Marketing services studies) for the full citation. A summary of results was posted online at: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/news/printversion.cfm?nid=2399

A loud round of applause, a cheer, a champagne toast, and thumbs up 

That is what members of Cooperative Communicators Association are extending to those who founded their organization 50 years ago. Members used their 2003 CCA Institute to celebrate this occasion during June in Madison, Wisconsin. Also, they have published an interesting 40-page history that we added recently to the ACDC collection:

CCA 50 Years, 1953-2003: Raising the Standards of Cooperative Communication.

It includes a special “Remember when?” section that features comments from those who have taken part in CCA. We add our congratulations to this lively, valuable organization of professional cooperative communicators.

Reference: Further information about the observance is available on: http://www.communicators.coop/

“Changing role of media in agrimarketing” 

Is the title of an analysis published recently in Agri Marketing magazine. Author David C. Aeschliman examined media trends such as the following that are sparked by consolidation and other dynamics in the farming and agribusiness sectors:

• Farm periodicals expanding into other media such as agricultural radio and television, Internet, direct mail, farm shows and niche publications.
• Farm publishers moving into writing, photography, design, printing, mailing and other services traditionally provided by advertising agencies.
• National farm periodicals trying to incorporate more localized and customized messaging, a role traditionally served by local farm newspapers.

Reference: Use a title or author search (above) for the full citation.

Food scares and lost faith in official expertise. 

A recent book, Media and Health, highlighted British media coverage of two major food scares – salmonella in eggs and bovine spongiform encelphalopathy (BSE, “Mad Cow Disease”).

“Indeed, an important theme of the BSE scare has been the capacity of the critical media to position itself as the voice of ordinary people who have lost their faith in official expertise,” observed author Clive Seale.

Reference: Use a title search (Media and health) for the full citation.

How food shoppers relieve their feeling of risk. 

A research report that we added recently to the ACDC collection identified some risk-relieving strategies used by a sample of British students. The top three strategies, across all food products, included:

• Brand loyalty
• Reading consumer guides
• Reading product information

Strategies considered least useful:

• Celebrity endorsements
• Special offers

Reference: Use a title search (Consumer perceived risk) or author search (Mitchell) for the full citation.

Striking the proper balance in the academy. 

Mark Tucker, Sherrie R. Whaley and Jamie Cano have provided a useful analysis of academic programs in agricultural communications. Their 2003 report in the Journal of Agricultural Education examined several aspects of balance important to the future of such programs.

• Balance in emphasis between career-oriented undergraduate curricula and the expanding needs for research to support teaching and outreach efforts in agricultural communications.
• Balance in the roles of agricultural communications faculty members as they collaborate with private industry.
• Balance in building constructive collaborative relationships with other academic programs such as agricultural education and rural sociology with which agricultural communications programs sometimes share academic homes.

Reference: Use a title search (Agricultural education and agricultural communications) or author search (Tucker) for the full citation.

A good editor is not an adroit manipulator 

And a clever twister of words, argued Paul C. Johnson, former editor of Prairie Farmer state farm paper. Rather, he suggested, the good editor is:

• A skilled craftsman in one or more forms of communication
• A diligent conveyor of information and inspiration
• A wise counselor to others in their striving to be articulate
• A keen detector of error and humbug and a sworn enemy of such
• A eager listener for ideas new and untried
• A lover of people and a tireless student of human nature
• A believer in the power of truth

Reference: Use a title search (Our job) or author search (Johnson) for the full citation.

The greatest danger of being an agricultural journalist. 

“There are dangers in this beat,” Jerry Hagstrom told fellow members of North American Agricultural Journalists Association earlier this year, “and the biggest of them is the pressure to be a booster.” At an NAAJ awards program in Washington D.C., the veteran reporter described his career experiences, including the pleasures and challenges of agricultural reporting.

Reference: Use a title search (Hagstrom told us) for the full citation. The speech was posted online at: http://naaj.tamu.edu/naajJuly03.pdf.

Professional activities approaching

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: http://www.nafb.com/

“Shouldn’t that be ‘comprises’?” 

An alert reader of ACDC News raised the question in response to a mischievous challenge from Stephen Wilbers about appropriate wording:

“The list is comprised of/composed of 75 common errors.”

Wilbers says that either of two approaches is appropriate:
“The list is composed of…”
“The list comprises…”

He adds that “comprised of” is always wrong.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

October 2003

“The lawyers are coming. The lawyers are coming.”

So reads the title of an article in Food in Canada magazine about expanding food law activities. Author Ronald L. Doering reported that while the food industry is highly regulated, law-related activity is “mostly invisible to the average consumer.”

He cited several reasons for rising attention to food law. Among them:

“…an unprecedented explosion of interest in food related issues with daily front page stories dealing with: genetically modified foods, major food recalls, manure management, natural health products, allergies, possible new food threats (such as acrylamide), pesticide residues, mad cow disease, and organic foods. Never mind the countless other stories (usually with conflicting information) on nutrition and diet.”

He examined several changes these issues have sparked, including “the emergence of major claims for damages for food borne illness. Most companies have not yet fully appreciated what is happening already and that far worse looms on the horizon.”

Reference: On the “Database Search” page of this site, use a title search (above) or author search (Doering) for the full citation. The article was archived online (June 13, 2003) at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

Consumer confidence in food safety declines in the U.S. 

Consumer confidence that the food in supermarkets is safe declined slightly during the past year, according to the 2003 consumer trends study of the Food Marketing Institute. Seventy-nine percent of shopper respondents said they felt sure the food they buy is safe from contamination, compared to 81 percent in 2002. More than one-third (35 percent) said they think processor/manufacturing plants are the places where problems are most likely to occur, followed by restaurants (15 percent). Four percent cited farms.

Reference: Use a title search (Confidence in food safety) for the full citation.

Icons of agricultural advertising. 

Two producer-sponsored advertising campaigns were featured in the recent book, A Century of American Icons: 100 Products and Slogans from the 20th Century Consumer Culture. One of these generic advertising campaigns promoted a farm commodity during the 1980s, one during the 1990s.

