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Abstract

Agricultural television news serves as a vital channel for information, shaping stakeholder perceptions and public understanding of the agricultural industry. This study utilized content analysis to systematically examine the U.S. Farm Report, a prominent agricultural broadcast, over a 35-month period from February 2022 to December 2024. The research aimed to describe headline topics, airtime allocation, overall content characteristics, and dominant framing elements, as well as identify temporal patterns of change. A systematic random sample of 35 complete episodes was analyzed. Findings revealed that market and economy and crop agriculture were the most frequently discussed topics and demanded the greatest airtime. Content characteristics indicated a strong emphasis on USDA's advancing racial justice, equity, opportunity, and rural prosperity priority, with national headlines and voice-over delivery predominating. Framing analysis showed a majority negative tone and a prevalent focus on economic issues. Producers consistently emerged as the most mentioned actors, beneficiaries, and those facing risks, while health-related aspects and scientists as actors received minimal attention. Temporal analysis highlighted shifts in headline prominence, moving from environment-focused in 2022 to market-economy in 2023, then diversifying in 2024 to include social/community and politics/policy. Airtime emphasis also transitioned from the food industry to market and economy by 2024. These results underscore the program's strong orientation toward economic concerns for its core audience, while also identifying potential areas for broader representation of issues and stakeholders. This research offers valuable insights into how specialized media narratives are constructed, influencing discourse within the dynamic agricultural sector.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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