AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS

The way in which agricultural scientists of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station research staff pereive aspects of the uses and importance of the mass media in ccmmunicating their research work was surveyed. The profile developed from the 65 responses to the survey shows that agricultural scientists place only moderate importance on mass media as a communication tool to further their research work. They devote an average of 2.6 percent of their professional time to mass media communications but feel that they should spend more time on this task. Their highest priority audience is specialists and teachers who use the results of their work. The general public is a low priority audience. Although they tend to distrust somewhat their co-workers who use the mass media extensively, they qualify this attitude by saying each case should be considered individually. About 50 percent feel they should be evaluated on their use of mass media as well as on their contribution to professional and technical journals. They put high trust in farm magazines and low trust in newspapers. They are not very sure about the present state of their prfessional image. (Author/JR) Prk co (Ns 4)