Can you identify them? What do you think they are? Send your hunches to us at: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

No, they do not include Elsie, 

The Borden Cow made famous by Borden, Inc., during the 1930s. A producer organization, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), now holds rights to the Elsie and Borden trademarks that are used on DFA products. According to Advertising Age, she is one of the ten most successful icons of the 20th century, but we are not counting her here as part of a producer-sponsored advertising campaign.

Reference: Use a title search (Century of American icons) or author search (Cross) for the full citation.

Media coverage of food biotechnology has been highly one-sided, said Michael Rodemeyer at a workshop last November.

“Advocates on both sides of this issue do agree on [that] one thing,” he observed. “Unfortunately, they disagree on which side the media has been taking.”

The workshop was entitled, “When media, science and public policy collide: the case of food and biotechnology.” Participants probed the processes by which reporters seek to “distill the often-confusing array of opinions about the potential risks and benefits of GM foods into stories that can be understood by a mass audience.”

Reference: Use a title search (above) for the full citation. Proceedings, in summary form, were posted on:www.pewagbiotech.org.

Conflicts of interest – by the hundreds

“…most self-respecting community journalists have hundreds, if not thousands, of such conflicts by virtue of their involvement in the community,” said publisher Troy Gustavson in a commentary for the Center for Community Journalism. Organizational memberships. Financial connections. Friends in public office. The list goes on.

Gustavson said he doesn’t see how a true community newspaper can avoid ethical dilemmas. Did he advise refusing memberships and otherwise trying to avoid conflicts of interest? No. Instead: “The answer, I think, is to never let those conflicts interfere with the newspaper’s primary mission: to tell the truth at every turn about what’s happening in the community it serves. So when the ferry company calls up and says, ‘Cut out the negative coverage…or else,’ you’ve got to choose ‘or else’.”

Reference: Use a title search (Ethical conflicts) or author search (Gustavson) for the full citation. The commentary was posted on: www.oswego.edu

Roots of agricultural communicating. 

The following observation caught our eye recently as we entered a new/old document into the ACDC collection. It came from Carl R. Woodward, president of the University of Rhode Island, a half-century ago:

“We might say that agricultural communication is as old as agriculture itself. … Scenes of rural life engraved in stone by the people of ancient times, the Biblical record – Old Testament stories, the pastoral poetry of the Psalms, the rural parables of the New Testament – and the writings on agriculture by the Greeks and the Romans reflect the evolution of agricultural communications.”

Reference: Use a title search (A look back) or author search (Woodward) for the full citation.

Why agricultural programs were among the first on radio. 

From the start, radio programmers in the U.S. recognized that the new medium held special potential for rural areas. Radio promised to help break the isolation, improve rural life and bolster the efficiency of farming. In addition, research by Marcel C. LaFollette suggests another reason that agricultural programming was among the first aired on radio.

LaFollete observed that agriculture and public health were “…(not uncoincidentally) areas in which government agencies and communities of experts took an early, active interest.” Examples: weather reports as early as 1921 and regular farm market reports as early as 1922.

Reference: Use a title search (Survey of science content) or author search (LaFollette) for the full citation.

Agricultural communications students as (un)critical thinkers. 

They are about the same as non-agricultural communications students in this regard, according to a study by University of Florida researchers. Results of a 2002 survey among students at 12 U.S. universities revealed that 17% showed a strong disposition toward critical thinking while 66% were classified as weak.

“…it behooves agricultural communications educators and researchers to explore ways to activate and enhance critical thinking dispositions on the part of their students’ future success,” the researchers concluded.

Reference: Use a title search (Critical thinking dispositions) or author search (Bisdorf-Rhoades) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

November 11-16, 2003
“NAFB – a voice for agriculture.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: www.nafb.com

New home for ACDC. 

We are pleased to report that the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center moved during early September. It is now located in the new Library, Information and Alumni Center of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) here at the University of Illinois. You can see a photo of the new building in the upper-left corner of our home page.

Administratively, ACDC is now a special collection and information center within the ACES Library. It continues its expanding service in partnership with the Library and the Information Technology and Communication Services Unit of this college.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 LIAC Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu

September 2003

Canada’s first “consensus conference” on food biotechnology.

An article that we added recently from Science Communication analyzed the first such application in Canada (March 1999) on the issue of food biotechnology. Two University of Calgary researchers analyzed this interactive technique involving “a small group of citizens who go through a learning process on a given technological issue, engage experts, and develop an assessment of the key issues they identify as critical.”

Authors observed that consensus conferences are “imperfect models” and “not the only means of opening up the technology process. However, this model and other tools like it represent the continuing efforts to expand the range of voices participating in science and technology.”

Reference: Use a title search (Consensus conferences as deliberative democracy) or author search (Einsiedel) for the full citation.

The 85:15 formula – advice for communicators in education.

It came from Alice Blinn, associate editor of Ladies Home Journal, at a 1949 meeting of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors (ACE). “Whenever I hear what women want discussed,” she said, “I always remember the precept laid down by Professor Burrit, director of extension in New York in my early days.”

“It was his advice to give people 85 percent of what they want and not more than 15 percent of what you think they should have. It seems to me that this is still sound advice.”

Reference: Use a title search (Alice Blinn tells) for the full citation.

Future of telecom in rural America.

“Well, I don’t pretend to be clairvoyant,” a representative of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said recently, “but I’m pretty sure it’s going to involve broadband.” Speaking to the National Exchange Carrier Association, Jack Zinman observed that thousands of new jobs could result from greater broadband deployment.

“Not surprisingly, then, broadband is an important potential source of growth and investment for rural America, our country, and for others around the world,” he said. He noted the unique challenges in rural America, with low population density and long loop lengths, and offered advice to the rural telecommunications carriers.

Reference: Use a title search (Future of rural telecommunications) or author search (Zinman) for the full citation. The speech was posted online at: www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/2002/JZNECA_91602.htm.

