ACDC Newsletter

Click Here  for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

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Do agricultural knowledge transfer services add profit for farmers?

Yes, according to recent findings in Ireland. Results reported early this year in the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension showed that farmer clients using such services gained a 12.3% benefit to their margin per hectare during the recession period 2008-2014.

Authors also cited evidence revealing the importance of considering the ratio of clients per adviser. Farmers’ margins per hectare declined by 0.2% for each additional client assigned to the adviser.

You can learn more about this research report here.

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What customers value about farmers’ markets: insights from hashtags

A 2018 article in the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review examined experiences of farmers’ market customers through their self-expression on social networks. Researchers at the Czech University of Life Sciences analyzed contributions to the Instagram social network based on the #farmersmarket hashtag during a single day. Six major linked hashtags were identified: #Organic, #Fresh, #Food, #Local, #Vegan, and #Healthy.

Authors noted that results of this study provide insights into consumer values and behaviors in the farmers’ market context and will be of practical use for future marketing and management.

You can read the article here.

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Comparing rural-urban trust of individual news organizations in the U.S.

A new national poll for Columbia Journalism Review provides insight about the extent to which rural and urban U. S. citizens personally trust or distrust reporting from 26 news organizations. The graphic reveals considerable similarity, along with some trust gaps.

You can view results of this rural-urban comparison here, plus other aspects of public confidence in specific news organizations here.

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Community newspapers need to explain “How we work”

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, offered a foundational commentary which we are adding to the ACDC collection. His thoughts apply beyond rural journalism, but clearly encompass it.

Here are some of the thoughts he emphasized:

• Many community newspapers are disengaging from their audiences…at a time when they need to be more engaged than ever. There’s a war on journalism, and it’s not just being waged in Washington, D.C.
• At a time when Americans are more dubious than ever about sources of information, newspapers remain the primary finders of fact. But for some reason they have been bashful about making that their brand, or even thinking of themselves as having a brand.
• If I were running a newspaper today, its home page would have a button labeled “How We Work.” … It would take readers to a page explaining the paper’s purpose and the ways it tries to achieve it. Shorter versions of it would run in print every day, usually on the editorial page. [It] would start by explaining the different forms of information media, to help readers understand the different and special roles that newspapers play in our society, and the challenges they face.”
• We need more letters from the editor, not just statements of editorial principle, but explanations of how and why we do certain things. If we demand transparency from officials and institutions, we must practice it ourselves.

You can read the commentary here.

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Get a century-spanning view of community journalism in the U. S.

A comprehensive monologue by Prof. Beth Garfrerick came recently into the ACDC collection, with our expression of appreciation to the author. The title is: “Twentieth Century weekly community newspapers in the United States.”

More than 100 pages in length, it provides an expansive history that specifically focuses on the rural and small-town community weekly – “warts and all.” She took a deep interest in rural and small-town weekly newspapers as a master’s and doctoral student at the University of Alabama, as well as a former small-town daily newspaper reporter.

Check with us at docctr@library.illinos.edu if you are interested in gaining full-text access to it.

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Photography – a language that doesn’t need translation

An inspiring story in NeimanReports (February 2019) highlights the remarkable career of a Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado. Author Anthony Feinstein emphasized Salgado’s unity of effort, spending years on single themes such as Migrations (refugees suffering in times of conflict), Workers (exploited in toxic power plays) and Genesis (healing the land).  His photographs reveal depth of field and thought, along with richness of image “with their subtle gradations of shadow and light.”

You can read this article here, including a sample of Salgado’s photography.

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Communicator events approaching

April 1-4, 2019
“Linking, innovating, motivation, and engaging for resilient agricultural systems”. Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Educators (AIAEE) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Information: https://aiaee2019trinidad.wordpress.com

April 10-12, 2019
“Onward Upward.” 2019 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA. Information: https://nama.org/amc/2019-amc-home

June 2-5, 2019
“Southern accent on fresh ideas.” Annual institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Savannah, Georgia USA. Information: https://www.communicators.coop

June 24-27, 2019
Annual conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in San Antonio, Texas. Information: https://aceweb.org/ACE-conferences

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A reminder about local news media

We close this issue of ACDC News with a thought expressed in 2001 by British MP Austin Mitchell when addressing the UK Newspaper Society: “A local newspaper is a community talking to itself. Without that the community would be deaf and dumb.”

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions, and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable international collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

 

When food recalls hit, tell news media what affected consumers can do

That message came through in an analysis of how selected national media covered 72 food recall notifications from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration during 2013.  Researchers concluded: “From a practical standpoint, instructional messaging appears to be the most effective strategy in a food recall crisis if the company seeks to gain positive newspaper coverage. This may sound intuitive at first, but many companies are not currently practicing it.”

This analysis was reported in the September 2017 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

You can read the article here.

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What interests consumers most about modern pig production: Environmental impact? Safety? Health? Animal welfare? 

