Agricultural Communications Efforts During Florida's Medfly Infestations of 1997 and 1998

Ricky Telg
Mary Gail Dufresne
(no photo available)

This case study examined the communications methods and results of Florida's agricultural communicators during the Mediterranean fruit fly infestations of 1997 and 1998. Eight agricultural communicators actively participating in the communications efforts during the infestations were interviewed. Findings included the following: activist groups were able to "strike first" and control the media messages for a period of time that was damaging to the agricultural industry's efforts of spraying malathion, the agricultural community often discounted activists as extremists whose arguments were invalid and without merit, and personal relationships and personal contacts were essential for the agricultural community to calm the public's environmental and health fears.

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Mary Gail Dufresne is community relations director for the Winter Park Public Library in Winter Park, Fla. Mary Gail Dufresne was a graduate student in the University of Florida's Department of Agricultural Education and Communication when this study was conducted. Ricky Telg, assistant professor in the University of Florida's Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, has been an ACE member for seven years. This article is adapted from a paper presented at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, February 2000.
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