Three ways of knowing: Agricultural knowledge systems of small-scale farmers in Africa with reference to Kenya

Research carried out in 2011 in Kirinyaga district, Kenya, shows how sense-making theory and methodology can be used to assess the use of local agricultural and external knowledge by small-scale farmers and its effects on small-scale agriculture. Two knowledge systems, the local knowledge system and the external or scientific knowledge system, are considered dominant. The two systems can be synergistic and small-scale farmers have mixed them in their farming activities. Blending systems improve communication, livelihoods, and economies within local communities, and increases their participation in development. Data were collected in focus group discussions with farmers' groups and interviews with individual farmers. Results show that most farmers in Kirinyaga use external agricultural information in their farming practices. A significant number use combined external agricultural information and local knowledge, which forms a third knowledge system. This third system requires the validation of the farmers' innovations and documentation of the knowledge for wider dissemination. Information providers should adopt policies that promote the use of the three knowledge systems by small-scale farmers.     

Rural Farmers' Exposure to Radio Messages about Sun Protection: Implications for Skin Cancer Prevention

Radio affords the means to reach large audiences with reinforcing messages about health. To date, research-has seldom considered the effects of radio messages on rural or farming populations' health practices. The present study evaluated the impact of exposure to radio messages about sun protection on farmers' (N = 172) perceived knowledge about sun protection, perceptions regarding their families' expectations for farmers to practice sun protection, and farmers' sense of self-efficacy when it comes to practicing sun protection. Farmers' own efforts to promote sun protection, to purchase products to support their own sun protection, and their actual sun protection behaviors were also considered with regard to exposure to radio messages about sun protection. Findings revealed that farmers who recalled having heard a message about sun protection during the previous 12 months were more likely to perceive themselves as knowledgeable about sun protection, to perceive their families as expecting them to practice sun protection, and to believe that sun protection is a relatively easy thing to do. Farmers exposed to radio messages about sun protection were also more likely to promote sun protection to others and to purchase products to support their own sun protection practices. These results suggest that radio is a channel with great potential for achieving health promotion aims among rural farming populations.     

在外经商农民信息交流的社会网络分析

采用问卷调查、访谈及社会网络分析法对在外经商农民的信息交流情况进行考察,结果显示,强连带关系是在外经商农民获取信息的主要社会资本,非正式交流渠道是农民最经常使用的信息传播工具,农民的信息需求愿望受内外因素影响而无法得到较好的满足。最后,本文对改善农民信息相关获益提出三点建议。     

Grassroots to Grassfed

Abstract

A partnership formed between a special library and a public library system to address the information needs of local farmers is the subject of this paper. The special library partner is an information center for agricultural medicine and health. The public library system is one which serves its fourteen member libraries in central New York. These libraries, together with several community-based organizations, combined their leadership, resources, and expertise in a successful outreach effort that saved a village library, improved community relations, enhanced awareness of the role of libraries, and disseminated information necessary for sustaining a viable and healthy farming community.     

Communication and Voluntary Downward Career Changes

Downward career changes are challenging in societies which place a premium on the accumulation of material wealth and discourage risk-taking, such as Singapore. To better understand how individuals manage their identities during such changes, 30 individuals who had completed a voluntary downward career change were interviewed. Results suggest three phases of communication during this process: (1) Decision making, in which individuals communicate to gather information about the change and seek support for it; (2) Announcement, in which they strategically time, frame, and deliver the message to maximize acceptance of the change; and (3) New career, in which they reframe, refocus, and recalibrate to increase their social identity. The findings suggest strategies individuals may use to effectively manage their social identities as they change careers and suggest strategies organizations may use for recruiting individuals into socially less-prestigious occupations.     

‘FOR FARMERS,BY FARMERS’

This paper explores the benefits of using in-house periodicals for writing the history of interest groups and unions in southern Africa. In particular, it focuses on using The Farmer magazine as a source to write more nuanced social and cultural histories of white farmers in Zimbabwe. The importance of The Farmer to the white farming community is laid out and it is argued that long-term and detailed readings of this magazine offer the opportunity to explore the evolutions in discourse within the farming community, the processes of transition and the ambiguities of independence for a group like the white farmers. The uses described are ones that have rarely been put into practice in southern Africa, but are also ones that can be easily transposed to other settings and context.     