Findings from recent research among consumers in both Germany and Poland indicated that they assigned greater importance to health and safety aspects than to animal welfare and environmental impact. Authors of the 2018 Meat Science article observed that currently the major distinction in the pork market is between conventional and organic production, which is mainly defined in terms of environmental and animal welfare benefits. “The present data therefore suggest that there can be room in the market for a different positioning based on production characteristics related to health and safety.”

You can read the article here.

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Food Trendtellers Council sees trends to watch during 2019

A team of Trendtellers from Tyson Foods has identified six food trends to watch during the year ahead:

• Personalized foods to promote health and beauty
• Transparent food takes hold
• More protein in more forms
• The power of smart technology and food
• Food as a form of self-expression
• Fusion of global cuisines at home

Communicators have a central role in all of them.  You can learn more here

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Some bees aren’t so busy as foragers (and communicators)

We often refer to being busy as a bee. However, the ACDC collection now contains a research report in Animal Behavior revealing “extreme inter-individual variation and plasticity in honeybee foraging activity levels. Automated monitoring showed that foraging activity is flexibly adjusted during a bee’s lifetime. “…elitism does not involve a distinct subclass of foragers.”

You can learn more about the article here.

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Welcoming Emily and Courtney

We welcome two new graduate assistants in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center.

Emily Benton is a first-year graduate student in Library and Information Sciences at the iSchool. She has a BA in History and a minor in Plant Sciences from the University of Missouri. In addition to her work with the ACDC, Emily has been working as a quarter-time graduate assistant in Funk ACES Library since August.  Emily has had internships in the Missouri State Archives and the Supreme Court of Missouri Library.

Courtney Smith is a first-year graduate student in Library and Information Sciences at the iSchool.  Her focus lies in special collections and archives, and she is especially interested in metadata, outreach, and providing better access to users.  In addition to her work with the ACDC, Courtney holds graduate hourly appointments in the Library’s Illinois History and Lincoln Collections and in the Facilities Information Resources Department of the University Facilities and Services unit.  She has undergraduate degrees in Political Science and History from Michigan State University. While at MSU, Courtney was a student assistant in several library units, including Special Collections and Area Studies.”

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Communicator events approaching

March 4, 2019

Deadline for poster abstracts for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas USA.

Information:  Prof. Jessica Holt jaholt@uga.edu

April 1-4, 2019

“Linking, innovating, motivation, and engaging for resilient agricultural systems”

Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Educators (AIAEE) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.

Information: https://aiaee2019trinidad.wordpress.com

April 10-12, 2019

“Onward Upward.” 2019 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.

Information: https://nama.org/amc/2019-amc-home

June 2-5, 2019

“Southern accent on fresh ideas.” Annual institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Savannah, Georgia USA.

Information: https://www.communicators.coop

 

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Oh, the agony of broken grammar rules

Thanks to Walter Rockwood who in 1984 alerted his fellow agricultural writers/editors to this irreverent view of a sacred grammar rule – that sentences should not end with prepositions.

He explained, “The rule was invented by critic and poet John Dryden (1621-1700), who reasoned the preposito in Latin means something that ‘comes before’ and that prepositions in Latin never appear at the end of a sentence.” A contrarian view is that the rules of Latin do not always apply to English and that some great writers have ended sentences with prepositions.

He cited an agricultural writing example: “Soil – good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for, and good to be buried in. “(Bacon)

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions, and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable international collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

Finding local and creative angles to cover climate change

We recently added to the ACDC collection an article in Nieman Reports about journalists struggling to cover climate change. Author Michael Blanding described it as a complex and abstract topic that often lacks a news hook and defies most journalistic conventions. The article explains how some news outlets are bringing innovation, urgency, and new audiences to stories about climate change.

“While climate change is perhaps the global issue, it is an intensely local one, with effects from climate change felt on agriculture and business from coastal cities to rural farms.” He suggested looking for stories close to home.

You can read the article here.

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“Half of the world is now online” So…

That news last month from a United Nations agency, the International Telecommunication Union, stirs hopes and challenges for rural residents and interests.

The world’s internet population is estimated to have reached 51.2 percent or 3.9 billion people. Also, almost half of all households in the world have access to a computer, such as a desktop, laptop, or tablet.

“Despite the progress, more needs to be done to help the rest of the world’s population go online,” said ITU Secretary General Houlin Zhao. “Far too many people around the world are still waiting to reap the benefits of the digital economy.” Many resources in ACDC confirm that view. They show long experience with new information technologies from which rural residents receive a limited and delayed share of benefits those technologies offer.

You can read a report of this news here.

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 How some early U.S. rural families gained IT – with barbed wire

Recently we added to ACDC an Atlas Obscura article entitled, “Barbed wire telephone lines brought isolated homesteaders together.” Focusing on the American frontier of the 1800s, author Natasha Frost described how creative homesteaders teamed up two new inventions – the telephone and barbed wire used to fence their properties.

