Culture wars fill vacuum left by weakened local journalism

"Weakened local journalism has created space for the modern culture wars," says the Los Angeles Times headline over a piece by Jan-Werner Mueller, a professor of politics at Princeton University and author of the 2021 book Democracy Rules. For his general audience, Muller touches many bases familiar to journalists, but makes some points that are worth repeating:

"For local government to work properly, there must be local journalism to hold politicians and policymakers to account. . . . Social scientists who study the issue have demonstrated clearly that less local journalism results in higher levels of corruption, undermines political competition and reduces citizen engagement. . . . Local problems that could have wider significance go unreported, and many of the on-the-ground effects of national policies are unrecognized. . . . Making matters worse, the vacuum created by the absence of local news is often filled by national culture wars."

Muller says "Experiments in different countries suggest ways to revitalize local reporting," and mentions States Newsroom, which "focuses squarely on state-level policies that affect citizens in ways that are not obvious even to the relatively well-informed," and Report for America, which places young reporters in local newsrooms, often to cover underreported issues. "The Documenters Network trains and pays people to report on local government meetings that otherwise would go unobserved. The BBC, for instance, has partnered with local newspapers to increase the quantity of local reporting, sending a clear signal that decisions on the ground matter."

Muller favors direct government support of local journalism and says "Mechanisms for insulating journalists from political pressures have long been available in public-service broadcasting. There is no reason why they can’t be extended to local journalism as well."

Free online class trains locals to do community journalism

Many rural newspapers struggling to stay afloat must rely on untrained volunteers to report the news, often going for presence and quantity rather than quality and professionalism.

"Enter the University of Vermont. Building on a 3-year-old journalism program for undergraduates, in February the school launched a series of free online classes for anyone interested in learning how to write for local newspapers," Anne Wallace Allen reports for Seven Days. "Participants who follow through and volunteer at a local media outlet can get free coaching and editing help from the experienced editors employed by the UVM program."

Richard Watts, director of UVM's Center for Research on Vermont, began an undergraduate program for reporting and documentary storytelling in 2019, which has "grown quickly into a de facto journalism school with the companion purpose of bolstering local news reporting in Vermont," Allen reports. "With a team of professional editors to guide them, students are deployed to selectboard and school board meetings for about a dozen local newspapers, including the Hardwick Gazette, the Barton Chronicle and the Shelburne News. The program known as the Community News Service . . . is expected to have 40 students this semester [and] produces an online newspaper devoted to Winooski news."

Watts expanded the class to an online offering after the publisher of a rural paper said she and her editor, neither of whom had formal journalism training, had been unable to get a spot in the class. "There's clearly an interest," Allen reports. "A few hours after registration opened for the first class, News Fundamentals + Intro, all 20 slots were filled with teachers, librarians and volunteer journalists. Another two dozen or so people were on a waiting list for the next six weekly sessions, which will include instruction on such basics as interviewing techniques, how to write a news story, working a beat and journalism ethics."

Small New England newspapers make Editor & Publisher's annual, renamed list of 10 News Publishers That Do it Right

A theater in scenic downtown Keene, N.H., is the headquarters for Radically Rural, which uses several venues nearby.

A New Hampshire newspaper that started a "Radically Rural" symposium and a Vermont alternative weekly known for investigations and deeply reported features are on Editor & Publisher magazine's annual list of "10 News Publishers That Do It Right," formerly "10 Newspapers That Do It Right."

The Keene Sentinel was recognized for establishing, with the local Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, Radically Rural, a two-day symposium that features expert speeches and panel discussions on several tracks, a networking event, local food and beverages, and live music. "More than 600 people from 26 states attended all parts of Radically Rural in 2019, a significant increase from the first year," Evelyn Mateos reports for E&P. The next one will be Sept. 23-24.

Sentinel President and Chief Operating Officer Terrence Williams told Mateos that sponsorships, ticket sales and ad revenue are split evenly with the Grimes center, which continues a networking event that gave birth to the symposium. The six program tracks last year were arts and culture, entrepreneurship, journalism, land and community, Main Street, and renewable energy.