Farmers being left in the dust?

That was part of the title of a recent FarmWeek article about expansion of the “ag superhighway.” Author Doug Yoder, market education specialist of the Illinois Farm Bureau, cited a “proliferation of farm tools on the web.” He noted, however, that without Internet speed the web is of little use as a farm marketing tool.

“A lot of producers were telling us that it was one thing to get information over a slow connection, but if they’re expecting to conduct business, they need a much better, safer, more secure, faster connection.”

Reference: Use a title search (Ag superhighway expanding) or author search (Ross) for the full citation.

The future of agriculture-related communicating?

It’s a tidal wave of information in the important agribusiness sector of this field. Tom Taylor, president of AGRIS Corporation, highlighted some expanding dimensions of it during a presentation at InfoAg 2001. He said that information management is becoming increasingly complex and important for agricultural producers and retailers because of:

• More specialized crops
• More detailed records of applications of various fertilizers, chemicals and other inputs
• More source verification and traceability of crops and livestock
• More regulatory monitoring
• More responsiveness to consumer demands and preferences

Taylor reported that four of every five agribusiness merchants had made a major upgrade or had totally replaced their information management systems in the previous two years.

Reference: Use a title search (Efficiencies, e-business) or author search (Taylor) for the full citation. This conference paper was posted online at: www.farmresearch.com/infoag2001/presentations/pdfs/taylortom.pdf.

And too many warnings in everyday life.

“Enough already!” pleaded Shulamit Reinharz in a commentary on the pervasiveness of warnings in everyday life. “Do I buy margarine or butter, knowing, as I have learned, that both are bad? Is it better to be overweight or risk the ‘serious health consequences of dieting and yo-yoing weight’?”

This thought piece highlighted some types of warnings and examined ways in which prevention itself “intrudes on the quality of life, foregrounds danger, and makes it harder to enjoy everyday experiences.” The author also suggested four reasons for the pervasiveness of warnings.

Reference: Use a title search (Enough already) or author search (Reinharz) for the full citation.

Welcome to our new associate in ACDC.

We are delighted to welcome Elena Padilla into the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center as webmaster and academic coordinator through an assistantship. She also begins graduate studies in library and information science this semester with an excellent background of education and experience.

Elena holds bachelor and master of arts degrees in English from DePaul University and the College of William and Mary, respectively. At both institutions she was a part-time library assistant, so she has had seven years of experience in university libraries. Since 1997 she has worked with Lucent Technologies as a customer technical support engineer. In that responsibility she gained experience not only in serving customers but also in working with varied information technologies.

“They don’t come much smarter than this group,” 

Said Stephen Wilbers after conducting a writing workshop for cooperative communicators. He did so at the recent 50th Anniversary Institute of Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Madison, Wisconsin.

He put mischievous challenges such as these into a writing skills assessment:

• “The list is (comprised of)(composed of) 75 common errors.”
• “The last thing I want to do is (persuade)(convince) you that I never make mistakes.”
• “Good communication skills can help managers (affect)(effect) change.”

Did you nail all three?

Reference: You can see sample columns, writing resources and exercises on his web site: www.wilbers.com/

Professional activities approaching

September 26-28, 2003
Fall meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists Association (NAAJ) in Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://naaj.tamu.edu

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsuagcenter.com/ace.

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. Send

• hard copies to:
  Ag Com Documentation Center
  510 ACES Library
  1101 S. Goodwin Avenue
  Urbana, IL 61801
• or electronic copies to: docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

September 2003

Five agriculture-related “muckraking” efforts that changed America.

A recent book, Muckraking: the journalism that changed America, includes five reporting efforts that involved rural people and issues. They included:

• John Steinbeck introduces America to the plight of California migrants, San Francisco News, 1936.
• Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper attacks the swill milk that was killing New York children, 1858.
• Nick Kotz of the Des Moines (Iowa) Register finds loopholes in federal meat laws, 1967.
• Rachel Carlson creates a firestorm by saying that pesticides are killing birds and mammals, Silent Spring, 1962.
• Voice from the hollows: Homer Bigart writes of poverty in Appalachia and sets off a war on poverty, New York Times, 1963.

Reference: On the “Real Search” page, use a title search (Muckraking) or author search (Serrin) for the full citation.

What rural reporting efforts might you add to this list?

Send your nominations to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. We will report on them in ACDC News.

And some not-so-great reporting.

“Health news that’s unhealthy” is the title of a recent piece by Mervin Block in Television Newswriting Workshop. He cited several examples of flawed medical stories on network newscasts – some inaccurate, some misleading, some mishandled.

Among the food-related items was a report on CBS about a study finding that a glass of wine a day – especially red wine – may help prevent colds. Block’s response: “A finding? Not at all. And again, who conducted the study?”

Reference: Use a title search (Health news) or author search (Block) for the full citation. The report was posted online at: http://www.mervinblock.com.

Rural news (150 years ago).

Hops production. Spitzenburg apples. Osier stripping. Kit Carson’s travel schedule. Scientific farming. These and other topics from an 1853 issue of Country Gentleman magazine came under review recently in an interesting commentary published by the New York Times.

Reference: Use a title search (Country Gentleman) or author search (Klinkenborg) for the full citation. The commentary was posted online at www.nytimes.com.

Market Information Organization of the Americas is emerging.

Sandra Cuellar of Colombia described it earlier this year at the 2003 Agricultural Outlook Forum sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Representatives from 10 countries formed MIOA in 1999 with three primary goals:

• Promote cooperation among member institutions
• Create standards for terminology, methodology and technology
• Facilitate the timely and consistent exchange of market information among the member countries

Cuellar reported that trade in agricultural products among countries of the Free Trade Area of the Americas totals $53.2 billion. More than 95 percent of that total involves the 20 countries that now take part in MIOA through working groups that are getting under way.

Reference: Use a title search (Market information organization) or author search (Cuellar) for the full citation. A Power Point presentation was posted at www.usda.gov.

Creative media partnership in biotech reporting.