“Together, in an amazing display of rural ingenuity, they connected isolated households to their rural neighbors and the rest of the world. Left to telephone companies and their bottom lines, farm people would not have had telecommunications at all. Building lines was expensive, and hardly worth the effort in sparsely populated areas.”

You can read this revealing piece of history here. Information challenges and the ingenuity of rural people continue, globally.

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 20 ideas for enlivening local community food systems

A team of University of Kentucky researchers recently examined them in developing a Local Food Vitality Index. Their report in the Journal of Food Distribution Research spanned three categories:

• Market channels (8), ranging from cooperative grocery stores and farmers’ markets to school programs, food trucks and ethnic markets
• Community activities (6), ranging from food festivals and food education to community gardens and on-farm events
• Local food promotion activities (6), ranging from local food labels and brewery promotion to competitive pricing, government support, and private investment

You can read “Local food vitality index: measuring consumer attitudes toward food system attributes” here.

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 Replacing the term “GMO”

We are preserving in ACDC a news reminder to farmers about the U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to replace the term “GMO” with “Bioengineered Food (BE)” a year from now: January 2020.  “This ensures clear information and labeling consistency for consumers about the ingredients in their food,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

We are adding the term to our ACDC citations. It now accompanies an evolution of terms such as “genetic engineering,” “biotechnology,” “genetic modification,” and “GMO.” We suggest you use all of them when you search the ACDC collection online for such information. The ACDC collection now contains nearly 2,200 documents (1957-2018) involving communications about biotechnology related to food and agriculture.

You can read the recent farm media report here.

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Thanks to Hailley Shaw

 

Our thanks and best wishes go with Hailley Shaw, ACDC graduate assistant since last May. She has completed her master’s degree in library and information science here at the University of Illinois. Within ACDC, she has, for example, identified and gathered documents for the collection, managed the website, processed several contributed collections, responded to requests, and pitched in on other projects. And all in good spirit.  Thinking back on her experience, Hailley observes:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience at ACDC. I have learned so much about how intertwined agricultural communications is with other fields – from politics and education to ethics, business, sociology, etc. I hope to continue to grow my librarian career, focusing on archiving and designing library spaces. My time at the Center has been invaluable as it has provided me with experiences furthering my interest in how informational content pairs with physical objects.”

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 Communicator events approaching

February 11, 2019
Deadline for full paper proposals for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas USA.
Information: Prof. Jessica Holt jaholt@uga.edu

March 4, 2019
Deadline for poster abstracts for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas USA.
Information:  Prof. Jessica Holt jaholt@uga.edu

April 1-4, 2019
“Linking, innovating, motivation, and engaging for resilient agricultural systems”
Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Educators (AIAEE) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Information: https://aiaee2019trinidad.wordpress.com

April 10-12, 2019
“Soar onward and upward.” 2019 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: https://nama.org/amc/2019-amc-home

June 2-5, 2019
“Southern accent on fresh ideas.” Annual institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Savannah, Georgia USA.
Information: https://www.communicators.coop

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Why can’t we communicate with plants?

In closing this issue of ACDC News we ponder a thought from Jeanne Carstensen, writing in the Modern Farmer magazine.

“…maybe the reason plants don’t respond to our desperate attempts to communicate is simple: they don’t need humans. ‘They can survive without us,’ [biologist Daniel] Chamovitz says, ‘But we wouldn’t survive a minute without them.’”

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions, and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable international collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

Information threats to precision agriculture

“Adoption of information security standards for precision agriculture is important for the future success of precision agriculture,” according to a 2018 report we have added from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. This 25-page report, prepared through the 2018 Public-Private Analytic Exchange Program, examined three areas of threat:

• Threats to confidentiality
• Threats to integrity
• Threats to availability

It sketched hypothetical threat scenarios, offered best practices to protect and build resilience into precision agriculture, and highlighted four areas of needed research.

You can read the report here.

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Rural women, globally, call for more
training and public awareness

Findings of a new survey among 4,160 rural women on five continents showed that they are overwhelmingly proud to be in agriculture, feel widespread gender discrimination, and want more training in technology.  Corteva Agriscience released the findings in celebration of the recent International Day of Rural Women.

What do they believe will help remove the obstacles?

• More training in technology (cited by 80%)
• More academic education (79%)
• More support – legal and otherwise – to overcome discrimination (76%)
• More public awareness of the success women are achieving in agriculture (75%)
• More public awareness of gender discrimination in agriculture (74%)

You can read a two-page summary here via AgriMarketing Weekly.

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A 2018 framework for farmer adoption
of best management practices (BMP)

Researchers reporting in Sustainability reviewed findings of BMP adoption studies from developed and developing countries since 2008.  They used findings to suggest a conceptual framework for BMP adoption decisions. It emphasizes the importance of scale, the tailoring or targeting of information and incentives, and the importance of expected farm profits. Findings included the need to incorporate social norms and uncertainty into decision making.

Authors also suggested that more research is needed on uses of social media and market recognition approaches (such as certificate schemes and consumer labeling) to influence BMP adoption.