"With the nearest airport located two hours away, Williams said if people want to attend the summit they have to be committed," Mateos writes, quoting him: “We can’t be one of those things where we only marginally produce something, it has to be contemporary, it has to be seen as—if not cutting edge—then at least on the leading edge of the issues that are affecting each of the tracks.”

Seven Days of Burlington, Vt., which has a large rural audience, made the list for building on a very personal piece of citizen journalism to take an in-depth look at Vermont's opioid epidemic, Mateos reports:

"In October 2018, Seven Days published an obituary for Madelyn Linsenmeir, a young, local mother who had died of causes related to opioid-use disorder. Shortly after it was published, her obit went viral with more than a thousand comments and about 4 million views online—most likely because the obit had been written by Linsenmeir’s own sister, Kate O’Neill," a former Seven Days proofreader. The paper offered her a new job: "spend a year writing about the epidemic that had killed her sister."

“Kate could write about this in a way that our journalists couldn’t,” Publisher Paula Routly said. “She was able to portray her sister with sensitivity and enough specificity and empathy. You could really understand the predicament. That seemed like a unique perspective that none of our reporters had really managed to tap into and that seemed like a very important part of understanding the problem.”

O’Neill’s series, “Hooked: Stories and Solutions from Vermont’s Opioid Crisis," started in January 2019. It examined "how Vermonters became addicted to opioids and how the epidemic drives sexual exploitation," Mateos reports. There were six stories (at about 12,000 words each), which garnered about 100,000 pageviews with an average time spent of six to seven minutes per page. . . . Seven Days created a companion website called All Our Hearts, which launched last September, to find more stories of those lost to opioids. Through the website, families can submit a form describing their loved one, and someone from the paper will follow up to do an interview." More than 50 have posted.

Others on the list of 10 were The Arizona Republic, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Financial Times, Nevada's Greenspun Media Group, Argentina's La Voz del Interior, the Salt Lake Tribune and WKMG-TV of Orlando.

The News-Gazette of Champaign, Ill., earned an honorable mention for inviting more than 300 high-school athletes to its office for its "Faces of the Fall" project. "Students—nominated by their schools and dressed in full uniform—received a News-Gazette business card designed and produced in-house that each participant scanned with their cellphone to connect with the paper on social media," E&P reports. "About 70 students were invited to record radio spots promoting programming on News-Gazette Media’s three stations. Another 150 students went in front of the newsroom’s green screen and created GIFs for social media channels. Professional portraits were also published online and ran in the print edition each day through the season. The entire experience was filmed, and the video made available at news-gazette.com."

Recovering addict who writes a column for Kentucky and Tennessee newspapers publishes a book about experiences

Phillip Lee, a recovering drug addict who writes a column for newspapers in Appalachian Kentucky and Tennessee, has published a book, The Journey of an Addict.

"Through overdoses and many hospitalizations, through nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, through drug treatment programs and prisons, I survived through it all only by the grace of my higher power," Lee writes on Amazon. "This book is part of a complete dedication in my life to helping others reach recovery. Not being easy at all, I tell how it's the hardest thing I've ever done in life. I tell you about the personal rewards of recovery. The freedom and calm that is gained is second best to nothing. Looking back on some of the insane and dangerous situations, I can even laugh at some of the stories now."

Lee began writing a column for the weekly Clinton County News in his hometown of Albany, Ky., in May 2017. For a while it bore the name of the book as well as the title "An Addict's Corner." Now only the book carries the name.

"The Journey of an Addict is a series of stories and personal experiences I have gone through in active addiction, my experiences now, and what it takes to remain drug-free today," Lee writes. "I give all the credit to my higher power, who is Jesus Christ, whom without today I am nothing. As an addict, I know you will gain understanding of your own addiction through reading this book. As a family member of an addict, you will gain real world knowledge of what we as addicts go through on a constant basis."

Forum on news coverage of Appalachia to be held in Whitesburg, Ky., on Saturday from 11:30 to 2:30

Since national and international news media rediscovered Appalachia in the 1960s, residents of the region have complained about depictions of their region, and some have tried to build their own regional narrative. This weekend there will be a public conversation about such things.

Appalshop's WMMT-FM and nonprofit journalism magazine Scalawag are hosting a community discussion about news coverage of Appalachia from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31 at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Ky.

