ACDC Newsletter

How could a rural town of 558 residents and limited resources move aggressively into the world of information technology?

A recent AOL Rural Telecommunications Award recognized an imaginative effort in Maddock, North Dakota USA. You can see details in a case study reported in Information and communication technologies and rural development. This study described how the community caught a vision, assembled resources and created the Maddock Business and Technology Center.

A new building provided a centerpiece for action. Within it, the Center provides business services, public computer access, computer training and various computer-assisted courses. The Center even provides childcare services for young parents. It nurtures new or fledgling small businesses by providing “a package of training, affordable space, shared administrative and office services and equipment along with management assistance services.”

Reference: On the ACDC “Real Search” page, use a title search (Information and communication technologies) for the full citation.

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Federal legislators view rural America today. 

We have added to the ACDC collection an interesting 2002 research report, Perceptions of rural America: Congressional perspectives. The reported survey, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, involved a bi-partisan sample of 26 members of Congress representing a diverse range of states. Through personal interviews, legislators expressed their views about topics such as:

• The importance of rural America to the nation
• Whether rural areas represent something special in American society
• Problems facing rural America
• The state of rural policy (the farm bill)
• Preserving the rural environment
• Who speaks for rural America
• The future of rural policy making

Communications emerged as a high-priority factor in the minds of these legislators. They agreed, for example, that expanding access to broadband in rural areas should a major goal in their legislative efforts.

Reference: Use a title search (Perceptions of rural America) for the full citation. The report was posted on: www.wkkf.org/Pubs/FoodRur/Pub3699.pdf

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Digital gap narrowing for rural America? 

The gap between households in rural areas and households nationwide that access the Internet has narrowed dramatically, according to an August 2000 study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“Rural households are much closer to the nationwide Internet penetration rate of 41.5%. In rural areas this year, 38.9% of the households had Internet access, a 75% increase from 22.2% in December 1998.”

Reference: Use a title search (Toward digital inclusion) for the full citation. The study was posted online at: www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/execsumfttn00.htm

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Some recent inquires directed our way. 

Here are the topics involved in some of the requests that have come to the Center recently:

• Attitude, perception and behavior surveys
• Lists of free-lance agricultural writers
• Access to samples of recorded farm radio programming
• Current U.S. degree programs in agricultural journalism and agricultural communications
• Role and effectiveness of journalism in support of agricultural and rural development
• Sources of agricultural stock photos
• Academic base for agricultural communications
• Skills needed by farm broadcasters

And, yes, the inquiries sometimes fall outside of our help-zone. For example, we were not able to provide a copy of the following requested journal article: “DNA extraction method for PCR in mycorrhizal fungi.” A referral was all we could provide.

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Back to the country. 

Pushed or pulled? A recently published study examined the motivations of Americans involved in migration to farms during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Researcher Robert Boyd found that the rate of migration was greatest in places where the search for work by the unemployed was most intense and long-term. So he concluded: “The ‘push’ of economic dislocation was a more significant factor in the migration than was the ‘pull’ of the expected payoff to the movement.”

Reference: Use a title search (Migration of despair) or author search (Boyd) for the full citation.

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“A class in agricultural journalism for girls has been established in the College of Commerce and Journalism of the Ohio State University.”

Would you believe this class was offered in 1918? According to a news report in Agricultural Advertising magazine, the class was intended to “help girls taking courses in home economics to learn how to prepare material for local and farm papers.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Class in agricultural journalism”) for the full citation.

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Covering all sides of an issue. 

U.S. farm broadcasters are taking a fresh look at their role in covering agricultural issues. A recent issue of NAFB Chats, newsletter of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, offered perspectives from three broadcasters. Among the comments:

• “I think it’s a lot easier now to get both sides of the story.”
• “I believe it’s good for any industry…to have two sides presented.”
• “There’s a fine line between advocacy and objectivity. For many, many years, farm broadcasters have been viewed as advocates for agriculture and that’s still an important role. But in this day and age, we have to be journalists as well and that means we have to be objective and cover both sides of the story. That’s the kind of standard I want to set as a journalist.”
• “Even though we have to ask those tough questions, they look forward to having us come back.”

Reference: Use a title search (Broadcasters say diversity) or author search (Crebs) for the full citation.

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Rural news from the classifieds.

“Just received a fine lot of live Ostend rabbits. Persons purchasing the same will be skinned and cleaned while they wait.”

“Wanted – a young man to take care of a pair of mules of a Christian disposition.”

“No person having once tried one of these coffins will ever use any other.”

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Professional activities approaching

May 13-14, 2003

Bridging the “digital divide.” Workshop focusing on Cooperative Extension System programs that help community leaders and residents move into the information age. Sponsored by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development and hosted at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Information: www.cas.nercrd.psu.edu/bdd.htm

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

June 21-24, 2003
50 years: raising the standards of cooperative communication.50th Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association(CCA) in Madison, Wisconsin.
Information:www.communicators.coo

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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).

Higher-wire balancing act for science communicators. 

A talk delivered at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science highlighted this need. David Dickson used recent food safety scares in Britain to illustrate how “science communication has become a major factor in the formulation of policy on science-related issues, not just a commentary on the way such issues are addressed.” He argued that science communicators must “balance a desire to inform the public about the scientific perspective on controversial issues – such as BSE or genetically-modified crops – with an awareness of the political interests that may lie on each side of such a dispute.”

He recommended a two-way process in which science communicators become “proxies for the public when it comes to interpreting and articulating the relationship between science and society, or to put it another way, between knowledge and power.”

Reference: Use a title search (Bringing science communication) or author search (Dickson) for the full citation. The presentation was posted online at:
http://www.scidev.net/archives/editorial/comment52.html

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Rural America after 9/11.

“A quarter of people who live in large cities nationwide say their lives have changed in a major way” since the attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a year-later survey by Princeton Survey Research Associates. That is “twice the rate found in small towns and rural areas.”

Reference: Use a title search (One year later) for the full citation. This survey report was posted on: http://www.people-press.org/reports

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How an era of media mergers may affect environmental news coverage. 

