STAFF

ADVISORY BOARD

STEERING COMMITTEE

LIST SERVE

HISTORY

RESEARCH

STUDENT PROJECTS

NATIONAL CONFERENCES

STATE CONFERENCES

Why is rural journalism important?

Because 21 percent of Americans, some 63 million people, are rural. The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues helps non-metropolitan journalists define the public agenda for their communities, and grasp the local impact of broader issues. It interprets rural issues for metro news media, conducts seminars and publishes research and good examples of rural journalism. It helps journalists all over America learn about rural issues, trends and events in areas they’ve never seen but have much in common with their own. It helps rural journalists how to exercise editorial leadership in small markets. At another seminar, journalists from five states learned how to cover state and federal politics without being based in the capitals. Reporters in Central Appalachia saw how they can help improve the region’s health, and published stories with that goal in mind. Others learned about the coal industry and covered it more deeply than before, at a time when more miners were dying and more mountains were being mined. Click here to see video of the Institute's recent seminar on election coverage, and news of upcoming events.

The Institute is based at the University of Kentucky but is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional effort, with academic partners at Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgia College and State University, Indiana University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University, Ohio University, Southeast Missouri State University, the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Washington and Lee University, West Virginia University and the Knight Community Journalism Fellows program of the University of Alabama.

The Institute publishes The Rural Blog, a daily digest of events, issues, trends and journalism in rural America, with story ideas and sources. To read it, one of our many reports, or get more information about us, click a button above. To stay updated, join our list-serve, which gets notices of Rural Blog updates. Welcome!---Al Cross, director

---