You can read the journal article here.

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A new treasure trove of
agricultural communications research

ACDC online visitors now can identify 118 newly-entered resources about agricultural communications research from 1981-1995. Those were years of dramatic change in twin revolutions involving communications and agriculture.  Thanks to Prof. Eric Abbott (faculty emeritus, Iowa State University) for contributing his NCR-90 materials. ACDC Graduate Assistant Hailley Shaw took the lead in processing it, finishing last month.

NCR-90 was the communications committee of agricultural experiment stations in the North Central Region of the U.S. It served as an early and valuable network for university communicators to share research. For example, they reported results of dissertation and thesis research, audience surveys, new-media trials, communications campaigns, and program evaluations. Many of the reported studies were never published. They were valuable at the time – and they remain valuable in documenting the development of communications related to agriculture, food, and the environment during that remarkable period.  By providing a forum for sharing research and evaluation, they also helped build the platform for agricultural communications research today.

Read more here.

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Looking for online resources about freelance writing?

Janet Rodekohr (faculty emerita, University of Georgia) sifted, sorted, and identified eight online resources for freelance writing during her presentation at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) Conference at Scottsdale, Arizona, during August.

You can review this annotated list here.

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Welcome to our new ACDC student assistant

Our “welcome” mat is out this month for Kimberly Villanueva, who is joining ACDC as new student assistant. Kimberly is a junior in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) with a major in agricultural communications and concentration in journalism.  She is passionate about urban agriculture, food insecurity, and communicating about those topics. Her previous work experience includes database maintenance at the Spurlock Museum on the University of Illinois campus and environmental research at the Field Museum in Chicago.

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Communicator events approaching

February 11, 2019
Deadline for full paper proposals for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas USA.
Information: Prof. Jessica Holt jaholt@uga.edu

March 4, 2019
Deadline for poster abstracts for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas USA.
Information:  Prof. Jessica Holt jaholt@uga.edu

April 1-4, 2019
“Linking, innovating, motivation, and engaging for resilient agricultural systems”
Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Educators (AIAEE) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Information: https://aiaee2019trinidad.wordpress.com

April 10-12, 2019
“Soar onward and upward.” 2019 Agri-Marketing Conference sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: https://nama.org/amc/2019-amc-home

June 2-5, 2019
“Southern accent on fresh ideas.” Annual institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) in Savannah, Georgia USA.
Information: https://www.communicators.coop

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A tip for preserving sharp memories

We close this issue of ACDC News with advice offered in a 1966 book, The Cooperative Extension Service. The author was encouraging local extension agents to keep a record of their visits with those they serve.

“The faintest ink is better than the fondest memory.”

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Holiday wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

At a season of harvest and thanksgiving in this part of the world,
those of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center extend special thanks to you. We appreciate your interest and support in gathering, preserving, and making available what is known about communications related to agriculture. This has been a bountiful year for that mission of ACDC, and you have been important to it.

We share another bit of the resource bounty with you in this “harvest” issue.

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“Reporting the untold stories of rural India”

A 2017 article of that title by Shalini Singh in Nieman Reports described how the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) is revealing the lives and labors of the country’s poorest, most marginalized populations.  Palagummi Sainath, former rural affairs editor of The Hindi newspaper, founded PARI in 2014 as a non-profit organization to document the everyday lives of everyday people in rural India.

Singh explained that, with PARI, Sainath seeks to bridge the urban-rural divide. “In the archival sense, we’ve been called ‘a Smithsonian from below.’”

You can read the article here.

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How well do scientists understand climate and GM food safety these days?

Many Americans are skeptical of scientific understanding of causes of climate change and the health effects of eating genetically modified (GM) foods. A December 2017 survey report from the Pew Research Center indicated that only 28% of the national sample felt that scientists understand the causes of climate change very well; 40% fairly well; 32% not too well or not well at all.

Only 19% felt that scientists understand the health effects of eating GM foods; 44% fairly well; 35% not too well or not well at all.

You can read this survey report here.

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 New Eugene A. Kroupa Collection

It is a pleasure to report that ACDC is home to a new collection contributed recently by a former agricultural journalism faculty member at the University of Wisconsin.  Dr. Eugene A. Kroupa later established one of the state’s first full-service marketing research firms. His contributed materials take varied formats and range in date from 1967-1990.

They involve topics such as farmers’ information sources and their use and understanding of agricultural marketing information. Materials also feature new directions in agricultural communications curricula, professionalism of agricultural communicators, and use of focus groups in agricultural marketing communications. They include nine agricultural journalism master’s degree theses.

You can identify his contributions by visiting “Contributed Collections” on the ACDC website and scrolling down to “The Eugene A. Kroupa Collection”.

