Interviewed scientists express tolerance of lay views and reference their own lay experience while minimizing the scientific value of lay views as scientists. Authors identify a "superior capacity" model that "seems to serve interviewed scientists rather well; they retain their scientific autonomy without contradicting the assumption of funding agencies and others that laypeople have salient knowledge."
14 pages., via online journal., Issue arenas, as places for societal discussions, have recently been studied as an important aspect of organizational environments. While a fundamental part of any issue arena is the distinction between active and passive actors, empirical analyses have mainly focused on active stakeholders. We approach issue arenas as communication networks in which active stakeholders discuss topics and involve passive stakeholders. Based on network theory, we introduce an automated method for mapping these issue arenas on Twitter. In particular, we combine manual coding of active stakeholders, and automated semantic network analysis of addressed, passive stakeholders and their topics of discussion. Empirically, we focus on the issue of bird flu affecting poultry farming in the Netherlands from 2015 to 2017 with a sample of 704 Twitter messages. Instead of pre-defining a set of stakeholders for the analysis, our approach to study communication networks in online settings allows for mapping issue arenas based on the stakeholders that communicate about the topic.
Herrera, Beatriz (author), Gerster-Bentaya, Maria (author), Tzouramani, Irene (author), Knierim, Andrea (author), and University of Hohenheim
Agricultural Economics Research Institute
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
Germany: Taylor & Francis
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10258
22 pages., Via online journal., Purpose: This study explores the use of advisory services by farm managers and its linkages with the economic, environmental and social performance of farms.
Design/methodology/approach: Using cluster analysis we determined groups of farms according to their sustainability performance and explored the correlations between contacts with advisory services and a set of farm-level sustainability indicators.
Findings: There exist significant differences in the number of farmers’ contacts with advisory services across countries, type of farms, farmers’ degree of agricultural education, utilized agricultural area, legal type of farm ownership and economic size of the farms. We identified three groups of farms that have different sustainability performance, are different in farm characteristics and relate differently to advisory services. The number of contacts with advisory services is positively related to the adoption of innovations, the number of information sources utilized and the adoption of farm risk management measures. We find no clear linear relationship between advisory services and environmental sustainability.
Theoretical implications: This study derives hypotheses to analyze causalities between indicators of farm-level sustainability and advisory services.
Practical implications: Results suggest the importance of taking into account the heterogeneity of farming systems for the design, targeting and evaluation of advisory services. In addition, results confirm the importance of selection of indicators that can be used in multiple sites.
Originality/value: We used a harmonized indicator of advisory services and a harmonized set of farm-level sustainability indicators in nine different EU countries that could be used to evaluate the role of advisory services in the achievement of multiple objectives in different groups of farms in multiple sites.
20 pages., via online journal., In a crisis situation, communication is an important asset for safeguarding the reputation of an organization. The communication strategy that is used in a crisis influences the way people perceive the crisis. While extensive research is conducted and clear communication guidelines about crisis communication are provided, current research tends to focus on a single actor in a crisis within a homogeneous stakeholder group. In this article, we analyze whether and how different groups of stakeholders frame a crisis and the extent to which they attribute responsibility for the crisis to actors. The case concerns the use of an illegal lice detergent (fipronil) in eggs in the Netherlands in the summer of 2017. Based on the analysis of Twitter data related to the case using multiple methods (network analysis, a longitudinal analysis and the annotation of a sample of tweets), this study shows that a seemingly simple case in a single sub-arena has different subgroups that use different frames and attribute different responsibilities to different stakeholders. This result implies that a reconsideration of communication strategies during and after a crisis is needed.
7 pages., via online journal, The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the market potential of pork labelled to indicate medium and high levels of animal welfare. The paper asks, in particular, whether there is a risk that Danish consumers will abandon high level welfare pork if less expensive products with a medium level of animal welfare became avail-able. The study was based on an online questionnaire with a choice experiment involving 396 Danish respondents. The results indicated that the Danish market could accommodate more than one pork product with a welfare label but the price differential separating medium and high level animal welfare pork will have to be quite narrow. In addition, full willingness-to-pay of consumers who want to buy high level welfare pork cannot be relied upon to incentivise new consumers to buy medium welfare pork. Further, raising brand awareness in the shopping situation and improving consumer's understanding of brand attributes for high level welfare brands were found to be vital.
