Jim Evans, Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, has written a great article about the use of blogs in agricultural communications. It’s titled, “Why and how journalists around the world are using blogs to cover agriculture” and you can find it on the IFAJ website. Here’s an excerpt:
During late 2005 agricultural communications researchers Emily Rhoades and Kelsey Hall conducted what may be the first analysis of agricultural blogs. They analyzed 52 agriculture blogs originating in North America and concluded that agricultural communicators cannot ignore blogging. You can read an abstract of their study and findings at: http://www.aceweb.org/JAC/index.html > Issues > 2007
By early 2009, time spent on social networks and blogs had become the fourth most popular online activity, ahead of personal email. The Nielsen Company reported that, globally, one in every 11 minutes online is accounted for by social network and blogging sites. The share of time accounted for by such sites increased 38% between December 2007 and December 2008. In Brazil, for example, 23% of minutes spent online in December 2008 involved social network and blogging sites. You can review a summary of findings at: http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr_090309.pdf
The IFAJ home page now features a repository of agricultural blogs from IFAJ members everywhere. You can view it at www.ifaj.org > “Join the global agricultural blogosphere”