Rice planthopper project logo-draft

Rice planthopper project logo-draft

Rice planthopper project logo-final

The project logo

Dr. K.L. Heong, principal investigator of this ADB project, explains the meaning of the logo:

Yin and Yang means achieving balance.  I used it to mean balance ecologically and balance structurally.  At the moment there too much yin (negative) overpowering yang. The latter might be too difficult to explain. The ecological balance as a means to achieve sustainable management of the planthoppers is perhaps the best meaning for the yin and yang.

What is yin-yang?

The symbol (Yin-Yang) represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents “everything”, while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called “yin” (black) and “yang” (white), which cause everything to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other.

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin yang is used to describe how seemingly opposing forces are bound together, intertwined, and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn.  Yin and yang represent all the opposite principles found in the universe, says Richard Hooker. Under yang are the principles of maleness, the sun, creation, heat, light, Heaven, dominance, and so on, and under yin are the principles of femaleness, the moon, completion, cold, darkness, material forms, submission, and so on.

The research project

In a previous post, I wrote about the ADB project inception and planning workshop we conducted in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 3-6. 2008. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in response to the rice crisis, invited IRRI in April 2008 to submit a proposal that will help reduce losses, both pre and post harvests under the 13th RETA program (Regional Technical Assistance). The proposal, approved in October 2008, is entitled “Bringing about a Sustainable Agronomic Revolution in Rice Production in Asia by Reducing Preventable Pre- and Postharvest Losses”.

The project will focus on the following outputs:

A.1 New field resistance screening method and germplasm with durable field resistance to planthoppers and virus diseases identified for incorporation into new elite breeding lines and mega‐varieties.

A.2. Strategies to manage virus spread in rice fields developed and implemented in pilot sites.

A.3. Ecologically based management of outbreak pests, such as planthoppers,developed and key sustainability indicators of pest breakouts monitored.

A.4. Management practices integrating durable resistance and ecological methods evaluated by farmers, communicated through policy dialogues, and upscaled using communication media in pilot sites.

A.5. NARES partners’ research and extension capacities in plant resistance, ecological management of outbreak pests, insecticide resistance research and communication enhanced.

Your feedback

We would like Devcompage readers to give their feedback on the logos above. Which logo do you think best communicates the goal of the reserach project — Bringing about a sustainable agronomic revolution in rice production in Asia by reducing preventable pre-harvest losses?  The topmost black and white or the green one at the bottom? Please post your comments.

Project logo

In the last few years rice production in several countries has been severely reduced by insect pests called planthoppers. Besides causing crops to wilt in a condition called “hopperburn”, they also transmit virus diseases. Vietnam has lost about a million tons of rice to this menace since 2006.  And in China as much as 4 million tons of rice have been lost in the same period.

Workshop participants

Thirty scientists from Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) held a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City to develop sustainable strategies to manage this problem. They will develop methods that are broad based that not only build defense in the rice crop, but also defense in the surrounding areas using a new approach called “ecological engineering” pioneered by Professor Geoff Gurr of Australia.  “Pests are often kept under control by many predators that live in areas surrounding rice fields.  We can engineer the landscape such that these areas become homes to these predator friends”.

In opening the workshop, His Excellency, the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, Dr Bui Ba Bong, expressed his special thanks to the the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and IRRI for responding to this urgent need to find sustainable solutions to the pest outbreaks. “With this project we will be able to develop management strategies that are environmentally friendly and will focus on reducing farmers’ risk of losing their crops to outbreaks”.  “Very often when pest outbreaks occur, farmers use too much pesticides and we must strive to avoid this” said the Vice Minister.

The initiative was developed by IRRI and funded by the ADB. “Losses due to pest outbreaks are preventable and this project will enable scientists to use their ecological and virology knowledge, plant breeding skills and communication techniques to develop more sustainable approaches” said Dr K.L. Heong, the leader of the project.  “We need to motivate thousands of farmers to conserve the predators and effective communication is essential” said Dr. M.M. Escalada, a communication scientist from the Philippines.

The pests also carry virus diseases and infected plants become discolored and stunted with no grains. “Our strategy is to develop methods to limit the spread of the viruses” said Dr I.R. Choi, a scientist at IRRI.

“One way to limit the pest population is to develop rice varieties that have resistance and we are developing new ways to incorporate these genes by plant breeding” said Dr P. Virk, a senior plant breeder at the IRRI.

Many readers have asked for links and web resources that can enrich their knowledge on specific areas in communication or beef up their literature review for a thesis.  A partial list of useful links, categorized by topic, can be found in the “Links and resources” page of this blog. The list will be constantly updated. If you know of useful links we can share with other readers, please drop a comment.

Nelfa Glova has posted a list of links to free-to-access sites: Check it out in Comments to this post.