35pgs, The idea that citizens' support for environmental policies depends on their economic interest and the community that one lives in, has been debated extensively in the environmental attitudes literature. However, this literature has not differentiated between separate policy dimensions that concern measures that affect specific groups in different ways. This paper differentiates between a nature/agriculture dimension that divides those who prioritize the agrarian interest from those who prioritize the protection of nature and a climate/energy dimension that divides those who prioritize industrial interest from those who prioritize fighting climate change, using a new survey in the Netherlands (N = 11,327). This two-dimensional model meets three criteria: scalability, validity, and utility. Scalability is shown by factor analysis and Mokken scaling. Validity is shown by regression analyses that show that whether one lives in a rural or an urban community predicts one's position on the nature/agriculture dimension and that one's financial security predicts one's position on the climate/energy dimension. The utility is shown by regression analyses where the two dimensions are used to predict voting behavior. The Green Party voters favor nature and climate protection, the Liberal Party voters have the opposite views, the Christian-Democrats favor agricultural interests and the Freedom Party favor industrial interests.
Tindall, Cordell (author / Missouri Ruralist, USA), Jain, G.F. (author / Sevagram, Delhi, India), Lavoie, Paul-Henri (author / La Terre de Chez-vous, Montreal , Canada), Kosolapov, Nikolai (author / Selskya Zhizn, Moscow, USSR), Wykeham-Fiennes, Anthony Patrick (author / Australian Broadcasting Commission, Sydney), and Covreur, F.F. (author / International Federation of Farm Writers, Paris, France)
Format:
Panel report
Publication Date:
1967-06
Published:
International: First International Congress of Farm Writers.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 73 Document Number: D10787
Notes:
Item located in Document D10786. Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Pages 21-28 in J.S. Cram (ed.), Proceedings of the first International Congress of Farm Writers at Macdonald College, Quebec, Canada, June 18-21, 1967. 112 pages.
Netherlands: International Program for Agricultural Knowledge Systems (INTERPAKS), Office of International Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07322
Stewart-Knox, B.J. (author), Markovina, J. (author), Rankin, A. (author), Bunting, B.P. (author), Kuznesof, S. (author), Fischer, A.R.H. (author), Van der Lans, L.A. (author), Poinhos, R. (author), de Almeida, M.D.V. (author), Panzone, L. (author), Gibney, M. (author), and Frewer, L.J. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 137 Document Number: D11461
11 pages., Via UI online subscription, Researchers examined the degree to which factors which determine uptake of personalised nutrition vary between EU countries to better target policies to encourage uptake, and optimise the health benefits of personalised nutrition technology.
Patino, Georgina (author / Vida Rural en Mexico), Osman, Loren H. (author / Milwaukee Journal, USA), Jain, G.P. (author / Sevagram, Delhi, India), Sickenga, Nick (author / Melk, Netherlands), and Swegle, Wayne (author / Successful Farming, USA)
Format:
Panel report
Publication Date:
1967-06
Published:
International: First International Congress of Farm Writers.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 73 Document Number: D10789
Notes:
Item located in Document D10786. Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Pages 33-42 in J.S. Cram (ed.), Proceedings of the first International Congress of Farm Writers at Macdonald College, Quebec, Canada, June 18-21, 1967. 112 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 196 Document Number: D08058
Notes:
John L. Woods Collection, Presentation at the World Bank about experiences in privatization of the agricultural extension service in Holland. May 1995. 15 pages.
