26 pages, This research is intended to initiate understanding of how obesity in the South persists even though the majority of inhabitants subscribe to a faith that discourages unhealthy lifestyles. Grounded in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this study examined Protestant evangelical Christians in the South (N = 11), who participated in semi-structured interviews. The first emergent theme was that, to these Southerners, the purpose of food is for sustenance and survival, as well as for bringing people together. Most participants reported having an average level of knowledge of nutrition and health. Furthermore, participants generally agreed that marketing or educational efforts had little effect on their understanding of nutrition. Another theme emerged when participants provided Biblical references to food or health. “The Body is a Temple” and “gluttony” were the most common Biblical concepts. All participants referred to taste or desirability as the driver of their food selections. Furthermore, most participants claimed habitual gluttony as a personal experience in their lives. This study concluded that subjects employed two modes of “trivializing” as a way of resolving dissonance. Some participants justified their eating habits based on Southern culture, while others explained that their church culture supported unhealthy eating as a means of gathering in fellowship.
27 pages., Research in agricultural communications is not guided by a national research agenda. Therefore, the substantial body of research produced from scholars working in the discipline represents scattered efforts. We conducted a content analysis of journal articles published in the Journal of Applied Communications between 2000 and 2019 to identify the research themes that establish the discipline’s scholarly base. Through an examination of n = 259 journal articles, we identified N = 27 research themes, the most prevalent of which included agriculture and media relations/practices (f = 30; % = 11.58), public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources (f = 25; % = 9.65), and agricultural communications academic programs and curricula (f = 21; % = 8.11). Then, we used Q methodology to identify viewpoints of agricultural communications scholars (e.g., faculty, graduate students; n = 45) as they relate to perceptions about the importance of research. We identified four dominant viewpoints of scholars in agricultural communications: Message Framing Influencers, Extension-Focused Scholars and Practitioners, Discipline-Conscious Researchers, and Tech-Savvy Scholars. Together, these viewpoints explained 59.43% of the study variance. Although participants who represented each of these groups had unique perspectives, participants generally agreed that public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources and crisis communications in agricultural communications were important research themes. Likewise, they generally agreed that the role of agricultural communications professional organizations, agricultural communications efforts during historical events, and agritourism were not important research themes.
20 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural technology continues to evolve to meet the demands of a growing world, but previous advancements in agricultural technology have been met with resistance. Improved science communication efforts can assist in bridging the gap between expert and lay opinion to improve reception of scientific information. Using the framework of the heuristic model of persuasion, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of emphasizing elements of source credibility – trustworthiness and expertise – and the gender of the source on perceptions of source credibility. A sample of 122 undergraduate students were exposed to one of the four possible developed message treatments. Data collection took place in a laboratory setting using an online instrument that had a randomly-assigned stimulus research design. The results indicated the treatment conditions had higher mean scores for source credibility than the control. Further inferential analysis, however, showed the differences to be non-significant. One significant finding showed the gender of the source can influence perceptions of credibility. This suggests merit in using female sources when presenting scientific information to the Millennial population. While choosing credible sources to present information is important, more research is needed regarding the effect of emphasizing various credibility components and the role of source gender on perceptions of source credibility.