Organizers say participants will "share ideas and examples of ethical, accountable, community-led media projects in the region, discuss some less-ideal national coverage Central Appalachians are well acquainted with, and create a guide for journalists on what to do and what NOT to do when covering our mountain communities."

The forum will be followed by a screening of "Stranger with a Camera," a film by Appalshop's Elizabeth Barrett about a Canadian photographer who was murdered in near Whitesburg in 1967, and a question-and-answer session with author Elizabeth Catte about her new book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia.

Click here to learn more about the event and register for it.

Kansas' likely oldest working journalist dies at 102

Brown, writing a column (Wichita Eagle photo by Beccy Tanner)

When Protection Press community columnist Bonnie Brown gathered news for "Bonnie's Blog" in the weekly paper, she went on foot; she gave up driving when she was 98. And in her eight years of writing for the Press, she only missed two deadlines — one last year when Protection was evacuated for wildfires, and a few weeks ago when she caught a cold. But the upbeat woman who many think was Kansas' oldest working columnist was found dead in her apartment Saturday morning, just 11 days before her 103rd birthday. Her son, Rodney Brown, said her cold had turned into pneumonia. "In her last column, published this past week, Mrs. Brown wrote that she wasn’t feeling 'up to par yet but hope I am on the last mile … If all goes well, I may make it for my next birthday. One never knows what’s in store for any of us,'" Beccy Tanner reports for The Wichita Eagle.

Town of Protection, in Comanche County, Kansas (Wikipedia map)

It's not just Brown's passing that's worthy of mourning, but her increasingly rare style of gathering news: the 4-foot, 5-inch columnist gathered news "the old-fashioned way — with shoe leather and an inquiring mind" as she beat the pavement every day gathering local news in the town of 500, Tanner reports in a different story for The Eagle. "Her column style — of reporting on who was in Protection, who went to visit who, what so-and-so is doing now – is a style of journalism that began to disappear in daily, and then weekly newspapers, in the 1970s and 1980s." But it remains in many weeklies.

Protection Press Editor Susan Edmonston told Tanner, "People are going to miss her but she was such a positive, upbeat person, we think she is up there, walking around, talking to everybody and still getting the news."

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article199593154.html#storylink=cpy

Fake 'news' is more than just stuff made up; it's also lazy journalism, showing the need for good reporting, especially rural, Moyers staffer writes

The rise of fake news has proven, that now more than ever, quality reporting is essential to keep people informed, especially in smaller communities, reports Kathy Kiely, a journalist of 40 years, for (Bill) Moyers & Co. "I am convinced that if anything good comes of this year, it will be the renewed interest it has prompted in the nuts and bolts of democracy and the things we do to preserve it," Kiely writes. "One of those is the free flow of information. Good information. News that informs, not just titillates."

"Fake news isn’t just the made-up kind you see on your Facebook feed (the new supermarket tabloid rack)," she writes. "Fake news is also 'breaking news' purveyed by TV stations that then feed you a breathless headline about some VIP (or candidate) doing or saying something meaninglessly incremental. Fake news is talking heads instead of issues. Fake news is bothsideism. Fake news is all of those things real news outlets have begun to resort to in the absence of the resources and the will to cover the real thing."

That's where the power of the press and education, especially in rural communities, comes into play, Kiely writes. For example, Mississippi Today, founded by two former editors of USA Today (one of the places Kiely has worked), has a staff of 13, mostly recent college graduates, who cover the entire state. Also, the Pine Tree Watchdog, a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, has increased news coverage in the state.

Others examples are the Daily Yonder and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, which both exclusively cover rural news, she writes. Al Cross, director of the institute, which publishes The Rural Blog, teaches a class at UK where students use what some call the “teaching hospital method” of journalism—"where carefully supervised reporters-in-training do actual work." The institute provides online news coverage for the small town of Midway, Ky. (Best Places map) and this year put together a 20-page print edition, with news of the local races for mayor and state legislature.

One of the obstacles is funding, she writes. Cross told her, “Nobody wants to give money for journalism unless they can compromise your independence. Everybody’s got an agenda." Naomi Schalit, co-publisher of the Pine Tree Watchdog, told Kiely, “It’s much easier to get subject-related funding. But then you can’t be as nimble as you need to be as newspeople.”

