Media advocacy for farm safety and health: current landscape and future directions
Tuesday, March 11, 2025How are farm and tractor safety portrayed in the news? Do solutions appear? Who has a voice in coverage? These are some of the questions that BMSG researchers examined in this study, published in BMC Public Health. The study also provides suggestions for occupational health and safety practitioners who hope to improve their use of media to advance farm safety agendas.
Abstract
Background
Within public health, media advocacy embraces the influence of new media and journalists in setting public agendas and promoting important public health programming and policies. Though occupational health and safety (OSH) is an important component of public health, few studies have examined the use of media advocacy within this specific field. This study aims to examine how media is currently used to support OSH efforts as well as opportunities for engaging with this strategy.
Methods
LexisNexis and AgInjuryNews were used to collect news media pertaining to farm safety, and specifically tractor safety, published between 2018 and 2021 in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. A total of 372 news articles were identified. Content analysis was used to assess a random sample of these articles (n = 122) to answer the questions:
- Why are stories about farm and tractor safety in the news?
- Who speaks in the news about farm and tractor safety?
- How are farming, farmers, and farm safety depicted in the news?
- Who is named as responsible for and called upon to take action to address farm and tractor safety issues?
- What solutions to address farm and tractor safety are mentioned?
Results
In general, relevant news stories (n = 89) were published as a result of event (such as tractor overturns or safety days). Many stories placed responsibility for both farm injury events and the need to increase safety measures solely on farmers, demonstrating a missed opportunity for understanding how farm safety is impacted by the larger societal context, like legislation and government programs.
Conclusions
Using these findings, the authors provide several suggestions for OSH practitioners who hope to improve their use of media to advance farm safety agendas.
Citation
Milkovich, P.J., Perez-Sanz, S., Garcia, K. et al. Media advocacy for farm safety and health: current landscape and future directions. BMC Public Health 25, 970 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-22162-z
Full text
This article was published March 11, 2025 in BMC Public Health.