The Rest of the Story:
Print News Components in Agricultural
Communications Programs at
Land-Grant Universities
Edward J. Smith
Ricky W. Telg
Don E. Tomlinson
The purpose of this study was to learn about print news units within agricultural communications departments across the land-grant university system, specifically: (1) How much is invested into print news, (2) The type and nature of projects produced, (3) How audiences are defined, and (4) Answers to questions relating to production, distribution, marketing, and demographics. A questionnaire was mailed to all 52 land-grant university agricultural communications departments (50 states plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). The return rate was 80.8 percent. Among the findings: reporters overwhelmingly had a journalism/mass communications employment background; almost half of the news release output was of a "feature story" variety. Print news components (called PNCs by the authors) placed the most emphasis on "production agriculture" (producing most releases about this subject) and "nutrition or personal health." Marketing was primarily a function of geography, rather than audience demographics.
Ricky W. Telg, an ACE member for three years, is a television communications specialist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Don E. Tomlinson and Edward J. Smith are Associate Professors of journalism at Texas A&M University. This article was presented at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jan. 31 - Feb. 3, 1993.
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