Will fewer media outlets and pervasive cross-ownership result in one-dimensional coverage of environmental issues? Probably not, according to results of a recent 29-year content analysis involving 1,180 articles about environmental pollution. They appeared in four kinds of newspapers that vary widely in circulation, geographic location and types of readers. Researcher Linda Jean Kensicki observed that predictions of one-dimensional content may be off base. Why? Because the content already is one-dimensional and has been unchanging. “…all newspapers showed a rather monolithic presentation of the environmental movement and of air pollution. … This could only be explained by a pervasive strength in journalist norms, routines and values.”

Reference: Use a title search (No exceptions to the rule) or author search (Kensicki) for the full citation. The research paper was posted (September 2002, Week 3) on:
http://list.msu.edu/archives/aejmc.html

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Dangers of editing with both eyes on the advertisers. 

“If an editor must write with both eyes on the advertisers, it’s a long farewell to social, economic and moral progress.” This comment in an editorial of Farm, Stock and Home (1915)reveals the deep roots of concern about the dangers of compromising editorial freedom and integrity in commercial farm publishing. The concern has not been confined to farm publishing, of course, but touches all periodicals that rely on reader subscriptions and advertising for their survival. Nor has the concern appeared to diminish through the decades.

Reference: Use a title search (Advertising and editorial freedom) for the full citation. For another early reference about this issue, use a title search (Standards of practice).

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New research about media coverage of agriculture. 

Two research reports dealt with this subject at the recent National Agricultural Education Research Conference in Nevada:

1. Cartmell, J. Dyer and R. Birkenholz, “Gatekeeping decisions of Arkansas daily newspaper editors in publishing agricultural news.” Results showed, for example, that in choosing agricultural news the editors viewed health, food safety and environmental issues as the areas of greatest interest.

“J. Haygood, S. Hagins, C. Akers and L. Kieth, “Associated Press Wire Service coverage of agricultural issues.” Findings indicated that fewer than one-half of the statements from the Associated Press news service were based on verifiable facts. Researchers called for “continued educational efforts to increase the agricultural literacy of reporters.”

Reference: The papers were posted online at: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2002/naercfiles/papers.htm

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Innovative rural uses of information technologies. 

The East Clare Telecottage in Ireland offers an interesting example, as reported in a 2001 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). County of East Clare features a predominantly agricultural economy (sheep and dairy) that is experiencing a population drain. The East Clare Telecottage, created in 1991 as a cooperative venture, later became private. At the time of the OECD report, it employed nine persons fulltime and delivered to the community a wide range of IT-related services. Examples:

• printing, word processing, mailing, photocopying, message services
• telemarketing services and call center services to help local businesses reach customers through advertising or marketing campaigns
• consultancy services to help local interests respond to calls for proposals
• training programs for individuals and businesses. Examples: delivery of the European Computer Driving License and courses for farmers through an agreement with the National Farm IT Centre

Reference: Use a title search (Information and communication technologies) for the full citation.

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“Communicator, market thyself,” 

urged Mark Bagby in his president’s column within a recent issue of CCA News. He explained to fellow members of the Cooperative Communicators Association, “…we went into this line of work because we love to create communications. We never realized we’d have to market ourselves and our departments, but that’s exactly what has happened, particularly when the term ‘communications’ has been co-opted by some to mean ‘hardware’.” He described other reasons for urgency in communicating within organizations about the value of what communicators do.

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

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Professional activities approaching

June 14-17, 2003
Cool bytes: jazz nights.” Annual meeting of the International Association of 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 18-22, 2003
“Farming under the public eye.” Meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Information: www.ifaj2003.nl

June 21-24, 2003
50 years: raising the standards of cooperative communication.50th Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association(CCA) in Madison, Wisconsin. Information:www.communicators.coo

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Hotshot agricultural salesmanship.

From an agri-business letter to a customer:

“We note that we have not been favored with your patronage for some time, and hope for a continuance of same.”

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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).

Struggling with the acronyms. 

“Who cares what I-F-A-S means?” Donald Poucher asked in a recent agricultural communications research paper. His analysis involved marketing efforts of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) at the University of Florida. Demonstrated private industry success led him to observe that the actual words in a “name” acronym are irrelevant. He cited this example:

“…who knows (or cares) about the meaning of IBM, KFC, 3M, AT&T, MGM, IT&T, NASDAQ, and many others? What matters is the branding of the name and its positioning among customers and potential customers.”

Reference: On the “Real Search” page, use a title search (“Out with the old”) or author search (Poucher) for the full citation. The paper was posted on:
http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/2003/poucher_.htm

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“People eat with their eyes,” 

Said H. A. Bereman in a 1916 article urging farmers to be more careful about promoting what they produce. “Did you ever think of that? That’s why we color our butter, and keep the white and brown eggs separate, and arrange the berries happy side up, and put things in spick and span shape before offering them to people who pick what looks nice.”

Looking ahead, Bereman argued, “As the farmer of the future is bound to devote more attention to marketing, advertising will occupy a large place in the plant of farm management. The only limit to this branch of business farming is the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the farmer himself.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Advertising farm products”) or author search (Bereman) for the full citation.

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Communication for development – 10 insights gained. 

Jan Servaes recently identified 10 “developments that seem to have taken shape” to influence viewpoints about the role of communication in development:

• The growth of a deeper understanding of communication itself
• A new understanding of communication as a two-way process
• A new understanding of culture
• The trend toward participatory democracy
• Recognition of the imbalance in communication resources
• The growing sense of globalization and cultural hybridization
• A new understanding of what is happening within the boundaries of the so-called nation-state
• Recognition of the “impact” of communication technology
• A new understanding towards an integration of distinct means of communication
• The recognition of dualistic or parallel communication structures

Reference: Use a title search (“Communication for development”) or author search (Servaes) for the full citation.

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When awareness meets profit in development communication.

Results of a recently reported study among coca growers in the jungle valleys of Peru offer a graphic lesson about the chasm between awareness and action. The growers – involved in illegal commercialization of coca leaf and cocaine basic paste (CBP) production – “consider coca leaf to be a most profitable product and a unique opportunity to improve their quality of life. Although growers acknowledge that a problem exists among local users, they do not assume any responsibility for CPB consumption and dissemination in rural areas.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Attitudes and values of Peruvian coca growers”) or author search (Rojas) for the full citation.

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Community participation – the forms it takes. 

