24 pages, Agricultural communications scholars do not use a national research agenda to guide their research, which could be limiting the impact and rigor of the discipline. In this commentary, we argue that agricultural communications scholars should adopt the science communication research agenda published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2017 because the goals of science communication, outlined in the agenda, are relevant to agriculture. Members of the committee who developed the agenda study science communication in contexts of food, agriculture, life sciences, the environment, political science, health, nutrition, and psychology, among others. They developed the agenda with the intent for it to inform and guide research in all science communication sub-disciplines or areas involving contentious public issues. We provide examples of studies that have used the agenda to inform research in agricultural and natural resources communications. We also explain how research priorities outlined in the science communication research agenda align with agricultural communications scholarship. Recognizing there are challenges unique to agriculture, we recommend agricultural communications scholars use the science communication research agenda as a research guide and adapt the relevant research recommendations for agricultural communications.
Getson, Jackie M. (author), Church, Sarah P. (author), Radulski, Brennan G. (author), Sjöstrand, Anders E. (author), Lu, Junyu (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
2022-08-02
Published:
United States: PLOS One
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12709
22pgs, In the United States, a public debate remains about the existence and effects of anthropogenic climate change. This skepticism is present in the agricultural sector, rendering climate science communication challenging. Due to the polarization of climate change issues and the concurrent need for agricultural adaptation, we sought to examine how scientists communicate in this sector. A survey, administered to climate scientists and pertinent U.S. federal agency staff (response rate = 43%), was conducted to examine perspectives on communicating with five agricultural stakeholder groups: agribusinesses, crop advisors, general public, producers, and policymakers. We focused on three aspects of the communication process with these stakeholders to evaluate if scientists, as messengers, were following best practices–communicator training, knowledge of stakeholder, and terminology use. We found scientists valued communication training; however, the majority had not attended formal training. Scientists had different views on climate change than producers and crop advisors but understood their perspective and were deliberate with their communication with different audiences. This suggests stakeholder knowledge and terminology use do not hinder communication between scientist and stakeholder. We also highlight three communication challenges present across stakeholder groups–stakeholder knowledge, timescale, and scientific uncertainty–and others that were specific to each stakeholder group. Future research should support scientists by identifying and resolving barriers to training and effective communication strategies for each stakeholder group that addresses these challenges.
7 pgs, Extension is uniquely positioned to deliver data-driven solutions to complex community issues with University applied research, particularly through crises like COVID-19. Applying the Policy, Systems and Environmental (PSE) framework to community development is an effective, innovative approach in guiding Extension leaders to create, document, and share long-term transformative change on challenging issues with stakeholders. Beyond the public health sector, applying a PSE approach to community development provides leverage points for population-level benefits across sectors. This article describes current public health approaches, methodologies, and how the PSE framework translates to other programs with four examples of high-impact, systems level Extension projects.
15 pages, Bioeconomy is deemed to be an ambiguous term with multiple facets: new products from biomass, circular and cascading resource systems, developments of new and more resilient plants, or synthetic biology for molecular biotechnology, to name a few. Accordingly, the term is interpreted just as diversely by involved stakeholders and the broader public. Enabling a clear and constructive dialog on bioeconomy strategies with and among society requires a profound understanding of these perceptions. To address this issue, a representative survey was conducted among the German population in order to scrutinize the general public's understanding of the term bioeconomy, citizens’ knowledge, fears, and expectations, as well as factors explaining their attitudes toward the bioeconomy. Our results indicate that, so far, German citizens are not very familiar with the concept. Its underlying ideas, however, are vastly appreciated. Support for a sustainable bioeconomy is thus strong and connected to high expectations in terms of environmental and economic benefits, which needs to be taken into account both in the implementation and communication of bioeconomy strategies. Support for the bioeconomy is furthermore connected to beliefs that reflect environmental concern and to pro-environmental behavior. While most measures and principles related to the bioeconomy (e.g., the use of biogas, biofuels, renewable materials for everyday products or buildings, or the cascading and circular use of resources) are strongly appreciated, the use of genetic engineering, for example, is opposed, mainly with regard to its applications in agriculture and industry, to a lesser extent in medicine.
