ACDC News
Issue 06-21, November 2006
Are we communicating effectively? That
question got featured attention on June 13 when the Food Safety Network
hosted its first food safety communicators' conference. The event took
place at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. An international
cadre of presenters focused on:
- Consumers, society and risk analysis
- Current and emerging issues
- Lessons learned from crisis situations (three case reports)
- Where the information high is leading
- Using message and communication to promote change
- Food safety - who's in control?
- Innovative approaches to food safety and agricultural communications
Summaries are available in proceedings that the Network announced recently.
Title: Getting the word out
Posted at: http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/articles/947/Conference_proceedings.pdf
Everett Rogers looks at a half-century of the diffusion model.
The name of this communications scholar probably is familiar to you -
especially if you have become acquainted with research involving the
diffusion and adoption of agricultural and other innovations. From the
mid-1950s onward, he actively helped develop this broad stream of
scholarship that has had international impact. Shortly before his
passing, he shared a "prospective and retrospective look" at it in a Journal of Health Communication article we have added to the ACDC collection.
Title: A prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model.
Managing a high-profile agricultural conflict. A recent article in Public Relations Review
examined conflict resolution processes, using media content analyses of
four high-profile conflicts. One case involved conflict between the U.
S. Department of Agriculture and African American farmers who alleged
the USDA had discriminated against them.
Authors
described the conflict as it played out in press coverage, summarized
the resolution of it and offered perspectives on processes through
which such conflicts are resolved.
Title: Going head to head
The costs to producers of not adopting Bt cotton. An article in AgBioForum
summarized the global impacts of Bt cotton adoption in the United
States and China, based on results from a three-region model of the
world cotton market. Findings prompted authors to conclude, "The
results provide an indication of the costs of not adopting Bt cotton."
Reasons cited:
Bt cotton reduced insecticide use and per-pound production costs in both countries.
- Higher yields and production contributed to a 1.4-cent per pound reduction in the world price of cotton.
- Net global benefits were $836 million.
- China captured 71 percent of this benefit, the U. S. captured 21 percent and the rest of the world captured the remainder.
- Rest-of- the- world cotton purchasers benefited from lower cotton prices while returns to rest-of-the-world producers fell.
Title: Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China: International trade and welfare effects
Posted at: http://www.agbioforum.org/v9n2/v9n2a01-frisvold.htm
Teaching agricultural communications - without experience.
Agriscience teachers in Texas high schools raised concerns about this
several years ago in a study examining the agricultural communications
curriculum of that state. In a research report we added recently to the
ACDC collection, authors reported:
"This study found that
67% of the teachers had little or no experience in the field of
agricultural communications, but they agreed the competencies related
to communication techniques and procedures should be incorporated in
the agricultural communications curriculum. Agriscience teachers also
indicated their perceived level of teaching skill pertaining to
communication techniques and procedures ranged from fair to good."
Title: Analyzing the Texas high school agricultural communications curriculum
Posted at: http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/jsaer/pdf/Vol51/51-00-138.pdf
Reminiscences of an innovative agricultural communications educator.
We appreciate having received a new autobiography, "Rural
Reminiscences," by John H. Behrens, professor emeritus of agricultural
communications, University of Illinois. The career section reveals his
special creativity, leadership and service. Examples:
Creation of an instructional resources program for the College of Agriculture.
- Early
use of new presentation technologies - overhead projectors, cassette
tape recorders and closed loop motion picture projectors - and
multi-media learning units that students used in individual study
carrels.
- Early use for agriculture instruction of a
technique called Telenet, through which one or several persons could
address large groups over telephone lines from remote locations.
- Three-projector, multi-screen slide presentations for showing and comparing concepts.
- Development of a new course, Teaching College-Level Agriculture.
- Leadership
in developing communications facilities and services for agriculture
universities in India, West Indies, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Title: Rural reminiscences.
And welcome to a future agricultural communicator.
We extend a hearty welcome to Kelly Wagahoff, new student associate in
the Center. She is a sophomore in the agricultural communications
curriculum with a concentration in advertising.
Raised in
a small rural town - Raymond, Illinois - Kelly became interested in
agricultural communications through her love of people and the
agricultural industry. She gained communications experience in high
school through writing and photography for her school yearbook and
through news writing for her FFA chapter. She hopes one day to work in
agricultural sales and marketing communications.
"My
experience in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center has
been great so far," she reports. "I feel it will help prepare me for my
career because I have had the opportunity to look at and work with
documents that will help me in the future. It will also be very
beneficial once I start working with the online database because I will
have a better understanding of formats and how to work with databases."
Online auctions for farm products (more than 70 years ago). We recently added to the ACDC collection a 1933 New York Times article
that described plans for a new teletype network in the U.S., creating a
daily nationwide auction of perishable farm products. This commercial
enterprise, called Farmers Market System, was to be based in New York
City.
"Descriptions of the products offered for sale by
farmers would be flashed to all the market cities, where the buyers,
gathered at the local headquarters of the organization, could
immediately offer their bids, which in turn would be flashed to every
other teletype centre. In this way definite markets would be assured
for farmers before their produce has started its journey, and
conditions of glut in certain sections of the country and scarcity in
others would be avoided."
Title: Teletype service planned for farms
Spinach takes a musical hit.
A musical video posted recently on YouTube suggests "The Spinach is
Bad" and adds to the grief for spinach generated recently by E-coli
problems in the U. S. According to the promotional brief, "deep in our
brains we know it's just not right to eat this vile little leaf."
Title: The Spinach is Bad - music video
The video is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLS5mKH5kks
Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online. Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.
Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for
the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to
invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or
send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique
collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation
Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or
electronic form at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu
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