Researchers say rural journalists properly define 'hate speech' but struggle to apply the definition to local events

"Journalists who cover rural areas in the United States say they are afraid to report on hate groups, and this fear is exacerbated by close community ties and limited resources among rural journalists," researchers from four universities write in a paper recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Journalism Practice.

The researchers used “hate speech” as definitional term in 33 interviews with U.S. journalists reporting in rural communities. "Rural journalists articulate a clear definition for hate speech, but struggle to apply that definition to events within their communities, even as they articulate numerous forms of hate," the researchers write. "Journalists often dismissed acts of hate using the residual category of 'not hate, but …' to signal something that they felt was out of place or unsuitable but did not rise to the legal definition of hate speech and thus was not worth reporting on."

The researchers are Greg Perreault of Appalachian State University, Ruth Moon of Louisiana State University, Jessica Fargen Walsh of the University of Nebraska and Mildred Perrealult of East Tennessee State University.