Why is rural journalism important?
Because
16 percent of Americans, some 63 million people, are rural, and so is three-fourths of the national landsdcape.
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 metropolitan 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 learn how to
exercise editorial leadership in small markets. At one workshop, journalists from five states learned how to cover
state and federal politics without being based in the capitals.
A national workshop focused on a wide range of rural issues, and the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America examined how journalism can help rural communities. 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.
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, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middle Tennessee State University, Ohio University,
Southeast Missouri State University, Texas Christian University, Virginia Tech, the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the University of Illinois, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the University of Mississippi, University of Missouri, the University of North
Carolina, University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee, Washington
and Lee University, West Virginia University, Wheeling Jesuit University, Winthrop 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 on Institute activities, join our list-serve. Welcome!---Al
Cross, director
