LISTEN: Addressing the Need for Academic Training in Agricultural Communications

[00:00] Intro/Outro
Welcome to the Arkansas Food, Farms and Forests Podcast, the podcast bringing you the latest on food, fiber, and forestry research from the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

[00:16] Jenifer
Welcome to Food, Farms & Forests. I’m your host, Jenifer Fouch. Today, we are exploring agricultural communications and how it’s perceived by professionals, faculty, and students, both here in the U.S. and abroad. More specifically, we’re learning about efforts to create an ag communications degree program in the UK, the first of its kind. To dive deeper into this topic, we are joined by Dr. Jeff Miller, professor in the agricultural education, communications and technology department, who will be sharing his research and findings with us. Jeff, thanks for being here with us.

[00:50] Jeff
Really glad to be here. Thanks.

[00:51] Jenifer
So, let’s get specific and talk about the research first. The study is titled Perceptions of Professionals, Faculty, and Students regarding the implementation of an Agricultural Communications Degree Program in the United Kingdom. How did this work come about? How did you get involved?

[01:09] Jeff
Well, I guess I would have to credit the Bumpers College for that. When I arrived, I had never, as a new faculty member in the early 2000, I had never conducted any kind of international work, no study tours, no international research. But we had a staff member who was stationed in Edinburgh at the time, and he was assisting students with internships in the summer. And he and I became friends, and he set me up with some faculty at Scotland’s Rural College in Edinburgh. It’s a very similar institution to ours, a little bit smaller, but they do focus on agricultural research and sort of extension work.
So, as I got to know these folks, I realized that, hey, there are all these people doing ag communications work all over the UK, but there is no academic program to be seen in agricultural communications or agricultural journalism. So, it just kind of struck me, and I began asking around, you know, where did you get your degree? And people who work in agricultural communications either have a degree in journalism or English or some type of communications discipline and then they learn agriculture as they go. Or they come from an agricultural background, and they learn journalism and communications as they go. And there isn’t one institution that puts those two things together.
Well, in the United States, I had already done some research on curriculum in the US. And there are over 50 programs in the United States in agricultural communications or agricultural journalism. And when I shared that information with these faculty members, they were like, What? Oh my gosh! The need was there. So, we began to, I began to work with some faculty members to investigate, how we could maybe make this kind of program happen. And, man, I’m so excited to say it’s already taking place we’re about to start a new program there in Scotland.

[03:08] Jenifer
So, the research was then completed. We’ll get to the details of that. But right now, it’s already being useful in the field.

[03:16] Jeff
Already useful in the field. I think in the study of agriculture in general, we pride ourselves on practicality and applied science. And that’s what this is. So, yeah, the research that we’ve conducted on this topic has already moved into the application phase, and there is a curriculum being developed as we speak.

[03:38] Jenifer
That’s super cool. So, when can someone enroll? Can they enroll this fall? Is it going to be implemented next year?

[03:45] Jeff
Yeah. That’s an interesting story, too. So I have the fortune of being able to go over to Scotland this fall and to help develop that curriculum. And so, we’ve already started the planning phase, and the approval phase is, is over. So, what we’ve developed are some micro certificates. there will be five of them at Scotland’s Rural College. And I’ll be working this fall on developing the actual curriculum in the distance learning interface that they have set up over there. And so, some other faculty members there and I will be developing that curriculum this fall, and we hope to have it ready for the following year. So, you know, things move slowly in academia. So, I would say that probably somewhere around fall of 2025 we will be offering certificates in various aspects of agricultural communications.

[04:37] Jenifer
Honestly, you say I think things move slow, but this is pretty quick for such a program like this, and especially that it is the first time it’s happening.

[04:46] Jeff
It’s all relative, right? So, if you think about it, I’ve been, I’ve been developing those relationships in Scotland since 2006. That was the first time I led a study tour with students over there and began discussing it. So, yeah, they can move quickly, but really big picture, this has been a long time coming. So, it’s actually been part of my life’s work. I’ve published several articles on the topic and developing a program in ag communications in the UK has been a goal of mine for a very long time.

[05:17] Jenifer
I am sure you’re very happy to see this come to fruition now. I want to explore that a little bit more, but let’s go back to the study and, learn about how did we get here? What was that … What were the key findings from the study? And then how did you get there?