Branding in a campaign can either be visual or textual. Our communication campaign in Vietnam was dubbed, “Three Reductions, Three Gains” (Ba Giam, Ba Tang, in Vietnamese) which encouraged rice farmers to reduce three agricultural inputs (seed rate, nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides) in order to gain three benefits (high income, better grain quality, high yield). Additional practices were subsequently included in Ba Giam, Ba Tang, particularly, water saving and postharvest which led our partners to change the brand to Five Reductions. However, Vietnam’s Agriculture Minister, Dr. Cao Duc Phat, advised his staff to retain the brand as Three Reductions has demonstrated its impact and it is associated with a bumper crop. Evidently, the memorability of Ba Giam, Ba Tang has carved a niche in the Agriculture Minister’s mind.

Three Reductions, Three Gains poster

In UNDP Brazil’s communication campaign to create nationwide awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a single message was chosen to unite the campaign: “”8 ways to change the world. Yes we can.” The campaign was known by its Portuguese tagline, Nos Podemos. The campaign committee started by visually branding the Nos Podemos campaign. Bold and colorful logos were designed by McCann Erickson, a global advertising firm. They also placed the MDG logos on supermarket bags which was seen by millions of Brazilians.  The MDG logos were designed to ensure easy recognition and convey the issue without using words. A campaign website posted under the Nós Podemos brand, www.nospodemos.org.br, is a portal to materials, ways to get involved and information on the MDGs.

According to the campaign report, the logos which were used constantly “attracted much attention and contributed to a self-perpetuating cycle of expanding publicity and new partnerships.  The campaign received so many requests to use the logos that it made them widely available and translated them into English and Spanish.”

Continue reading …

The above Millennium Development Goals (MDG) logos were originally created by McCann Erickson for the Brazil MDG campaign, Nos Podemos.  As an illustration of a best practice for campaigns, Nos Podemos deserves a special feature in Devcompage.  Since this post is about a topic related to MDGs, it is fitting to show the logos here.

To help achieve the MDGs to end poverty, extreme hunger and disease,  information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a central role.  Innovative applications of ICTs for development (ICT4D) have been reported in the literature — linking ICT4D with community radio in Sri Lanka, the AgriBazaar project in Malaysia, and a telemedicine system for primary community health care in Indonesia are recent examples.

A vivid illustration of how ICT4D can be used to improve livelihoods is tackled in the 2006 bachelor’s thesis of Jonas Myrh and Lars Nordstrom from Uppsala University. They noted that prior research has shown that mobile phones have great value for social networking and reducing vulnerability to risk. Their research question was:

But how does mobile phone use affect the way fishermen live their lives, how they pursue economic activities and how they protect themselves from vulnerability to risk?

Using qualitative research, they conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 fishing boat captains in Tanzania. Results revealed that increased access to information through mobile phones brought positive effects to livelihood indicators, empowerment, opportunity and vulnerability to risk. Mobile phone use, according to Myrh and Nordstrom (2006) empowers, both through increased bargaining power and increased control over external events. Mobile phones give increased knowledge about market opportunities and a possibility to work more efficiently. Furthermore, mobile phones give fishermen a possibility to take measures to decrease the risks they are exposed to, such as emergencies out at sea. The negative effects of mobile phone use were found negligible. These effects are most likely not isolated to Tanzanian fishermen.

Read more …

Yesterday, a reader stumbled on Devcompage and wrote a comment which struck a chord with me on the critical importance of reading among students and the need for more readable books.  Here’s her comment:

I believe that teaching history should not only focus on discussion by the teacher, it is a story that needs to be read and experienced. So, to encourage our elementary students to read History and Science, we have introduced the Cornell Method of note taking prior to discussion and experiential activity. However, our students are having difficulty reading history texts; their readability is not appropriate for age and reading skills of students. If kids are not trained early to spend time reading, all the more difficult for them to pick this habit when they are in college.  I have noticed that kids love stories; they love to read as they enjoyed perusing books when in bookstores or during fairs. But, they enjoy fiction books more than non-fiction.
So, anyone who wants to help writing Philippine history in the elementary level?

Besides a conducive reading environment in the home, books need to be readable to match age and reading skills as Luisa has pointed out.  It is also essential that books are written in a more entertaining and educational style.

How did you develop a love for reading books? Did your parents play an influential role?  How can we instill a love for reading in the younger generation?  Please post your comments.

My post on “How to do content analysis: a step-by-step guide” remains the top post of Devcompage which speaks of the demand for communication research techniques like content analysis. I can understand that because most content analysis articles are either in books or journal articles which are on a pay-per-view arrangement. Last month, my students in an evaluation of communication materials class carried out their own content analysis projects and I’d like to feature one. Here are excerpts of their report.