Researchers Sheridan Coakes and Brian Bishop have noted that theories and analyses of social participation focus primarily on the political and formal role of participation. However, their recent research among rural women in six shires of Western Australia showed that persons “find it difficult to separate formal and informal participation, when both have an equally important role to play in community life.” When the women were asked about their involvement in their communities, about 50% referred initially to their informal participation within the community rather than to formal community groups or associations.

Reference: Use a title search (“Defining the nature of participation”) or author search (Coakes) for the full citation.

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Forces driving the privatization of information for agriculture.

Steven A. Wolf identified six economic and social forces in his introduction to a recent book featuring this subject:

• Consolidation and globalization of agriculture and agribusiness, resulting in more in-house information expertise and use of advisory services. At the same time, more part-time and/or small farmers need diverse kinds of information, often outside the traditional extension model.
• More customized information products (such as computer-aided databases and precision farming) rather than generic sets of regional recommendations. More interactive means of communication (such as internet and cellular technologies).
• Relaxed trade barriers, lower domestic subsidies and more producers competing internationally for market share. As a result, “farmers and agribusinesses have great incentive to capture the benefits of information and ‘shield’ information from other firms.”
• More differentiation of farm products and farm inputs, calling for more specialized information.
• Growing importance of environmental quality, diet and health, greater awareness of agriculture-related risks and resulting need for new kinds of information delivered to varied publics.
• Declining public investment in agricultural research and extension, resulting in more privatization of research and “marginalization of Extension.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Privatization of information”) or author search (Wolf) for the full citation.

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And some time-tested advice to part of the private sector. 

You can see that we close this issue of ACDC News on an historical note. How about this piece of advice from a 1904 issue of Agricultural Advertising magazine?

The well-bred Cow is lady-like
And gentle, mild and bland,
Altho’ sometimes her leg she’ll hike
And kick to beat the band.
Which teaches advertisers they
Must to the Public bow
Or, like the cow, the Public may
Kick up an awful row

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego,California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc/

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

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

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Going online for further information. 

Internet users in rural areas (45%) and small towns (47%) were more likely than those in large cities (38%) or suburbs (39%) to go online for additional information about stories they first saw in traditional media. These findings came from a 1996 Pew Research study that we added recently to the ACDC collection. Researchers observed considerable crossover among online users between use of traditional media and use of the Internet. They speculated that rural-urban differences may reflect “the limitations of the traditional media available to [rural and small town residents] locally.”

Reference: Use a title search (“News attracts most”) for the full citation. The summary of findings was posted on: www.people-press.org/reports

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Rural and urban views of wilderness. 

Similar, but quite different. That’s what researchers found in a study of attitudes and perceptions of wilderness in the U.S. Survey findings indicated that both rural and urban respondents expressed a positive attitude toward wilderness and a relatively high degree of environmental concern. However, findings from a photo task revealed that rural and urban residents differed in their understanding of what constitutes wilderness – and perceived the same environment in different ways.

Reference: Use a title search (“Wilderness”) or author search (Lutz) for the full citation.

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Accuracy and appeal of those TV weathercasts. 

Researcher Jeffrey Demas noted recently that television weather has not been studied in a communication journal since 1982. So he analyzed the accuracy of weather forecasts in central Ohio (USA) and interviewed 315 residents of that area. Among his findings:

• Stations were very accurate in predicting within 48 hours, but quite inaccurate in extended forecasts.
• The surveyed residents said they not only rely on the five-day forecasts, but also believe them to be accurate.
• Most respondents said they choose weather forecasts for reasons other than perceived accuracy.

Reference: Use a title search (“Weather accuracy”) or author search (Demas) for the full citation. The research paper was posted (September 2002, Week 1) on:
http://list.msu.edu/archives/aejmc.html

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Looking for agriculture-related literature on weather reporting?

We actively collect documents about this subject because weather information is often critically important to agricultural producers. You can identify dozens of documents if you search the ACDC collection using “weather” or “weather reports” as subject terms on the “Real Search” page. And you will see need and opportunity for more research about this aspect of agricultural communications.

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Surprises off the beaten path. 

It’s always a surprise to see the wide scatter of literature about the communications aspects of agriculture, food, rural affairs and related topics. As you know, we actively search for such literature, wherever it originates. Here are several examples of diverse periodicals from which we gathered articles during recent weeks: Ambio, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, American Behavioral Scientist, Ziff Davis Smart Business, Choices, Economic Botany, Journal of Community Psychology, Public Management, Agroforestry Systems, Expert Systems with Application, Substance Use and Misuse, and Food Policy.

As always, we welcome leads from you. Our limited efforts hardly scratch the surface in identifying and helping make available the global body of information about this important subject.

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We are not alone in struggling to identify literature related to the communications aspects of agriculture. 

After all, what should be defined as agriculture? Agricultural librarians and documentalists have wrestled for decades with this question, globally.

“I find it difficult to bring to mind a single subject that may not be implicated [in agriculture],” D. Leatherdale put it in 1973. According to B. Oviss Oruma in 1987, “Agriculture before the 20th century was understood to be related rather narrowly to farming. Since then, however, documentalists, agriculturists and agricultural researchers have redefined agriculture so generally as to make it unmanageably vast. So broad has agriculture become that it now embraces animal sciences, crop husbandry, forestry, fisheries, human food and nutrition, rural development and sociology, biotic resources, environmental sciences and much more.”

Today, we can add substantially to that list as agriculture is seen to encompass the entire food chain and the public/consumer aspects related to it. And, of course, every part of agriculture involves communications – the other partner concept of interest to us.

Reference: Use a title search (“Problems of information management in agriculture”) or author search (Oruma) for the full citation.

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At the same time, our knowledge base is deteriorating – physically. 

We are continually challenged by reports such as one in 1992 from the National Agricultural Library. The title read, “Study finds nation’s agricultural knowledge in danger.” Findings indicated that more than one-half of the monographs and serials in that important collection were disintegrating. More than one-fourth were brittle at that time, the contents in need of transfer to another medium.

We at ACDC share in the urgency of that mandate. Our role must involve not only helping identify and gather useful information, but also helping preserve it.

Reference: Use a title search (Study finds agricultural) or author search (Norris) for the full citation.

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Risks of reporter specialization. 

