Research Brief
Authors
Agricultural literacy is essential for informed decision-making regarding food systems, sustainability, and cultural appreciation. One method for improved agricultural literacy lies in the communication efforts within social media platforms due to the usage of such platforms for news and education. Agritourism is at the intersection of tourism and agriculture, making it a potential starting point for producers to bring gaps between agricultural efforts and consumers. For this study, we completed a quantitative content analysis using a popular tourism Instagram feed to determine if agriculture was presented and how it was displayed in posts. While 19 posts (52%) of the sampled posts depicted agriculture as defined by USDA, only three posts described agricultural terms. While no post directly mentioned agritourism, over half of the images were determined to have a tourism purpose, not uncharacteristic for a tourism profile. Based on our findings, we determine that agriculture is represented but not highlighted nor thoroughly described in the Instagram profile. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend agritourism entities, and agriculture communication practitioners in New Mexico post educational and engaging posts on their business Instagram accounts to contribute to the overall landscape of tourism social marketing for New Mexico. These images could be accompanied by educational captions to ensure agricultural information shared is provided by agriculturally literate sources to help bridge knowledge gaps and enhance public understanding.
Keywords: content analysis, research in brief, agricultural communications, social media
How to Cite: Sedillo, S. , Roberts-Hill, L. & Norris, W. (2026) “Agritourism Imagery: A Content Analysis of Agriculture Portrayed on New Mexico True’s Instagram”, Journal of Applied Communications. 110(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/jac.20884
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