Book Description

The primary purpose of this study was to determine Arkansas daily newspaper editors' attitudes toward agriculture that might affect their decision to print, or not to print, agricultural news. The study used a web-delivered instrument developed by the researcher. The population of the study consisted of the primary editor of each daily newspaper in Arkansas, as identified by Burrelle's Information Services (1999). Of the editors responding to the questionnaire, 81% were male. The mean reported age was 44.8, with a range of 31-59 years. Most editors lived in a rural area, worked for newspapers that were corporately owned, had 10 or more years experience in journalism, and had considerable experience in writing agricultural news stories. Most were well educated, but had completed only a few college courses in agriculture. Two-thirds of Arkansas' daily newspapers published an agricultural section, but less than one-fourth employed an agricultural reporter. For the most part, editors believed that their readers' interests coincided with their own. Health, food safety, and environmental issues were viewed as the areas of greatest interest. Editors possessed positive attitudes toward the agricultural industry, although they were less positive about the image of agriculture or about agriculture's performance in educating the public about the agricultural industry. Editors agreed that journalists should receive instruction in agriculture and that K-12 students should be required to take at least one course in agriculture. It was recommended that university faculty in journalism and agriculture collaborate to provide a course for students and/or young journalists about agricultural issues, and be encouraged to continue positive, open relationships with journalists to ensure open lines of communication to disseminate information about agricultural issues. Workshops should be conducted for college of agriculture faculty, extension personnel, and university researchers on how to work with, and give appropriate responses to, media representatives.