June 2025
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4 Reads
Future Foods
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June 2025
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4 Reads
Future Foods
January 2025
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2 Reads
Journal of Applied Communications
August 2024
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18 Reads
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1 Citation
British Food Journal
Purpose This study aimed to investigate whether information from reliable news sources such as medical experts and government officials, along with governmental and individual risk responses, influences consumers’ perceptions of news and intention to seek more information. Additionally, it aimed to explore the relationships between these perceptions and consumers’ intentions to seek information in a food safety risk event. Design/methodology/approach A survey design methodology was employed. A quasi-experimental approach divided 470 Taiwanese participants into three groups, each exposed to varying online news content about food safety news, designed according to the Internalization-Distribution-Explanation-Action (IDEA) model. This involved different combinations of reliable sources and risk response advice to examine the impact on news comprehension and behaviour intentions. Findings The results indicated that consumers perceived the news as highly credible when they read it with reliable news sources or risk response advice. Governmental and individual risk response advice significantly impacted consumers’ understanding of news. In addition, perceptions of news credibility and understanding of news can increase individuals’ information-seeking intentions to protect themselves from food safety risks. Originality/value This study introduced novel insights into the application of the source credibility theory (SCT) model within Taiwanese food safety incidents, identifying key factors that motivate consumer information-seeking behaviour. It marks an initial attempt to incorporate the IDEA model-based risk communication content into research design, aligning with existing literature while highlighting the critical role of reliable sources in enhancing news credibility and consumer response.
July 2024
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34 Reads
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic caused mainstream food supply chain disruptions, increased food security concerns, and impacted agri-food production and distribution systems. Short food supply chains provided consumers with an alternative method to acquire food outside conventional food supply chains. In this paper, innovation was seen as a solution to external challenges or problems in global food supply chains during a pandemic crisis. The solution was analyzed in the context of the United States and changes in the consumers’ behavior and purchasing patterns in the direction of more accepting short supply chains, which led to the successful overcoming of crisis or adaptation of consumers to crisis circumstances. Methods The Diffusion of Innovations was selected as the theoretical framework. Data were collected from 1,002 American adults from July 13 to August 18, 2021, through an online survey. Results and discussion Results showed that consumers with higher educational attainment and financial status, from non-rural areas, and with more conservative viewpoints had higher innovation adoption levels, and they were more likely to embrace short food supply chains as an alternative during disruptions to conventional supply chains. Recommendations provide strategies to increase the use of short supply chains during the crisis to better meet the needs of consumers in the food system and improve marketing and communication efforts. Marketing and communication initiatives should engage these food innovators as opinion leaders to increase the adoption of short food supply chains to stabilize food supply in preparation for future crises.
June 2024
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22 Reads
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2 Citations
Introduction Ticks and pathogens they carry seriously impact human and animal health, with some diseases like Lyme and Alpha-gal syndrome posing risks. Searching for health information online can change people’s health and preventive behaviors, allowing them to face the tick risks. This study aimed to predict the potential risks of tickborne diseases by examining individuals’ online search behavior. Methods By scrutinizing the search trends across various geographical areas and timeframes within the United States, we determined outdoor activities associated with potential risks of tick-related diseases. Google Trends was used as the data collection and analysis tool due to its accessibility to big data on people’s online searching behaviors. We interact with vast amounts of population search data and provide inferences between population behavior and health-related phenomena. Data were collected in the United States from April 2022 to March 2023, with some terms about outdoor activities and tick risks. Results and Discussion Results highlighted the public’s risk susceptibility and severity when participating in activities. Our results found that searches for terms related to tick risk were associated with the five-year average Lyme Disease incidence rates by state, reflecting the predictability of online health searching for tickborne disease risks. Geographically, the results revealed that the states with the highest relative search volumes for tick-related terms were predominantly located in the Eastern region. Periodically, terms can be found to have higher search records during summer. In addition, the results showed that terms related to outdoor activities, such as “corn maze,” “hunting,” “u-pick,” and “park,” have moderate associations with tick-related terms. This study provided recommendations for effective communication strategies to encourage the public’s adoption of health-promoting behaviors. Displaying warnings in the online search results of individuals who are at high risk for tick exposure or collaborating with outdoor activity locations to disseminate physical preventive messages may help mitigate the risks associated with tickborne diseases.
