14pgs, The World Health Organization (WHO) has used communication methods to promote the international ban of the agricultural pesticides paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos. This ban has led to misunderstanding among farmers who still use these chemicals, which may be available under different brand names. Communication with the non-scientific community is uncertain leading to miscommunication, especially where scientific language is used. Governments have banned the use of these agricultural chemicals. The scientific arguments are not necessarily understood by famers so they may ignore the prohibition and continue using them or other similar chemicals. This study uses story-telling and qualitative research methods where a questionnaire is combined with the content analytical technique. The quantitative research method was used to collect data in the field where 351 participants took part. Participatory action research is a method where community farmers engaged in self-reflection on the impact of chemicals on their fields, their health and the health of others. Their understanding of the non-chemical usage model and good agricultural practice farmers in the vicinity, especially as they were personally involved in the creation of the media from script preparation, to acting, filming, and evaluating the final docu-dramas. The findings of the docu–drama programmes of 5 GAP farmers are presented to identify the perception of how to avoid using chemicals and their solutions for tangerine farmers through a manual that is the media output from the project and the resulting findings suggesting that the factors related to the effectiveness of scientific communication are divided into pull factors and push factors.
17pgs, Despite the central role of seafood in Japanese cuisine, domestic fisheries are facing a severe crisis. Based on anthropological field research in fishing communities in southwestern Japan as well as on a sampling of cultural representations of fish, this contribution examines the changing cultural and socio-economic meanings and matter of fish in Japanese seafood assemblages: from sentient beings and commons cohabitants under existential threat from anthropogenic environmental change to their use as food for human consumption and their role in the livelihoods of fishers and coastal communities. The analysis finds a growing polarisation in the Japanese seafood sector as the cyborg fish of highly-processed food products and globally traded commodities inundate markets and dinner plates, while locally caught animals turn from basic foodstuff into folklorist stars of a vanishing rurality, a symbol of authenticity and national identity advertised as cultural commodities in romanticising campaigns to revitalise rural areas.
Online from publication. 3 pages., Article features experiences and perspectives of crime novel writer Jeff Gould, a former reporter for the Linder Farm Network in Minnesota.
Online from publication. 2 pages., Report of a panel discussion at the Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit. Includes reference to need in marketing communications for greater orientation to consumer needs and desires.
UI Library subscription., Report about a National AgriMarketing Association award-winning docudrama, "30 Harvests." It was produced for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) organization to encourage food companies to join with agriculture in the battle against climate change. Describes the origin and production of this film, as well as the planning for a paid media budget by USFRA and the CLUTCH consultancy/agency, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
20 pages., Agricultural communication covers all kinds of human communications involving agriculture, food, natural resources and rural interests. Such communications exchange and deliver the information of the agricultural and natural resource industries to the right receivers through effective media. Storytelling in marketing is also a managerial application; it is a marketing strategy that includes the agricultural industry. While an increasing number of agricultural businesses are promoting the application of agricultural stories in marketing and facilitating increases in the consumption of agricultural products, few researchers have explicitly developed valid tools for measuring the constructs of agricultural stories. This study continued previous research on effective model of storytelling in agricultural marketing, with the aim of exploring the constructs of a good agricultural story and developing the “Agricultural Story Scale” to measure them. Thirteen items measuring three factors—authenticity, narrative, and protagonist’s distinctiveness—were confirmed to have satisfactory structural model fit. The findings of the study and recommendations that contribute to both theoretical and practical implications are reported.
Keywords: Agricultural Story; Agricultural Communication; Measurement; Storytelling; Storytelling in Marketing
16 pages, This article focuses on the processes of sense-making of forest fires in a Mediterranean context. The authors use a textual approach to compare media framing with activist organizational storytelling. The authors conducted a frame analysis in two major daily newspapers in Catalonia (La Vanguardia and El Periódico de Catalunya) during three summers and compared the results with the stories from four leading activist and volunteering organizations that came out of in-depth interviews with their members, one focus group and published materials. The results identified up to five major mainstream media frames, among which were stories focusing on agricultural risk, climate change and weather conditions; imprudent and negligent attitudes; inappropriate fuel management and woodland conditions; and arson. The natural self-regulatory frame was present as part of the discourse of resilience but almost residual. Some journalism focused on the spectacular nature of the events and their dramatic impact, which led to some degree of mediatization of wildfires. The organizations problematized these frames and discussed about the appropriateness of human intervention to prevent forest fires. The results also revealed that activists observed the issue from a broader complexity, replicating frames on “structural responsibility” instead of “individual responsibility” allocation. The authors point out that if wildfires are to be better understood and dealt with more in-depth knowledge is required of different stakeholders’ approaches to preventing forest fires.
9 pages., Includes a link to the seven-page article which this award-winning agricultural reporter wrote for the February 2018 issue of Western Horseman magazine.
Online via UI Library electronic subscription., Authors used the Positive Deviance approach to identify the effective communication practices of rural women entrepreneurs in Uttar Pradesh, India, who succeed against overwhelming odds. A variety of participatory processes and liberating structures - improv theater, personal storytelling, discovery and action dialogues, and card-sorting games - were used to identify the highly uncommon practices of these entrepreneurs.
