9 Agriculture Journalism/ Farm mags

Divya Sasidharan

1. INTRODUCTION

The advent of green revolution brought to the fore the importance of agricultural communication. Its approach and attitude were altered in accordance with the priorities of modern agriculture. The earlier attempts in agricultural journalism drew their strength mainly from the discipline of agricultural extension and not from journalism or mass communication. The main idea was to transfer knowledge and skill or to be precise, the package of practices about various crops written by scientists or subject matter specialists to farmers. Since there was no integration of extension and journalism, the agricultural journalism stagnated for many years.

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson you will be able to

Get an idea about journalism, and specifically about farm journalism
Follow certain guidelines in writing farm articles effectively

3. JOURNALISM

Journalism is a profession of writing for or editing newspapers, magazines and other publications. It is the work of gathering, writing, editing and publishing or disseminating information or news through newspapers, magazines, radio and television or by any media of communication. Sometimes it is also used as synonymous to newspaper writing, news paper publishing, reporting, news coverage, broad casting, news casting etc.

3.1 Basic functions of Journalism

1. The news function: The primary function of press today is to inform. Factual information of the days’ news is the elementary function of journalism.

2.The opinion function: Modern man frequently finds himself in the midst of conflict and confusion. He wants and needs a medium of communication that helps him to act on the basis of logical arguments, not emotional appeals.

3.The modern press is expected to play the role of both as daily teacher and a popular leader to protect people’s interests.

4. Press influences public behaviour. It educates, counsels or advices. It helps to build public opinion.

4. AGRICULTURAL JOURNALISM

Agricultural journalism is the task of gathering, writing, editing and publishing or disseminating agricultural information, scientific facts, agricultural technology, events or agricultural news through newspapers, magazines, radio and television or by any media of communication.

4.1 History of Agricultural Journalism

The first effort of agricultural journalism was in 1763. In 1940 United States Govt. published the journal named “Census of Agriculture”. The middle of nineteenth century saw the beginning of hundreds of farm journals in UK, USA, France and other European countries covering a wide range of subjects like dairying, poultry, livestock and other agricultural sciences. The first farmer journal of America was started in 1842 as “American Agriculturist and Rural New Yorker”.

4.2 Beginning of Agricultural Journalism in India

In 1905, Imperial Department of Agriculture published the first Indian publication on agriculture. The first Hindi Journal Krishi Sudhar was published from Agra in 1914. In 1928 local weekly farm journal “Zamin Ryot” was started from Andhra Pradesh, which was the first farm journal in India. The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research initiated farm journalism in India through the publication of “Agriculture and Livestock in India” in 1931. It was the first farm journal on both the research and extension. By the end of 1993, “Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences” was brought out. During mid sixties some farm writers and reporters founded “Indian Farm Journalist Association”. In New Delhi, Indian Farm Journalist Association (IFJA) for the first time organized exhibitions of farm journals in 1970 and documented world dictionary of farm journals.

4.3 Role of agricultural journalism in agricultural development

1. Nowadays in modern agriculture, the need of exchanging agricultural ideas from one person to another is realized. In this process of communication, agricultural journalism plays a pivotal role to create awareness and overcome ignorance.

2. Effective communication through agricultural journalism in India is emphasized to narrow down the gap existing between the level of research finding available at agricultural research stations and the actual adoption and use of those by farm people.

3. The need of the time is to continue the flow of superior scientific technology from agricultural research stations to the farming community through different media within the shortest possible period. This is possible through agricultural journalism.

4.The effective communication between the research scientists and the farmers’ needs for immediate feedback to bridge up gap, the journalist’s role is understood as a linking system. The effective communication through agricultural journalism of new knowledge from its source of origin to its users provides useful involvement and active participation of technology generators and technology users.

5. The role of agricultural journalist comprise of functions facilitating the effective communication of new agricultural knowledge in such a way that it results effective use and adoption.

6. The crucial game of agricultural extension education is to bring about the advantageous changes into the farmers’ and rural peoples’ knowledge, skill, attitude, understanding, activeness, involvement in developmental efforts, participation and psychology: this could be brought about only through communication. Communication is interaction between the communicator i.e. the journalist and the people.

4.4 Guidelines for writing farm articles:

Agriculture is becoming increasingly information intensive. At the same time, information and communication technology provides a range of sophisticated methods for enhancing communication with farmers. But much work remains to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of various communication strategies. Although electronic media are playing an ever more important role in agricultural communication, print media will surely remain an important source of agricultural information in many parts of the world to come. It is important to assess the degree to which the media such as newspapers and magazines can play an important role in fostering the diffusion of useful information to farmers.