9-year-old newspaper reporter signs deal to write series of sleuthing books for children

Hilde Lysiak

A nine-year old reporter in rural Selinsgrove, Pa., on whom we have previously reported, could soon add "children's novelist" to her resume, Sean Stroh reports for Editor & Publisher. Hilde Lysiak signed a four-book deal with Scholastic to write a fictionalized series of her own adventures, "Hilde Cracks the Case."

The series will star Hilde and her older sister Izzy as they solve cases based on real news stories that appeared in Hilde's monthly newspaper, The Orange Street News, in the Susquehanna River valley. Every book will end with a news article.

The books will be co-written by her father Matt, a former New York Daily News reporter, and will focus on teaching "younger readers the basic tenets of journalism as part of Scholastic’s illustrated early chapter book line 'Branches,'" Stroh writes. The first book is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2017.

Best Places map

The newspaper has more than 700 paid subscribers, and its website has more than 700,000 views, Stroh writes. Hilde told him, “I just want to keep working on my paper and have it get bigger. I want to be known not as a good young journalist but as a good journalist who happens to be young. I’m working hard to improve and keep getting better. I love reporting the news so I hope I can keep doing that, especially crime.”

Newsrooms should train community members to provide skillful, responsible breaking-news reports

With the widespread use of smart phones with cameras, newsrooms have a responsibility to train the community in verification, news literacy and eyewitness media, writes Josh Stearns, director of journalism and sustainability at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, for First Draft: "Bringing communities into the news process is a powerful way to spread journalistic values, train residents on reporting processes and foster user generated content that is more useful for newsrooms."

One source is the Breaking News Consumer's Handbook, published by On the Media. The handbook offers 11 tips—mostly basic journalism etiquette that community members might not be aware of—for covering breaking news.

Newsrooms can also lead by example. "A number of newsrooms are making public debunking a part of their work. See for example Gizmodo’s Factually and The Washington Post’s regular coverage of 'What Was Fake on The Internet This Week.' At their best, these posts don’t just point out fake photos and rumors but also explain how the authors were able to debunk them — what tools they used, what they looked for, the questions they asked."

"It is not enough to simply report accurately," Stearns writes. "Today we need newsrooms to also help debunk misinformation, especially during breaking news. And we should enlist our communities in that effort. During breaking news we turn to our communities, to social media, to piece together what is happening, to find sources and collect images and photos from the ground. We rely on them in those moments. As such, we should do everything we can to help people understand how best to help create and share more trustworthy information."

By engaging readers, newsrooms can train them to be active participants and eyewitnesses, Stearns argues. As readers learn how to take videos and photos and create social media updates more useful to newsrooms, that helps debunk misinformation and stop the spread of rumors. For readers, newsroom engagement will help them become more aware of their rights, allow them to report safely and consider journalistic integrity, while also making journalism more transparent, accountable and valuable.

"This should be a service we provide to our readers, but through collaborations with libraries, schools, local nonprofits we can reach even more people," Stearns writes. "My experience working at the intersection of journalism and communities is that people are hungry for tools and strategies to better identify trustworthy news and information and how to sort through the flood of info they face, especially around crisis, disasters and controversial issues in their communities." (Read more)

9-year-old rural reporter who broke murder story fires back at critics who questioned her skills, age

A nine-year old reporter in rural Selinsgrove in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River Valley, who broke the news of a local murder, fired backed at critics who questioned her reporting skills and young age.

Hilde Lysiak posted on Facebook, “If you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computers and do something about the news. There, is that cute enough for you?” Tom Jackman reports for The Washington Post that Lysiak is the brains behind a monthly community newspaper, the Orange Street News, that doesn't shy away from covering the hard news in the town of 5,000. She is responsible for all story ideas, writing, reporting and photography, while her father, Matt, a former New York Daily News reporter, handles editing, typing, layout and printing. (Photo by Matt Lysiak)

In breaking the news of the murder, Hilde not only beat the local newspaper to the punch but also provided video from the scene, Jackman writes. Facebook posters were critical of the story. One wrote, “I think this is appalling that u would do a story like this when all the facts are not in yet," while another wrote, “Does no one realize that this is a 9 year old reporting this type of graphic information! I mean, what parents are encouraging this type of behavior!”