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Imagine – local news media run by volunteers (for decades)

An example came to our attention recently from Almena, Kansas, a rural town of about 400 residents. Residents lost their century-old newspaper in 1990. Townspeople decided to establish a new semi-monthly, Prairie Dog Press, with news and columns authored by local residents (mostly seniors) and produced by an all-volunteer staff.  Friendships, dedication, the community’s appreciation, and an editor’s leadership help account for more than 20 years of community service. Folks at Kansas State University provided advisory help.

You can read this case study here, as reported in the Newspaper Research Journal.

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Topics range widely in recent symposium papers

You can see a sampling of today’s variety in these abstracts of 12 research papers. They were presented at a National Agricultural Communications Symposium in Florida earlier this year. Thanks to Prof. Quisto Settle, we are including contact information you can use if you want to invite full-text access.

“A quantitative assessment of possession rituals and engagement in Pinterest: an examination of the agriculture industry”  Contact: Cassie Wandersee at wande@ksu.edu

“Case study integration in the undergraduate classroom: can we enhance willingness to communicate?”  Contact: Jessica L. Harsh at jessica.harsh@abac.edu

“Creating relevancy in scientific information: an analysis of the impact of motivational salience and involvement on visual attention”

Contact: Laura Fischer at lmfischer@uky.edu

“Eye tracking: a biometric tool for measuring baseline visual literacy in agricultural communications students” Contact: Tobin Redwine at tredwine@tamu.edu

“Florida consumers’ latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment of genetically modified food information” Contact: Taylor Ruth at tkruth@illinois.edu

“Framing agricultural use of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the United States” Contact: Anna Warner at anna.j.warner@ufl.edu

“Lights, cameras, and agricultural documentaries: influence on opinion change”

Contact: Brooke Beam at beam.49@buckeyemail.osu.edu

“Measuring the influence of Twitter-based crisis communications strategies on brand reputation via experimental design” Contact: Courtney Boman-Billey at courtneyboman@mail.missouri.edu

“Piloting participatory arts-based methods for exploring Indonesians’ experiences in a U.S. biotechnology training program” Contact: Jamie Loizzo at jloizzo@ufl.edu

“Survey says: what data means when it comes to perceptions about agriculture”

Contact: Levy Randolph at lrandolph2008@ufl.edu

“The food factor: relating brand exposure to behavior intention”

Contact:  Quisto Settle at qsettle@okstate.edu

“What’s the beef about Facebook? A content analysis of junior cattle breed association engagement on Facebook” Contact: Courtney Gibson at courtney.d.gibson@ttu.edu

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Communicator events approaching

February 11, 2019
Deadline for full paper proposals for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas.
Information: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_RSVI-UTlaECBqJC9rTDvsBCJusihkA2bEWU5JCpx20/edit?usp=sharing

March 4, 2019
Deadline for poster abstracts for the 2019 Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) annual meeting, June 22-27, in San Antonio, Texas.
Information:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NTHUZMz-D5ERFCJeZKDS28NMkRnORFKmdWlAzG3ATnY/edit?usp=sharing

April 1-4, 2019
“Linking, innovating, motivation, and engaging for resilient agricultural systems”
Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Educators (AIAEE) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Information: https://aiaee2019trinidad.wordpress.com

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Looking for the mass human

We close this issue of ACDC News with a thought about the distinction between informing and communicating. Dr. Richard Nostbakken, communications director for the International Development Research Council, expressed it at a seminar in Kenya during 1990:

“There are what we call mass media, but there are few mass audiences, and I think no one has ever met a mass man.”

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

How agricultural researchers are using social media data

A recent article in Agronomy Journal identified some applications and limitations of social media data for agricultural research and extension. Canadian researcher Samuel Zipper cited examples such as:

• Using Twitter to map state-level corn and soy planting progress
• Mapping emerging agricultural issues (e.g., weather, crops, pests)
• Guiding Extension and Outreach directly to affected areas
• Identifying factors that contribute to decisions about replanting
• Tracking the evolution of farmer sentiment over time

You can read the article here.

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On shifting focus of the Big Data Revolution for Development (D4D)

We have added to the ACDC collection a recent analysis that took a political economy perspective on the big data revolution for development. Researcher Laura Mann of the London School of Economics and Political Science reported her findings in the first 2018 issue of the journal, Development and Change.

This analysis led her to suggest moving away from the current focus on humanitarianism towards economic development, “considering the opportunities for African citizens to benefit from their data as a source of revenue, knowledge and power.”

You can read the article here.

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New milestone for IFAJ

Congratulations to the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists for reaching a 50-member milestone. IFAJ guilds in eight new countries became members during the recent IFAJ Congress: Cameroon, Georgia, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

You can learn more about IFAJ and plans for further growth here.

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Update about online grocery shopping

A 2018 national survey among U.S. adults indicated that about 35% bought groceries online. Lincoln Park Strategies conducted the survey sponsored by the International Food Information Council Foundation, Washington, D.C.  Among other findings:

• Snacks, cereals, and canned goods were the most popular grocery items purchased online.
• Respondents were more likely to read grocery nutrition information when shopping in a store versus online.
• Cost of items/delivery (53%) and time it takes (39%) were the biggest barriers to online grocery shopping.