Information Needs of Anthropologists

Anthropologists at seven universities were surveyed in order to discover: the ways in which they go about locating information of value to them; the information sources that they use and that are of the greatest significance to them; the adequacy of the library service being currently provided to anthropologists; and any opinions they have on the subject of their information needs. Results show that anthropologists; information requirements differ somewhat from those of other social scientists. Reference lists in journals and books are often used to locate information sources; journals are the most important information source. However, cultural anthropologists report that their own field data is their most significant source. Anthropologists use pictorial sources and maps more frequently than social scientists in general do; they also make great use of interlibrary loan. Most of the information needs of the majority of respondents are met by their university's library. Older scholars tend to use databases less than younger ones do; online abstracts and indexes are most important to anthropologists than their print versions are. Some respondents express a great desire for a database which would include current references, abstracts, and articles in anthropology.     

Infusing Knowledge of Indigenous Lifeways Into Graduate Collection Management Education

ABSTRACT

In 2013, we conducted a survey of faculty and recent graduates from graduate schools of library and information science (LIS). The purpose of this study was to assess student (as represented by recent graduates) and faculty awareness and opinions about incorporating content about Indigenous ways into their curricula. In short, we found that recent graduates and their faculty were both aware of Indigenous ways but sought varying ways to inform themselves. Faculty believed that they covered this topic in the classes they taught, while graduates reported that they did not hear of Indigenous ways in their course work. Of the courses that LIS students take in their programs, a class on collection management provides a useful platform through which to explore Indigenous identity and access and care of Indigenous cultural knowledge.     

Professional intervention and organizational incorporation: examining journalistic use of microblogs in two Chinese newsrooms

Existing research has widely accounted the influence of microblogs on traditional news production, but less attention has been paid to how microblogs are socially constructed in newsrooms. Taking the social constructivist approach, this study explored the professional and organizational construction of journalistic use of microblogs. We conducted 33 in-depth interviews with news workers at two local newspapers in China and a textual analysis of their microblog posts. We found that Chinese news workers heavily stressed professional values and journalistic authority, which set limits to information appropriation and self-expression on microblogs. Production culture, organization policy, and organization culture were also found to shape journalistic use of microblogs. The highly censored press environment restricted both organizational and individual use of microblogs, but sometimes motivated news workers to seek extra value on microblogs.     

Information intermediaries and optimal information distribution

Information intermediaries collect, organize, and distribute information to their clients. This study examines three institutional forms of information intermediary: the for-profit firm, the nonprofit organization, and the government agency. Using results from the economics and information science literature, five tests are proposed that characterize particular information markets. For a given information market, these characteristics determine the institutional form of information intermediary that will maximize the total social and private benefit from information consumption. Although many kinds of information can be effectively delivered by for-profit information intermediaries, socially beneficial information often requires subsidized provision from government or nonprofit intermediaries in order to encourage consumption up to socially optimal levels. Applications to current topics in information distribution are also discussed.     

“That's just a basic teen‐age rule”;: Girls’ linguistic strategies for managing the menstrual communication taboo

Powerful social taboos dictate that menstruation should not be discussed socially. Adolescent girls, however, frequently feel a need to talk about menstruation and to share information about it, but they are usually embarrassed to talk about menstruation. Their efforts to avoid and prevent this embarrassment while meeting their communication needs have led them to develop creative linguistic strategies such as slang terms, circumlocutions, pronouns, and euphemistic deixs. Based on extended interviews with adolescent girls (ages 12–16), this article discloses how these communication strategies allow girls to maintain norms of menstrual concealment as they simultaneously violate taboos against menstrual communication.     

Symposium Introduction: Farm and Rural Radio—Some Beginnings and Models

Although radio is used principally for entertainment in many countries, it also plays a vital role in providing information to rural and farm populations. It is a lifeline to many groups and individuals in developing countries. Early experiments with radio in the U.S. were directed in large part to farm listeners. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed significant radio services for farmers. Radio has made dramatic contributions to agriculture and farming, including the recognition and support of women in managing and operating farms, and currently includes network services that aid farmers and rural populations all over the world.     

A ‘Presidential Look’? An Analysis of Gender Framing in 2016 Persuasive Memes of Hillary Clinton

A persuasive campaign with elements of propaganda was waged on social media against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 U.S. presidential race, partially through a Russian-financed effort to discredit her. This study analyzed doctored images (memes) posted on Twitter about Clinton during the general election campaign. Through qualitative content analysis, researchers sought to identify whether negative memes reflected socially constructed gender stereotypes. Results show gendered frames used in memes against Clinton were based on female biological/physical traits (weak, ill, unattractive), anti-feminine traits (dishonest, untrustworthy), and negative female politician traits (dictatorial, unqualified) that were incongruent with the perceived role of the presidency.     