20 pages., via online journal, Continued concern for animal welfare may be alleviated when welfare would be monitored on farms. Monitoring can be characterized as an information system where various stakeholders periodically exchange relevant information. Stakeholders include producers, consumers, retailers, the government, scientists, and others. Valuating animal welfare in the animal-product market chain is regarded as a key challenge to further improve the welfare of farm animals and information on the welfare of animals must, therefore, be assessed objectively, for instance, through monitoring. Interviews with Dutch stakeholder representatives were conducted to identify their perceptions about the monitoring of animal welfare. Stakeholder perceptions were characterized in relation to the specific perspectives of each stakeholder. While producers tend to perceive welfare from a production point of view, consumers will use visual images derived from traditional farming and from the animals’ natural environments. Scientists’ perceptions of animal welfare are affected by the need to measure welfare with quantifiable parameters. Retailers and governments (policy makers) have views of welfare that are derived from their relationships with producers, consumers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and scientists. All interviewed stakeholder representatives stated that animal welfare is important. They varied in the extent to which they weighted economic considerations relative to concern for the animals’ welfare. Many stakeholders emphasized the importance of communication in making a monitoring system work. Overall, the perspectives for the development of a sustainable monitoring system that substantially improves farm animal welfare were assessed as being poor in the short term. However, a reliable system could be initiated under certain conditions, such as integrated chains and with influential and motivated stakeholders. A scheme is described with attention points for the development of sustainable monitoring systems for farm animal welfare in the long term.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 141 Document Number: D06167
Notes:
Online from Scopus.com. Abstract of paper presented at joint conference of ESREL (European Safety and Reliability) and SRA-Europe (Society for Risk Analysis Europe)in Valencia, Spain, September 22-25, 2008. 1 page.
12 pages., Online via UI electronic subscription, Analysis of five cases of peak social media activity in the Dutch livestock sector. Findings indicated that social media hypes revolved around activism, scandals, and conflicts - each with characteristic patterns of activity, framing, interaction and media interplay. "Our results show the need to adopt a proactive and interactive approach that transcends the view of social media as a mere communication channel to respond in crisis situations."
12 pages., Via online journal., Policy makers and researchers foresee four investment strategies for conventional pig farmers in contested pork production regions: (1) continue with a cost-price reduction strategy through modernisation and scale enlargement; (2) convert to an intermediate market segment with higher requirements as to animal welfare and environment than conventional; (3) convert to a niche market segment with higher requirements as to animal welfare and environment than intermediate; or (4) quit farming. For policy makers, it is interesting to gain insight in intensive livestock farmer's perceptions regarding these investments and in processes of social interaction that influence farmer decision-making and the potential diffusion of investment strategies over time (Edwards-Jones, 2006). The aim of this explorative study is to analyse the effect of social interaction on diffusion of investment strategies in capital-intensive livestock production systems with groups of Dutch pig farmers, using a simulation game. The game is designed in such a way that contextual factors do not provide a limiting factor. Furthermore, the game is constructed to stimulate interaction and to trigger imagination of participants. Our main research questions for the analysis of the results of the game sessions were: (1) ‘what are differences in diffusion of investment strategies between sessions?’, and (2) ‘to what extent does social interaction affect diffusion of investment strategies?’ A total of seven sessions were played, with 4–8 pig farmers and/or participants who were affiliated to the sector as advisor or successor. All game sessions were video- and voice- recorded, and interaction between participants was transcribed per game session. First, differences in diffusion of investment strategies between sessions were explored. Second, the causes for differences in diffusion between sessions were explored, by looking at the type of investment strategy, communication between participants, and processes of influence. Special attention was given to the influence of opinion leadership. The results of this research show that (1) only investment strategies with a financial benefit did, under influence of social interaction, result in high adoption; (2) for high adoption to occur, communication between participants was necessary; (3) opinion leaders played an essential role in high adoption of investment strategies; and (4) there was a common understanding among participants that favoured scale enlargement. The gaming methodology triggered participants to communicate their tacit knowledge, i.e. assessment criteria that are important in real-life investment decisions, and to experiment with investment strategies.
19 pages., Via online., In a comparative case study, researchers analyzed two social media conflicts between farmers and animal right advocates to understand how conflicts establish, escalate, and return dormant through issue and identity framing and the discursive use of emotions. "The binary opposition is initially established through issue framing but escalates into an identity conflict that involves group labeling and blaming."
6 pages., (Special Issue from the 17th International Nitrogen Workshop), Via online Journal, Substantial improvements of agricultural systems are necessary to meet the future requirements of humanity.
However, current agricultural knowledge and information systems are generally not well suited to meet the
necessary improvements in productivity and sustainability. For more effective application of research output,
research producers and research consumers should not be considered as separate individuals in the knowledge
chain but as collaborating partners creating synergy. The current paper investigates the relationships between
scientists and stakeholders and identifies approaches to increase the effectiveness of their communication.
On-farm research has proven to be an effective means of improving exploitation of research output at farm level
because it connects all relevant partners in the process. Furthermore, pilot farms can act as an effective platform
for communication and dissemination. Regional networks of pilot farms should be established and connected
across regions