A news item that we added recently to the ACDC collection featured a creative effort during 2000 that involved Oregon Public Broadcasting and several newspaper partners.

“Visitors to the www.geneforum.org site can take interactive quizzes on their attitudes toward genetically engineered food and the use of their own tissue for genetic research,” according to this report from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Efforts by the media partners also involved online focus groups, a town hall meeting, and live call-in shows.

Reference: Use a title search (geneforum.org) for the full citation. The report was posted online at: www.pewcenter.org.

Thanks and best wishes to Center Coordinator Yiqi Zhou as she moves to a new stage of her career.

Yiqi completed her master’s degree in Library and Information Science during May and is taking a new position as librarian at Ashland Community College, Ashland, Kentucky.

Yiqi joined the Center in November 2001 as half-time research assistant and spearheaded nearly two years of remarkable progress. For example, through efforts that she coordinated the ACDC literature collection has grown at a record pace since she arrived, from 19,000 to more than 23,000 documents. The Center web site, including the searchable bibliographic database, served a record number of nearly 98,000 requests during 2002. Users from more than 30 countries visited the site and requested files during the year.

Among other contributions, Yiqi redesigned the ACDC web site, expanded the use of live links and helped implement a new “Features” page on the site. We are most grateful for her skillful, dedicated service and wish her the best in her career.

Notice of a new Center e-mail address.

You will notice a slightly different e-mail address for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Our new address is: docctr@library.uiuc.edu.

Please use this address for future e-mail contact with the Center. Also, please change any local address book entries you may have on your local computers for the Center. Security and spam-related problems account for this revision. Thank you.

Professional activities approaching

September 26-28, 2003
Fall meeting of the North American Agricultural Journalists Association (NAAJ) in Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://naaj.tamu.edu

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsuagcenter.com.

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.

On sea harvests and shoe selection.

By popular request, we end this issue with two more classified advertisements. They come from a rural newspaper published in 1908.

“Wanted – a boy to open oysters fifteen years old.”
“Personal – Edward Jones has opened a shoestore on Front Street. Mr. Jones guarantees that any one can have a fit in his store.”

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

August 2003

One-on-one consulting shows value in $$$$$.

We recently came upon one of those rare research projects that assess the economic value of agricultural information. The study invited clients to report on their use of crop management information during 1996-1998 from one-on-one consultations with Iowa State University extension specialists.

“Fifty-eight percent of crop management respondents indicated the information saved them $11 an acre or more. … At a time when both crop and livestock prices are at record lows, these savings are crucial to the producer and show the value of Extension information to the producer’s operation.”

Reference: Use a title search (Portfolio for the 21st century) or author search (Petrzelka) for the full citation. The article from Journal of Extension was posted at:
http://www.joe.org/joe/1999december/comm1.html.

Communications to be a research theme of IFPRI.

During the years ahead, communications will be one of 12 major themes for the International Food Policy Research Institute. A recent strategy document of the organization identified “urban-rural linkages” as an area of research priority.

“With urbanization and rural change, new research will address urban-rural linkages, including consumption linkages, resource flows, communications, and labor migration and gender roles, as well as policy linkages.”

Reference: The full report, “IFPRI’s strategy toward food and nutrition security: food policy research, capacity strengthening and policy communication,” was posted on: www.ifpri.org/about/ifpristrategy.pdf

First employee publication in North America was agricultural. 

Researcher Peter Johansen offered that observation in a Journalism History article that we added recently to the ACDC collection. According to his finding: “In 1885, a Toronto-based agricultural implements maker, the Massey Manufacturing Company, inaugurated the Trip Hammer, which is widely believed to be the first true employee publication in North America.” He analyzed the purpose and content of it within the context of the Massey operation.

Reference: Use a title search (For better, higher) or author search (Johansen) for the full citation.

Rural development project keeps “marginalizing women.”

“Despite its bottom-up, participatory approach to development, this World Bank project keeps marginalizing women, assuming that only men play crucial roles in processes of community and nation building,” she said. She pointed toward a multi-layered discourse of development that “reinforces patriarchal cultural codes that exclude women from active participation in development projects.”

Reference: Use a title search (Shattering butterflies) or author search (Rodriguez) for the full citation.

Farm women using the internet more than their husbands use it.

“The internet is a tool for women’s traditional activities of bookkeeping and information seeking,” observed Supriya Singh in her study of gender differences in internet use among Australian farm couples. “Women also use the internet to connect with other women and family.”

These two appeals of the internet help explain why farm women use it more than do their husbands, according to Singh. “When women are comfortable with technology as a tool for activities, they stop seeing it as technology.”

Reference: Use a title search (Gender and the use of the internet) or author search (Singh) for the full citation.

Ethical lapses in farm publishing.

In 1931, Herbert Hungerford wrote of a circulation-boosting method known as “sheet writing:”

“If you have ever attended a county fair or a city exposition, probably you have seen some of the slickest boys in the tricky circulation game ‘doing their stuff.’ As you approach the magazine booth, one of the smiling subscription salesmen holds out a flashy fountain pen and hails you – ‘Free souvenir of the fair, mister?’ But, as you reach out to grasp the pen, you find your smiling friend grasping your hand instead as he promptly explains that this ‘free souvenir’ is given away to introduce a certain magazine which you also will receive free, provided you simply pay the postage required by the Government. If you hesitate, you are now handed the pen and urged to test its merits by writing your name on a slip of paper provided by your obliging salesman. Then if you do not fall for a ‘free souvenir subscription,’ the salesman will try at least to obtain your address and you may be enrolled as a subscriber anyway.”

Reference: Use a title search (How publishers win) or author search (Hungerford) for the full citation.

“Tips for tough interviews” 

Is the title of a recent article in the ByLine newsletter of American Agricultural Editors’ Association. Author Gil Gullickson referred to “those stories that aren’t so fun.” Examples: “The one about the farmer selling out a four-generation farm due to financial pressure. The one about the grandfather who ran over his grandson with a tractor. Or the one about the farmer facing a potential prison term.” Gullickson offered six ideas to help ease that job.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Gullickson) for the full reference.