[05:36] Jeff
Right. So ,what we were doing was, talking to stakeholders in this issue, we’ll call it an issue. It’s really the need for academic training in ag communications. And we talked to faculty members who would be teaching or advising students who maybe want to make this a career, and talk to the students themselves. And then we also talked to the employers of the students and, or the potential employers of the students.
The most recent publication that we have was basically the results of a qualitative study where we interviewed these people, and we wanted to find out more deeply what they would expect to see in a curriculum that was preparing students to be agricultural communications professionals.
And, you know, I would say that, first of all, everybody agreed that, everybody participating in the study agreed that there was a need for this to happen. So that’s a takeaway that is always there, regardless of which research project we were working on, surveys or interviews or whatever, everybody was saying, oh, we need this, we need this. So that was, maybe the most important, foundational thing that we found was that there was a desire for there to be a curriculum on this topic.
Also, some other things that we found included the idea of experiential learning. So, internship placements or assistantships or externships or whatever you want to call them. Experiential learning in the UK is important and just as important as it is here in land grant universities in the US. And so, most of the programs in the United States require an internship. And when posed with that fact, most of the subjects agreed that – yes, some type of experiential placement, even if it’s short term, would be really valuable. So that was something that we took away, and that has helped guide our curriculum development process.
Another thing that kind of jumped out at us in the findings of this most recent qualitative study was that the subjects thought that it would fit well into a bachelor’s program but that it might also be easier to work into a master’s program. In practicality, we sort of investigated both avenues. And starting a brand-new four-year honors bachelor’s program was going to be a chore. Not to say that that might not be the right thing to do down the road, but to develop these little smaller micro certificates that could be put together into a master’s program. That was the way we ended up going because as, as I said, the faculty members and professionals thought that there would be used for both a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, and the master’s degree was the easiest to implement. So that was sort of the route that we took.
Another important element of this most recent qualitative study was that the employers and the faculty members, as well, really expressed that writing and journalistic skills were the most important. And so, one of the things that we wanted to find out was, you know, how much agriculture do they need and how much communication do they need? And, the fact is that the subjects said that they needed both, but that it was the writing and the journalistic skills that the students needed more of. And those professionals, in particular, thought that the students could learn more about agriculture, even on the job, but that teaching students strong writing skills and, reporting skills, and research skills, information synthesis, technical communication, those kinds of topics that needed to be done in this program. And so that’s what we’re developing in these master’s level certificates.

[09:22] Jenifer
What were some of the questions you were asking? How did you gather the data?

[09:26] Jeff
So, the data were gathered by students. So, both of these projects, especially this most recent, article that that we’ve been looking at, were student projects that I supervised. In two cases, we had summer internship placements where our students were working in ag communications services offices at Scotland’s Rural College. So, they were placed there for 12 weeks, and they were interviewing people just like you’re doing today, writing news releases, doing podcasts, doing video short video production and developing social media content all about agriculture. And so, while those students were there, I helped them develop research approaches, where they could recruit subjects and either administer a survey or, in the case of Abby Davis, we had her doing interviews. And so, we went through the process here on campus. Before we left to get IRB approval for our instrument. We made sure the human subjects were protected, and we got all the approvals that we needed. And then we actually conducted our study there with subjects in the UK that we were able to recruit through my connections with the British Guild of Journalists and with Scotland’s Rural College.

[10:51] Jenifer
The study also had some recommendations that included the layout of the degree program, conducting further research, and the impact specifically on women. Can you discuss those a little bit further?

[11:03] Jeff
So, that was a concept that sort of developed over time. In the last 4 or 5 years, the literature in the UK regarding academia in relation to agriculture shows that women, the number of women participating in agricultural disciplines in higher education institutions is on the rise, but also that there is a need to expand opportunities for females in the agriculture industry. So, in the United States, agricultural communications programs are probably somewhere around 80% female, if you look at undergraduate degree programs and graduate degree programs. So, the opportunity for the UK institutions to develop new programming that is inviting to females in agriculture is a huge turn-on. That’s what people are looking for. They’re looking for opportunities to increase female involvement. So, we saw, it just this was just logic you guys. We saw that the students in the US who are studying ag comm are females; if we want more females in agriculture in the UK, it’s a no-brainer to add ag comm programs. So that was just more fuel for the fire that is supporting our ag comm curriculum development efforts.

[12:23] Jenifer
So, a lot of what you will be implementing there, a lot of what was learned, your experience here, and just evidence from the US is what you’re bringing over there to say, hey, this is what worked for us. This was what is happening. This is what is working, and this is what we think is going to work here, too.

[12:42] Jeff
Yeah. I would say that over the years from 2006, when again, when I first began talking to, faculty in Scotland, till now, we’ve learned a lot both about U.S agriculture programs and, the need for programs in the UK. In fact, in 2010, I published an article with a graduate student, Morgan Large, and she and I did a census of agricultural communications programs in the United States. And so we contacted every institution that had any kind of degree program in ag communications or ag journalism, or even science communication in colleges of agriculture. And we were able to characterize those, and talk about what the curriculum looked like, and what their faculty looked like. And that was maybe the most-read article that I’ve ever published because people were really interested in it. Here in the States, we found that there were 48 programs at the time, and, nobody even knew that we had 48 programs in the US, and now it’s well over 50. But people were interested in that same paper abroad as well because of what we’re doing in the UK and other countries that are, wanting to do the same thing. They want to expand the discipline so that we have people who understand agriculture but who also have good communication skills to communicate to consumers, policymakers and other stakeholders about the topics in agriculture.