Present age is termed as information age. During recent period, farmers have established habit of reading farm literature. Writing for farmers is not just putting down your thoughts or making plain statements on paper. Your purpose in writing is to communicate in such a manner that you attract the attention of your readers, interest them in what you are going to say, making them understand and remember and finally help them to take decision to act. Your writing has to serve all these purposes.

4.4.1 The ‘why’ of writing:

We write to communicate our ideas, thoughts, messages and emotions. When we write, we must know why we want to write about a particular subject. Is it to inform them about something they did not know before or is it to explain and give more information about something they already know? Is it to tell them how to solve a particular farm or home problem? Is it to persuade them to adopt a new idea or method or show them a new aspect of an old idea? Or is it to provide them with all the information they need to take up some action? Unless we have such a definite purpose in writing, writing will not be clear and will be ineffective. We will only be wasting time – ours as much as the readers’.

4.4.2 The ‘who’ of writing:

When our readers are farm people, we must know more about them. We can write best if we imagine that our writing is addressed to one person, not to a group of people. One must therefore know who that person is and try to know him well. What we must do first is taking interest in them. Without first securing their interest, you cannot communicate to them. Try to put yourselves in their place, and see through their eyes. Of course, most individuals, in whatever ways they differ, have something in common – common problems, desires and aims. They all want that they and their families benefit from the information you give. So, you should make sure that your ideas you want to write about are sound and suitable for them to know and benefit by. Your ideas touch the reader’s ideas. In other words, if you know what they want to read, you start thinking with them and start off on a happy relationship with them. This will help you in adapting the subject to suit their needs. The ideal way of knowing “who of your writing” is to meet and talk with a typical farmer. Asking him questions will get him into conversation with you. If you keep your eyes and ears focused on him and on what he is saying, you will easily come to know what they want to know. Then you will be easily able to understand your audience.

4.4.3 The ‘what’ of writing:

You have to select such subjects, as your readers are vitally interested in. In selecting a topic for writing, make sure that the idea you have in mind is sound, suitable for communicating to your audience and what is more important, is useful to most of them. Choose your subject with care. Let it be not new, take up a new point of view in dealing with them. You have got to influence your readers and hence select that angle of the topic, which will interest them most. Give this priority.

After selecting the topic, think more about it. What do they know already about it? What will be the likely difficulties and problems that will prevent the readers from taking up and using the idea? How can the subject be so tackled so that they accept the idea? How will the readers react to the idea?
Mark the boundaries of the subject and strictly confine yourself to these boundaries. If you stay away, there is the danger of your going further away from the subject and your writing will become too long and ‘foggy’. Nobody will like to read for hours.
See how much of the subject your readers can take without getting tired of it. Give only as much as will be easily digested. And overdose of even a good medicine can be very upsetting, if not fatal. Give one single series of related and logical thoughts at a time and do a good job of it.
When detailed directions are necessary for taking up a job give them in full. However, leave out what they already know, what they can add for themselves, and what they have no need to know.

4.4.4 The ‘where’ of writing:

People always welcome news. The newspaper and radio are two good customers for your news stories. The news can also be slated for wall-newspapers. With some more essential details, it can even be made suitable for periodicals like weeklies and monthly magazines, provided of course, it does not lose its value after a short time. You can write articles for the weekend edition of daily newspapers or a monthly magazine. You can also write leaflets and bulletins, where you make more detailed information available on the subject to the farm reader. You can write reports and resumes, which will be avidly read when properly written. You can write circular letters, brief ones, of course to bring important facts to the notice of farmers and home makers. You can write telling captions to photographs and exhibits. You can build up a story with pictures. You can write ‘copy’ for advertisements.

4.4.5 The ‘when’ of writing:

Information communication has to be timely, if farm readers are to make use of it. Hence, you have to write far in advance of the actual time of or season when the information can be made best use of. So you should ‘time’ your writing. If any information however interesting or useful it may be, is given too late, it will lose all its utility. The very purpose of communication is then defeated. There are, of course, exceptions. Some kinds of information are communication after the event. Follow-up stories of events or success stories of farmers or a community are examples. But most of what you communicate has to have seasonableness and hence should reach farm readers at the right time or season when reception to the information will be at its best.

4.4.6 The ‘how’ of writing:

Farm readers want a writing that exists. They like not only to ‘see’ your ideas, but get the feeling of ‘hearing’ them, ‘smelling’ them and ‘touching’ them too. It gives them a sense of reality and humanness. Such writing will give them both enjoyment and education.

