Landowners' Perceptions Of Conservation Easements: Implications For Effective Persuasive Communication, Caitlin Cooper, Jefferson D. Miller, Shane White, Lauren Gwaltney

Journal of Applied Communications

Conservation easements (CEs) are one of the most popular voluntary, legally binding programs that allow individual landowners to use their property to protect the environment. There is a definite need for educational and persuasive messaging targeted towards landowners regarding adopting conservation easements. Based on previous studies, and confirmed by this study, communication efforts that are led by conservation experts who are also community members are most likely to be well received by landowners in a region. There is currently little to no existing region-specific literature specifically related to the attitudes and behaviors landowners possess towards conservation easements. Additionally, more literature …

Identifying The Behavioral Intent To Use Social Media Through The Application Of Utaut In Anr And Turfgrass Extension, Barbara Worley, Jason Peake, Nicholas E. Fuhrman

Journal of Applied Communications

Little research exists on the role Extension Agricultural and Natural Resources professionals play in communicating information about new turfgrass cultivars. In an effort to analyze behavioral intentions related to social media and its use in the turfgrass industry, the researchers drew from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). A pilot instrument was developed to measure the intent of University researchers and county-based Extension professionals to use social media to disseminate turfgrass information, as well as their use of social media for seeking turfgrass information. This case study examined the role of county-based ANR Extension professionals across …

“I Feel Like It’S One Of Those Things That Everyone Feels The Same Way About, No One Wants To Discuss It”: A Qualitative Examination Of Female College Students’ Pap Smear Experience, Ny'nika T. Mcfadden, Amanda H. Wilkerson, Heather J. Carmack

Health Behavior Research

The purpose of this study was to examine female college students’ Pap smear experience and communication with their provider before, during, and after the exam. In fall 2019, 158 female college students completed an online survey with closed and open-ended questions. Open-ended responses from participants reporting a previous Pap smear (n=36) were qualitatively analyzed to generate themes to explain female college students’ Pap smear experience and communication behavior with their provider before, during, and after the exam. The main themes identified included: Uncomfortable, Low Patient Engagement, Provider Support, and Provider Trust. Female college students overwhelmingly reported discomfort around …

Let’S Talk About Money: The Role Of Attachment Styles In Couples’ Financial Communication, Financial Management, And Financial Conflict, Monique M. H. Pollmann

Journal of Financial Therapy

There are many households with financial problems, but most research on financial management is restricted to individual effects, not taking into account the relationship these individuals are in. The current investigation tests whether a person’s attachment style predicts how comfortable they are talking about financial issues with their partner and how that relates to different financial outcome variables. Two cross-sectional survey studies in the Netherlands and the US, each with more than 100 participants show that a higher score on anxious attachment is related to less communication about money with one’s partner. Less financial communication is related to worse financial …

Impacting Agriculture And Natural Resource Policy: County Commissioners’ Decision-Making Behaviors And Communication Preferences, Kati Lawson, Kevin Kent, Shelli Rampold, Ricky W. Telg, Ashley Mcleod-Morin

Journal of Applied Communications

Elected officials at the local, state, and national levels play key roles in shaping the agriculture and natural resources (ANR) sectors through the development and implementation of ANR policies and regulations. As such, it has become necessary for members of the ANR community to understand the policy formation process and how to communicate effectively with elected officials about ANR policies and issues. However, little research has been conducted at the local level to examine how local elected officials (LEOs) interact with information specific to ANR policies to make decisions. This study was designed to assess the communication and information-seeking preferences …

Utilizing Extension As A Resource In Disaster Response: Florida Extension’S Communication Efforts During The 2017 Hurricane Season, Moses R. Mike, Shelli D. Rampold, Ricky W. Telg, Angela B. Lindsey

