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2. A perplexing process: Understanding how agricultural producers process best management practice information
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- King, Audrey E.H. (author), Baker, Lauri M. (author), and Oklahoma State University Kansas State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- United States: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 1 Document Number: D10164
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Applied Communications
- Journal Title Details:
- 102(3)
- Notes:
- 19 pages., via online journal article, Best management practices (BMPs) are suggested practices that help agricultural producers optimize production while reducing pollution, soil erosion, and other environmental impacts. Many audiences, including scientists and policy makers, have expressed disappointment at the current level of BMP use. Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is used to understand how people process messages. ELM states that people can process messages either centrally or peripherally. This study sought to understand how producers processed information related to BMP adoption in grazing systems. Researchers conducted qualitative, in-depth interviews with 42 beef-cattle producers in Kansas and Oklahoma. It was found producers process information both centrally and peripherally, more specifically through past experiences and visual observations. This study suggests that when promoting BMPs, communicators should use visual cues to help producers process information. More importantly communicators should utilize strategies that encourage producers to reflect on past experiences to promote central processing.
3. Consumer perceptions of landscape plant production water sources and uses in the landscape during perceived and real drought
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Knuth, Melinda (author), Behe, Bridget K. (author), Hall, Charles R. (author), Huddleston, Patricia (author), Fernandez, R. (author), and Texas A&M University Michigan State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-02
- Published:
- United States: American Society for Horticultural Science
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 11 Document Number: D10339
- Journal Title:
- HortTechnology
- Journal Title Details:
- 28(1) : 85-93
- Notes:
- 9 pages., Via online journal., Water is becoming scarcer as world population increases and will be allocated among competing uses. Some of that water will go toward sustaining human life, but some will be needed to install and support landscape plants. Thus, future water resource availability may literally change the American landscape. Recent research suggests that consumers’ attitudes and behavior toward potable water supplies have changed in other countries because of greater social awareness and increasingly widespread exposure to drought conditions. We conducted an online survey of 1543 U.S. consumers to assess their perceptions about landscape plants, the water source used to produce them, and plant water needs to become established in the landscape. Using two separate conjoint designs, we assessed their perceptions of both herbaceous and woody perennials. Consumers placed greater relative importance on water source in production over water use in the landscape for both herbaceous and woody perennials included in this study. They preferred (had a higher utility score for) fresh water over recycled water and least preferred a blend of fresh with recycled water for perennials and recycled water used for woody perennial production. In addition, the group that did not perceive a drought but experienced one placed a higher value (higher utility score) on nursery plants grown with fresh water compared with those which were actually not in drought and did not perceive one. Educational and promotional efforts may improve the perception of recycled water to increase the utility of that resource. Promoting the benefits of low water use plants in the landscape may also facilitate plant sales in times of adequate and low water periods.
4. It is always dry here: examining perceptions about drought and climate change in the southern high plains
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Colston, Nicole M. (author), Vadjunec, Jacqueline M. (author), and Fagin, Todd (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10676
- Journal Title:
- Environmental Communication
- Notes:
- 18 pages., via online journal., Drought is defined, experienced, and communicated about in multiple ways. This case study examines individual definitions of drought (timing, impacts, and severity) and attitudes about climate change. Household surveys (n = 120) were conducted in Cimarron County, Oklahoma and Union County, New Mexico using a stratified random sampling method to select farmers, ranchers, and town residents. Information about drought is primarily communicated between neighbors, friends, and family, as well as media and local governing agencies. Residents perceive the recent drought to be the worst drought on record, regardless of previous drought experiences. Residents reported widespread drought-related impacts on agriculture, environment, and society. Most residents see drought as cyclical and driven by natural causes, rather than human causes. We recommend adaptive drought communication engage more fully with identity, place, and history. Climate information should be presented in a relevant manner to diverse agricultural stakeholders with differing attitudes about climate change, management, and climate information.
5. The effects of tactical message inserts on risk communication with fish farmers in Northern Thailand
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Lebel, Louis (author), Lebel, Phimphakan (author), Lebel, Boripat (author), Uppanunchai, Anuwat (author), and Duangsuwan, Chatta (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-06-26
- Published:
- Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10505
- Journal Title:
- Regional Environmental Change
- Journal Title Details:
- 18: 2471–2481
- Notes:
- 11 pages., via online journal., Fish farmers need to take into account many factors, including climate-related risks, when making decisions to invest in stocking ponds or cages in rivers. Officials, experts, and other fish farmers try to influence these decisions by communicating information about risks verbally or using text messages. Recurrent mass mortality events associated with droughts and floods suggest some communication efforts have been ineffective. Theories of risk communication make different predictions about what elements make messages influential. The purpose of this study was to improve understanding of the potential influence of inserting tactical messages into a communication text on the decision behavior of fish farmers with respect to climate-related risks. Experiments were carried out on hand-held tablets with 1050 fish farmers as subjects. Fish farmers were asked to imagine they faced a risk of drought, water shortage, flood, or increasing risks of drought in a drying climate. They were also given a plausible response measure that would require some investment, and then asked to indicate how likely they would adopt that measure. Farmers’ intentions to take risk reduction actions in long-term adaptation increased when the message they received re-affirmed that they were susceptible to the threat, an impact was likely or that the response to the risk was an effective measure. For shorter-term risk reduction measures, the effect of re-affirming response efficacy was to suppress intentions to act. This study found no evidence that appeals to fear, guilt, or anxiety emotions work; references to social norms, behavioral control, and benefit versus cost arguments also failed to increase intentions to act. The findings of this study supported some propositions of common risk communication theories but not others. The methods and findings are useful for improving the design of communications aimed at informing farmers about climate-related risks.