What happens when newspapers use specialized reporters on the news staff? Will specialized reporters increase the diversity of media content and help the public become informed about a wider range of public problems?

A research report that we added recently to the ACDC collection provided little support for such a scenario. Instead, researchers concluded: “What specialist reporting provides, these findings suggest, is another mechanism that makes it more likely that elites will be presented repeatedly as experts in news reports.” Findings such as these sound a caution note for agricultural reporters, among others.

Reference: Use a title search (“Specialization among reporters”) or author search (Griswold) for the full citation.

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When consumers get positive and negative messages.

A recent study reported in Food Policy examined how consumers react when they are exposed to favorable and unfavorable information about food irradiation. Researchers reported:

“The surprising result is that when we presented both positive and negative information simultaneously, the negative information clearly dominated. This was true even though the source of the negative information was identified as being a consumer advocacy group and the information itself was written in a manner that was non-scientific.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Experts and activists”) or author search (Hayes) for the full citation.

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

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

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Why the farm press concentrates on conventional agriculture and downplays alternative agriculture.

Pressures from advertisers or other interest groups? Desire to avoid controversy? Lack of reader interest? Results of graduate research by Sharon Wood-Turley suggest another reason. “This study reveals…that the explanation for the concentration on conventional agriculture in the farm press is closely related to the ideological leanings toward the technocracy that prevail among many of the agricultural journalists who write for mainstream farm publications.”

The study involved use of Q-methodology to define the attitudes of a sample of farmers and agricultural journalists, university researchers and government workers. Most members of the farm press fit within a type identified as “Technocrats with Blinders,” that is “enamored with technology.” The author examined implications of these findings and suggested communication strategies “that would lead to more thoughtful, balanced reporting of technological advances in agriculture and to greater coverage of alternatives to those technologies.” Findings also carry implications for those who help aspiring agricultural journalists prepare for their careers.

Reference: On the ACDC “Real Search” page, use a title search (Assessment and comparison of attitudes) or an author search (Wood-Turley) for the full citation.

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Rural communities as forgotten resources.

“Villages: the forgotten resource” is the title of an article written 20 years ago about communications needs in “developing countries.” The author, chief of a United Nations communications unit, sounded a note similar to today’s experience in the U.S. as many rural communities face decline. He argued that local communities hold untapped potentials. Some governments, he noted, were looking toward small industries and other approaches to help rural areas and take advantage of the potentials within them.

“That is where communications will play a big part,” he suggested, especially with training of rural residents and marketing of their outputs. What parallels hold, or might hold, today?

Reference: Use a title search (Villages: the forgotten resource) for the full citation.

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Innovative local uses of new information technologies. 

Here are several examples that we have found in documents added recently to the ACDC collection:

• In India, an experimental network of village centers provides weather reports, produce prices and other local and global information via Internet. Reference: Use a title search (Village-life.com) or author search (Le Page) for the full citation.
• In rural Malaysia, mobile Internet units are used to provide computer training for teachers and students. Reference: Use a title search (Internet on wheels) or author search (Wong) for the full citation.
• In Australia, several kinds of online conversation groups permit interaction of rural and urban women across state and national boundaries. Reference: Use a title search (Voices from elsewhere) or author search (Grace) for the full citation.

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One of the highest adoption rates. 

The global area of transgenic (genetically modified) crops increased 35-fold during the past seven years, according to an annual global review conducted by Dr. Clive James. Commercial transgenic crops totaled 58.7 million hectares in 2002, compared with 1.7 million hectares in 1996. “This ranks as one of the highest adoption rates for crop technologies,” according to the summary report.

Reference: Use a title search (2002 global GM crop) or author search (James) for the full citation. The summary was posted on: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/

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Five mistaken marketing assumptions about biotechnology. 

A recent article in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology described “mistaken marketing assumptions about biotechnology:”

• “The biotechnology controversy will be forgotten”
• “Science sells and fear fails: people will be biotech advocates once they have the facts”
• “Consumers buy products, not processes”
• “Good for medicine means good for food”
• “Biotechnology education is a trade association issue”

Researchers Brian Wansink and Junyong Kim also suggested some implications for effective consumer education and marketing.

Reference: Use a title search (Consumer marketing of biotechnology) or author search (Wansink) for the full citation. The article was posted on:
www.consumerpsychology.net/insights/pdf/marketingofbiotech.pdf

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Coverage gaps and bias – agricultural and general news perspectives. 

“What agricultural industry communication specialists perceived as important issues in agriculture was different than the pattern of coverage of those issues in popular periodicals.” So concluded Barbara Whitaker in her master’s thesis about coverage of agricultural and food safety issues in the U.S. Content analysis also indicated that the three selected news periodicals (Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report) provided more coverage (62%) of such issues than did the selected agricultural periodicals (Farm Journal, Progressive Farmer and Successful Farming) (38%). An analysis of news bias indicated “both news and agricultural periodicals contained biased reporting.”

Reference: Use a title search (comparison of levels of bias) or author search (Whitaker) for the full citation.

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Other recent research about media coverage of agriculture.

 Are you interested in other recent documents about this lively topic? If so, do “Subject” cross-searches on the “Real Search” page of the ACDC web site, using subject terms such as:
<“mass media” coverage>
<“mass media” reporting>
<accuracy reporting>
<bias reporting>

Some are available in full-text electronic form.

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Pioneering Canadian agricultural communications students.

During late January a group of about 25 University of Guelph undergraduates formed the first international chapter of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. It’s the Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT) and it is affiliated with the U.S.-based National ACT organization. President Kendra Kelton of Oklahoma State University was on hand to help celebrate this initiative.

Members will use CanAct to “help connect budding professional agricultural communicators with those in industry.” A news report explained that approaching events of the Guelph chapter include discussions with guest speakers about topics ranging from agricultural communications through radio and television to how to get started as a freelance writer.

Reference: Information about CanACT is posted at: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~canact.
Information about National ACT is posted at http://natact.ifas.ufl.edu/

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

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

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

See new agricultural communications research papers on the “New Features” page of this ACDC web site.

You can get full-text copy of nine papers presented recently to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS). Members met in Mobile, Alabama, during early February.

Reference: On the ACDC home page, click on “Feature Articles” (left side menu).

