22 pages., via online journal., In 2015, Blue Bell Creameries had its first recall in the company’s history. Blue Bell issued a voluntary recall of all of its ice cream products after Listeria was detected and was linked to 10 illnesses that resulted in three deaths. With the theoretical framework of framing and Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the purpose of this study was to explore how this recall was presented in company press releases and news media coverage to determine what crisis communication strategies Blue Bell implemented and how the media presented that information. This study was a content analysis of 23 press releases from Blue Bell and 68 articles from newspapers. The four crisis response strategies, or postures, used as frames were deny, diminish, rebuild, and bolster. This study also examined sources identified in the articles and the topic areas they discussed. The results indicated Blue Bell’s communication efforts were properly and effectively disseminated through the news media to the public. Blue Bell used accommodative crisis communication postures to restore its reputation. Blue Bell was also commonly found as a source in the news stories, which benefitted the company when communicating about the recall to the public. This study provided an examination of crisis communication strategies and reputation management for organizations related to one specific food recall, which should encourage additional studies of these strategies in food and agricultural industries.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 149 Document Number: D06743
Notes:
Online via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. PhD dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Publication No. AAT 9025738. Source: DAI-A 51/06, p. 1815, Dec. 1990. 1 page., Found the archival research journals accepting research articles in both conventional and sustainable agriculture.
18 pages., Article 6, Via online journal., The discovery of the antibiotic Aureomycin as a growth promotor for the livestock industry was viewed as revolutionary in 1950. The use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock, however, has been questioned by health professionals concerned with the role this use might play in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. As a public health issue, newspapers have covered this topic since its discovery. Media, such as newspapers, have used frames to discuss the topic over time as new discoveries have occurred, policy changes have been implemented, and food animal production has changed. The purpose of this study was to determine the frames and sources used by national U.S. newspapers when discussing the topic of antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic resistance. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on three national U.S. newspapers from 1996 – 2017 and found three primary frames were used when discussing antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic resistance. The content analysis also indicated that over 90% of the news articles contained a scientific source when communicating about this scientific topic. Based on the frames identified some readers are being ill-informed about this topic and could be using this information in their decision making without having all of the facts. Science communicators should prioritize the inclusion of scientific sources in their writing as they communicate about complex, controversial topics.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 124 Document Number: C16145
Notes:
6 p., Paper accepted for presentation by the Mass Communication and Society Division, for the special topics competition for the Health Communication and Media research panel, at the Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Miami Beach, FL; August 2002
Page 31 in Extension Circular 541, Review of Extension Research, January through December 1961, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Summary of a thesis for the doctor of philosophy degree in speech at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. 1960. 289 pages.
Radhakrishna, Rama (author / Pennsylvania State Univeristy), Verma, Satish (author / Pennsylvania State Univeristy), and Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education
Format:
conference papers
Publication Date:
1997-03-04
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 133 Document Number: C20297
Notes:
Burton Swanson Collection, Section I; from "1997 conference papers : Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education", 13th Annual Conference, 3, 4, 5 April 1997, Arlington, Virginia
via online journal., The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the nature of corporate positions on animal welfare available on the websites of five meat producing companies in the U.S. The results of the content analysis illustrated that there were common topics among the dialogs the companies were willing to open related to their animal welfare positions. The companies typically took a general approach to animal welfare topics, commonly focusing on their corporate policy and their commitment to animal welfare. While each company focused on a unique combination of topics, companies commonly avoided mentioning more specific and possibly controversial topics and instead chose to focus on big-picture topics such as a commitment to sound animal welfarepractices. Each company used a particular set of frames to couch individual animal welfare messages for consumers. The most common frame led was that the company is an industry leader in animal welfare. Eighteen thematic terms related to livestock production and handling emerged through the content analysis. Of those, animal handling and humane were clearly the most commonly used terms. Future research should include matching these content analysis results with the existing communication strategies of each company, conducting more content analyses on animal protein companies’ other media outlets, as well as further exploring the presence of frames, topics, and terminology in news coverage in comparison to the online messages of animal protein companies.