Journal of Applied Communications

Crisis communication plays a significant role for the different audiences for which it is designed. Hurricanes and other disasters have resulted in major economic damage and disruption of social norms for extended periods of time in communities across the globe. In such circumstances, the Cooperative Extension Service is often called to take an active role in preparation, response, and recovery. As part of the local emergency management team, local Extension offices are positioned to provide a research base, relevant information, and faculty. As such, citizens often look to Extension faculty members for emergency resources and expertise. However, standard communication methods …

Quality Evaluation Tool For Clinician Online Continuing Medical Education, Brittany Rosen, Gary Kreps, James M. Bishop Mr., Skye L. Mcdonald

Health Behavior Research

The purpose of this study was to develop and assess an instrument evaluating the quality of online continuing medical education interventions for clinicians. A review of seminal literature for evaluating health-related websites was conducted to incorporate best practices from health education, health communication, and web-based design principles. After reviewing the literature, 12 preliminary quality indicators were developed. Two independent coders used the preliminary quality indicators to code continuing medical education interventions. Internal reliability of the preliminary indicators was calculated using the Krippendorff’s alpha coefficient. After completing the reliability testing and revising the tool, the quality evaluation framework consisted of six …

Extension Officers’ Adoption Of Modern Information Communication Technologies To Interact With Farmers Of Trinidad, Lendel K. Narine, Amy Harder, Grady T. Roberts

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

The Ministry Extension struggled to provide adequate services to Trinidadian farmers because of a reliance on top-down methods. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been touted as an effective and efficient way to serve farmers in the Caribbean. This study sought to describe the factors affecting Ministry Extension officers’ decisions to adopt text messaging via Short Messaging Service (SMS) to communicate with farmers. The Diffusion of Innovation theory (Rogers, 2003) guided this study, and data were collected from a census of Extension officers in the Ministry Extension service. Results showed most Extension officers used voice calls and SMS to communicate with …

Case Study Integration In The Undergraduate Classroom: Can We Enhance Willingness To Communicate?, Jessica L. Harsh, Alexa J. Lamm, Katie Abrams, Courtney Meyers, Ricky Telg, Becky Raulerson

Journal of Applied Communications

The agricultural and natural resources (ANR) industry faces many pressing issues involving animal health, biotechnology, climate change, food safety, food security, invasive species, marketing and trade, and water. Undergraduate students must be prepared and willing to communicate about these issues, which can often be complex and controversial when entering the ANR workforce. This study sought to determine if the integration of case studies influenced students’ self-perceived willingness to communicate about ANR issues while taking a communication course that teaches about ANR issues. A pre/posttest, experimental research design assessed students’ willingness to communicate about nine key ANR issues identified by the …

Using Critical Thinking Styles To Inform Food Safety Behavior Communication Campaigns, Arthur Leal, Joy N. Rumble, Alexa J. Lamm

Journal of Applied Communications

Consumers have struggled with maintaining consistent food safety behaviors over the years, which has been affected partly by their limited food safety knowledge. Researchers in this study set to determine Florida residents’ food safety behaviors while also assessing their critical thinking styles. The social cognitive theory and the University of Florida critical thinking styles (UFCTI) inventory served as the guiding framework. The UFCTI has emerged as an effective tool in measuring how an individual’s critical thinking is expressed, performed, or done. Online survey responses were collected from 510 Florida residents and data were analyzed using non-probability and weighting measures. The …

How Do Money, Sex, And Stress Influence Marital Instability?, E. Jeffrey Hill, David B. Allsop, Ashley B. Lebaron, Roy A. Bean

Journal of Financial Therapy

This study explored how money and sex simultaneously predicted marital instability, and what financial therapists might focus on with clients to address problems in these areas. Specifically, this paper concurrently examined the relationship of marital instability to financial and family stressors (financial stressors, work-family conflict, and parenting stressors); financial and sexual resources (couple income and couple sexual frequency); and financial and sexual perceptions (financial dissatisfaction and sexual dissatisfaction). Couple financial communication and couple relational communication were explored as intervention points for financial therapists. Data came from Wave 2 of the Flourishing Families data set (N = 301). Data were organized …