Like any thick-skinned reporter, Hilde isn't too concerned about the criticism, only reporting the news, Jackman writes. She told him, “People thought I should be like playing tea parties or doing something other than being at the crime scene. ... Because of my work, I was able to inform the people that there’s a terrible murder, hours before my competition even got to the scene. In fact some of the adult-run newspapers were reporting the wrong news, or no news at all.”

The Orange Street News, which has a paid subscription of $10, last month "racked up nearly 18,000 page views, driven in part by her investigation of drugs in the middle school," Jackman writes. Hilde told him, “I just like letting people know all the information. It’s just what I really want to do. And crime is definitely my favorite.” She said she learned of the murder story because she 'got a good tip from a source and I was able to confirm it.' Well, that’s how it works." (Best Places map: Selingsgrove) (Read more)

Goodbye to a barn cat: 'It was a strange but very fulfilling relationship'

Donald Gregg with Shadow (undated photo)

Barn cats have long been a staple of rural life, but are less a part of daily life than house cats, because they have their own territory and are usually wary of humans, even those whose property they share. But that doesn't keep them and their human neighbors from forming attachments, perhaps at arm's length but with a certain connection. Such a cat, named Shadow, was the frequent companion of Donald Gregg, the father of John Gregg, news editor of the Valley News in Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. When Shadow died recently, Donald Gregg emailed his family and friends a remembrance, and his son turned it into a Christmas Eve column for the newspaper. Here are exceprts:

Shadow, our feral cat, passed away earlier this month, very peacefully. She had been shutting down for a couple of weeks, eating less and less, and moving with a bit of stiffness. My wife, Meg, and I found her about noon, when we returned from yoga class, lying very gracefully, as though asleep.

The ground was soft, so I was able to dig her grave easily, near a favorite tree she used to scamper up, close to the old play house. . . . A few hours before Shadow died, for some strange reason I remember what we would say as children when on a swing, and we stopped pumping: “Let the old cat die.”

Well, die she did, and the first time I ever picked her up was to lay her in her shroud to be buried.

Shadow, true to her name, has slipped away. It was a strange but very fulfilling relationship. We shall miss her.

Donald Gregg, 88, lives in Westchester County, New York. He was a CIA official, national security adviser and ambassador to South Korea.

8-year-old rural journalist self-publishes monthly newspaper, doesn't shy away from hard news

An eight-year-old girl in rural Selinsgrove in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River Valley is the brains behind a community newspaper that doesn't shy away from covering the hard news in the town of 5,000, Joe Pompeo reports for Columbia Journalism Review. Hilde Lysiak is responsible for all story ideas, writing, reporting and photography for The Orange Street News, a monthly newspaper, while her father, Matt, a former New York Daily News reporter, handles editing, typing, layout and printing. The newspaper's slogan is “All the News Fit For Orange Street," named after the street where the Lysiaks live. (Hilde Lysiak conducting an interview)

"Two hundred copies of each issue are distributed around town in local businesses, like a cafe where Hilde is known to hunker down on deadline with her usual toasted bagel and side of bacon," Pompeo writes. "More than 40 people pay $1 to $2 a year to have Hilde hand-deliver The Orange Street News to their doors, many of whom the Lysiaks had never heard of before subscription letters began arriving in the mail." Hilde also has plans to increase circulation by selling advertising.

"For an industry with an uncertain future, where newspapers and newspaper jobs have been disappearing like a species on the road toward extinction, where 'reporter' tends to rank low on the list of desirable careers, it feels refreshing to see someone so young so interested in journalism," Pompeo writes. "But Hilde isn’t just another precocious kid with a hobby. She attends town meetings. She covers crime without the police department’s cooperation. She shows up at the scenes of breaking news events. Sure, Hilde’s far from being a pro, but she still provides a public service in a town without a dedicated local news outlet."

