Brooks, John R. (author / Radio/Television Communications Specialist, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, Agricultural Center, Louisiana State University)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 83 Document Number: C05066
search through journal, University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension provides educational programming through various methods of delivery. As part of the Family Community Education (FCE) Program, Extension specialists provide leader training lessons to Extension educators and assistants. Survey data were collected from Extension educators and assistants involved in the FCE Program to find out their needs involving the delivery of leader training lessons. The data revealed that satellite broadcast is a viable source to deliver leader training lessons and other programming material to Extension educators and assistants throughout Nebraska. Sixty-three percent of the respondents preferred satellite delivery, as opposed to 35 percent who liked in-person training at district meetings.
"We are not going to reverse trends affecting our profession, but if we can see where they are going, we can position ourselves for the winning shot. This leads to the second point. We need to see the future clearly. I contend that many of the issues described by Whiting are in actuality indicators of two larger trends: an increasingly diverse audience and the need for universities to be more entrepreneurial." Author calls for communications departments and centers to think and act more collectively rather than individually.
Author describes these trends that involve communications programs in colleges of agriculture, extension and research programs: mission creep (to more PR), abandoning our roots (in pursuit of high rankings), communication decentralization, professional slippage (off the faculty ladder), administrative disconnect (with communications leaders), insufficient funding for strategic marketing of colleges, lack of increased communication with nonfarm audiences.