Online reporting of the rice crisis
by Jovelyn Cristino and Renelle Joy Tabinas

Rice crisis. Rice is the most important food commodity in the Philippines; a shortage would mean hundreds of thousands of Filipinos going hungry. Several reasons came out on what really are the root causes of the rice crisis. Among those mentioned were the high cost of inputs, lack of forward planning, and the shift to corn and jatropha. Issues about the rice crisis as being artificial was likewise cited. It was said that the country was actually facing a rice distribution crisis and that the panic was being made up by the hoarders themselves who anticipate a rise in prices. To that, conflicts across as people demanded to be told frankly by the government that there is a shortage and should also be informed about the measures that the government and the private sector are taking to lessen the shortage. The rice crisis should be addressed and taken seriously by the government before the situation gets out of hand.

Online news. Information is probably the biggest advantage the Internet is offering. The Internet is considered as the virtual trove of information. It is the fastest moving in the world. There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man ranging from government law and services, technological information, fashion, food, news, the list is endless.

Online news websites are available in the internet. News can’t just be found in newspapers anymore.  The news is even more vital because online websites can cover all manner of topics and hence news stories vary greatly on subject matter. Take for example two of the most leading online news websites in the country: Inquirer.net and gmanews.TV. With just a click of the mouse, one can search the news he or she wants to gather, rice crisis for instance.

Objectives

1. Determine the contents of the sample issues in two online news sources
2. Determine the factors that contribute to the crisis
3. Analyze the frequency, placement, treatment and type of stories of each online sources

Methodology

Scope. The study dealt with rice crisis articles in the two online news sources: Inquirer.net and gmanews.TV. These sites were selected because they have the same circulation and reach and that the issues are regularly posted in each of the online sources.

The analysis focused on frequency of appearance, placement, treatment, type of stories, and content given to rice crisis articles in the site. The content was further categorized into specific areas: artificiality of the rice crisis issue, its causes, magnitude of problem, and the solutions.

Sampling procedure. All rice crisis articles posted within the time frame of one week, from March 25 to 31, 2008 were selected. It was at this time that the rice crisis issue was at its peak.

In GMANews.tv, two, three, four, two, one, one, and six articles were found on March 25-31, respectively, with a total of 19 issues.  On the other hand, Inq.net has a total of 24 articles - five for  March 25, four in March 26, two for the 27th  and 28th, one on March 29, four on March 30 and 6 articles  on March 31. A total of 43 sample issues for the two sites were chosen.

Results

Frequency of appearance. Of the 43 rice crisis-related articles in the sample issues within March 25-31, 2008, 44.4% were found in GMAnews.tv while 55.8% were posted in Inq.net. This indicates that Inquirer.net produced more rice crisis articles compared to GMAnews.tv within March 25 to 31, 2008.

Placement of rice crisis news stories. In GMANews.tv, the topmost portion of the page have clickable images and videos. The right side of the page is occupied by ads mostly on condominium units.  In Inquirer.net, it was the same with the GMAnews.tv but it has a banner at the topmost part of the page and has fewer ads.

Regarding the placement of rice crisis articles, 100% of the articles from GMAnews.tv were located in the breaking news category. This suggests that the website considered most of the rice crisis issues as important. For Inquirer.net, 41.7% were also situated in breaking news section, followed by headliners which was 20.8%. Articles in the editorial and infotech had the least percentage of rice crisis issues.

Placement of all rice crisis articles for GMAnews.tv was in breaking news because it is an online news source for television. Unlike Inquirer.net which is an online newspaper format, the articles were situated in the different locations of the site, either in headlines, column, editorial, opinion, infotech or letters to the editor.

Treatment. Both online news sources were neutral to the rice crisis issue which means that the site presented both sides of the story. GMANews.TV had 47.4% of their articles neutral while 62.5% of Inquirer.net stories were neutral. Only 15.8% and 16.7% of GMANews.TV and Inquirer.net, respectively, gave the rice crisis news a negative treatment.

Read more …

Busler’s Ph.D. thesis, Product Differentiation, Celebrity Endorsements and the Consumer’s Perception of Quality (2002), showed how he had used semantic differential  to assess consumer’s perceptions of the attributes of a product ad and the celebrity endorser.  Communication students can learn from it or adapt it in assessing advertisements. In this post, I explored how we might use Busler’s methodology to examine consumers’ perceptions of the credibility and relevance of the commercial on Alaxan FR, a pain reliever, and a world boxing champion (Manny Pacquiao) as a celebrity endorser.

