Date of Graduation

5-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology

Advisor/Mentor

Rucker, K. Jill

Committee Member/Reader

Cox, Casandra

Committee Member/Second Reader

Miller, Jefferson

Abstract

FFA reporters are tasked with conveying the FFA brand to the public. They are supposed to follow a set of guidelines set forth by the National FFA Organization that suggests different public relation activities for them to participate in. This organization has a long history of impacting the agriculture industry, but who tells people about it?

In 2018 the University of Arkansas agriculture education, communication and technology department sent a team of students and professors traveled to the 91st Arkansas FFA State Convention to work the media room. This team was in charge of creating different communication pieces for Arkansas FFA members to publicize their success, but it was mainly intended to help make the reporters’ jobs easier. It was noticed that the reporters weren’t using the products from the media room. The advisors were using some of them, but mostly incorrectly.

This study compared reporter duties assigned by national FFA to the actual duties performed by chapter reporters. It also determined the FFA advisor’s role in communicating chapter activities to the public. Through an electronic survey sent out via email, data was collected surrounding the mentioned areas.

The results determined that the reporters are not completing a majority of the duties prescribed by the National FFA Organization, they are still mostly serving as the chapter reporter. Several of the duties are being performed by FFA advisors instead of the reporters. They were shown to be coordinating the sharing of chapter information with local radio, television, newspaper and service clubs. They also publish the chapter newsletter, maintain a website and/or submit press releases to news outlets. It was also seen that the advisors send local stories to area, district and/or state publications. A couple of the duties were not shown to be completed. The chapters that responded showed they did not send photos or articles to FFA New Horizons or other national publications, and they don’t maintain a chapter scrapbook.

Future research should evaluate the obstacles preventing reporters from completing their duties. Further study can be completed to determine the duties that reporters and advisors are fulfilling that are not laid out by national FFA. There is a great need for training officers in their specific duties, specifically reporters. This research, along with future data, can be used as a foundation to create educational content for workshops and/or completer courses.

Keywords

agriculture communications; FFA; reporter; public relations; youth leadership

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