Agricultural Communications

Current Research Projects

Media Coverage of Agricultural Issues

Jeff Miller, Jill Rucker, Casandra Cox

Examining how the journalistic media interprets agricultural issues and topics is important research that can guide agricultural organizations in their strategic marketing communications efforts. Examining tone, credibility of sources, terminology and framing of news coverage of a particular issue can shed light on how messaging from the agriculture industry or from government agencies is being portrayed through the mediation of journalists.  Research at the University of Arkansas has examined issues ranging from food recalls and animal welfare incidents to emerging technologies.

Social Media in Agriculture

Casandra Cox, Jeff Miller, Jill Rucker

Social media has become a cornerstone of public relations and therefore has created a need for research to examine how the agriculture industry uses social media in its public communications efforts.  Recent studies at the University of Arkansas have focused on Twitter content related to large protein companies’ positions on animal welfare as well as on how food bloggers obtain information about issues in the protein industry and how they frame that information in their blog posts.

Journalistic and Public Relations Framing of Agricultural Issues

Casandra Cox, Jeff Miller, Jill Rucker

Information in the news media, on blog sites and on social media is mediated through journalists(and bloggers and social media influencers) writing, causing it to be framed for consumers through the lenses of those writers. Therefore, it is important to study those journalistic frames so that public relations and marketing professionals in the agriculture industry can better provide journalists with credible, accurate information, framed from the industry’s point of view. Researchers at the University of Arkansas have studied the theory of journalistic and public relations framing in numerous contexts, including livestock and protein production, agricultural biotechnology, food safety and environmental issues.

Global Development of Academic Programs in Agricultural Communications

Jeff Miller, Jill Rucker

Globally, the demand for professionals who understand the technologies and public issues related to agriculture and who also have strong skills in practical communications is continually rising. Though more than 45 academic programs exist in the U.S. higher education system, few to no academic programs exist outside the U.S. Researchers at the University of Arkansas have conducted two studies to gather information from industry professionals, students and faculty about what such an academic program would look like in the United Kingdom.