Fielke, Simona (author), Taylor, Brucea (author), Coggan, Antheaa (author), Jakku, Emma (author), Davis, Aaron M. (author), Thorburn, Peter J. (author), Webster, Anthony J. (author), and Smart, James C.R. (author)
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
2022-04-01
Published:
Netherlands: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12813
12pgs, We report on qualitative social research conducted with stakeholders in a local agricultural knowledge and advice network associated with a collaborative water quality monitoring project. These farmers, advisors and researchers allude to existing social dynamics, technological developments, and (more general) social evolution which is analysed against a novel analytical framework. This framework considers notions of power, social capital, and trust as related and dynamic, forming the basis of our contribution to knowledge. We then probe the data to understand perceived impacts of the collaborative project and social interaction associated with this research project, which involved cutting edge automated and frequent water quality monitoring that allowed for near real-time access to data visualisation displayed via a bespoke mobile or web ‘app’ (1622WQ). Our findings indicate that a multi-faceted approach to assessing and intervening based on consideration of multiple social dimensions holds promise in terms of creating conditions that allow for individual and group learning to encourage changes in thinking required to result in improved land management practice.
14 pages., The agricultural sector has been influenced significantly by agriculture and natural resources (ANR) policies voted in by elected officials. Many agricultural organizations and their members have sought to provide a ‘voice’ for the ANR industry and communicate with policymakers about emerging issues. It is necessary that such organizations and members be able to use that voice effectively. This study was conducted to examine the communication preferences of Florida agricultural organization members and factors that may encourage them to contact elected officials about an ANR policy. Respondents in this study least preferred to be contacted by their organization(s) via phone call or text message. They also identified local Extension offices and the university as the most trustworthy sources of communication regarding ANR policy. When contacting members to spur involvement in ANR policy decisions, organizational leaders should use a variety of communication mediums, including email magazines and printed newsletters and magazines, to promote engagement in ANR policy discussions. Future research is needed to examine other factors that may influence agriculture organization members’ communication with elected officials, as well as the types of messaging strategies organizational leaders can use to further members’ engagement in ANR policy decisions.
24 pages, The central research question that guided this study was: how does the framing of written content on Facebook influence public perception of information regarding the management of wild horses and burros? This research was conducted using content analysis to examine 136 Facebook posts of six organizations communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy and 8,295 comments made by individuals to the organization’s posts. There were eight major themes that emerged from the data, organized by the interaction of three frames: organization frame, audience frame, and organization-audience interaction frame. Organization frame themes included: organization positionality and its influence on framing posts for emotional appeal and audience action, and organization post style, post frequency, and response frequency and its influence on audience reception of the issued. Audience frame themes included: action-oriented responses, emotional responses, government responses, and management-related responses. Organization-audience interaction frame themes included: the influence of organization comments on audience’s perception of the issue, and misinformation concerns.. These themes provide insight into how organizations and individuals are communicating about the wild horse and burro controversy using social media and illuminate opportunities for further research into social media communications to positively impact agricultural literacy. Recommendations for practice include: supplying necessary information to social media instead of relying on the audience to click links, keeping the perceived-cost and investment of requested audience participation low to encourage activism, and strategic planning regarding the frequency and types of post to maximize audience engagement.
13 pages., While work on agricultural messaging is abundant, the way that audiences form perceptions of messages is not well understood and little research has examined the cognitive effects of image and word associations in an agricultural context. Previous knowledge gap research has shown that socioeconomic status and access to information could be one contributor of perception formation. We propose that these variables could also impact cognitive processing. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how components of cognitive dissonance and knowledge gap theory apply in the context of a contentious agricultural issue. Data were collected from 1,049 United States’ residents through an online survey with an embedded experimental design. Respondents randomly received one of two image and word association pairings. After viewing the treatment, measures of cognitive conflict, demographics, and desire to learn more were collected. The results showed that the cognitive conflict instrument performed differently in the context of a complex agricultural issue than in prior research. Additionally, the message pairings had a stronger influence on cognitive conflict components than demographic characteristics. Finally, the desire to learn more was impacted by the message treatments. Future research on cognitive conflict and advanced modeling is recommended.
11 pages, During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-April 2020), opinion leaders in agriculture and natural resources (ANR) were asked to participate in a survey about the impacts of the crisis on the ANR industry specifically about their concerns related to communication, economics, level of preparedness, and health during this crisis. Of the 225 ANR leaders who participated, the majority were concerned that members of the public were sharing inaccurate information about COVID-19; others they come into contact with were not taking appropriate measures to avoid contracting COVID-19; about the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy, their state’s economy, and the global economy; and other countries’ level of preparedness to deal with COVID-19. ANR leaders were consistently the most concerned about items that were outside of their direct sphere of influence. Implications from this work are that ANR leadership programs should incorporate programing to help ANR leaders understand how to be influential during a crisis at a national and international level. For statewide ANR leadership programs, it is recommended to include programming sessions related to identifying and sharing credible information and enabling and inspiring those in their circle of influence to do the same.