Media coverage of the mad cow scare in Canada.

A Saskatchewan farmer’s view appeared in a newspaper article during late May. Kevin Hursh observed: “…there’s often a tendency to vilify the media and the swarms of reporters and photographers can be unsettling for producers who are used to their privacy, but for the most part…the media has done a reasonable job under difficult circumstances.”

He also commended the media for casting light on practices such as rendering dead animals into animal protein for pigs, chickens and pets. “While the general public may find this unsavoury, it’s reality.”

Reference: Use a title search (Mad cow coverage) or author search (Hursh) for the full citation. The article was posted online (May 28, 2003) at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

Professional activities approaching

September 28-30, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” A superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsu.agcenter.com/ace

October 1, 2003
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions are open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

August 2003

Fifteen new research papers from 2003 ACE Conference. 

We are pleased to help announce the peer-reviewed research papers presented during an Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) conference in Kansas City, Missouri, during June. Use the e-mail addresses to get in touch with authors of papers that may hold special interest for you.

Theme: “Technologies and teaching issues”

• “Signaling quality in an E-commerce environment: the case of an emerging e-grocery sector.” Stan Ernst (Ernst.1@osu.edu), Neal H. Hooker, Julia Heilig, Ohio State University.
• “GNC University: a case study in partnering business and education through distance learning.” Lisa K. Lundy (lkj@ufl.edu), Tracy A. Irani, R. Elaine Turner, Susan S. Percival, Britton McPherson, University of Florida.
• “Developing agricultural communications’ products for stakeholders: examining the relationship between stakeholders’ backgrounds in the sciences/languages and their ability to decode scientific terminology.” Susan Grantham (grantham@ufl.edu), Tracy A. Irani, University of Florida.
• “Relationship between Extension worldviews, perceptions of Extension roles, and the use of Extension in the Florida beef cattle industry.” Emily E. Eubanks, Tracy A. Irani (irani@ufl.edu), University of Florida.
• “Critical thinking dispositions of agricultural communication students.” Emily Bisdorf-Rhoades, Lisa K. Lundy (lkj@ufl.edu), Tracy A. Irani, Ricky Telg, University of Florida.
  

Theme: “Communication sources, channels and current issues”

• “Is your food safe or scary? How U.S. news magazines communicated food safety issues, 1990-2000.” Sherrie R. Whaley (whaley.3@osu.edu), Ohio State University; David L. Doerfert, Texas Tech University.
• “Preferred communication sources and food-related risks: a statewide analysis.” Sherrie R. Whaley (whaley.3@osu.edu), Mark Tucker, Jeff Sharp, Lynn Knipe, Ohio State University.
• “Reaching Florida urban opinion leaders: a quantitative study to uncover preferred communication channels.” Amanda Ruth, Lisa K. Lundy (lkj@ufl.edu), University of Florida.
• “Future agricultural communicators’ awareness of and attitudes toward biotechnology issues reported in mass media.” Gary J. Wingenbach (g-wingenbach@tamu.edu), Tracy A. Rutherford, Deborah W. Dunsford, Texas A&M University.
• “Selected college students’ knowledge and perceptions of biotechnology issues reported in mass media.” Gary J. Wingenbach (g-wingenbach@tamu.edu), Tracy A. Rutherford, Deborah W. Dunsford, Texas A&M University.

Theme: “Biotechnology: advertising, media coverage and public opinion”

• “Consumer perceptions of trust, risk and credibility of agricultural biotechnology advertising.” Tracy Irani (irani@ufl.edu), Janas Sinclair, University of Florida.
• “GMOs generate few fears here: an in-depth look at understanding, attitudes and behaviors about food irradiation and genetically modified organisms by Iowans.” Eric A. Abbott (eabbott@iastate.edu), Iowa State University.
• “Framing biotechnology: a comparison of U.S. and British newspapers.” Lisa K. Lundy (lkj@ufl.edu), Tracy Irani, University of Florida.
• “Oregon’s vote to label genetically engineered food: a case study of the media messages designed to influence voters.” David L. Doerfert (david.doerfert@ttu.edu), Cindy Akers, Jacqui Haygood, Mark Kistler, Texas Tech University.
• “Opinion leaders’ attitudes toward genetic engineering: the Philippine case.” Lulu Rodriguez (lulurod@iastate.edu), Iowa State University.

“Americans starved for dietary information.” 

That is the title from a 2002 Gallup Poll summary that we added recently to the ACDC collection. Nearly one in four Americans (24%) is very confused or somewhat confused about how to eat a healthy diet, up from 17% three years ago.

“A large percentage of Americans are trying to keep up-to-date on how to eat well – 55% say they pay at least a fair amount of attention to food warnings and nutritional recommendations.”

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Brooks) for the full citation.

Are agricultural futures markets generating accurate price information? 

Agricultural economist Scott Irwin shed light on this question in a presentation at the 2003 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum. His research examined the extent to which increased concentration of trading by large, “managed” funds artificially increases price volatility in agricultural futures markets. Results revealed “strong evidence of a small, but positive, relationship” between futures price volatility and trading volume of large, “managed” funds.

Reference: Use a title search (Are futures markets) or author search (Irwin) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

September 28, 2003
“Media relations made easy.” Superworkshop of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Information: www.lsuagcenter.com/ace

October 1, 2002
Deadline for research papers and professional papers to be considered for presentation to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association for Agricultural Scientists.
SAAS meets in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

February 14-18, 2004.
Submissions are open to all members of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: rtelg@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.

Of interest to gardeners and job seekers.

We close this issue of ACDC News with two classified ads that may interest you if you garden and/or seek a change of occupation.

“For sale: Garden tools that make work easier and last longer.”
“Wanted: A competent person to undertake the sale of a new medicine that will prove highly lucrative to the undertaker.”

