Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 139 Document Number: D05845
Notes:
Online from the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, Marshfield, Wisconsin. 2 pages., Report of a national survey of agritourism operators
Lamm, Kevan W. (author), Rumble, Joy N. (author), Carter, Hannah S. (author), and Lamm, Elexa J. (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2015
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05791
Notes:
Paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section of the annual conference of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 1, 2015. 26 pages.
13 pages., Via online journal., Blogs are a type of social media that present a unique opportunity to provide information to a large audience without the constraints of traditional media’s gatekeeping barriers. Within agriculture, several studies have examined agricultural blogs but not from the perspective of blog readers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe the uses and gratifications of agricultural blog readers. This study used a descriptive survey research design and online questionnaire to assess agricultural blog readers’ demographics, Internet and blog use, attitudes toward agriculture, and motivations for reading blogs. Findings indicated most respondents had direct experience in agriculture and were supportive of the industry. The strongest motivations for accessing agricultural blogs were to find out what other people think about important issues or events and to find alternatives not covered by traditional news sources. Blogs proved to be a useful source of information, but more should be done to expand reach beyond those in the industry. Additional research is needed to more fully describe agricultural blog readers’ uses and gratifications.
Leal, Arthur (author), Rumble, Joy (author), and Lamm, Alexa (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2015
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05793
Notes:
Paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section of the annual conference of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 1, 2015. 28 pages.
14 pages., Article #:3FEA9, via online journal., This article reports on a study to determine which information sources organic growers use to inform farming practices by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 organic farmers across 17 North Carolina counties. Effective information sources included: networking, agricultural organizations, universities, conferences, Extension, Web resources, personal experience, books, organic buyers/certifiers, and consultants. Results suggest that grower-to-grower networking is a highly effective information-seeking behavior for organic growers. Recommendations for Extension personnel include reshaping educational programing for organic growers to include peer-to-peer information sharing, as well as increased investment to graduate and undergraduate programs that train future Extension agents in organic production approaches.
