The New Agent: A Qualitative Study to Strategically Adapt New Agent Professional Development

The qualitative study reported here assessed the needs of agents related to new agent professional development to improve the current model. Agents who participated in new agent professional development within the last 5 years were selected to participate in focus groups to determine concerns and continued needs. Agents enjoyed networking and struggled with the time away from their home counties. Recommendations for improvement include integrating the idea of pre-entry competencies, developing online new agent professional development sessions, introducing new agents to existing communities of practice, developing new communities of practice, and developing more resources for new agents

The Impact of New Media on Policy Affecting Agriculture

New media have changed the way people communicate and transfer information, but their effects on agenda-setting and the transfer of salience of objects and attributes have not been explored empirically. This study utilized a quantitative content analysis to determine how the blogosphere affects the agricultural policy agenda by analyzing a specific piece of policy that has the potential to effect agriculture. Results indicate a significant predictive relationship of the blogosphere agenda, media agenda, interest group agenda, and public agenda to the policy agenda. This adds new information on agenda-setting in an online environment by concluding agenda-setting occurs in new media environments similarly to traditional media environments. Future studies should consider the influence of the blogosphere on the political agenda

Let\u27s Get Theoretical: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Theories and Models Used in the Journal of Applied Communications

Theories and models are an important element in the progression of an academic field. This article focused on quantifying theories and models used in agricultural communication through a quantitative content analysis of the last 20 years of the Journal of Applied Communication (JAC). Specifically, the following research objectives guided this study: 1) describe characteristics (methods, number of authors) of articles in JAC, 2) identify which theories and models have been used in JAC, 3) determine how theory was used in JAC, 4) determine what characteristics predict the use of a theory or model in JAC. Researchers found 87 theories and models identified in JAC with 11 used five or more times and 19 that used between two and four times. Approximately 35% of the articles in JAC used a theory or model. Of those using a theory or model, the majority used it to inform the study, but rarely tested, created/built theory. Other results indicate the use of theory has increased in recent years and the number of authors and number of articles published. Implications for this study are a clear need for increased theoretical vigor in agricultural communication through increased focus on using theory to build on previous work in the industry

A Perplexing Process: Understanding How Agricultural Producers Process Best Management Practice Information

Best management practices (BMPs) are suggested practices that help agricultural producers optimize production while reducing pollution, soil erosion, and other environmental impacts. Many audiences, including scientists and policy makers, have expressed disappointment at the current level of BMP use. Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is used to understand how people process messages. ELM states that people can process messages either centrally or peripherally. This study sought to understand how producers processed information related to BMP adoption in grazing systems. Researchers conducted qualitative, in-depth interviews with 42 beef-cattle producers in Kansas and Oklahoma. It was found producers process information both centrally and peripherally, more specifically ­­through past experiences and visual observations. This study suggests that when promoting BMPs, communicators should use visual cues to help producers process information. More importantly communicators should utilize strategies that encourage producers to reflect on past experiences to promote central processing

Ask the Audience: Determining Organizational Identity of a State Extension Agency

This study explored organizational identity of one state extension agency to determine strategies for building future messaging in external branding materials. Thirty-nine focus groups were conducted to assess how internal audiences (employees and board members) perceive, feel, and think about the organization. Two of the 15 major themes found were 1) Extension is a link between the university and the people and 2) Extension provides research-based, credible information. Participants identified strongly with the vision statement and official slogan communicated by leaders prior to the study. The organization should build upon this identity when solidifying a brand image. Previous research indicates Extension should also proceed with caution regarding the themes of providing valuable services and information for low or no cost and not selling anything

Managing Extension’s Internal Brand: Employees’ Perceptions of the Functions and Descriptors of Extension

Employees of UF/IFAS Extension were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the brand’s core identity. More specifically, they evaluated the importance of various functions the organization provides and the effectiveness of various terms for describing Extension work. Respondents included county faculty, county non-faculty, state faculty, and state non-faculty to gain perspectives of groups representing Extension’s brand in Florida. Results indicated employees perceived the core functions were providing research-based information, helping solve problems, providing training for clientele, and providing expertise. Education, training, and providing solutions were perceived to be the most effective terms for describing Extension work to the public. Given that these terms are viewed as most effective internally, these terms should also be used in external communications to provide consistency. “Extension” as a term was not viewed as particularly effective for representing to the public what Extension does. When comparing groups of Extension personnel, there were statistically significant differences, indicating Extension lacks a shared identity across the organization, which could be harmful. State-level faculty, in particular, had less positive viewpoints compared to other respondent groups. It was recommended that interactions be increased between state-level and county-level employees to help mitigate potential issues that would arise because of the organization being geographically distributed in the state and to help build shared identity. Future research was recommended to address the public’s views of functions and descriptors of Extension