Communicating Climate Change: A Qualitative Study Exploring How Communicators And Educators Are Approaching Climate-Change Discussions, Katie Rohling, Cassie Wandersee, Lauri M. Baker, Peter Tomlinson

Journal of Applied Communications

The scientific community has come to the conclusion that the climate is changing, but the existence of climate change continues to be rejected or doubted, creating communication challenges for professionals. The purpose of this study was to determine how education and communication professionals involved in climate-change communication are framing the discussions about climate change with agricultural producers. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted to address terminology usage, challenges encountered, overcoming challenges, and utilization of social media when educating and communicating about climate change. Responses from professionals indicated: 1) they do not avoid using the term “climate change” but are concerned about …

Diagnostic Laboratory’S Impact Continues To Broaden With New Testing, Partnership, Rachel Skybetter

Seek

For decades, Kansas State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has been the go-to regional source for animal testing and diagnoses, and a national center for rabies serological testing. With recent developments it’s likely to remain so for decades more.

Improving Communication In Agbiotech Projects: Moving Toward A Trust-Centered Paradigm, Obidimma Ezezika, Justin Mabeya

Journal of Applied Communications

Communication with end users about agricultural biotechnology does not necessarily lead to commensurate adoption of biotech crops. Agbiotech communication implies challenges like disagreement between proponents and opponents of genetically modified (GM) technology and media influence on public opinion, both of which can negatively impact public trust in, and thus adoption of, biotech crops. We argue that communication strategies for introducing biotech crops should focus on building and fostering trust between project partners developing biotech crops and the community they intend to serve to facilitate effective adoption of the crops. Strategies should include a combination of knowledge dissemination; early and continuous …

Planning And Evaluating Science Video Programs Using Communication Science, Joseph Cone, Kirsten Winters

Journal of Applied Communications

Science-based videos could be of greater benefit to viewers if video producers understand what decisions and actions these audiences may be considering that can be affected by the videos. Such understanding may be developed through interviews, focus groups, and surveys, which should provide guidance for elements of both the style and content of the video production. The success of the videos in assisting viewers’ understanding and decision making should then be evaluated, for example through surveys, as described here. Following such a process may increase the effectiveness of such videos, thereby also improving the return on the producer’s investment in …

Selected Students’ Perspectives On International Service-Learning:A Case Study In Chajul, Guatemala, Caroline Black, Lori Moore, Gary Wingenbach, Tracy Rutherford

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

The purpose of this study wastoinvestigate a unique international service-learning experience between two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and acollege of agriculture. This case studyfocused on a 25-day international service-learning study abroad program to Guatemalafor TexasA&M University students. Ashand Clayton’s (2009a) service-learningmodel was used for Texas A&M Universitystudents to complete service-learningprojects in the highlands of Guatemala. Thestudy abroad group, working with twoNGOs, completed multiple service-learningprojects in three rural communities. Nineundergraduate students documented theirexperiences through field logs and reflectionpapers. Five major themes were revealed instudents’ written artifacts: adaptation,culture, collaboration, communication, andvalue of knowledge. This internationalservice-learning opportunity empoweredstudents to embrace different cultures andlanguages while …

Competencies Needed By Agricultural Communication Undergraduates: An Academic Perspective, A. Christian Morgan, K. Jill Rucker

Journal of Applied Communications

Communication competencies and skills needed by agricultural communication graduates are constantly changing because of the dynamic nature of the technology used by communication professionals. Although several studies have been conducted in recent years that engaged alumni and industry professionals to determine agricultural communication program graduate competencies, no studies were found which sought out these competencies from the perspective of faculty. Determining the communication competencies faculty deem important will help identify gaps between industry needs and academic perceptions. This Delphi study was conducted to determine the competencies agricultural communication faculty believe are needed for agricultural communication program graduates. Nineteen participants from …

A Financial Issue, A Relationship Issue, Or Both? Examining The Predictors Of Marital Financial Conflict, Jeffrey P. Dew, Robert Stewart

Journal of Financial Therapy

This study examines whether financial conflict arises because of financial difficulties, marital problems, or both. Using a recent nationally representative sample of over 1500 married couples, this study finds that economic pressure, communication issues, and deeper “hidden” issues within marriage are all associated with financial conflict. Specifically, economic pressure is positively associated with financial conflict. When spouses report satisfying communication, respect, commitment, and fairness and have equal levels of economic power, they report lower levels of financial conflict. These results suggest that financial conflict is a complex marital phenomenon that both marital therapists and financial counselors may help reduce.

