Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application

Review of Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (6th ed.

Organizational branding 101

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Frindle: A Review for Agricultural Communications Courses

Review of Frindle

It’s complicated: Exploring the internal land-grant brand at Oklahoma State University

Land-grant institutions (LGIs) are tasked with providing accessible education to the common man and improving their quality of life. This study examined faculty members’ interpretations of the land-grant mission and opinions about its future. The theory of branding guided this study. Faculty members are the primary deliverers university missions. Past studies have indicated some personnel are unaware of pieces of the land-grant mission. This is troublesome as a strong internal brand increases the likelihood of a positive public image. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants for 11 focus groups conducted in the summer of 2020. The audio was transcribed and imported into MAXQDA20 and analyzed using Glaser’s constant comparative method to identify themes, which were confirmed by assistant moderators. Participants had multiple definitions of the land-grant mission and interpreted in their work differently. There was a general state of concern for the future, but faculty members had an overall positive outlook on the land-grant mission. Faculty should view their work and behaviors as true building block of the OSU and land-grant brand. Future research should explore the internal brand at other LGIs and university staff, administration, and student perceptions should also be explored.Peer reviewedAgricultural Education, Communication and Leadershi

Agricultural Mothers’ Conversations & Decision-Making about Food

Agricultural organizations have encouraged farmers and others involved in the agricultural industry to discuss their experiences with consumers and to have meaningful conversations about food. While agriculturalists are encouraged to share their stories on the internet through social networking platforms and blogs, they are also encouraged to have interpersonal conversations about food and agriculture. Due to the elevated concerns of mothers about food and the nature of women and social capital, we need to understand how mothers communicate about food. This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews with mothers with agricultural backgrounds to answer two research questions: 1) How are mothers sharing and receiving information about food? 2) How does information they receive affect mothers’ food purchasing decisions? Using constant comparative method, participants’ responses were organized into themes. The themes that emerged were information sharing is often limited to certain scenarios, information receiving is mainly online, concerns about food are common, strangers are easiest to talk to about food and agriculture issues, and social pressures exist but are not felt by all. While some mothers were willing to discuss food and agricultural issues with others, many participants were hesitant to discuss them to avoid tensions with acquaintances and those they were close to. As a result of their hesitance, mothers are not having the conversations encouraged by agricultural organizations. Some mothers feel judgment from their peers in the form of social pressure while grocery shopping, which indicates peer relationships can influence food purchasing

The Steaks Are High: COVID-19’s Impact on Direct-To-Consumer Marketing in the Oklahoma Beef Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged some beef producers to market their products directly to consumers. For many consumers the idea of buying beef products from local sources is appealing. Relationship management theory framed this study, as beef producers used relationship building as a path to product promotion. This study explored Oklahoma beef producers’ perceptions of changes that have occurred in direct-to-consumer marketing and consumer communications in the beef industry during the COVID-19 pandemic using semi-structured interviews. This study consisted of 16 participants found via snowball sampling. Participants were Oklahoma cattle ranchers over 18 years old who used one or more channels of direct marketing to sell beef products to consumers. Findings indicate beef producers focused on creating and maintaining relationships with customers. Many producers used social media to connect with customers due to the absence of in-person opportunities. Word-of-mouth marketing through social media and local communities brought in new customers, and as producers invested in maintaining authentic relationships with their customers, they saw increased customer loyalty. Producers focused on sharing the \u27story behind the beef’ to increase trust and openness in their communications with consumers. Most producers who used social media did not strategize when posting. Some producers failed to adapt to consumer needs during the pandemic and did not use social media at all which limited their customer interactions. Future research could explore consumer perceptions of beef producers during the COVID-19 pandemic to compare and assess the effectiveness of the communications between these two groups

Cultivating Identity, Sowing Relationships, Fertilizing Success, and Harvesting Coexistence: Understanding Oklahoma Producer Identity and Relationships

The USDA has identified coexistence, or producers growing food in a variety of ways (conventionally, organic, etc.) in a harmonious manner as a critical challenge and high priority. Despite this call for coexistence and assurance of mutual success, agricultural sectors often have conflicts. Both sides of the niche and mainstream rift tend to pick and choose radical examples of problematic practices to portray the opposition. Producers, more so than most other occupations, have a deeply entrenched occupational identity. Many studies focused on the need for relationships between agricultural producers and the public. No work has been found to understand how producers from different sectors of agriculture view one another. This study sought to understand producers’ identities and the relationships producers have with one another. Results indicate the occupation of farming, family ties, connection and duty to the land, hard work and pride defines producers’ identities. When defining a “good farmer,” producers cited innovation and efficiency, farm succession, passion and joy, and profits as markers of success. The relationships between producers varied. Overall, producers respected other producers enough to make their own choices concerning production. Social media was often mentioned when producers talked about how they communicate with one another

Coauthor Network Analysis of Journal of Applied Communications Articles from 2008-2017

Coauthorship networks offer a glimpse of collaborations within a discipline, illustrating the social networks that enable users to leverage more resources than they could on their own. This study used relational bibliometric data from the last 10 years of the Journal of Applied Communications (JAC) to create a social network analysis. The following research objectives guided this study: 1) Describe authorship, category (i.e., research article, commentary, book review), and number of JAC papers published from 2008 to 2017, 2) Describe the coauthor network characteristics of JAC papers, and 3) Describe the relationship between publication frequency and social network characteristics of authors. Results showed the majority of articles published in JAC were research articles and written by more than one author. Typically, authors who were well connected in the network were those who collaborated with other faculty at their own institution and continued to collaborate with graduate school classmates after graduation. Based on the results, recommendations to broaden connections in agricultural communications included increasing collaborations based on research interests, as opposed to geographic proximity and past working relationships to increase connections across the agricultural communications discipline

Examining the Social Properties of Oklahoma Agricultural Facebook Pages: A Quantitative Content Analysis

Social media is used by millions of people in the United States, and producers are often encouraged to maintain a social media presence to promote their businesses and agriculture in general. Farmers have deeply entrenched identities. Social identity theory states people self-sort into certain groups. Social comparison and positive distinction are two principles of social identity theory. There is a need to research how agricultural operations are portraying those identities, including how they portray the identities of dissimilar agricultural operations online. This study compared Oklahoma mainstream and alternative producers in a quantitative content analysis of their Facebook pages. The following objectives guided this study: 1) Describe the agricultural operations in Oklahoma present on Facebook, 2. Describe the Facebook presence of agricultural operations in Oklahoma, 3) Describe operations’ expression of social-identity via Facebook, and 4) Compare the communication of alternative and mainstream agricultural operations in Oklahoma. Results of this study indicate that overall agricultural operations do not post frequently. While operations were likely to use positive distinctions to distinguish products from others, they were not likely to use social comparison. Moreover, there were not major differences between mainstream and alternative producers. Qualitative research exploring producers’ sense of identity would be valuable. Future studies should also explore the personal pages of agricultural producers, how producers use other social media outlets, and how the results of this study compare to other states’ producers

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