Hilde, who began the newspaper as a family digest, debuted her four-page, full-color newspaper folded on 11 by 17-inch sheets in December, Pompeo writes. "She caught the journalism bug from her father, watching with awe and excitement as he hustled for New York’s 'hometown newspaper.' She’s drawn to the profession for the same reason lots of reporters are: It’s a license to ask people nosy questions and get them to tell you things." (Best Places map: Selingsgrove)

Hilde isn't afraid to tackle the tough stories, Pompeo writes. "In June, after Hilde’s competitors reported there had been a break-in on Orange Street, Hilde paid a visit to the police station to ask for the address. The cops wouldn’t give it out, so she went knocking on doors until she found the right house. Hilde landed an interview with its resident, who gushed that her dog, Zeus, had saved the day: 'Hero Dog Thwarts Intruder!' Hilde’s headline proclaimed. As for the perpetrator, Hilde dubbed him (or her) 'The Orange Street Bandit.'"

Judging by the front page of the April issue, which reads “Print is dead—at least at Selinsgrove High School,” a career in media reporting might be in store, Pompeo writes. Hilde wrote. “Journalism students at Selinsgrove say they would like a printed paper but there isn’t enough money in the budget.” The young reporter "got tipped to the story when she was at the local cafe talking to a high school girl she’s friendly with. Superintendent Chad Cohrs pushed back, telling Hilde: 'An electronic version can be done more frequently and with more current information than a paper version. For those who still want a paper version, I would suggest they hit the print button on their computers.'”

Hilde told Pompeo, “I just want to do as many issues as possible, and I want to expand. I want more people reading it. I don’t really want to work for a newspaper. I want to do my own. I kind of want it to become as big as the Daily News one day.” Selinsgrove borough president Brian Farrell told Pompeo, “People think it’s cute. As far as being taken seriously or competing with other newspapers, I don’t know if I’d go that far. But hopefully in the future it will. She could turn it into whatever she wants.” Hilde's mother, Bridget, says, “She wants to talk, and she wants to talk about meaningful things." (Read more)

Social media alert pages popping up in rural areas served by weekly newspapers

Rural areas typically only served by a weekly newspaper are seeing an increase in Facebook pages that offer up-to-the-minute local media alerts, Able Allen reports for Mountain Xpress in Asheville. In the past year in rural Western North Carolina, "almost a dozen local alert pages (some with affiliated websites) have cropped up in various rural counties in the region, and some are already attracting followers in numbers comparable to the established print outlets’ circulation figures."

The local shift reflects a national trend, with a Pew Research Center study saying 30 percent of adults say they get their news from Facebook, Allen writes. The difference in rural areas is that the news is localized, mostly concerning traffic, weather, Amber alerts, arrest reports and information about public events and meetings.

Rural North Carolina's rise in localized Facebook news can be attributed to Mitchell County Alerts, created last year by information technology specialist Joe Ferguson, Allen writes. Since its creation, the site has garnered 5,597 followers. That's not bad for a site that covers a county of 15,000.

Ferguson told Allen,“When I first started [Mitchell County Alerts], I didn’t know how the community was going to take it. I did run anonymous for a while, but most people were beginning to figure out that I was doing it anyway . . . With the recession and the way jobs down here in the IT sector are and my inability to find work, I created the page to give myself something to do and keep me from going crazy. I started this as a hobby, and it’s just turned into something that I look at as becoming a job."

Based on the comments on the site, "what people like is its approachability and interactivity," Allen writes. "On June 1, for example, Ferguson posted about a pedestrian struck by a car on N.C. 226. He didn’t provide much information, but someone who claimed to have been at the scene and two self-identified extended family members of the victim left additional details in the comments section." Ferguson told Allen, “Citizens want to be able to know what’s going on in their community when it happens, and they don’t want to have to wait until next Wednesday to read it in the paper—if it shows up in the paper.”

The two local weekly newspapers, The Avery Journal-Times and the Mitchell News-Journal, have little to no online presence and don't view the web pages as a threat, citing unreliable Internet service in the area while calling the sites less credible and reliable than newspapers, Allen writes. But one editor did admit that since Mitchell County Alerts began posting, the Sheriff’s Office has stopped sending complete arrest coverage with photographs, a popular item among readers. (Read more)

Society of Professional Journalists announces winners of Sigma Delta Chi Awards

The winners of the Society of Professional Journalists' 2014 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism have been announced and feature plenty of stories by rural journalists or about ideas important to rural communities.