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

“I don’t get to be Bob Woodward every day here

…but I do have a chance to make a difference in our community.” That was the observation of one reporter cited in a recent article about rural weekly newspapers in West Virginia. The article described rural newspaper journalism as an “intimate undertaking” and rural weeklies as “invaluable voices that often are the only source of local news.”

Reference: On the “Real Search” page of the ACDC web site, use a title search (Up close and personal) or author search (Temple) for the full citation.

Never use the word “miracle” in reporting about food or health.

“Leave that to ministers, mayonnaise-makers and sportswriters,” according to Mervin Block. His suggestion was part of an article in American Journalism Reviewabout how news media can help consumers deal with confusing, conflicting information about fat in the foods they eat.

Reference: Use a title search (Fat city) or author search (Smolkin) for the full citation.

Why “farmer participation” is often more talk than walk. 

Internationally, hundreds of agricultural and rural development proposals and analyses call for greater farmer participation in matters that affect them. Experiences throughout the world are showing the need for “grassroots” rather than “top-down” approaches. A recent article in the Journal of Social Development in Africa offered a case example and identified some reasons for resistance to participatory approaches. Among them:

• Participatory development “means giving away some of the authority that is most treasured by the traditional practitioner – the authority to decide for others.”
• It calls for a total change in management styles, official and personal interactions as well as procedures. “It requires that development agencies soften their hierarchy, revise project management procedures and produce new training materials.”
• Non-governmental organizations that “are the most relevant in spreading the ideals of participatory development” rely on external funding, so must account to their financiers rather than to the communities they are supposed to assist.”Reference: Use a title search (Trends in participatory development) or author search (Dipholo) for the full citation.

Training of environmental reporters. 

A study reported in Newspaper Research Journal during late 2000 showed that fewer than half (45 percent) of the surveyed environmental reporters had specific training to cover the environment. Researchers also found that “many environmental reporters have reduced their commitment to the beat, and see their news organizations as doing the same.”

Reference: Use a title search (Changing work environments) or author search (Detjen) for the full citation.

Similar situation in training for health reporting. 

A 1999 survey by Melinda Voss among newspaper health reporters in the Midwest U.S. showed that nearly 83 percent said they had “no training, besides on-the-job experience, that specifically helped them cover health issues.” Only 31 percent felt “very confident” reporting health news; others said they lacked proficiency and wanted help.

In a 2003 issue of Nieman Reports, Voss offered ideas about how to encourage professional development through workshops, seminars and curricula.

Reference: Use a title search (Why reporters and editors) or author search (Voss) for the full citation. The article was posted on: 
www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/03-1NRspring/46-48V57N1.pdf
A related report by Voss was posted on: www.ahcj.umn.edu/files/checkthepulse.pdf

What interest does ACDC take in environmental and health reporting? 

When you search the ACDC collection you can find hundreds of articles about these fields of interest. We don’t, however, include all aspects of environmental and health communicating. Here are some of the guidelines used to decide what goes into ACDC:

• Environmental communications. We look for environment-related literature that touches on the connections between the environment and agriculture, food, and rural matters. For example, we are particularly interested in communications as related to soil and water conservation; pollution due to runoff of soil, fertilizers or pesticides from farmland; management of forests, wildlife and other rural aspects of natural resource management; food-related implications of global warming; and management of livestock wastes, among others. You will also find literature on media reporting about these aspects of the environment.
• Health communications. In this broad subject area, we search particularly for literature about communications as related to (a) food, diet and nutrition and (b) rural health. As a result, for example, you will find considerable information in ACDC about consumer perceptions and understanding of food; how consumers make decisions about their diets; health aspects of food promotion and purchase; and nutrition education programs. You will also find literature about attitudes of rural people toward their health; information technology for delivering rural health services; and programs of health information/education for rural people.

On the powerful role of agricultural information.

“This study provides new evidence on the powerful role of information in shaping consumer response to agricultural biotechnology,” concluded a recent report from the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The researchers used an experimental auction to assess consumers’ willingness to pay for three different food items with and without biotech labels. Prior to the bidding, each participant received one of six information packets containing statements about biotechnology gathered from a variety of revealed sources.

Findings showed that the information participants received significantly affected their bids for biotech-labeled and plain-labeled foods. Also, the study showed how consumers reacted not just to the content of information, but also to the source.

Reference: Use a title search (Effects of information on consumer demand) or author search (Tegene) for the full citation. The technical bulletin was posted on:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/tb1903/tb1903.pdf

Ethics and methods of covering sensitive rural matters.

“The Amish, Old Orders and the Media” was the title of a conference in Pennsylvania that addressed the topic during 2001. Recently we added to the ACDC collection a conference report published by Media Ethics. It featured six views of the “culture clash between the traditional Old Orders and the modern media of mass communication.” Presenters offered case examples, including perspectives on avoiding stereotypes and misrepresentations, finding sources, taking photographs, reporting deaths and crimes, and handling the “perils of insensitive deadline-driven ‘outsiders’ reporting on ‘insiders’.”

Reference: Use a title search (Amish, old orders and the media) for the full citation, including authors, titles and subjects covered in the individual presentations.

So, how did you farm magazine historians do?

How did you respond to the question raised in Issue 03-10:

When did demographic breakouts begin to appear in farm periodicals?

Our hunch – 1893 – is based on a technique, “zone advertising,” used by James M. Pierce, publisher of Pierce’s Farm Weeklies, as early as that year. In “zone advertising,” publishers divided their circulation so advertisers could cover territories or zones favorable to their selling plans. Pierce “zoned” editorial content as well as advertising.

Professional activities approaching

July 27-30, 2003
“Cleveland Rocks!” Agricultural Publications Summit, a joint meeting of
American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and American Business Media: Agri-Council in Cleveland, Ohio. Information: http://www.ageditors.com

July 30-31, 2003
Summer Meeting, Agricultural Relations Council, at Cleveland, Ohio. Celebrates 50th anniversary of ARC.
Information: http://www.nama.org/arc/

July 30-August 1, 2003
InfoAg 2003 at Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized by the Foundation for Agronomic Research, Potash and Phosphate Institute and Croplife Media Group.
Information: http://www.farmresearch.com/infoag/

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Educators, networkers, recruiters, trainers and salespeople. 

