By Linda Grimstedt, The Association for Forestry and Agricultural Journalists
What is it like to cover a big ag story when you are not familiar with agriculture, and how can you prepare? That was the question when the Swedish guild, FSLJ, invited members and fellow journalists to a webinar on covering agriculture during a crisis.
As Sweden had its first case of the feared African Swine Fever many newsrooms were totally unprepared. It took about 24 hours from the first press release until the first teams from national media arrived in the small town of Fagersta. Sara Arvidsson, editor in chief of local newspaper Fagersta-Posten, had to learn about a disease that she and her team had never heard of before. At the same time Cecilia Persson, at agricultural newspaper ATL, and her colleagues had been reporting on the ASF for years. Knowing it would strike at some point, just not when. When it happened, they both had different difficulties getting the facts right from the authorities, sorting out information and finding the right angels and level of coverage.
In the webinar Sara and Cecilia told us about their experiences and Cecilia gave some valuable advice on sources and fact checking for those that had never covered agriculture before. We also heard dairy farmer Anette Gustawson give her opinion on what it is like for a farmer to be in the centre of the news. Anette told the audience that she as a farmer needs to be confident to talk to the media, and what reporters could do to get in contact with farmers and find news stories beyond the themes of bad weather and dropping milk prices.
FSLJ members invited non-agricultural colleagues in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland via Facebook and LinkedIn, and offered ongoing assistance to journalists seeking insight into reporting on ASF.
The webinar had about 40 persons listening, including colleagues from Finland and Norway, and can be seen online here (only in Swedish, though): https://youtu.be/bUjtKmyM3is
Farmer Anette Gustawson, agricultural journalist Cecilia Persson and newspaper editor Sara Arvidsson shared advice for reporters covering an outbreak of African Swine Fever. The webinar, organized by the Swedish guild, was geared toward non-agricultural reporters.