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2. Ask not what nature can do for you: a critique of ecosystem services as a communication strategy
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bekessy, S.A. (author), Runge, M.C. (author), Kusmanoff, A.M. (author), Keith, D.A. (author), and Wintle, B.C. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10504
- Journal Title:
- Biological Conservation
- Journal Title Details:
- 224: 71-74
- Notes:
- 4 pages., via online journal., Given the urgent need to raise public awareness on biodiversity issues, we review the effectiveness of “ecosystem services” as a frame for promoting biodiversity conservation. Since its inception as a communications tool in the 1970s, the concept of ecosystem services has become pervasive in biodiversity policy. While the goal of securing ecosystem services is absolutely legitimate, we argue that it has had limited success as a vehicle for securing public interest and support for nature, which is crucial to securing long-term social mandates for protection. Emerging evidence suggests that focusing on ecosystem services rather than the intrinsic value of nature is unlikely to be effective in bolstering public support for nature conservation. Theory to guide effective communication about nature is urgently needed. In the mean-time, communicators should reflect on their objectives and intended audience and revisit the way nature is framed to ensure maximum resonance.
3. Common values and themes for grazed open spaces: “plant diversity” and “watershed” as communication intersections for agriculture and conservation groups?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Scasta, John Derek (author), Welter, Kelsey J. (author), and Friday, Colleen (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-01-01
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10679
- Journal Title:
- Environmental Communication
- Notes:
- 15 pages., via online journal., Communicating about the use and management of open spaces occurs within a complex social environment replete with diverse stakeholder opinions and meta-narratives. For western US rangelands, productionbased enterprises have been the traditional use but increasingly they are valued for ecosystem services such as water, recreation, biodiversity, and aesthetics which have led to additional conflict. We surveyed Wyoming-based members of six agricultural (Ag) and four environmental/conservation (Env/Con) groups to determine grazingcentric mutual exclusivity of special interests, common values, and emergent themes. We assessed 197 survey participants; 150 from Ag groups and 47 from Env/Con groups. Of 10 values assessed, “watershed” and “plant diversity” were similarly valued by both group types. These naturally dichotomous groups also agreed that communication and reliance on science are needed. Communication and conflict resolution about the use of open spaces can benefit from addressing social presuppositions and meta-narratives of broader audiences to facilitate effective dialogue and solutions.
4. Exploring influences of different communication approaches on consumer target groups for ethically produced beef
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Risius, Antje (author) and Hamm, Ulrich (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Germany
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 6 Document Number: D10226
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics
- Journal Title Details:
- 31 : 325-340
5. Eyes wide shut: exploring practices of negotiated ignorance in water resources modelling and management
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Chong, Natalie (author), Deroubaix, José-Frédéric (author), and Bonhomme, Céline (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12-01
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10625
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 227: 286-293
- Notes:
- 8 pages., via online journal., Formalised methods to address uncertainty are becoming the norm in hydrological modelling, yet they remain fragmented and highly academic, thus limiting their utility for practitioners. Using a qualitative, empirical study of the PIREN-Seine program in France, this paper explores the proccesses behind this trend in an effort to elucidate its prevalence despite inherent limitations when applied to a decision-making context. We identify: 1/ displacement of ‘uncomfortable knowledge’, 2/ fragmented responsibility, 3/ confidence, and 4/ relational framing as interconnected factors, which concurrently support the production of scientific knowledge and the social construction of ignorance, whether it be wilful or intentional. We posit that ignorance is implicitly negotiated among researchers and practitioners in order to reconcile cognitive dissonance and maintain confidence, thereby allowing water managers to take action in the face of uncertainty. Finally, we put forth the notion that having our ‘eyes wide shut’ can be interpreted in two ways: one facilitates the normalisation of ignorance, leaving us vulnerable to unexpected surprises; the other promotes transparent and explicit communication in support of more adaptive and robust decisions.
