Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23441
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Reports on other topics featuring interviews with rural Americans can be found at www.wkkf.org., This report is part of a project seeking to understand how various groups perceive rural America, its challenges and strengths. "Perceptions of rural America" looks at how certain news organizations report on the rural population. Researchers analyzed the events and issues making news, the sources quoted, and the opinions these sources expressed about the current and future state of rural America. Researchers conducted a content analysis of news coverage during the six-month period from Jan. 1, 2002, through June 30, 2002, in a sample of major newspapers, news magazines and television networks.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 171 Document Number: C28821
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Via Agmates online. 3 pages., Author and follow-up commentators respond to criticism of the Queensland Country Life periodical by ABC Media Watch for "churning out press releases as if they were real journalism."
8 p., What do journalists think about information source trustworthiness, bias, and fairness in communicating agricultural biotechnology issues? Fifty Texas journalists and 40 national agriculture journalists representing newspapers and television media responded to this study. Journalists believed university scientists/researchers and newspapers were trustworthy, unbiased, and fair, while activist groups were untrustworthy, completely biased, and unfair in communicating agricultural biotechnology issues. They were most opposed to public opinion outweighing scientists' opinions when making decisions about scientific research. A substantial positive correlation occurred between national agriculture journalists' attitudes toward democratic processes in science (i.e., the extent that public opinion is considered in scientific decision-making processes) and trust in newspapers.