April 2024
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11 Reads
Advancements in Agricultural Development
The purpose of this study was to identify programming values of Generation Z college students to offer insight into future programming and adaptation of current systems within Extension to prepare for the next generation of stakeholders. Researchers approached this study with the philosophy that Extension should aspire to be a learning organization and continually seek to understand current and future stakeholders to navigate societal changes. Q-methodology was used to quantitatively capture student priorities for 42 programming areas with three subcategories of people, environment, and economy and jobs. An initial sample of 158 was paired down to a P-set of 21. Results of the Q-Sort indicated three factors of group priorities: (a) Economic and People-Centric; (b) People-Environment Centric with Limited Focus; and (c) Environmental-Centric. Results show a need for programming related to the environment and the protection of natural resources (Factor 3) and addressing societal concerns like drug and alcohol abuse (Factor 1). For non-urban and prior Extension user audiences (Factor 2) developing programming that connects environmental issues with people and societal issues is important. Future research should be conducted in other Extension systems to develop a broad understanding of Generation Z’s programming needs.
April 2024
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13 Reads
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2 Citations
January 2024
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53 Reads
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1 Citation
Advancements in Agricultural Development
Science communication strategy plays a crucial role in effectively conveying scientific information to target audiences. While various models exist for developing communication strategies, many focus on measuring the effectiveness of communication efforts and adjusting these based on audience feedback. However, traditional methods of evaluating communication effectiveness often measure one component at a time and do not consider how people make decisions in real-life situations. This paper proposes the use of continuous response measurement (CRM) as a method to evaluate science communication in agricultural social science research. CRM allows for real-time measurement of how individuals make decisions in response to dynamic communication content. This paper compares different types of CRM, including in-person and virtual dial CRM, and provides resources for researchers interested in implementing this methodology. The paper also discusses various research designs that can be used with CRM, such as experimental designs, survey designs, time-series designs, focus groups, and coding content and behavior. The benefits and limitations of CRM are outlined, highlighting the need for immediate feedback and real-time response in science communication campaigns. In-person CRM is discussed, including the selection of stimuli, response prompts, data collection procedures, and data analysis. Virtual CRM is also examined, highlighting its advantages in terms of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The paper concludes by discussing data output and analysis methods for CRM data. Overall, this paper serves as a methodological proposal for the use of CRM in agricultural social science research, emphasizing the importance of real-time measurement and response in science communication.
December 2023
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23 Reads
Journal of Applied Communications
December 2023
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52 Reads
EDIS
Social media is an important piece of Extension outreach efforts. Across many different platforms, photos or graphics accompanying social media posts have repeatedly yielded greater results, in terms of engagement and success. Thus, it is imperative to include a visual element with each post, and a social media post without one would be considered a missed opportunity. This article explores the question of whether stock images are as effective as natural images. Facebook posts from the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement (CREE) team were analyzed to determine differences in engagement rates for stock images and natural images taken by the CREE team. Results indicate natural photos had significantly higher engagement rates than stock photos. Thus, it is recommended that content creators strive to create and use their own photos for posts. However, because the difference between mean engagement rates for stock and natural photos was low, in times of need, a stock photo can produce better engagement than no photo at all.
... Food safety directly affects consumers' health, making it a highly sensitive issue; consequently, any reported food safety violations should lead to immediate consumer backlash, loss of trust, and a sharp decline in patronage (C. X. Yang & Baker, 2024;Q. Yang et al., 2024). ...