6. Farmers’ perception of water quality and risks in the Mashavera river basin, Georgia: analyzing the vulnerability of the social-ecological system through community perceptions
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Withanachchi, Sisira S. (author), Kunchulia, Ilia (author), Ghambashidze, Giorgi (author), Al Sidawi, Rami (author), Urushadze, Teo (author), and Ploeger, Angelika (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08-28
- Published:
- Switzerland: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10388
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(9)
- Notes:
- 26 pages., Via online journal., Competing natural resources usage that leads to dramatic land use changes can threaten the balance of a social-ecological system. When this is the case, communities are directly exposed to the negative consequences of those land use changes. The Mashavera River Basin is considered one of the hotspots of environmental pollution in Georgia. This is of importance for public health because the food production from this basin meets a substantial proportion of the country’s food demand. The farmers’ perception of the water quality and their perceived risks to the economy, health, and lifestyle reflect the status of the environmental and social conditions. The inclusion of farmers’ risk perceptions is an important stage of water quality governance that could enable active civic participation. The approach of this research study was the convergence model in the triangular design of the mixed method approach. As part of the social data, the research study was conducted with a survey of 177 households, for which agriculture was either a main or partial source of income. A few focus group discussions were also conducted. A binary logistic regression analysis was employed as the main method for the analysis. The results from the pollution load index (PLI) were used as the supportive data to verify some geospatial hypotheses. We found that aesthetic attributes (i.e., color changes observed in the river) and the source of the water contamination (i.e., mining sites) were the main predictor variables for a perceived risk to water quality, health, and livelihoods. The people who work in agriculture as the main income source had more concern about their ability to sell their agricultural products as a result of water contamination in the river, compared with people for whom agriculture is a secondary source of income or for self-consumption. Age, amount of land, years of agricultural experience, and the source of water supply for agriculture did not have a significant effect on any of the risk perception or water quality perception models. The results indicate that the health risk is perceived more strongly in areas with more heavily contaminated water compared to less polluted areas. We propose that conducting a public risk perception assessment is an ideal means to detect people’s concerns regarding water quality governance for future risk analysis in Georgia. Another recommendation of this study is an integrated model of risk assessment that combines the results from a public risk perception assessment and a technical assessment. The benefits of such an integrated assessment include finding new hazard-sensitive areas for further analysis, the possibility to cross-check data for verification, communal communication of hazardous conditions by utilizing local knowledge, and the direct participation of the community in monitoring risks.
7. Managing household socio-hydrological risk in Mexico city: a game to communicate and validate computational modeling with stakeholders
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Shelton, Rebecca E. (author), Baeza, Andres (author), Janssen, Marco A. (author), and Eakin, Hallie (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12-01
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10628
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 227: 200-208
- Notes:
- 9 pages., via online journal., Residents of Mexico City experience major hydrological risks, including flooding events and insufficient potable water access for many households. A participatory modeling project, MEGADAPT, examines hydrological risk as co-constructed by both biophysical and social factors and aims to explore alternative scenarios of governance. Within the model, neighborhoods are represented as agents that take actions to reduce their sensitivity to exposure and risk. These risk management actions (to protect their households against flooding and scarcity) are based upon insights derived from focus group discussions within various neighborhoods. We developed a role-playing game based on the model's rules in order to validate the assumptions we made about residents' decision-making given that we had translated qualitative information from focus group sessions into a quantitative model algorithm. This enables us to qualitatively validate the perspective and experience of residents in an agent-based model mid-way through the modeling process. Within the context of described hydrological events and the causes of these events, residents took on the role of themselves in the game and were asked to make decisions about how to protect their households against scarcity and flooding. After the game, we facilitated a discussion with residents about whether or not the game was realistic and how it could be improved. The game helped to validate our assumptions, validate the model with community members, and reinforced our connection with the community. We then discuss the potential further development of the game as a learning and communication tool.