What Are Reviewers Looking For? A Qualitative Analysis of Open-Ended Responses from a Questionnaire Sent to Faculty in Agricultural Communications

While peer review is the best system available for assessing the quality of research manuscripts, the system is imperfect at best. How peer review is conducted is often guided by unwritten rules, which can make writing articles for peer review more difficult. New reviewers also lack information on what other reviewers are looking for. This project assessed what reviewers were looking for when evaluating research papers. An anonymous link was sent to agricultural communications faculty members were eligible to review papers. There were 22 responses from the 43 faculty members who were sent the link to participate. Processes for reviewing varied, but it was typical to take notes while reading the article. About half of reviewers spent less than two hours per article. Overarching criteria reviewers were looking for were connection between sections of the paper, overall quality of work, writing quality, clarity, and the contribution of the work. Each section of research papers was also addressed in the study. The results of this study provide an overall roadmap for what agricultural communications reviewers are looking for, but it needs to be noted that different reviewers were looking for different things, so there will likely never be a single right approach for authors trying to clear the peer review hurdle. Future research is needed to further clarify the peer review process, including authors and those who have overseen the peer review process, such as editors and conference organizers

Employee Perceptions of the Brand Salience and Differentiation for a State Forestry Organization

A survey was conducted of employees of the Florida Forest Service (FFS) to determine their perceptions related to the brand ’s differentiation and salience as well as what they believed public perceptions were. Employees’ perceptions are important to the FFS brand. As a service-oriented organization, FFS employees will largely affect public perceptions of the organization and its activities. Employees believed all FFS activities were important but that wildfire-related activities and functions were more salient and more important for differentiating the FFS brand from similar organizations. The employees believed the public was not well informed of FFS’s functions, with the exception of wildfire functions. Employees also believed the public perceived wildfire activities were more important for brand differentiation that FFS’s other activities. Because FFS is a public organization with a variety of functions and activities, it risks its credibility if it is not able to represent the full scope of its activities and functions to the public. It was recommended to make salience and differentiation a priority for the FFS brand. The FFS brand needs to increase the public’s exposure to the FFS brand and represent the full scope of its activities and functions to ensure credible representation of the brand. For research, it was recommended to study tactics for affecting employee perceptions of the organization’s activities and employees’ perceptions of public opinion

Managing Media Relations: Determining the Reputation of Land Grant Institutions from the Perspective of Media Professionals

In recent years, the land grant university has struggled with public awareness outside of its traditional audiences, indicating a potential disconnect between the general public and the media. The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions and awareness of media with regard to the image and reputation of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). A sample of 150 state and local media professionals was surveyed to assess perceptions and awareness of UF/IFAS. The results indicated that the media’s perceptions of UF/IFAS image and reputation were positive, but their awareness of the institution’s range of program areas was low. Media professionals consider the information provided by UF/IFAS to be credible, useable, and newsworthy. Respondents said the environment, followed by disaster preparation and recovery were the most important topics to their target audience, while the least important topics to their target audience were 4-H youth development and agriculture. Media professionals were more likely to use UF/IFAS as a source for agriculture and natural resource topics than other topics. Other universities should consider conducting similar research to develop a body of knowledge on media relations at land grant institutions

Totally Transparent: A Qualitative Study About the Impact of Farm Tours on Bloggers

Producers and agricultural organizations often struggle to effectively and efficiently communicate agricultural practices and values across the green divide. Additionally, producers and agricultural communication professionals must compete with inflammatory or misleading statements communicated to uninformed consumers via the blogosphere and rapidly disseminated on social media. Many organizations are beginning to implement agritourism events as a way of educating the consumer and influential bloggers. This study utilized semi-structured interviews to explore the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of four bloggers who were invited to a three-day agritourism event. Results showed participants identified personal exposure to transparent farmers yielded an increase in knowledge and appreciation of farming practices that positively impacted their trust in the American farmer and food system. This study expands upon current research being conducted on agritourism events, transparency, and expectancy violations theory and suggests organizations structure agritourism events in such a way as to demonstrate transparency and positively violate the expectations bloggers may have regarding agricultural producers