A seven-point semantic differential scale can be used for each of these bipolar adjectives:

Example
Not effective  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  Effective

Concerning the credibility of the information received from the ad, I think it is:
Not credible - Very credible
Not believable - Believable
False -    True

Concerning how relevant the information in the ad would be to my buying decision, I think it is:
Not relevant - Relevant
Not important -    Important
Useless - Meaningful

Overall, I thought the Alaxan commercial was:
Ineffective - Effective
Uninformative - Informative
Dull - Interesting

I think Manny Pacquiao is:
Dishonest - Honest
Undependable - Dependable
Insincere - Sincere
Untrustworthy -    Trustworthy
Undependable -    Dependable
Unreliable - Reliable
Unqualified - Qualified
Not an expert -    Expert
Not knowledgeable - Knowledgeable

As an endorser for Alaxan I think Manny Pacquiao is:
Appropriate - Inappropriate
Ineffective - Effective

       ]]> http://devcompage.com/2008/09/22/how-to-assess-celebrity-endorsers-and-the-endorsement/feed/ moni http://devcompage.com/2008/09/16/how-credible-are-celebrity-endorsements-of-health-products/ http://devcompage.com/2008/09/16/how-credible-are-celebrity-endorsements-of-health-products/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:23:14 +0000 Monina Escalada http://devcompage.wordpress.com/?p=465

Of late, there has been a flurry of celebrity endorsements of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs such as pain relievers, cough expectorants, vitamins and dietary supplements. In the Philippines, celebrity endorsers are mostly movie actors and actresses. You see a popular young movie actor sashay into your TV screen in an airport scene swearing by the power of a pain reliever that he said he had with him all the time and could not leave home without.

Based on news reports and entertainment industry buzz on the millions of dollars paid to sports celebrities like Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps, celebrity endorsement is expensive. Yet firms are willing to pay for the powerful endorsement from celebrities whose name, face and voice recognition can attract millions of consumers.

Here are the current celebrity endorses of OTC products:

Source credibility is the most important characteristic in selecting a celebrity endorser.  Source credibility, developed by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953), involves three dimensions: expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness.

Expertise is the perceived validity  of the assertions made by the celebrity. This connection is often made by a previous association of the person to the nature or aspect of the product. While famous athletes endorse athletic products (e.g., Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps for Speedo, LeBron James for Nike),  Observers might say that showbiz stars could very well endorse beauty products but for over-the-counter drugs, it might be a long shot. However, if the growing number of endorsements is any indication, the ads might be bringing in the sales.

Trustworthiness is the confidence that the consumer has in the celebrity regarding honesty and objectivity. In general, people are skeptical when an unknown person, is trying to sell them something. Experts say that the more trust consumers have invested in a public figure, the less suspicious they will be about the attributes of the product being endorsed.

Attractiveness is also important in an effective celebrity endorsement. As it is a subjective dimension, perceptions of beauty depend on the market. For instance, many Asians seem to place a value on skin color which explains the popularity of skin whitening products.  Social psychologists have studied the effects of a communicator’s effectiveness on attitude change. Likewise, consumer psychologists have examined the effects of a model’s attractiveness on advertising effectiveness. Findings in both areas show that attractive models are more successful in persuading others than are less-attractive communicators and models (Chaiken, 1979, Baker & Churchill, 1977).

Are you influenced by celebrity endorsements in your purchase intentions of over-the-counter drugs? Would you go out and buy a popular pain reliever because you trust the endorser? Post your comments.

My post, “Do college students ever read their textbooks” drew a lot of comments from students who revealed that reading textbooks was at the bottom of their priority list. No wonder, the performance of several of my students during the recent midterm exam was dismal. Consider these midterm exam scores:  2/100, 8/100, 9/100, 22/100 and so on. It depressed me as I entered their scores in my course spreadsheet which later yielded seven failing grades.

Students explained that they were not used to my type of exam questions that required recall and application. They said, “What we reviewed flew out of the window the moment we read the exam questions.” Consider these:

Construct a semantic differential scale consisting of at least 5 bipolar indicators to assess audience feedback to the student publication, The Amaranth.

If you were asked to pretest Devcompage (http://devcompage.com), construct an instrument that will measure audience feedback with regard to the first four (4) measures of effectiveness. Emphasize how you will measure the extent to which the content of the blog can be understood.

I was softhearted so I gave a retake midterm exam to those who needed it to pass. I finished marking papers yesterday and they did pass.

If many students today are unable to answer exam questions that require application and analysis, what could be the reason? Is it because they don’t have effective study habits or time management? Is it the competing demands on a student’s time? On TV, there are game shows and telenovelas screaming for attention. The campus Internet cafe beckons students to update their Friendster, Multiply and Facebook accounts, there’s a video to watch on YouTube, and YM or Google chats to respond to. But, besides these usual culprits, other teachers also place undue demands on students’ time with projects that require them to work overtime, into the wee hours of the morning.

Besides exams and hands-on exercises, how else will teachers know that students learned something in their classes?  In our class, we had a mock focus group discussion and exercises in cloze procedure, Fog index, Flesch formula and SMOG test. But the midterm exam turned out to be the students’ biggest hurdle.

What are some doable and objective ways to measure your learning that will lead to fair, unbiased grades for everyone in class? Please post your comments.