13 pages, via Online Journal, This paper contributes to our understanding of farm data value chains with assistance from 54 semi-structured interviews and field notes from participant observations. Methodologically, it includes individuals, such as farmers, who hold well-known positionalities within digital agriculture spaces—platforms that include precision farming techniques, farm equipment built on machine learning architecture and algorithms, and robotics—while also including less visible elements and practices. The actors interviewed and materialities and performances observed thus came from spaces and places inhabited by, for example, farmers, crop scientists, statisticians, programmers, and senior leadership in firms located in the U.S. and Canada. The stability of “the” artifacts followed for this project proved challenging, which led to me rethinking how to approach the subject conceptually. The paper is animated by a posthumanist commitment, drawing heavily from assemblage thinking and critical data scholarship coming out of Science and Technology Studies. The argument’s understanding of “chains” therefore lies on an alternative conceptual plane relative to most commodity chain scholarship. To speak of a data value chain is to foreground an orchestrating set of relations among humans, non-humans, products, spaces, places, and practices. The paper’s principle contribution involves interrogating lock-in tendencies at different “points” along the digital farm platform assemblage while pushing for a varied understanding of governance depending on the roles of the actors and actants involved.
Beall, Gary A. (author), Hayes,James H. (author), and Beall: Communications Specialist, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, Davis, CA; Hays: Emeritus Professor and former Director, Brock Center for Agricultural Communication, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1993-05
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 93 Document Number: C07013
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Mimeographed, 1993. 6 p. (Paper presented at the 1993 International Agricultural Communicators in Education conference; 1993 May 8-12; Miami, FL)
Content analysis of agricultural and home economics news in Vermont's 11 daily and 27 weekly newspapers. Results showed that such news accounted for 3.6 percent of news space in dailies and 8.1 percent in weeklies. The survey underscored the importance of helping local extension personnel as editors are interested in stories with local angles.
Hays, Robert G. (author / Professor, Office of Agricultural Communications and Education, University of Illinois)
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1993-05
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 93 Document Number: C07002
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Mimeographed, 1993. 9 p. (Paper presented at the 1993 International Agricultural Communicators in Education conference; 1993 May 8-12; Miami, FL)
Gonzalez, Alberto (author) and Bradley, Charmaine (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1990
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00879
Notes:
Pages 63-75 in Martin J. Medhurst, Alberto Gonzalez and Tarla Rai Peterson, Communication and the culture of technology. Washington State University Press, Pullman, Washington. 285 pages., Documents resistance of residents to the secular discourse of a tribal newspaper promoted by the government.
22 pages., via online journal, Agritourism is recreational travel for agricultural activities. While it provides many benefits, such as rural development and heritage preservation, many agritourism operators express challenges in marketing their operations. Social media is increasingly common in tourism marketing, but little research exists describing current marketing practices. Quantitative content analysis was used to describe 174 Oklahoma agritourism operations’ Facebook page activity in June 2018. Original posts created by the agritourism operations and community posts created by the general public had similar amounts of public interaction. Post interactions were not related to post length, and original post interactions were also not related to overall page likes. Live videos and traditional posts received the most interaction amongst types of original posts. Facebook event posts made by the agritourism operation received more public interaction than event posts made by the general public. Agritourism operators should focus on quality over quantity of information and be wary of creating posts in an “echo chamber” as only a small proportion of a large page following interact with posts. Marketing practitioners should avoid providing one-size-fits-all advice in Facebook marketing, as there was a large variety of Facebook activity observed. Future research should more specifically describe content of posts and consider perspectives of agritourism operators and visitors towards current Facebook marketing strategies.