Newspaper/Wire Service

Winner for Deadline Reporting for non-daily publication went to Ann McCreary and Marcy Stamper of the Methow Valley News for their story about firestorms that raged through the Methow Valley in Northern Washington.

Reuters won for Non-Deadly Reporting for daily circulations of 100,001 or more for its series called "Water's Edge" by Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson, Duff Wilson, Alister Doyle and Bill Tarrant. The series looked at an increase in flooding on the coastline.

Mary Beth Pfeiffer of the Poughkeepsie Journal won for Non-Deadline Reporting for daily circulation 1-50,000 for "Killers & Pain" about painkiller abuse. Also writing about drug abuse, Jeffrey Gerritt of The Blade won for Editorial Writing for daily circulation of 1-100,000, non-daily, for "Prescription: Addiction."

Winner in Investigative Reporting for non-daily publication was The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., for "Pensions in Peril" by Terrie Morgan-Besecker.

Sam Venable of the Knoxville News Sentinel won for Feature Reporting for daily circulations of 50,001 to 100,000 for "Fragments of Hate," a story about an integration pioneer who was shot in East Tennessee just days after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

The Alaska Dispatch News won for Public Service Journalism for daily circulation 50,001 to 100,000 for its series "State of Intoxication: FASD" by Marc Lester, Kyle Hopkins, Patrick Dougherty, Pam Dunlap-Shohl and Anne Raup.

Public Service  Journalism for daily circulation 1-50,000 went to the staff of The Clarion-Ledger for its series "Hard Look at Hard Time," looking at incarceration in Mississippi.

Ashley Powers of The California Sunday Magazine won for Magazine Writing for regional/local circulation for "Their Town," which is about Mormon fundamentalists living on the border of Utah and Arizona.

Consumer Reports won for Public Service in Magazine Journalism for national circulation for “The High Cost of Cheap Chicken” by Christie Aschwanden, Ellen Kunes and Urvashi Rangan.

Radio

Maine Public Broadcasting Network won for Breaking News Reporting in 1-100 market or network syndication for its series “Ebola Healthworker Defies Quarantine,” by Patty Wight, Susan Sharon and Mal Leary.

Breaking News Reporting for 101+ market went to Sandy Hausman, Hawes Spencer and Connie Stevens of WVTF Public Radio at Virginia Tech University for “The Disappearance of Hannah Graham" about the missing University of Virginia student.

Sean Sandefur of KMUW 89.1 in Wichita won for Investigative Reporting in 101+ market for “Dangerous Chemical Invades West Wichita Drinking Water” about private water wells contaminated with chemicals.

Grace Hood, of KUNC-FM in Northern Colorado, won in Feature Reporting in 101+ market for “Finding Soldierstone” about a hidden war memorial in a remote part of the Rio Grande National Forest.

Winner of Documentaries in 101+ market was KBIA 91.3 at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., for “Heartland, Missouri” by Abigail Keel, Ryan Famuliner, Janet Saidi and Casey Morell.

Television

For Breaking News Coverage in small markets KRGV-TV in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, won for “Gun Battle in La Joya, Texas” by staff and Jenny Martinez.

WVUE-TV in  New Orleans for Documentaries, small market for “Holding Officials Accountable” by Lee Zurik, Tom Wright, Jon Turnipseed and Greg Phillips.

Public Service in Television Journalism for small market went to WLTX-TV in Columbia, S.C., for “SCDSS: The System Failed” by Clark Fouraker, Jennifer Bellamy, Darci Strickland and Marybeth Jacoby about the death of a child.

Kate Snow of NBC News won Public Service in Television Journalism for network, syndication or program service for “Hooked: America's Heroin Epidemic.”

Online reporting

Stephen Rynkiewicz, David Craig and Casey Bukro of Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists won for online column writing by an independent source.

Community service gives journalism students a better understanding of their surroundings

Journalism education programs should require students to serve in the community to gain a better understanding of their surroundings, writes Indiana University professor Emily Metzgar for PBS Media Shift. Metzgar requires all her student to perform 20 hours of service work in the community for their final grade.