You can read the summary report here.

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 A 2018 framework for farmer adoption of best management practices (BMP)

Researchers reporting in Sustainability reviewed findings of BMP adoption studies from developed and developing countries since 2008.  They used findings to suggest a conceptual framework for BMP adoption decisions. It emphasizes the importance of scale, the tailoring or targeting of information and incentives, and the importance of expected farm profits. Findings included the need to incorporate social norms and uncertainty into decision making.

Authors also suggested that more research is needed on uses of social media and market recognition approaches (such as certificate schemes and consumer labeling) to influence BMP adoption.

You can read the journal article here.

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Communicator events approaching

October 19, 2018
Deadline for (a) research and innovative posters and (b) proposals for professional development sessions at the 2019 National Agricultural Communications Symposium, Montgomery, Alabama, January 31 – February 6, 2019.
Information: https://sites.google.com/a/extension.org/saasagcomm/home

November 7-9, 2018
“75 Years Strong.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB), Kansas City, Missouri.  Information:  http://nafb.com

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Primary purpose of the press

We close this issue of ACDC News with a thought from former U. S. President Warren G. Harding. He was differentiating between the purposes of education and propaganda.

“I cannot but feel that the primary purpose of the press, as a social institution, is the opening of men’s minds rather than the closing of them.”

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

What unites and divides urban, suburban, and rural communities

Here are a few examples of findings in a 2018 national U.S. survey by the Pew Research Center:

• Poverty increased more rapidly in urban and suburban counties than in rural communities between 2000 and 2015
• Rural Americans, especially those without a college degree, are less optimistic about their financial future
• Across all categories, most say rural areas get less than their fair share of federal dollars
• Rural residents are more likely than those in cities and suburbs to say they know all or most of their neighbors, but no more likely to interact with them

You can read the survey report here.

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 Four cautions about corporate community development (CCD)

A team of university researchers from the UK and New Zealand recently identified four problems when global corporations engage in community development. Their findings, reported in the Development and Change journal, emerged from field-based research in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and South Africa. The identified problems included:

• Problematic ways in which “communities” are defined, delineated, and constructed
• The disconnected nature of many CCD initiatives, and the lack of alignment and integration with local and national development planning policies and processes
• Top-down governance, and the absence or erosion of participatory processes and empowerment objectives
• The tendency towards highly conservative development visions

You can read the abstract of the Wiley-published article here. Or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in seeking full-text access.

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Leaning on prestigious scholarly journals

In the academic world, decisions about hiring, promotion, and funding tend to center on assessing research quality in a mechanical way by using journal prestige ratings.  We were interested, then, in an analysis by an economist at the University of Warwick, UK. It involved using total citations over a quarter of a century as a criterion.

Findings suggested: “It is dangerous to argue that publication in famous journal X means that a paper is more important than one published in medium-quality journal Y.”

You can read the report here.

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 Does self-regulation of food advertising work?

University of Bonn researchers asked that question in an analysis of television food advertisement to children in Germany. During October 2011, 2012, and 2014 they recorded television programming of children’s 10 most popular German television networks between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Results led them to conclude that commitments made by signatory companies of the EU Pledge (introduced in 2007) “had so far little impact on the nutritional value of food and beverages advertised to children. Nevertheless, the marketing of foods through television advertising targeting children during children’s program declined considerably.”

You can read the 2016 conference research paper here.

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24 years of news about using ethanol as a biofuel

We have added to the ACDC collection a 2017 Newspaper Research Journal article about how five “elite” U.S. daily newspapers covered ethanol use as a biofuel for 24 years (1987-2011).  This content analysis stretched from early interest in the technology through three years of peak coverage (2006-2008) spurred by policy issues, then into a quieter post-policy period (2009-2011). Among the findings:

• Themes about policy and economics dominated the coverage
• Ethanol industry representatives (in 27% of articles) and public officials (23%) were represented most often in articles. University researchers were seldom represented (3%)
• Newspaper headlines throughout the study period communicated a story slightly different from the content of articles they introduced

You can read the article here.

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 Using a simple phone app to transform Indonesia’s rivers

A new case study in the ACDC collection explains how mobile applications are helping form dynamic networks that are effectively restoring and protecting rivers. During June the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported on the River School Movement in Indonesia. Started in 2015, the Movement uses a holistic approach. It engages diverse stakeholders in a river system, from people living on the river and students to researchers, local governments, and NGOs. They use their mobile network to share advice and information – to “connect your heart with nature.”

This globally-recognized effort is coordinated from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta as part of the Indonesian River Restoration program.

You can read the case report here.