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Remembering the value of research-based communicating. 

“It was the experiment station and not the agricultural college that has wrought such a marvelous change in the farmers of America toward scientific agriculture,” said Frank H. Hall in 1904. He was speaking at a meeting of the American Association of Farmers’ Institute Workers in St. Louis, Missouri.

Hall explained: “It was my privilege to compare the agricultural conventions of this state…at two periods separated by a decade within which the experiment station became a potent influence. The dominant intellectual and moral attitude of the earlier period was distinctly disputatious and dogmatic. … In the second period the dominant attitude was that of scientific conference.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Relation of the agricultural college”) or author search (Hall) for the full citation.

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Horses and houses in competition. 

A newspaper in the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass country helped local citizens find common ground for community development through an award winning series of articles. “Common ground: deciding how the Bluegrass should grow” was the title of this eight-part series published by the Lexington Herald-Leader. “We wanted to get past pat phrases and ideological camps,” explained the editor. The series won first prize for investigative reporting from the Kentucky Press Association.

Reference: For a case report of the effort, use a title search (“Lexington builds common ground”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report in Civic Catalyst Newsletter was posted on:
www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/civiccat/displayCivcat.php?id=256.

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Attitudes of newspaper editors toward agriculture? 

Generally positive, according to the results of a recent study among daily newspaper editors in Arkansas. Researchers found that editors “possessed positive attitudes toward the agricultural industry, although they were less positive about the image of agriculture or about agriculture’s performance in educating the public about the agricultural industry.”

Editors also “agreed that journalists should receive instruction in agriculture and that K-12 students should be required to take at least one course in agriculture.” Researchers offered recommendations for such efforts.

Reference: Use a title search (“Attitudes of Arkansas”) or author search (Cartmell) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on:
http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2001/Papers/cartmell.pdf

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Media still struggling to cover biotechnology. 

An article in the December issue of “AgBiotech in the News” explored some of the dilemmas facing mass media as they attempt to cover complex issues related to agricultural biotechnology. Among these dilemmas cited:

• The typical journalistic approach of seeking balance by pitting one side against the other creates problems. Opposing voices selected for coverage may be extreme, or they may be unbalanced in the depth and soundness of arguments they present.
• Some opposing voices may have more resources with which to gain public attention.
• Scientists often don’t want to comment on “hot-button” issues.
• Coverage varies widely from one mass medium to another, and within media.
• There is a tendency for some media “to cast players in over-simplified roles.”
• International differences may influence media coverage of biotechnology. For example, reporting in Europe may reflect more environmental or health concerns than that in the U.S. because Europeans “have lived through a number of food crises and tend to have less faith in regulators.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Odd couple”) for the full citation. The article was posted on: http://pewagbiotech.org/buzz/display.php3?StoryID=87

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The most important form of grassroots communicating in the world. 

It’s community radio, according to Charles Fairchild in a new book, Community radio and public culture. “Community radio is fast becoming the most important form of grassroots communication in the world,” he argued. Why? “…this is due in large part to the strong reactions by many people to the aggressive expansion of specifically American media worldwide, especially in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

“As corporate entities become increasingly distant and untouchable, local media institutions are developing that are immediate, participatory, and increasingly able to contact and talk to one another. They are no competition for direct broadcast satellites and probably never will be, but they are the only possible institutions that can be controlled and directed by the local population and made to serve their interests, needs and desires.”

Fairchild included some rural dimensions in his thought-provoking examination of media access and equity in Canada and the United States. Examples include the respected Farm Forum programs in Canada and a case study of a community radio station serving native Canadians in the rural Six Nations and New Credit Reserves near Brantford, Ontario.

Reference: Use a title search (“Community radio and public culture”) or author search (Fairchild) for the full citation.

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“Are your livestock depressed?” 

An online commentary from the United Kingdom raised that question recently, in the wake of traumatic disease scares. Commentator Mike Meredith reported on research that described signs of “depression” in farm animals: reduced activity, loss of reactivity, heads drooping, eyes half-closed

“Could it be that stress, or even more specifically ‘depression,’ is at least as important as the infectious agents that we usually focus our disease preventive attention on?” Meredith asked. Referring to a trend toward a more holistic approach to human health — one that involves beliefs and faith along with medicines and surgery — he concluded: “Is there a livestock equivalent of ‘faith, hope, and compassion’?”

Reference: Use a title search (“Are your livestock”) or author search (Meredith) for the full citation. The commentary was posted on:
www.smartgroups.com/message/viewdiscussion.cfm?gid=774210
&messageid=7014

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First specialized agricultural periodical in the U.S. The Horticultural Register was America’s first specialty paper devoted to a branch of agriculture – founded in January 1835. That’s according to Frank J. Holt in an historical analysis of the agricultural press of America, 1792-1850. Holt carried out this research project for a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin.

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

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Who might have known this?

Could today’s scholar in agricultural journalism gain ready access to this kind of insight about the history of farm publishing in the U.S.? This piece of the past came from a master’s thesis. How many master’s theses get distributed widely, summarized in scholarly journals, or otherwise reported for long-term access?

We ask these questions for a special reason – to encourage you to let us know when you see theses or dissertations that are not already in the ACDC collection. Please help us identify and make available these valuable materials that often sit on library shelves, little known and little used.

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

A newspaper’s unique experience covering a farm worker issue. 

Transportation safety problems facing farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley of California prompted the Fresno Bee newspaper to try something new, using the Internet. The result: “Editors, publishers, webmasters, California Highway Patrolmen and California Assemblyman Dean Florez all came together for the first live bilingual forum on fresnobee.com, December 8.” According to a case report added recently to the ACDC collection, 1,500 people “hit” the forum on Internet.

Reference: Use a title search (“forum for all”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report from Pew Center for Civic Journalism was posted on: www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/spotlight/displaySpotlight.php?id=30.

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What is information worth to food shoppers?

Plenty, according to a study reported recently in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Purdue University researchers used a marketplace experiment to learn how shoppers in Mali decided what infant food to buy. “Regardless of income or education, mothers refuse to buy the unknown,” according to the researchers. Findings showed that “a lack of information about food safety is causing many impoverished mothers in Africa to buy brand-name infant food that costs about five times more than the generic brand.” Authors discussed the need for food certification systems, as means of building trust.