August 2024
British Food Journal
... By facilitating access to and knowledge of big data, these processionals can aid stakeholders in tackling challenges related to optimizing crop yields, improving resource management, and addressing environmental concerns. Opportunities exist for Extension communicators to use publicly available big data, like Google Trends, to make informed decisions related to online search behavior and agricultural and natural resources topic areas (Yang et al., 2024). Optimization of word choice and understanding of relationships between online searches can lead to improved communication campaigns and ultimately behavior change. ...
June 2024
... 15 A lack of knowledge and confidence is often due to negative reports of side effects and low perceived risk of their child being susceptible to HPV. 15 Other factors attributable to vaccine hesitancy include trust and access to health-care providers, previous experiences with vaccines, and perceived safety and efficacy of the vaccine. 16,17 HPV vaccine hesitancy has also been found to vary by demographic factors, including religion, age, and gender. 18 The Health Belief Model (HBM) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) are frequently used to guide public health studies and interventions. ...
April 2024
... He concludes by discussing how this approach can be used with other research methods to triangulate results. Baker et al. (2024) shared how researchers in agricultural development can use continuous response measurement (CRM) systems to assess real-time perceptions of messages. They discuss in-person and virtual applications of this methodology in quantitative and qualitative research approaches. ...
January 2024
Advancements in Agricultural Development
... To compare engagement rates, an independent sample t test was run with each category of photos, which compared the average engagement rate when using stock photos with the average engagement rate when using natural photos. Engagement rates were calculated at the post level using the formula of engaged users (likes + reactions + comments + shares) divided by total reach (followers), which is used and accepted in social media marketing metrics (Doyle et al., 2023). ...
June 2023
Advancements in Agricultural Development
... Understanding current college students' perspectives on Extension topics can help adjust future Extension priorities and highlight topics that are viewed as important by this key demographic area as they become more prevalent Extension users. While prior work indicates college-aged students are not familiar with Extension, once exposed to Extension they see value in Extension (McLeod-Morin et al., 2023) and continue to be an important audience group to consider for building a future for Extension systems beyond current generations of Extension users (Baker et al., 2011;McLeod-Morin, 2023). ...
March 2023
Journal of Human Sciences and Extension
... The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to global supply chains and impacted agri-food production and distribution systems (Altieri and Nicholls, 2020;Court et al., 2023), highlighting the vulnerabilities of long and complex food supply systems. In response, there has been a growing interest in shorter supply chains (DuPuis et al., 2022), which are seen as being more resilient and adaptable. ...
April 2023
Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization
... Environmental hazards in the transportation logistics aspect of the agro-food supply chain stem from issues such as heightened carbon emissions, energy usage, and ineffective distribution networks (Galati et al., 2023;Joshi and Sharma, 2022;Peterson et al., 2023). The use of traditional transportation techniques in agro-food supply chains leads to increased environmental effects, namely in terms of food miles and carbon footprint (Galati et al., 2023). ...
February 2023
... However, the aspect of social networks which was of primary interest for us in this paper concerned the sharing of information. In the research on COVID-19, this aspect of personal networks has been mostly studied in comparison to other sources of information, such as state authorities, science and health experts, news outlets, and social media (Westmoreland et al., 2021;Amiri et al., 2022;Ahmadinia et al., 2022;Baker et al., 2022;Freeman et al., 2022;Yang et al., 2022). This is relevant insofar as people's perceptions of risk can be amplified or weakened depending on the channels through which they receive risk--related information, as Zhao and Wu explain using the social amplification theory (Zhao & Wu, 2021). ...
June 2022
Advancements in Agricultural Development
... 7%) shows poor quality and thus decreased standard of living that might lead to distractions in class among student population. This economic stress aligns with findings of (Garrison, Rampold, Vasquez, Gillen & Baker, 2022). The regression analysis confirming significant relationship between parent status & student education outcomes. ...
February 2022
Journal of Consumer Affairs