COVERING TERRORISM

This paper examines how journalists in India and Sri Lanka define social responsibility and whether they consider their news media to be socially responsible when covering terrorism. Interviews with 68 Indian and Sri Lankan journalists suggest that they do not consider their media to be socially responsible. They identify several problems including: government manipulation of news, pressures to pander to the marketplace, pressure to please a public indoctrinated with governmental and corporate definitions of “patriotism,” fear of physical reprisals, and lack of professional training as main reasons that journalists in these two countries cannot act in a socially responsible manner whenever they are writing and reporting about terrorism.     

An empirical analysis of e-participation. The role of social networks and e-government over citizens' online engagement

The aim of this paper is to further explore the drivers behind the decision of citizens to engage in social and political participation on the internet, since mixed empirical evidence has been found in the literature. Using data from the 2011 survey on the use of information and communications technologies by households and individuals in Spain, the following two types of e-participation are analyzed: reading/giving opinions about social/political issues and signing/taking part in online petitions/public consultations. Relying on an updated version of the resources approach, we investigate as to what extent e-participation is explained not only by traditional participation-related resources (i.e., socio-economic characteristics) but also by digital skills, social networks and the online development of public administrations. Results show that, while online participation is mainly associated with internet-related skills, there is a significant gender gap. Interestingly, the unemployed tend to engage socially and politically online more than the rest of the population.     

农民社会网络及其对信息交流的影响

社会网络是农民交流和获取信息的主要渠道,也对农民的信息交流和获取有深刻的影响。通过问卷调查660位农民的社会网络及其对不同涉农信息的传播发现,基于讨论关系的农民社会网络表现出强连带、高趋同性、低异质性的特点;这种网络特征使农民与外界的信息交流受到局限;受教育水平和收入水平的差别经由社会网络转化成信息交流的差别与分化。由此看来,农民的社会网络虽然是交流信息的主要渠道,但其改变农民所处的信息格局的能力十分微弱,而且有可能加剧农民与其他人群以及不同教育水平和收入水平的农民之间的信息分化。     

信息共享空间环境下的社交网络

文章在论述社交网络及其特点的基础上,阐述了运用社交网络构建信息共享空间虚拟环境的问题。进而提供两个应用实例,探讨信息共享空间环境下构建社交网络的途径,并提出构建社交网络时需要考虑的四个方面。认为社交网络在扩展信息共享空间的功能和提升图书馆服务等方面有广阅的应用前景。该文为《数字图书馆论坛》2009年第2期本期话题“信息共享空间”的文章之一。     

The cocial construction of mobile telephony: an application of the social influence model to perceptions and uses of mobile phones within personal communication networks

The purpose of this study was to test the argument that perceptions and uses of mobile phones are socially constructed in close personal networks. The study hypothesized that, through collective sense making, perceptions and uses of mobile phones would be more similar within 45 personal communication networks than for the entire sample of 194 individuals. Findings from a self-report survey reveal that several factors were significantly more similar within the networks than for individuals throughout the sample, including perceptions of the handset as a means of display, use for safety and security, attitudes about use in public, microcoordination, hypercoordination, and comfort with technology. Interviews were conducted to explore how perceptions and uses were shaped through relationships and interactions situated in social context. The interview data illuminate how social interaction contributed to perceptions and uses in four key areas: mobile phone adoption, attitudes about products and services, perceptions of non-normative use, and collective use. Results of the study serve as evidence supporting the argument that perceptions and uses of communication technologies are, at least in part, constructed socially among close personal contacts. This study demonstrates why it is important for researchers to consider social contacts and social contexts when examining the implications of communication technologies.     

Information policy, information access, and democratic participation: The national and international implications of the Bush administration’s information politics

Much of information policy is focused on establishing the parameters of information access—ensuring or limiting access to certain types of information. Given how central information access is to virtually every aspect of society, policy can be seen as one of the most significant forces influencing the information society. Recent events, however, have fueled changes in the ways that some governments use policy to shape access, none more significantly than the United States. This paper examines the meanings of and relationships between policy and access, as well as their key roles in society and democratic participation. Following an examination of the historical and social impacts of policies about access, the article analyzes the perspectives of the Bush administration on how policy should shape information access as an illustration of the relationships between policy and access. The paper examines the issues raised by the Bush administration’s views on access and policy and the implications of their policies for the United States, for the global information society, and for research related to information. Ultimately, the paper raises questions about the extent to which information policies about access can be used for overtly political purposes, what might be described as “information politics,” without significantly altering the meaning of information access in a society.