Reference: Use a title search (“Ag economist calculates”) for the full citation.

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Rural areas — promising growth sectors for telecommunications in India. 

“…changing the policy environment to create incentives to serve previously ignored and underserved populations is likely to be the fastest and most equitable means of achieving the goal of universal access to telecommunications and information technologies and services throughout India.” That was the counsel of Heather Hudson in a new book, Telecommunications reform in India.

Several of her points:

• Rural demand may be much greater than assumed.
• Rural areas may not be as expensive to serve as is often assumed.
• Rural benchmarks need not be set lower than urban benchmarks.
• Some rural areas may be viable for commercial franchises.

She offered policy suggestions for increasing rural teledensity in India from 0.4 lines per 1,000 population in 2000 to the national teledensity target of 7 per 100 by the year 2005 and 15 per 100 by 2010. Overall teledensity during 2000 was about 3 lines per 100.

Reference: Use a title search (“Lessons in telecommunications policy”) or author search (Hudson) for the full citation.

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What students need in agricultural communications courses.

A national Delphi study conducted by researchers at Texas Tech University identified 76 competencies that are appropriate for high school students who complete courses in agricultural communications. Results showed these competencies fall within 11 topic areas:

• Writing
• Computer/Information technology
• Agricultural industry
• Communications history
• Professional development
• Research/Information gathering
• Ethics
• Public relations/advertising/marketing
• Leadership development
• Legislative issues
• Communications skills

Reference: Use a title search (“High school agricultural communications”) or author search (Akers) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2001/Papers/akers.pdf

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An enduring challenge to ag journalism students (and others). 

“Your work here is to study…nature in her manifold aspects,” said W. H. Burke to 18 class members in the first agricultural journalism course taught at the University of Illinois (Spring 1907). “But when you go out to engage in your life work…remember always and everywhere that the most important thing on earth is human nature; and human nature should be our chief study and the service of man our highest earthly aim.” Burke was a guest lecturer in the new course. He edited The Strawberry, published at Three Rivers, Michigan.

Reference: Use a title search (“Literary side of agricultural journalism”) or author search (Burke) for the full citation.

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You’ve been had! 

Is the title of a recent book subtitled, “How the media and environmentalists turned America into a nation of hypochondriacs.” The author, Melvin A. Benarde, is retired director of the Environmental Issues Center, Temple University. His wide-ranging analysis of what he considers scares and misinformation includes the health aspects of food and diets as well as air quality, nuclear power, hazardous waste and other matters. He cites examples of what he considers poor media coverage.

His central remedy: scientific literacy. “I propose a national campaign of scientific literacy that requires that all students demonstrate an understanding of the workings of science, religion, and pseudoscience. Such demonstration must put the media and environmentalists on notice: prepare for hard, searching questions.”

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

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Pending demise of debated university/corporation partnership. 

A commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle noted “the pending demise” of a biotechnology-related research partnership between the University of California-Berkeley and the Swiss firm Syngenta. “The five-year, $25 million deal, which began in 1998 when the sponsoring firm was named Novartis, became the flash point in a debate about whether university researchers were getting hooked on corporate cash.”

“This will probably delight critics and demoralize supporters of genetically engineered foods, and each side will credit — or blame — the small but vocal group of opponents based in the environmental movement.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agriculture, biotech mix”) for the full citation. The commentary was posted (December 24, 2002) on:
http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm

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How about these rules for punctuating?

Some years ago, one typesetter explained his guidelines to a visitor in his printing office: “I set as long as I can hold my breath and then put in a comma. When I yawn I put in a semi-colon. And when I want a chew of tobacco I make a paragraph.” From The Typist.

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Professional activity approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego,
California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

---

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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Framing agricultural (and other) issues better. 

Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, has argued that civic journalism can help reporters do their job better by framing stories better. At a workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schaffer cited an example from the editor of the Wichita Eagle newspaper. The editor described a “classic pro-con environmental story involving Kansas farmland in which his reporter decided to go and find the farmer who was neither totally for nor totally against the proposal, but was in-between.” The farmer as ambivalent, “like most readers.”

“Yet how often do we journalists play up the conflicts – the opposite sides or poles of an issue — rather than report the concerns of most of our readers. I’ll tell you one thing. It’s a lot harder to write about the gray area. We all know how to write the black and white.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Tapping hidden stories”) or author search (Schaffer) for the full citation. The speech was posted on: www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/speeches/s_tapping.html

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New way to promote a farm paper — host a wedding. 

“The P.V. Collins Publishing Company desires the honor of your company at the marriage of the Prettiest Farm Girl in the Northwest to The Lucky Man of her choice.” Where? At the Northwestern Agriculturist Cottage of the Minnesota State Fair. When? September 5, 1907. This wedding involved Mildred Nulph of Wyndmere, North Dakota, and Julius E. Watkins of Walcott, North Dakota.

We don’t know how many guests attended or new readers subscribed.

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Coverage of the recent U.S. farm broadcasters conference. 

Thanks to the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, we have added to the ACDCcollection 10 compact disks that feature program sessions at the 2002 NAFB conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Here are some of the topics addressed in these audio accounts:

• “How to sell farm broadcasting” (Panel of farm broadcasters.)
• “How to buy farm broadcasting” (Panel of agricultural marketing communicators.)
• “How to use farm broadcasting” (Panel of commodity representatives and farm broadcasters.)
• “The Wizard of Ads” (Creativity session that featured David Stanley, managing partner of Wizard of Ads, Inc.)
• “The digital edge” (Professional improvement session that featured web site construction, electronic editing, alternative editing and one farm broadcaster’s use of a web site.)
• “The best care in the air” (Session about organizational change and marketing strategies, featuring the approach used by Midwest Express Airlines.)

Reference: Check with us at the Center (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are interested in these presentations.

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Also – we’ve added 33 remarkable farm radio interviews to the ACDC collection.