Blurring Cultural Boundary Between Scientists And Farmers In The Philippines Through A Mediated Bilateral Model, Eric P. Palapac

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

A model utilizing a science-society communication framework was developed to analyze through a casestudy approach the innovation transmission and adoption mechanisms under the dairy buffalo project being implemented by the Philippine Carabao Centre (PCC) in the province of Nueva Ecija. Called a “Mediated Bilateral Model,” Centerit first depicted the unique features of cultural spaces occupied by the farmers, the PCC scientists, and the PCC field technicians. The basic distinguishing feature is the “scripts” of the interacting actors, which constitute the contexts in which their meaning-making and decision-making activities take place. These contextual factors contribute to the shaping of the actors’ …

Fear And Loathing In Britain: A Framing Analysis Of News Coverage During The Foot And Mouth Disease Outbreaks In The United States, Karen J. Cannon, Tracy A. Irani

Journal of Applied Communications

Communicating science is a complex task filled with challenges for scientists and communicators. In the field of agricultural communications, some of the most complex and controversial topics covered in today’s media are related to contagious animal diseases. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of frames in two daily newspapers, The New York Times in the U.S., and The Guardian in the U.K., during both the 2001 and 2007 outbreaks of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Britain. The analysis showed that the primary frame used in articles published during the outbreaks was fear, followed closely by …

Student Publications’ Place In The Agricultural Communication Curricula, Kelsey Hall, Emily Rhoades, Robert Agunga

Journal of Applied Communications

Many agricultural communication or journalism programs offer publication production opportunities as a way for students to use their writing, editing, design, and photography skills. This study evaluated the curriculum and make-up of student publications produced through these agricultural communication or journalism programs. The study also described the role advisers have in handling editorial, ethical, and legal issues. Data were collected through a questionnaire sent to members of the Academic Programs Special Interest Group in the Association for Communication Excellence. Fifteen programs identified offering a student-produced publication. The majority of these publications (n = 8) were offered as a course in …

Photo-Elicitation As A Method Of Assessing Village Needs, Lulu Rodriguez, Denise Bjelland

Journal of Applied Communications

Photo-elicitation is a method of gathering data from respondents who are asked to take photographs or critically examine and reflect on images taken by others to offer a more “native” view of often cross-cultural or inter-group experiences. This method was applied to determine what the residents of a village in China’s Hangzhou province saw as their community’s development priorities by asking them to take photographs of local scenes, characters and objects to depict their needs. Through their snapshots, they indicated the need to diversify their community’s economic base (currently limited to snake production and processing), the need for better transportation …

Penchant For Print: Media Strategies In Communicating Agricultural Information, Amanda Ruth-Mcswain

Journal of Applied Communications

The news media provide much of the information the public receives about agriculture and agricultural issues, but they are not the only players in the communication equation. Sources supply the news media with facts and information that eventually direct public thought and opinion about agriculture. Therefore, agricultural communication professionals play a significant role in the dissemination of agricultural information through the news media. In an attempt to better understand the role of agricultural communication professionals, the purpose of this study was to explore their media strategies and choices—specifically their use of different media outlets for their communication efforts. The present …

(De)Humanizing Humor: The Anthill Of Life And Politics In The Theatre Of Sabina Berman, Priscilla Meléndez