8. Peer pressure on the riverbank: assessing catch-and-release anglers' willingness to sanction others' (bad) behavior
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Guckian, Meaghan L. (author), Danylchuk, Andy J. (author), Cooke, Steven J. (author), and Markowitz, Ezra M. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08-01
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10629
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 219: 252-259
- Notes:
- 8 pages., via online journal., Given the well-documented impacts of angler behavior on the biological fitness of angled and released fish, optimizing the conservation value of catch-and-release angling hinges on the extent to which anglers are willing to adopt recommended best practices and refrain from harmful ones. One potentially powerful mechanism underlying adoption of best practices is the social pressure anglers can apply to one another to enforce community norms and values. Past work in other domains demonstrates that forms of interpersonal communication—including social sanctioning—can foster context-appropriate social norms and increase cooperative behavior; yet to date, little research has examined these dynamics in the context of species conservation. We conducted in-person and online surveys to explore the role of social sanctioning in the context of an internationally renowned wild steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fishery in British Columbia, Canada. We investigated how diverse social-psychological and demographic factors influence anglers' past and future sanctioning propensity. Results highlight that perceived capacity to influence the angling practices of others and professed concerns about one's own reputation were strongly predictive of both past and future sanctioning. Furthermore, while anglers reported relatively low-levels of past sanctioning behavior, most anglers simultaneously expressed a strong desire to sanction others in the future. Identifying ways to increase the social desirability and visibility of sanctioning actions could assist resource managers in promoting adoption and maintenance of best practices. More broadly, our findings underscore a significant yet underappreciated role for wildlife users and enthusiasts in cultivating a shared conservation ethic to help ensure biological conservation.
9. Public understanding of One Health messages: The role of temporal framing
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Roh, Sungjong (author), Rickard, Laura N. (author), McComas, Katherine A. (author), and Decker, Daniel J. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Language:
- English / Afrikaans
- Publication Date:
- 2018-02
- Published:
- SAGE Journals
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10592
- Journal Title:
- Public Understanding of Science
- Journal Title Details:
- 27(2): 185–96.
- Notes:
- 12 pages., via online journal., Building on research in motivated reasoning and framing in science communication, we examine how messages that vary attribution of responsibility (human vs animal) and temporal orientation (now vs in the next 10 years) for wildlife disease risk influence individuals’ conservation intentions. We conducted a randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of US adults (N = 355), which revealed that for people low in biospheric concern, messages that highlighted both human responsibility for and the imminent nature of the risk failed to enhance conservation intentions compared with messages highlighting animal responsibility. However, when messages highlighting human responsibility placed the risk in a temporally distal frame, conservation intentions increased among people low in biospheric concern. We assess the underlying mechanism of this effect and discuss the value of temporal framing in overcoming motivated skepticism to improve science communication.
10. The national, regional and city divide: social media analysis of stakeholders views regarding biological controls. The public reaction to the carp control herpes virus in Australia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mehmet, Mehmet Ibrahim (author), D'Alessandro, Steven (author), Pawsey, Nicolas (author), and Nayeem, Tahmid (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12-01
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10623
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 227: 181-188
- Notes:
- 8 pages., via online journal., Recent research and practice in environmental management suggest sentiment analysis of social media communication can be a useful tool in stakeholder analysis of environmental policy. This is certainly the case when it comes to the controversial use of biological controls in dealing with invasive species. Current numerical scored approaches of sentiment may not reveal the reasons for support or opposition to environmental policies in this and other areas. In this study, we examine how the use of more in-depth analysis based on what key stakeholders say about this issue in media at a national, city or regional geographic level. The analysis reveals quite different reasons for support and opposition to the biological control of carp in Australia, and that within each stakeholder group it is possible for individuals to hold conflicting views and attitudes on this issue. We find that there are concerns at the national and city level about the impact of the virus and mistrust of government and science and that the carp species may be viewed as a valuable resource. Those responding to regional media expressed hope that the virus may lead to the elimination of the carp problem, however, they were more interested in the possible impact on the local environment. The multi-scaled social media analysis of stakeholder views about the potential biological control of carp in Australia demonstrated how social media comments can be used to explore the nuanced and multidimensional nature of community attitudes and preferences.