They are on audio cassettes in a three-volume series, “Lee Kline’s Iowa Notebook.” Lee Kline selected these interviews from his 40 years of farm broadcasting on WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa. He is widely known and respected for his effectiveness as a farm broadcaster – and especially for his creative human interest programming, his unique interviewing style and his emphasis on using sound, functionally. Students of farm broadcasting will find in these interviews some excellent examples of these skills. You can tell from interview titles such as:

“Perry Popcorn Lady”
“Riding in a Glider”
“Mule Power”
“Jumping Tractors”
“Sounds of Farm Machinery”
“The Auctioneers”
“Walking the Beans”

Reference: Contact the Center (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are interested in further information about these three audio cassettes.

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When farmer-owned cooperatives go bankrupt. 

Eyes turn to communicators and educators when the post-mortems come out — suggesting that directors and other shareholders and publics need to be better informed and educated. That was the theme of a recent article in Rural Cooperatives magazine. The article reported on a timely panel discussion at the 2002 conference of Cooperative Communicators Association.

Reference: Use a title search (“Business failures underscore”) or author search (Campbell) for the full citation.

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How farmers prefer to learn. 

Here are the learning styles identified in a recent Iowa State University study among Iowa farmers:

• Active experimentation (learning by doing) seemed to be the preferred learning mode for topics related to physical farming resources (land, crops, livestock, machinery and buildings).
• Abstract learning (by observing others) seemed to be preferred for critical thinking activities such as markets and prices, whole farm planning and financial management.

Farmers in the study also rated the effectiveness of 26 different learning activities and information sources.

Reference: Use a title search (“Assessing the learning styles”) or author search (Trede) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2000/web/g2.pdf

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“Large livestock farms viewed a ‘threat’.”

That title reflects findings from recent research among about 4,000 Ohio residents. Researcher Jeff Sharp of Ohio State University found that one-third said they are familiar with issues pertaining to large-scale poultry and livestock facilities. Among those, 71 percent said they are concerned that the farms pose a threat to Ohio’s water and stream quality.

Sharp recommended more public education about agriculture and more networking between farmers and non-farmers.

Reference: Use a title search (“Survey: large livestock farms viewed”) for the full citation. The report was posted on:
www.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/2002/12-20_Large_Livestock_Threat.htm

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Check our latest “Feature Articles” page.

Labeling of biotech foods is a lively communications topic these days. If you are interested in it, we have identified some handy information for you on the ACDC web site. You will find nine documents (all retrievable in full text) about aspects such as need/value of labels, consumer attitudes toward them and consumers’ use of them.

Reference: On the ACDC home page, click on “Feature Articles.”

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Professional activity approaching

February 1-5, 2003
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) at Mobile, Alabama.
Information: www.saasinc.org

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Farmers adopting GM crops, but not feeling well informed about them.

In both 2001 and 2002, South Dakota ranked first in the proportion of total cropland area devoted to transgenic corn and soybean varieties among the major U.S. corn and soybean producing states. Even so, fewer than one-half of the South Dakota farmers who took part in a recent survey indicated they were well informed about transgenic crops. Researchers found: “Less than one-third stated that farmers in general have sufficient knowledge, and another one-third suggested that farmers do not have sufficient relevant knowledge, of biotechnology. Nearly a third of the respondents attributed the lack of knowledge of agricultural biotechnology to the difficulty in gaining access to objective information.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farm level transgenic crop adoption”) or author search (Van der Sluis) for the full citation. The summary in Information Systems for Biotechnology News Report was posted on: www.isb.vt.edu/news/2002/news02.oct.html

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Reporters are “underaggressive” in covering genetically modified foods. 

Marc Kaufman, science reporter at the Washington Post, expressed that view at a recent conference on the role of media in keeping the public informed – or frightened – about the growing presence of biotechnology in food production. “It is unclear to me that the public is getting as much information on this as it should,” Kaufman said. Other panelists noted that the public’s lack of knowledge about this subject is not surprising, given the questions that still can’t be answered, even by experts.

Reference: To see a summary about this conference, use a title search (“Conference looks at role”) or author search (Powell) for the full citation. The summary article in Harvard University Gazette was posted on: www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/12.05/11-biofood.html

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Health claims on food labels often confuse consumers

According to research carried out on behalf of the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom. A recent summary from the Agency identified sample sources of confusion on food labels. Here are some of the confusing terms identified, along with comments offered about them:

• Fresh, Pure, Natural “Consumers are dissatisfied with, and distrust, a wide range of [such] marketing terms,” which are not defined in law.
• Lite, Light The law doesn’t say what these terms mean, so manufacturers can use them to convey different qualities of a food, such as texture or calorie content.
• Low fat, Fat-free Such claims “should not be taken at face value.
• No added sugar, Unsweetened “This doesn’t mean to say that the food will not taste sweet, or that it will have a low sugar content.

Reference: Use a title search (“Health claims confuse”) for the full citation. The summary was posted online at: http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/98783. A further title search (“Health claims on food packaging”) will identify detailed findings of the consumer research. This research report was posted at: www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/healtclaims.pdf

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Ag scientists being “harassed.”

According to an article in the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, some university and government scientists studying health threats associated with agricultural pollution say they are being “harassed by farmers and trade groups and silenced by superiors afraid to offend the powerful industry. … The heat comes from individual farmers, commodity groups and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which finances and controls much of the research.”

Reporter Perry Beeman described examples of such pressure and included responses from government and commodity representatives.

Reference: Use a title search (“Political pressure”) or author search (Beeman) for the full citation. The article was posted on: http://desmoinesregister.com/business/stories/c4789013/19874144.html

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Organic foods going mainstream.

“Gone are the days when organic foods were just for a small group of health fanatics,” said e-Brain Market Research in a recent research summary. An e-Brain Online Poll indicated that “nearly every American is not only familiar with organic products, but 58% of the public has purchased a food item labeled organic.” What’s driving this interest? Results of this web-based survey involving a national sample of 1,000 U.S. households point toward:

• Increased awareness of health issues
• Concerns about genetically modified food
• Concerns about chemicals

The summary also reported responses about where shoppers buy organic foods and where price fits into their buying behavior.

Reference: Use a title search (“Americans hunger for healthy options”) for the full citation. The report was archived (December 10, 2002) at: http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm

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When bad becomes normal (in the minds of those who work with poultry).