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This article examines several theatrical works of this Mexican dramatist by means of ironic humor as a powerful resource to examine the nature of human communication, and to expose the serious and devastating social and political aspects of contemporary culture: machismo, political corruption, sexual violence, sexism, exploitation, historical manipulation, and hopelessness. In a tense environment where humor might not seem appropriate, Berman masterfully uses and critically examines it as a means to understand humor’s serious implications and its comic imperfections, as she subtly recurs to but also parodies some of the most recognized theories of humor. Berman’s use of incongruity …

A Frame-Based Analysis Of Synaesthetic Metaphors, Wiebke Petersen, Jens Fleischhauer, Hakan Beseoglu, Peter Bücker

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

The aim of this paper is to use a frame-based account to explain some empirical findings regarding the accessibility of synaesthetic metaphors. Therefore, some results of empirical studies will be discussed with regard to the question of how much it matters whether the concept of the source domain in a synaesthetic metaphor is a scalar or a quality concept. Furthermore, typed frames are introduced, and it is explained how the notion of a minimal upper attribute can be used in the analysis of adjective-noun compounds. Finally, frames are used to analyze synaesthetic metaphors; it turns out that they offer an …

Style And Otherness In L.-F. Céline's Rigodon, Ann L. Murphy

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

L.-F. Céline's preoccupation with the question of style appears not only in his correspondence, interviews and "socio-political" (i.e. anti-Semitic) tracts, but also in his novels. An examination of Céline's thoughts on the writing of, and in, novels reveals an opposition between features which should inform style, and those which should be eliminated, in other words, between those values upon which his own style rests, and those associated with non-style, with his "others of style." Two passages in his final novel Rigodon may be read as figuring certain aspects of these thoughts as well as some of the paradoxes which accompany …

Sounding Out The Silence Of Gregor Samsa: Kafka's Rhetoric Of Dys-Communication, Robert Weninger

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Through his transformation, Gregor Samsa, rather than simply silencing himself, allows his repressed voice to be heard palimpsestically in the language of his family and the boarders. His story is one of inverted—rather than aborted—communication. An analogous inversion governs the relationship between Kafka and his father and Kafka and his interpreters. As a child, Kafka could make little sense of his father's rules and his contradictory actions; later, he reduplicates in his writings this grammar of "dys-communication." Our puzzled and often frustrated reactions to Kafka's texts can therefore be seen to mirror his equally puzzled and frustrated reactions to his …

El Año De Gracia And The Displacement Of The Word, Catherine G. Bellver

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The power of the established, self-sufficient written word is considerable. Written texts not only furnish material, incentive, or direction for new texts, they also inspire, orient, and mold those who read them. El año de Gracia, a novel by Cristina Fernández Cubas (1985), vividly illustrates the imprint novels can leave on a young mind. The protagonist learns, however, that the concept of the world he formed on the basis of literary models is erroneous. In El año de Gracia literature fails to sustain meaning, and meaning itself becomes irrelevant. Both oral and written discourse are in some way restricted, …

Reflections On Linguistic And Literary Colonization And Decolonization In Africa, Eric Sellin

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Despite the cultural diversity found in Africa and the complexity ofthe psychology of the colonizer and the colonized, several fundamental facts emerge regarding the function of language and literature in recent African history. The colonizer sought to instill a sense of inferiority in the colonized as part of the dynamics of conquest, placing special emphasis on education and language. These notions, lucidly discussed by such social thinkers as O. Mannoni, Frantz Fanon, and Albert Memmi, have analogues in the defense of language everywhere where lingua-political oppression occurs, be it in colonial Africa or on an Arapaho reservation in the American …

Nabokov's "Torpid Smoke", Leona Toker

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Nabokov's short stories are polished self-contained works of art. However, like his novels and poems, they can be profitably read in the light of their place in his general canon. This place is determined by the time when each story was written and by the way in which other works enrich and elucidate the significance of its images.

The short fiction of Nabokov's Berlin period has been regarded largely as akin to studies that a painter makes in preparation for a big picture. In some cases, however, the stories seem to serve as safety valves for the urgent material that …