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 Communicator events approaching

September 20-22, 2018
“The changing face(s) of agriculture.” Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) in Winnipeg, Manitoba Province, Canada.
Information: http://www.cfwf18.ca

October 1, 2018
Deadline for full research papers to be submitted for presentation at the 2019 National Agricultural Communications Symposium (NACS) in Montgomery, Alabama, January 31 – February 6, 2019.
Information: https://sites.google.com/a/extension.org/saasagcomm/home

October 3-7, 2018
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Flint, Michigan, site of the most serious drinking water crisis in modern U.S. history.
Information:  https://www.sej.org/calendar/sejs-28th-annual-conference-flint-mi-oct-3-7-2018

October 12-16, 2018
“ScienceWriters2018.” Meeting of the National Association of Science Writers in Washington, D.C. Information: https://www.nasw.org/events/sciencewriters2018

October 19, 2018
Deadline for (a) research and innovative posters and (b) proposals for professional development sessions at the 2019 National Agricultural Communications Symposium, Montgomery, Alabama, January 31 – February 6, 2019.
Information: https://sites.google.com/a/extension.org/saasagcomm/home

November 7-9, 2018
“75 Years Strong.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB), Kansas City, Missouri.  Information:  http://nafb.com

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“Yours fraternally” Oops.

We close this issue of ACDC News with a poem by Eugene Field about an editor’s slip-up. It was published in 1910 and may still resonate today.

An editor in Kankakee
Once failing in a burning passion
With a vexatious rival, he
Wrote him a letter in this fashion:

“You are an ass uncouth and rude,
And will be one eternally.”
Then, in an absent-minded mood,
He signed it, “Yours fraternally.”

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 Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

A tsunami of change facing Big Food

“Barely 100 years old, the grocery store model is becoming obsolete, and with it the organization of the food value chain must be re-written.” Researchers Kate Phillips-Connolly and Alden J. Connolly offered that perspective in a recent article published in the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. In “When Amazon ate Whole Foods,” they observed that access to more information opens more options (and opportunities) to buyers and suppliers all along the food value chain.

You can read the article here.

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The Agricultural Communicator’s Creed

The ACDC collection contains “The Journalist’s Creed (1922),” “The Editor’s Creed (1955),” and “My Creed (1911).” However, until recently we weren’t aware of “The Agricultural Communicator’s Creed.”  It is now part of the ACDC collection and was written by Dr. Delmar Hatesohl, professor emeritus of the University of Missouri. He wrote it in 1990 while working with associates at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Nairobi.

This creed identifies 12 responsibilities of those in the agricultural communicator role. You can read it here. Thanks to Dr. Hatesohl for this valued contribution. And we welcome your thoughts about how it fits today’s role of the agricultural communicator.

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Findings of the 2018 Food and Health Survey from IFIC Foundation

We have added to the ACDC collection a 63-page report of findings from research among American consumers about health and diet, food components, food production, food safety, and food insecurity. The International Food Information Council Foundation sponsored it.

Key findings:

• Consumer confusion remains entrenched
• Context can influence the consumer’s judgment of healthfulness, even when the nutritional facts are the same

You can read the survey report here.

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Social media and civic participation: creating engagement – or hierarchies?

While social media have been heralded to diminish power relations and hierarchies, the Facebook platform reproduces existing divides and power relations.  That observation emerged from a case study in Sweden involving civic volunteering during a refugee crisis. Reporting in the journal New Media and Society, researchers Anne Kaun and Julie Uldam concluded:

“This is evident in the case of volunteer activism, for example, between coordinating administrators, donors and volunteers and migrants.  Especially, migrants are rendered marginalized and in some cases even voiceless.” Authors emphasized that hierarchies are not created by social media per se, but by a combination of ways in which they are used, the discourses they propagate, and the power relations in which they are embedded.

You can read the article here.

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We topped 45,000 documents last month

A recently-contributed 1976 farm magazine article accounted for that milestone. Really? And what was it? It reported results of a seven-state survey about consumer attitudes toward dairy farmers and products.  You can learn more about it by going to the ACDC search engine and entering ACDC_D09612 in the search box.

Such insights from more than 40 years ago add depth and value to research and understanding about consumer trends important to food and agriculture. That’s a special role of ACDC.

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Communicator events approaching

July 11-15, 2018
“Dutch Roots: small country big solutions” 2018 World Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in The Netherlands. Information: http://www.dutchroots.info

August 4-8, 2018
“Everything under the Sun” 20th annual Agricultural Media Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. Participants include AAEA – The Agricultural Communicators Network; Livestock Publications Council (LPC), Connectiv Agri-Media Committee; Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE); and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT). Information: www.agmediasummit.com

September 20-22, 2018
“The changing face(s) of agriculture.” Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) in Winnipeg, Manitoba Province, Canada.
Information: http://www.cfwf18.ca

October 3-7, 2018
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Flint, Michigan, site of the most serious drinking water crisis in modern U.S. history.
Information:  https://www.sej.org/calendar/sejs-28th-annual-conference-flint-mi-oct-3-7-2018

October 12-16, 2018
“ScienceWriters2018.” Meeting of the National Association of Science Writers in Washington, D.C. Information: https://www.nasw.org/events/sciencewriters2018

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A dining lesson for us all?