[14:07] Jenifer
Is it surprising to you that this field is growing overseas? Why do you think that is? Why do you think that’s happening now?

[14:15] Jeff
So, I’ve spent a career defending my own discipline. I have to explain why ag communications, why not just get a journalism degree or a communications degree or a marketing communications degree, and then go to work in the ag industry. And so, I have sort of developed a response that makes sense to me. And I think it does to others, too.
So, the food we eat and the crops that we grow to produce that food are basic human needs. The protein industry is a basic human need for most people, right? So, because what we’re communicating about is a basic human need. The need to be able to communicate clearly to consumers, policymakers, and young people so they’ll understand the future of food is becoming more important. So, yes, it’s important to communicate about all kinds of technologies, about computer technologies, about AI, about all kinds of things. But because food is a basic human need, the importance of being able to communicate about that is above the rest. And so therefore ag communications is important. That’s my angle.
So, that’s for that same reason. Professionals in the food industry, policymakers, politicians, and government agencies across the globe are now recognizing the same thing that, hey, if we’re going to keep our food supply safe, we’re going to have to communicate to important stakeholders about the need to do that. If we’re going to continue to be able to feed our people, then we have to have open lines of communication with all kinds of different audiences about agriculture.
And so that need is just beginning to expand in maybe smaller countries, more developing countries or countries like the UK that are well developed but have never really had the discipline.

[16:11] Jenifer
Why is it important that we expand ag comms to Europe and other countries? We have, you said, over 50 programs here in the US; it’s pretty established and keeps growing. Why is it important that we expand ag comms into other countries?

[16:29] Jeff
I think there are a lot of answers to that question. The most important answer in my mind is that because the profession already exists. And the best way to improve it is to get the academics that lead to that profession more organized. Because, obviously, people are already, they are already doing these jobs. People are already doing these jobs. And wouldn’t it be better if the people doing these jobs were actually formally trained to do these jobs? Rather than sort of piecemealing together a degree that prepares them.
So, I’ve traveled, I’ve done a lot of travel. I’ve traveled to developing countries, Rwanda, Uganda, even Haiti, which is in a bad spot right now. And, the UK, obviously, and other places in Europe and everywhere there are agricultural journalists. There is an entire global organization called the International Federation of Ag Journalists, and there’s somebody in almost every country doing ag journalism. In most countries, many, many people, sometimes thousands. So, that profession exists. But the mechanism for training for that profession doesn’t exist. So, to me, that’s one of the most important things.
But, also, I think it helps prepare, degree programs like this help prepare people to be better at their jobs. So, they’re really good human development efforts. So, if you can prepare, for example, someone in London who doesn’t know that much about agriculture to be an ag journalist, that gives them a really cool, unique niche that may allow them to be more employable than if they didn’t have that knowledge. It’s about preparing people to have a professional career in helping clarify really complex topics related to agriculture, food, and natural resources. Sometimes it’s really difficult for the public or even stakeholders, maybe even politicians, to understand an agricultural topic until a good communicator can come along and explain it to them in more clear terms.

[18:31] Jenifer
Is there anything else you would like to share with us, Jeff, that maybe I didn’t ask.

[18:36] Jeff
I am just so grateful that I have been able to do all of these things at Bumpers College and also being affiliated with our Division of Agriculture. I’m so glad to see that the college and the division are really coming together, supporting research but also caring about teaching. and using the same people to do it. I love that we have researchers in the classroom and teachers out doing research, and I just hope we continue to move in that direction. And I hope that everyone who listens to this understands the situation where we have the division of agriculture and the Bumpers College trying to work together. I hope everybody who is listening and understands that situation sees that it’s really going in the right direction. And I’m so glad that we have some leadership who cares about both research and teaching equally.

[19:33] Jenifer
Well, Jeff, thank you so much for joining us.

[19:35] Jeff
My pleasure. I’ve enjoyed it so much.

[19:39] Jenifer
That was Doctor Jeff Miller, a professor in the agricultural education, communications, and technology department. Thanks for listening. I’m Jenifer Fouch. Don’t forget to subscribe.

[19:49] Intro/Outro
The Arkansas Food, Farms & Forests podcast is produced by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Visit aaes.uada.edu for more information.