27 pages., Research in agricultural communications is not guided by a national research agenda. Therefore, the substantial body of research produced from scholars working in the discipline represents scattered efforts. We conducted a content analysis of journal articles published in the Journal of Applied Communications between 2000 and 2019 to identify the research themes that establish the discipline’s scholarly base. Through an examination of n = 259 journal articles, we identified N = 27 research themes, the most prevalent of which included agriculture and media relations/practices (f = 30; % = 11.58), public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources (f = 25; % = 9.65), and agricultural communications academic programs and curricula (f = 21; % = 8.11). Then, we used Q methodology to identify viewpoints of agricultural communications scholars (e.g., faculty, graduate students; n = 45) as they relate to perceptions about the importance of research. We identified four dominant viewpoints of scholars in agricultural communications: Message Framing Influencers, Extension-Focused Scholars and Practitioners, Discipline-Conscious Researchers, and Tech-Savvy Scholars. Together, these viewpoints explained 59.43% of the study variance. Although participants who represented each of these groups had unique perspectives, participants generally agreed that public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources and crisis communications in agricultural communications were important research themes. Likewise, they generally agreed that the role of agricultural communications professional organizations, agricultural communications efforts during historical events, and agritourism were not important research themes.
27 pages, Research in agricultural communications is not guided by a national research agenda. Therefore, the substantial body of research produced from scholars working in the discipline represents scattered efforts. We conducted a content analysis of journal articles published in the Journal of Applied Communications between 2000 and 2019 to identify the research themes that establish the discipline’s scholarly base. Through an examination of n = 259 journal articles, we identified N = 27 research themes, the most prevalent of which included agriculture and media relations/practices (f = 30; % = 11.58), public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources (f = 25; % = 9.65), and agricultural communications academic programs and curricula (f = 21; % = 8.11). Then, we used Q methodology to identify viewpoints of agricultural communications scholars (e.g., faculty, graduate students; n = 45) as they relate to perceptions about the importance of research. We identified four dominant viewpoints of scholars in agricultural communications: Message Framing Influencers, Extension-Focused Scholars and Practitioners, Discipline-Conscious Researchers, and Tech-Savvy Scholars. Together, these viewpoints explained 59.43% of the study variance. Although participants who represented each of these groups had unique perspectives, participants generally agreed that public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources and crisis communications in agricultural communications were important research themes. Likewise, they generally agreed that the role of agricultural communications professional organizations, agricultural communications efforts during historical events, and agritourism were not important research themes.
Rutherford, Tracy (author / Texas A & M) and Edgar, Leslie D. (author / University of Arkansas)
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
2009-02
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 177 Document Number: C30396
Notes:
Paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section, annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 3, 2009.
Button, Angela (author), Partridge, Helen (author), and Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2007-11-05
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C35681
Notes:
Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) Conference 2007, Prato, Italy, November 5-7, 2007. 13 pages., Analysis of 12 community and neighborhood websites in France, Canada and the U.S.
Evans, Delores (author), Mehlman, David W. (author), Meyer, Daniel E. (author), Origoni, Regina B. (author), Reeves, Ellen S. (author), Sellers, Douglas W. (author), and Tracor Jitco, Inc., Rockville, MD; Tracor Jitco, Inc., Rockville, MD; Tracor Jitco, Inc., Rockville, MD; Tracor Jitco, Inc., Rockville, MD; Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.; Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1983
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 97 Document Number: C08013
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 103 Document Number: C08837
Notes:
The 93rd annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists --Communications Section. Greensboro, North Carolina. February 4-7, 1996; p. 61-68
20 pgs., Twelve U.S. states were tasked with developing nutrient reduction strategies to help address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. To better understand the kinds of messages different stakeholders in these states are likely to encounter about such strategies, we conducted a content analysis focused on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS). We examined 483 articles in two agricultural and two non-agricultural news outlets. We found that agricultural news outlets more often led with agricultural themes and more often used agricultural representatives as sources. The non-agricultural news outlets more often quoted representatives of environmental groups. News articles infrequently led with science or health themes. The volume of coverage over time in three of the four news outlets appeared followed similar issue attention cycles. Differences among the outlets may lead to differences in stakeholders’ knowledge or views about the INRS and conservation, posing challenges to consensus-building.
