Friday, October 26, 2012

Eastern Kentucky University gets $25,000 to work on mobile application for rural newspapers

AT&T has given Eastern Kentucky University $25,000 to explore the application of mobile technology for rural newspapers and develop a working model "that improves both audience reach and content richness," a university news release said.

The year-long project will start with a survey of current best practices and an effort to reduce the environmental impact of mobile technology while seeking "improved sustainability of capital and human resources," the release said. Researchers will work with the staff of The Eastern Progress, the campus weekly, to apply the model. The third phase will be a workshop for editors in the university's 22-county service region to present guidelines for applying the model.

Other partners in the effort are the Kentucky Press Association and the university's Department of Communication, including journalism and public-relations faculty. The department is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Hansen, who chairs the steering committee of academic partners of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is based at the University of Kentucky and publishes The Rural Blog. (Read more)

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