Agriculture Commons^™

Industry Professionals’ Perceptions Of Crisis Communications Educational Needs For New Professionals And Best Practices For Second Life© Simulations, Kristin M. Pennington, Leslie D. Edgar

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Crises impacting agriculture cost the nation billions of dollars in expenses and lost revenues annually. Organizations and governmental agencies continue to refocus energies on improving crisis communication plans in an effort to lessen economic impacts of unanticipated events. This study brought together an advisory team of agricultural communications professionals to gather perceptions of crisis communications educational needs for new professionals and to identify the best practices for using Second Life© (SL), a 3-D virtual world, simulations for training. Advisory team members represented the human, crop, animal, and environmental sectors of the agricultural industry. Perceptions were gathered during a roundtable, open-ended …