Farm readers also need writing that is simple and clearly understandable, does not tire, is in a simple pleasant style and makes them feel ‘it is meant for us’.
Lack of variety and failure to appreciate their pint of view make any writing ineffective to farmers though it may contain very useful information. Much of the agriculture and home science and other writing for farm people that you come across today reflect this failure.
You will only make enemies of your readers when you make it beyond them to understand you. They may also feel that they are missing something, which is probably very useful to them.
Simple and clear writing also gives no room to the reader either to miss any of your ideas, or to misunderstand them. The latter is important, because misunderstanding an idea may cost the reader much money, time and labour, or prevent them from taking any action at all on some important problem.
Your writing should be simple and clear to the readers.
Be brief in your writing. No one, much less a farm reader, will have the time or patience to go through a long drawn out writing, unless it is fiction.
The longer your writing is the more difficult for the reader to locate your purpose and pick out the things he wants. You will also end up by repeating your statements and get this lost in a maze of words. Editors don’t like very long write ups either. Anything you want to say can be usually said briefly.
Make your writing specific. Generalization is always vague, and does not help the reader make decisions.
Address the reader. A direct approach to the reader cerates friendliness between the writer and reader.
Be accurate in the content of your writing. Take care not only to collect accurate information, but also state it correctly.
Beware of placing of wrong emphasis and of over colouring facts which mislead the reader. There is always the chance of your wrongly interpreting a fact or making your own prejudices influence what you write.
Take care that your conclusion is based entirely on the facts you have stated and not only on your and not on your own personal feelings. Also be accurate in giving the names of the people, places and products to help readers identify them easily.
You need to sound convincing to the readers. Quote sources and authority for your statements. Readers always like to believe that what they read comes from someone who knows the subject.
Don’t ‘talk down’ to the readers. No one likes a superior attitude or preaching. Even if you have to advocate, make it sound as if you are not. Avoid using ‘should’, ‘ought to’, ‘need to’ and ‘must’. Give the information and leave it to the reader to think out for him what he should do. He will like it best that way. It is in bad taste and poor psychology to sound as if you are arrogant to talk to your reader. You will then receive the poor response you deserve.
Be practical in your information. The farm reader has not much use for information of academic interest. He wants something that he can put into practice. Give practical information, which you know your reader can us within his knowledge, ability, time and resources.
Avoid exaggeration at all costs. However exciting the situation or important the information, state the facts without being carried away by them yourself. Don’t use superlatives. Once you get into that tendency, it will be hard to check it. A single exaggerated world. Or sentence puts the reader suspect the truth of all your statements.
To make you writing interesting, you have to make use of techniques like introducing human element to it. Use personal words which can create interest in the reader. The human touch make your writing friendly, personal and lively. In other words, it becomes interesting and entertaining.

4.5 Some of the types of farm literature commonly used for transfer of technology are:

4.5.1 Agricultural news

Agricultural news is viewed as a timely report of agricultural events, facts or opinions that influences a significant number of farmers reading newspapers and people connected with agriculture and its development.

It is an accurate, unbiased account of the facts of a current event for newspaper readers about agriculture, farmers, agricultural technology and people associated with agriculture and it s development.

4.5.2 Agricultural feature story

It is an accurate, unbiased account of the facts published in periodicals like weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly for the readers about agriculture and associated technology. It aims at a particular segment of people. The audience is highly educated and most of them welcome the ideas and sentences of some complexity. It is designed to limited interest groups. It is a halfway between a newspaper and a book.

4.6 Advantages of farm literature:

It can reach a large number of people quickly and simultaneously.
It can be read at leisure and kept for future reference.
Generally people have confidence in a printed page.
It acts as a necessary supplement to other teaching methods.
Information is usually definite, well organized and readily understood.
It influences adoption of practices at relatively low cost.
It provides scope for recognizing achievements of individuals and groups
It helps to promote literacy.
It reaches large section of people simultaneously and quickly.
It provides permanent record even if the message is forgotten.
It can be scanned.
When written well, have the power of motivating people.
It provides the communicator time to think, organizing the thoughts and presenting them effectively.
It provides the opportunity of contacts.

4.7 Limitations of farm literature:

It is not suited for illiterate audience.
Frequent revision may be necessary to keep abreast of current research.
Information prepared for general distribution may not fit local conditions.
It is mostly impersonal, lacks social value of personal contacts and meetings.

SUMMARY

Journalism is a profession of writing for or editing newspapers, magazines and other publications whereas agricultural journalism is the task of gathering, writing, editing and publishing or disseminating agricultural information, scientific facts, agricultural technology, events or agricultural news through newspapers, magazines, radio and television or by any media of communication. Some of the common farm literatures are agricultural news and agricultural feature story. While writing the farm literature, there are certain guidelines to be followed. Even in the era of advances in information and communication technologies, print media and farm literature still holds its relevance in transfer of technology to the rural areas.

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