This issue of ACDC News has included a sprinkling of food news. In that spirit, we close with a bit of eating advice from Hilaire Belloc (1897):

The Vulture eats between his meals
And that’s the reason why
He very, very rarely feels
As well as you and I.

His eye is dull, his head is bald,
His neck is growing thinner.
Oh! What a lesson for us all
To only eat at dinner.

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.

 

Building on the fragile construct of trust

We recently added to the ACDC collection the report of a Germany-wide online survey that involved public trust in farmers regarding animal welfare. Findings by researchers at the Technical University of Munich suggested that value similarity was the most impacting factor for social trust.

Authors suggested that communication should underline similarities between consumers and farmers. “…the presentation of farmers in the public should be such that consumers can reckon more value similarity with farmers. Furthermore, there is a need for farmers to know the values and goals of consumers. This knowledge would allow them to better act in accordance with the wishes of consumers.”

You can read the 2017 conference paper here.

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Financial returns to social media marketing in the Green Industry

A team of university researchers recently assessed the economics of social media marketing in the fast-growing environmental horticulture industry. Using a survey covering 153 cities in six U. S. states, they found that using social media marketing an additional day per week resulted in $8,401 added sales per year for small firms (less than $100,000).

Authors concluded that “the importance of the perceived usefulness in adoption suggests that nursery owners and operators should be educated on the value of using a new media marketing technology to increase the rate of adoption among firms of this category.” They advised putting emphasis on rural nurseries that are particularly sensitive to the competition of mass merchandisers.

You can read the 2017 conference paper here.

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75^th anniversary of the Delta Farm Press

Congratulations to the folks at the Delta Farm Press in celebrating 75 years of service in the Mid-South region of the U.S. Executive Editor Hembree Brandon, Editor Ron Smith, and associates tracked that adventure in a special April 20 issue. This venerable weekly began humbly in 1943 as a four-page supplement to the Daily Press newspaper, Clarksdale, Mississippi.

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Local journalism doing incredible work – and more vital than ever

Reporter Kathleen McLaughlin of The Guardian recently cited examples of “great journalism by reporters who know their subjects and communities well and have covered these issues extensively.” Those examples involved community journalism in Texas, Georgia, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Montana.

Noting the financial pressures facing local media, McLaughlin offered this advice: “The simple solution lies with you, dear reader. Find a news outlet valuable to your life and pay for it. Plain and simple. It’s not a long-term solution, but we need people to stop expecting the news to be the same as air and sunlight – absolutely free.”

You can read the article here.

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 Food and the “big tech” threat

We recently added to the ACDC collection a 2017 book that includes a perspective on threats to the food enterprise (among others) and how independent media should address them.  In World without mind: the existential threat of big tech, author Franklin Foer examined what he termed a revolution in who controls knowledge and information. He said “…media must denounce their most recent phase…to lead a rebellion against the processed, ephemeral, speed-based writing encouraged by the tech companies.”

You can review the publishers’ introduction here. Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access to parts that may hold interest for you.

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 Thanks and best wishes to two ACDC associates

 

Prof. Pat Allen, long-time administrative coordinator of ACDC, retired last month. He served in that responsibility as librarian of the Funk ACES Library. It supports the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, plus other University of Illinois academic units with related subject interests. His leadership and constant support have helped this specialized international resource grow steadily and broaden in service.

 

 

Elizabeth Ray has completed her master’s degree in Library and Information Science after serving as ACDC graduate assistant since September 2016. She has been instrumental in efforts such as gathering and processing resources into the Center, enhancing the website, serving inquiries from users, and mentoring student assistants.

 

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Hailley Shaw continues as ACDC staff associate

 

We are delighted that Hailley is continuing her association with ACDC this year through a half-time appointment following completion of her master’s degree this spring. She brings more than a year of ACDC experience to this responsibility.

 

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Communicator events approaching

June 20-21, 2018
“Step into the Winner’s Circle of Agricultural Public Relations” Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in Louisville, Kentucky.
Information: https://www.agrelationscouncil.org/2018-arc-annual-meeting/

July 11-15, 2018
“Dutch Roots: small country big solutions” 2018 World Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in The Netherlands. Information: http://www.dutchroots.info
 
August 4-8, 2018
“Everything under the Sun” 20th annual Agricultural Media Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. Participants include AAEA – The Agricultural Communicators Network; Livestock Publications Council (LPC), Connectiv Agri-Media Committee; Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE); and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT).
Information: www.agmediasummit.com

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 The farmer’s lights

We close this issue of ACDC News with a Farm and Fireside epitaph about the farmer’s work. It appeared (page 149) in N. A. Crawford and C. E. Rogers, Agricultural Journalism. A. A. Knopf, New York. 1926.

Here lies a farmer. His work is done.
Earth he tilled by the light of the sun.
The peace of the stars was his of nights.
He lived according to his lights.

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Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Click Here for a printer-friendly PDF of this newsletter.