Indo's penetrating scrutiny

ishmael whale

I just want to consider this as an example of reportage taken straight from the press release, without any application of analysis whatsoever.

The headline makes a flat statement ‘Most school pupils want to work in rural areas’.

When we read that article we actually find that the statement relates not to school pupils in general, but to second-level agricultural students surveyed by an agricultural lobby group called Agri Aware. Read a little further and you find that the students participating in the survey were attending an Agri Aware conference.

So the actual headline could be ‘one in five agriculture students attending Agri Aware conference have no desire to live or work in rural areas’.

The main interest I get from this story is to wonder why a student would bother to study agriculture, and even attend an Agri Aware conference, if they’ve no particular desire to work in the sector. Maybe it’s a soft honours subject, maybe they got the day off school to attend the conference. But that’s the direction my curiousity goes.

But, whatever about that, was there any actual human intervention in the process that lead to this story being published quoting Agri Aware’s statement that the survey was a "a powerful endorsement of the quality of life and improved economic prosperity in rural areas" without probing?

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1411074&issue_id=12578
Most school pupils want to work in rural areas

Tuesday June 7th 2005
FOUR out of five second-level agricultural students intend to live and work in rural Ireland when they finish their studies, according to a new report. The finding was described by the agricultural lobby group Agri Aware as "a powerful endorsement of the quality of life and improved economic prosperity in rural areas".

However, the report also found that four out of five of the students remain undecided about a career path. Twice as many females as males (34pc versus 17.1pc) said they never intended to live or work in rural Ireland at any time in the future. But twice as many males as females (19.7pc versus 9.4c) intended to live/work immediately in rural Ireland. Those from a farming background were significantly more likely to intend to do so than those from a non-farming background.

The report, commissioned by Agri Aware and carried out by Dr Pat Bogue, Broadmore Research, was conducted with fifth- and sixth-year students from 15 counties who attended an Agri Aware conference. In its conclusions, the report suggests that the improved economic prosperity in rural areas over the last decade has led young people to see a future for themselves there.
"Even though most rural areas do not have immediate access to the 'social life' desired by many young people, this does not seem to be an inhibiting factor," it says.

Another finding suggests that the current agricultural science syllabus fails to provide a sufficient level of understanding of the agricultural industry. A total of 60pc of those surveyed considered farming and agriculture to be an interesting career and just less than half considered it a healthy career. Three-quarters of respondents said they would consider pursuing an agricultural-related degree, but 66pc said they were also considering a non-agricultural-related degree.

Agri Aware chairman TJ Maher said it was encouraging to see a high percentage considering farming and agriculture, and the industry should view this as an opportunity to communicate the positive aspects to potential entrants "There is a clear onus on our sector, especially those with a formal educational role to provide the support and encouragement they need."
He also noted that 90pc of students believed the agricultural industry should provide more assistance in the form of information and resources to help them in their studies. He called for the agricultural science syllabus to be updated as a matter of urgency.

simu

Looks like a space filler.

Maybe the agri students with aims of urban living want to became lecturers, do consultant work from a base in the city etc - there must be all sorts of reasons.

magpie

Dublin is full of farm consultants you know :rolleyes:

simu

There's more to urban Ireland than Dublin!

seamus

I think his point is that the title of the article is completely incorrect in relation to the article - in fact it's 100% misleading.

county

most of the indos articles are pieces from foreign papers ie london times,they even had an article a few weeks ago from the states and didnt bother to correct there bad english grammar(flavor)lazy and unprofessional