“Chicken producers have grown so used to seeing birds in cages with half their feathers missing that they believe it’s normal.” That’s the observation of livestock behaviorist Temple Grandin at a recent meeting cited in The Western Producer. The article by Mary MacArthur reported examples of problems on farms, in hatcheries and in processing plants. “This has got to change,” Grandin argued in her call for changed attitudes and higher standards. “This is absolutely totally awful.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Analyst says poultry growers”) or author search (MacArthur) for the full citation. The article was posted on: www.producer.com/articles/20021212/news/20021212news19.html

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Headed toward “that fiery land.” 

These days, many farm periodicals go to their readers without charge, through free controlled circulation. Subscription payments were more important (often troublesome) to publishers in earlier days of farm publishing. We can get a sense of friction in this short poem from a farm publisher’s autobiography in the ACDC collection. The poem is an editor’s preachment to readers:

The man who cheats his paper
Out of a single cent
Will never reach that heavenly land
Where old Elijah went.

But when at last his race is run,
This life of toil and woe,
He’ll straightway go to that fiery land
Where they never shovel snow.

Reference: Use a title search (“My first 80 years”) or author search (Poe) for the full citation. Page 89.

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Please let us know if you would rather not receive ACDC News. 

As Year 2003 begins we want to tell you how much we appreciate your interest in this e-newsletter. We hope it is helpful and convenient for you. However, we do not want to send something to you that you would rather not receive. So at any time please let us know if you would like to be removed from the list. You can do so by using the Documentation Center e-mail link below.

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Other persons to suggest? 

Also, let us know of associates or other persons you think might like to receive ACDC News through our free e-mailings of it.

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Professional activity approaching

February 1-5, 2003
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) at Mobile, Alabama.
Information: www.saasinc.org

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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 collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Season’s greetings as we close out 2002.

All of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center send you our holiday greetings. This has been an active, progressive year for the Center as we passed the 20,000-document mark and took other steps forward. More are ahead. Thanks to you for your interest, words of encouragement, suggestions and support.

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Champagne campaign on a beer budget.

That’s the title of a recent summary of one presentation at the Cooperative Communicators Association meeting earlier this year. The account appeared in CCA News. Here are several of the tips that Roberta MacDonald of Cabot Creamery of Vermont offered to communicators about how to “make a modest marketing budget look like a million:”

• Do not spend money on public relations or advertising without research
• Take your goods or services to where “like” people are
• Put the faces and farms of members on center stage
• If there isn’t a contest in your field, make one up and win it

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

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“Maybe an increase in local programming is in order,”

Wrote Ken Root, executive director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, in a recent issue of NAFB Chats. He made this observation in the context of the trend toward station mergers, satellite feeds, computer automation and packaged programming. “Technology has allowed multiple stations to be operated with a small staff and the end product sounds great, but many stations have lost their unique local appeal.” He suggested ways in which farm broadcasters can remain “live and local.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Live and local”) or author search (Root) for the full citation.

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His suggestion reminds us of a type of news coverage

Called “basic shoe-leather interactive” – not necessarily “online interactive.”

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How farm broadcasters are adjusting to changes.

We in the Center watch for information about how professional agricultural communicators are adapting to change. Here are a few recent examples that involve adjustments by farm broadcasters. You can identify the following documents by title searches or author searches on the ACDC “Real Search” page.

• A change in the airwaves” by Daniel J. Grant
• Some farm broadcasters switching tune to survive” by Daniel J. Grant
• East” by Rita Frazer
• Stations cut farm news to consolidate” by Charlyn Fargo
• The medium affects the message” by Robynne M. Anderson
• Farm broadcasting beyond the studio”

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You can identify other documents about trends in farm broadcasting

By conducting subject searches and cross-searches on the ACDC “Real Search” page, using terms such as:

Rural broadcasting
Trends “rural broadcasting”
Radio
Trends radio
Television
Trends television

Let us know when you see documents about this subject that are not in the ACDC collection now.

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Media partnering: an example of effective coverage.

In recent issues of ACDC News we have cited samples of weak or shoddy media coverage of agriculture-related matters. We also note, with pleasure, an example of innovative, effective coverage. A report from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism described how four Idaho newspapers and television stations recently cooperated to shed light on the state’s ailing rural areas. The partner media polled rural residents and dug into documents that showed how rural resources were used. Resulting news reports “prompted two public-policy organizations to generate a…conference and a white paper that proposed steps for the state legislature to shore up rural Idaho.” Human stories had the most impact, according to one of the editors involved.

Reference: Use a title search (“Idaho partners”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report was posted online at:
www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/civiccat/displayCivcat.php?id=317

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Something missing in our talk about the future of communications.

 (Like the food in army mess halls.) “In all our talk about the future of communications, content is often the thing that is not discussed,” observed Theodore Peterson in a 1966 speech to the Wyoming Press Association. “We tend to focus on technology, not on what the technology is to be used for. The value of the technological apparatus depends ultimately on the value of the content it carries. The army mess halls that I used to know had the finest stoves and mixers and steam tables in the world; alas, they seemed incapable of turning out edible food.”

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Another question for ag journalism history buffs.

What was the first specialty periodical devoted to some branch of agriculture?
Please forward your reply to ACDC News at evansj@uiuc.edu by January 30.

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Shopping in town – not what it used to be.

Is holiday shopping on your mind these days? Quite a hassle? Well, it seems that shopping was getting complicated long before our time. We close this issue of ACDC News by recalling a poem that appeared in Agricultural Advertising nearly 100 years ago:

“Used to drive up to the store,
Leave the team out by the door,
Trade our truck for calico,
Tea an’ sech; and off we’d go.
Goin’ shoppin’, ‘pears to me,
Isn’t what it used to be.
Nowadays ye’re at a loss
To pick out the real boss.
They don’t stop to tell you jokes.
Never saw sech dressed-up folks.
An’ the goods that they display
Fairly takes your breath away.

Everything’s trimmed up so grand –
Looks to me like fairyland.
An’ the goods you kin procure –
Garden tools and literatoor,
Furniture with spindle legs,
Turkish rugs an’ fresh-laid eggs.
Everywhere you cast your eye
There is things you’d like to buy,
All tired out when night arrives,
Couldn’t stop to save our lives.
With the mornin’s earliest ray
All on hand for bargain day.
Goin’ shoppin’! Gracious me!
“Tain’t what it used to be.”

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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 (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)