Public affairs specialists fill all those roles, and more, according to a recent article in FDA Consumer magazine. Author Linda Bren reported that 2002 marked “the 50th anniversary of this elite team of more than 40 professionals” working within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They “reached more than 1 million people through 2,300 outreach and educational programs and 450 workshops, conferences, and meetings. All told, the team responded to over 10,000 inquiries in 2001.”

This article, added recently to the ACDC collection, described the history of public affairs specialists within FDA and cited examples to show their broadening range of responsibilities.

Reference: Use a title search (Public affairs specialists) or author search (Bren) for the full citation. The article was posted on: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2002/602_pas.html

Grassroots approach worked better. 

Two case histories reported earlier this year in Rural Cooperatives documented that point. A study by Randy Ziegenhorn examined results of two cooperative-like networks organized by Iowa hog farmers to improve their profitability. One cooperative, involving an Extension Service pork team, “was formed among those farmers described as ‘progressive enough to accept the networking concept’.” It played out into a “top-down, one-size-fits-all production model that didn’t fit the needs of the members.” Another network, formed by a veterinarian, developed a “bottom-up” plan to fit a group of farmers with similar production and financial needs.

The article briefly described results of the two network approaches.

Reference: Use a title search (Network difficulties) or author search (Ziegenhorn) for the full citation. Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu if you are interested in seeing the article, but have no local access to it.

Participation: part of a long-term shift. 

Bryant E. Kearl, University of Wisconsin, observed that in the 1960s “applied research in communications in agricultural development could confine itself to a single question: how can messages about improved farming practices be made more persuasive and brought more fully to the attention of the man on the land.” By the mid-1970s, he said, two important new questions had emerged:

1. What channels of communication, administrative or otherwise, will best integrate the contributions of diverse public and private agencies in meeting agricultural development needs?
   2. What communications channels and devices will help rural people clarify their alternatives, organize their resources, and make those outside the community aware of their needs?

He foresaw an increasing “judgment that, to the maximum extent possible, the decisions that relate to development need to be decentralized and placed close to the people they affect.” More than a quarter century later, the extent to which that vision has or has not materialized remains a hot topic for debate, globally.

Reference: Use a title search (Communication for agricultural development) or author search (Kearl) for the full citation.

Room for improvement in food safety knowledge.

“We were very surprised to see that most people in Ireland do not know the correct temperature to operate the fridge at,” said the marketing and communications director of the Food Safety Promotion Board. A recent survey among more than 1,000 persons revealed that 78 percent did not know the correct temperature for food refrigeration. This finding, and others, illustrated “a clear need for greater information on food safety.”

Reference: Use a title search (New study reveals room) for the full citation. A news summary was posted at: http://www.safefoodonline.com

How you ask the biotech questions – it matters. 

Public opinion findings (2001-2002) from Europe illustrate how opinions on eating food produced using biotechnology can be affected by the way the question was phrased or asked. A review by KRC Research indicated “more neutral language leads to higher levels of support.” For example, among European consumers, “few support using [biotechnology] to genetically modify food.” However, “50 percent of the UK respondents say they would support using biotechnology for ‘food production’.”

Reference: Use a title search (EU views on agri-biotech) for the full citation. A summary of the review was posted onhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/CBTNews/2003_Issues/April/CBT_April_4.htm

Wings clipped on scientist critical of agri-biotech? 

The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported earlier this year a “squabble” about whether a junior University of California-Berkeley professor “who has become a leading biotech industry critic can get a fair hearing in a tenure review.” The article involved Ignacio Chapela, “who in 1998 led a fight against a controversial research partnership between the biotech firm Novartis and Berkeley’s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Chapela…also co-wrote a journal article in 2001 in which he reported finding gene fragments from bioengineered corn in the genomes of native Mexican maize.”

Critics and supporters of the junior professor, on campus and off, were weighing in with their views. In late March, the tenure review had already gone twice as long as usual.

Reference: Use a title search (Critic of biotech corn fears) or author text (Abate) for the full citation. Archived March 23 on: http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm. This document adds to ACDC resources involving information control, scientific communication, ethical issues and related subjects. Use subject terms such as these to scout the current collection.

How farmers are spending their time with media. 

“How has the time spent with media changed, if at all, because of your use of the internet?” An Ag Media Research (AMR) radio study showed the following responses to that question among farmers interviewed early in 2003 at the Belt Wide Cotton Conference, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Convention and Commodity Classic:

• 34.7% said less time with television, 58.8% said no change
• 26.3% said less time with magazines, 64.6% said no change
• 17.2% said less time with radio, 75.6% said no change
• 32.8% said less time with direct mail

Reference: Use a title search (2003 AMR Intercept) for the full citation.

The rural “economy of affection.”

We noted that expression used in a recent journal article about persistence of the family farm. Researcher Jilly M. Ngwainmbi was analyzing this subject in Cameroon, but some of the points seem to resonate well beyond that nation.

“Agricultural policies driven by economic models which only assume farmers’ responsiveness to economic incentives, without considering other subjective values…tend to alienate farmers and are doomed to failure,” the author argued. Results of this case study indicated:
1. “There is a sacred component to agriculture,
2. there are rituals which provide for social bonding, and
3. there is a process of self-definition, self-determination, and self-actualization associated with food production.”

Reference: Use a title search (Persistence of the family farm) or author search (Ngwainmbi) for the full citation.

Professional activities approaching

July 27-30, 2003
“Cleveland Rocks!” Agricultural Publications Summit, a joint meeting of American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and American Business Media: Agri-Council in Cleveland, Ohio.
Information: http://www.ageditors.com

More rural classifieds

“Wanted: A laborer and a boy; with grazing for two goats; both Protestants.”

“Lost: Lost near Tipperary, on or about Tuesday morning last, a large pig. Had no marks on his ears except a short tail, and a slight limp in one leg.”

