11 pages., via online journal., This paper is concerned with how urban food activists related to the media during 2015, when Bristol was the European
Green Capital (EGC), how they represented themselves and how others represented their agenda. Our intention is to
inform the debates on urban agriculture (UA) and, more specifically, to contribute to discussions about ‘scaling up’
UA. To achieve this, we adopt a form of analysis that rests on Castells’ insights about contemporary protest movements,
the media and the role of communication technologies in constituting social power. By using Bristol, a city with a welldeveloped and studied urban agriculture movement, we suggest new areas for consideration that focus on the importance
of communication in the development of the movement. Our study relied only on publicly available data; newspaper
reports about the EGC and a sample of the social media used by the urban food networks in the city. We found that
the mass media was mainly concerned with reporting topics other than food and that urban food was not a salient
issue in their coverage. The Twitter network we analyzed was a loose constellation of different communities, which
shared materials that were mostly concerned with creating a shared, normative picture of urban food. By considering
the structure of these forms of media, we can observe the assembly of the forms of communication and their content.
The paper concludes that the self-representation of urban food networks at that time reveals a narrow focus of interest.
This emphasis may have contributed to the lack of connection within the city between potential allies. Our conclusion
supports similar research findings in neighboring communities, which have observed the limited connections of urban
food networks to the circuits of power and influence.
Ruth, Taylor K. (author), Suits, Teresa (author), McLeod-Morin, Ashley (author), Telg, Ricky W. (author), and Association for Communication Excellence (ACE)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Florida
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2020-02
Published:
United States: New Prairie Press
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 131 Document Number: D11304
18 pages., via online journal, Hurricane Michael hit the Florida panhandle as a category five hurricane on October 10, 2018. One of the risks after a hurricane is the spread of mosquito-borne disease due to standing floodwaters, which provide perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. People often turn to social media during times of crisis to receive up-to-date information. Therefore, there is a need to understand how to use social media to communicate about risks after a natural disaster. The purpose of this study was to explore how Twitter was used to communicate about mosquito control before and after Hurricane Michael and was guided by the Centers for Disease Control’s crisis communication recommendations. Data were collected using Sysomos Media Analytics Platform (MAP). The search included tweets about mosquito control two weeks before and two weeks after Hurricane Michael made landfall and was limited to Florida residents. There were 198 tweets about mosquito control in this timeframe, and a sharp increase in tweets in the weeks following the hurricane. Users tweeting the most about mosquito control were public agencies like mosquito control districts, and common hashtags included #mosquito and #mosquitocontrol; #HurricaneMichael was rarely used. The largest number of tweets were identified with the frame Be First to warn people about mosquito spraying in their local areas. A minority of tweets promoted self-efficacy or promoted action related to mosquito control. None of the analyzed tweets expressed empathy. Extension can use the findings from this study to guide future risk communication on social media following a natural disaster.
16 pages, via online journal article, This study examined the online content of interdisciplinary agricultural center webpages. Content modification dates, mission statements, and content were determined through a content analysis. Many of the websites did not mention a modification date for the content, while many websites had outdated content mostly older than six months. More than two-thirds of the websites provided PDFs that visitor could download to learn more about topics, by many of the websites lacked any media element that was being coded. Additionally, many websites did not use multiple forms of media. More than half of the websites were coded as lacking any social media content or plugins, but out of the websites that did include social media content, Facebook was the most prevalent. The commonalities between the center’s mission displayed on the website and the content theme were analyzed and chi-square tests provided the degree of association. A significant association existed and an alignment between communication strategies and missions of the centers was concluded, which is important when organizations communicate about agricultural science as indicated by previous literature. It is recommended that centers communicate via their websites in a timely manner and allow modification times to be seen to viewers to show their information is up-to-date. Website media content should also be diversified and communicators of these centers should explore the unique communication opportunities provided by social media. Future research should explore the target audience of interdisciplinary agricultural centers and should analyze the messages centers are using to communicate with those audiences.
