James F. Evans

Issues in equitable access to agricultural information

Economic pressures and information policy changes in the public and private sectors are influencing the kinds, amounts, and availability of information to agricultural producers. This analysis identifies some of the major changes, examines their effects, identifies some issues of equity, and poses questions for further study. The changes are found to have special negative effects on producers with smaller operations, fewer financial resources, lower levels of formal education, remote locations, specialized enterprises, and low input enterprises.

Today's Curricula: In Agricultural Journalism and Communications

In 1956, William G. Mitchell found a serious lack of agreement among professionals about the kind of education needed for a career in agricultural journalism and communications. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. This article is available in Journal of Applied Communications: http://newprairiepress.org/jac/vol65/iss1/5

Trends in Information Needs and Communication Channel Use Among Rural Women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 2000–2012

A trend analysis of information needs and communication channel use of rural women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America was conducted by examining empirical works published in reports, scholarly publications, and the popular press from 2000 to 2012. Results show that information about farming practices, health, education, gender and general family well-being issues were the most sought across the three continents. Demand for 14 information categories surged in volume and scope after 2009. Interpersonal communication sources trumped the mediated ones as the channels of choice; extension agents were the most preferred source. Radio was the most frequently mentioned preferred medium.

Agricultural media coverage of farm safety: review of the literature

ABSTRACT Agricultural media merit increased attention in addressing dynamic changes in safety aspects of one of the nation’s most hazardous industries. Changes in farming, such as larger-scale, new “niche” enterprises and new technologies, bring new forms of risk to the safety of those who live and work on farms and ranches. At the same time, traditional agricultural media—commercial firms that publish farm periodicals and commercial radio/television stations and networks that provide farm programming—are changing dramatically. In the face of media convergence, these enterprises provide an increasing menu of agricultural information services delivered by print, radio, and television, plus a host of new electronic media. This review of literature addressed the role and importance of commercial agricultural media in the United States, the scope and pattern of their safety coverage, and the opportunities they represent. The review involved searches of 14 bibliographic databases, as well as reference lists of relevant studies and contacts with farm safety experts. Analysis of 122 documents suggested that limited focus has been directed to the role of commercial agricultural media in safety decisions on US farms. Findings revealed that they continue to serve an efficient, early-stage role in creating awareness and interest, providing information, forming attitudes, and stirring consideration of farm safety. Potentials are seen as expanding through the interactive features of social media and other new services offered by these media firms. Findings also identified research needs, 100 farm safety topics for reporting, and opportunities for strengthening safety coverage by commercial agricultural media.

Roaming the Changing Theoretical Landscape of Agricultural Communications

The author comments on the role and value of dozens of theories and models he has used during more than 50 years of teaching, research, and practice in agricultural communications. The changing usage of these theories reflects changes in the scholarly foundations and practice of agricultural communications and the other disciplines to which it relates. Looking ahead, the author identifies 13 clusters of underused, new, and otherwise potentially valuable theories he believes may strengthen the contributions of this field. This research is available in Journal of Applied Communications: https://newprairiepress.org/jac/vol90/iss1/4 Journal of Appli ed Communications, Vol. 90, No. 1, 2006, 15-32 ©ACE Roaming the Changing Theoretical Landscape of Agricultural Communications

What the Church Tells Children in Story and Song

Ringing ’bells announce church school time. Inside, the church building takes on life as parents deliver youngsters amid an assortment of greetings, promises and warnings. A pianist begins a hymn to settle the crowd, as the morning worship leader erratically but gradually converges on her spot at the front of the room. The music ends. “Good morning, children . . .” So begins a round of church school activities in an American Protestant church. The hour encompasses songs, religious lessons and an assortment of other planned activities. What messages do these activities convey to the children who take part in them? What kind of world-view do the songs and lessons reflect? Precisely what is the church saying today to its youngsters about themselves, the world around them and their existence in it? Such are the questions to which this paper is directed. The analysis has been confined to something far less than the entire body of church school materials used by all Protestant churches. Actually, the results reported here represent only two small parts of that body: 1) church school hymnals and lesson books which the United Presbyterian Church USA is using 2) for children between the ages of three and eight (nursery, kindergarten and primary groups). The study consisted of 32 lesson books and two hymnals, including all the lesson books and hymnals specscally recommended by the church during the most recent three-year curriculum cycle. Of the 32 lesson books, 24 were specifically recommended for use during that cycle and 8 others (published during the same period) were being used by the specific Presbyterian church from which copies were obtained. All were printed by the church’s Westminster Press. This analysis did not include teachers’ instruction guides or miscellaneous story leaflets which children often get at #Presbyterian Sunday School for use at home. The first part of this report describes the physical, social and religious world portrayed for children by these reprinted materials. The second analyzes this world-view in terms of its origin, functions and implications.

Agricultural News in Illinois Daily Newspapers

This is accounted for by the fact that it is an alluring business and none is so easy to get into. Anybody can start a newspaper. Material could be bought on credit. One man relates that he had only

Counting Room Voices in the Farm Publisher-Reader-Advertiser Triad

22 when he bought a half interest in a country newspaper. Another says that he bought a newspaper for

Farmers' Voices: Concerns within the Agricultural Advertiser-Media-Reader Triad

400,

The Literature of Ag Communication: A Partial View, 1970-1979

25 in cash and the balance on payments. . . . Many editors can be traced from town to town. . . . There have been more than 5,000 editors, publishers, and owners of papers in Arkansas in the last hundred years.11