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Rural life – a crime scene on network news. 

More than three of every four network television news stories about rural America focus on crime, according to a recent study by the Center for Media and Public affairs. A news release summarizing the findings of this 2002 analysis also reported an agenda gap between print and network coverage of rural issues.

“Land use issues such as urban sprawl received the most attention in major newspapers and news magazines, while television ignored these issues entirely. News reports in print or on television rarely linked rural life to agriculture, and Currier and Ives-like portrayals of rural charm were balanced by depictions of an economically challenged or socially marginal environment.”

Reference: On the ACDC “Real Search” page, use a title search (Rural life is a crime scene) for the full citation. The news release was posted on: http://www.wkkf.org/Programming/ResourceOverview.aspx?CID=274&ID=3786

CBS Television also “stirred up a hornet’s nest in rural America”

 Recently when it decided to produce a reality show with real hillbillies. In FarmWeek, commentator Stewart Truelsen indicated: “Casting was under way in Appalachia and the South when CBS encountered a firestorm of criticism. … Country folks don’t mind poking a little fun at themselves, but get tired of New York and Hollywood looking down their noses at them.”

Reference: Use a title search (CBS stirs up) or author search (Truelsen) for the full citation. You can identify other related documents by conducting a subject search or cross-search, using terms such as “rural-urban communication” or “image farmers.” 

Communication and communications. New and old perspectives. 

Rapid changes in information technology are stirring new discussions about a well-worn subject. That is, how do “communication” and “communications” differ? A new book, Transforming communication, addressed the question aggressively as authors cited definitions that trace back decades, yet invite continuing renewal. One author put it this way:

Communication – “the quest for satisfactory and deeper human interaction and dialogue, based on a sharing of mutually recognized signs.”

Communications – “technology, systems innovation and the speed and quantity of messages.”

The editors observed in their introduction: “…more often than not communication is captured by information.” They described transformative communication as “future generations oriented, inclusive of alternative ways of knowing, critical of technocracy, and based on direct and structural free flow of ideas and of the worldviews that are seeded in them.”

Reference: Use a title search (Transforming communication) or author search (Leggett) for the full citation.

Can new grads side-step practical experience? 

“No,” say employers these days when they talk with aspiring agricultural communicators. Most insist that courses aren’t enough to prepare professional communicators. And not much has changed over the past 90 years or so. We recently entered into the ACDC collection a 1911 Agricultural Advertising commentary that offered advice to new “ad school” graduates.

“The evolution of the safe, sane, well-balanced, hundred-point advertising man requires a certain amount of time, no matter what his natural qualifications may be or how well grounded he is as to correct principles. No one was ever known to skip this practical apprenticeship and to arrive at the fullness of advertising ability. …at best, an advertising course only fits you to capably begin an advertising apprenticeship.”

Reference: Use a title search (Plaint of the ad school graduate) for the full citation.

How agricultural editors and publishers are using the Internet. 

A recent article in The ByLine, newsletter of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), examined this matter. Editors and publishers cited varied uses such as:

• Expanding on articles
• Providing additional sources of information
• Reaching readers between issues, through e-newsletters
• Increasing interactivity with readers and among readers
• Providing an instant outlet for news and perspectives on the news
• Conducting polls and other kinds of online research
• Delivering online education

Reference: Use a title search (Up with the web) or author search (Gullickson) for the full citation.

For you farm magazine historians. 

Here’s another question for your consideration in our ongoing series:

When did demographic breakouts begin to appear in farm periodicals?

Let us know by June 15 if you have a handle on this one. There’ll be a big prize, of course.

Rural telephone customers taking a hit? 

“Affordable telephone service in rural America may be at risk”, according to a recent study on interstate cost recovery trends. A study by the National Exchange Carriers Association (NECA) showed that “the local service bill continues to increase as regulators shift costs from interstate access charges, paid by long distance carriers, to line items paid by end-user customers. These shifts have a disproportionate effect on rural customers, who live in areas where the underlying cost of service is higher than in non-rural areas and who have lower average incomes than their non-rural counterparts.”

Reference: Use a title search (Study reveals shifts) for the full citation. A news release about the study was posted on: http://www.neca.org/print/neca_156_1128.asp?Archives

M. Wettach, agricultural photographer.

Two remarkable recent projects – a book and a television documentary – reveal the skills and eye of a man whose photos help reveal rural life and people in the Midwestern United States a half-century ago.

• Leslie A. Loveless, A bountiful harvest: the Midwestern farm photographs of Pete Wettach, 1925-1965. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. 2002. 137 pages, including more than 100 photos selected from thousands in the Wettach collection. Contact: http://www.uiowa.edu/~uipress
• “The people in the pictures: stories from the Wettach farm photos.” This documentary, produced by Laurel Bower, aired to popular acclaim on Iowa Public Television and is available in VCR or DVD formats. Contact via www.iptv.org or 800-532-1290.

Wettach worked for the Farm Security Administration as a county supervisor in southeastern Iowa during the 1930s and 1940s. An introduction to the book explains: “He carried his camera as he traveled across the countryside visiting clients. Although Wettach was not hired as an FSA photographer, his pictures provide a fascinating parallel to the more famous work of his FSA colleagues Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Russell Lee. Yet unlike their photographs, his reveal an amazing intimacy and familiarity with his subjects, who were frequently his friends, neighbors, family members, and clients.” During his career, he sold photos that appeared often in issues of Wallaces Farmer and other farm magazines, general interest publications and newspapers.

Professional activities approaching

June 14-17, 2003
Cool bytes: jazz nights.” Annual meeting of the International Associationof Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE), National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) and National Agricultural Communicators Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) in Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.oznet.ksu.edu/kc2003

June 18-21, 2003
Summer meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) In Louisville, Kentucky.
Information: http://www.nafb.com or Jeanette Merritt at 317-684-4173

June 18-22, 2003
“Farming under the public eye.” Meeting of the International Federation ofAgricultural Journalists (IFAJ) at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Information: www.ifaj2003.nl

Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).