Emily Metzgar

"For my class, titled Media & Society, students choose to work at one of several local non-profits focused on addressing social issues in the community—including domestic violence, food scarcity, mentoring for at-risk young women, interacting with prisoners, caring for the elderly and serving families in financial crisis," Metzgar writes. "To tie this experience to the rest of the course, students conduct research into media coverage of these issues across media outlets, comparing the messages contained in the coverage with their personal experiences derived from working with those issues up close. In the resulting content analyses, students often find the media coverage to be formulaic, superficial and devoid of input from anyone other than the usual suspects."

"For contemporary journalism education programs, the difficulty lies in ensuring that students acquire necessary professional skills and an appreciation for the democratic norms long associated with the practice of journalism in the United States," Metgar writes. "It is often said that 'information is the currency of democracy.' Surely there’s a place for journalism education in helping to ensure the continued circulation of that currency. Service-learning is one way to combine all these threads."

"Second is the matter of framing, a ubiquitous term employed to describe the lens through which media stories are told," Metzgar writes. "Framing assigns blame for problems, thus signaling whose responsibility it is to address them. Politics may be the 'art of the possible,' but media framing delimits the range of public policy possibilities that are even open for political debate. For journalism students, service-learning can promote awareness of key social issues and give students a chance to judge for themselves how these issues are covered in the media. The hope, of course, is that time spent with service-learning as a journalism student may result in more discerning reporting produced in the future as a working professional."

"Third is the issue of practical experience," Metzgar writes. "Service-learning provides students with tangible insights into how the media function in American society, particularly when it comes to difficult social issues. Service-learning is often students’ first unmediated exposure to issues such as homelessness, incarceration, domestic abuse and food scarcity. Ideally, after exposure to these issues and to people who live with them every day, students will develop a more compassionate attitude toward covering vulnerable populations. This exposure has the potential to compel students to become more involved in their communities beyond the time when it is required for course credit. And that is a public good no matter how one frames it." (Read more)

Metzgar is an academic partner of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

Independent journalist says drones can be used to skirt 'ag-gag' laws and obtain aerial footage

An independent journalist says he has found a way to get around ag-gag laws by using drones to fly "over large livestock operations to document animal welfare problems and pollution," Peggy Lowe reports for NPR. Based in Washington, D.C., Will Potter has raised $75,000 to buy drones and other equipment. He told Lowe, "I was primarily motivated by what's happening outside of those closed doors, but is still invisible and hidden from the public spotlight. In particular, I was motivated by seeing these of farm pollution, of waste lagoons, of sprawling industrial operations."

Agricultural groups are not happy with Potter's plans, Lowe writes. Emily Meredith, a spokeswoman for Animal Agriculture Alliance, a livestock industry group, told Lowe, "It's unfortunate that the media and others see Mr. Potter and other detractors and activists as having more expertise than the folks with their boots on the ground every day, growing and raising our food. It's even more unfortunate that people contribute to campaigns like this on Kickstarter instead of investing in any of the other myriad of worthy causes—including working to end hunger."

It's not clear whether or not using the drones would be against the law, since commercial drone operations remain a contentious subject, Lowe writes. Potter said "he will focus on the states where anti-whistleblower laws are being debated. He pledges to share his findings in an e-book and a short documentary. But Potter admits the drones he plans to deploy won't be able to get the same, close-up footage of livestock operations that groups like Mercy for Animals and the Humane Society obtained through undercover investigations. Instead, he says, he'll focus on showing the magnitude of the operations and the pollution they generate." (Read more)

Crusading, award-winning weekly closes after less than 3½ years when grocery chain cuts weekly ads

The Yancey County News, an award-winning, crusading weekly newspaper in western North Carolina, shut down operations last week after less than four years of service when it lost its main source of advertising, Al Cross reports for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

Jonathan and Susan Austin in Burnsville, N.C.
(Photo: Bill Sanders, Asheville Citizen-Times)

"The weekly newspaper never exceeded a regular circulation of 1,000 but punched above its weight from the get-go, reporting in its first edition about a state investigation of vote-fraud allegations," Cross writes. "Then it analyzed state investigators' records to report that the county had an unusually high number of absentee ballots, many of which were witnessed by employees of the county sheriff’s department and cast by criminal defendants, some of whose charges were then dropped."

"The paper also revealed that the mountain county's chief deputy, the arresting officer in several cases in which the suspects immediately voted and were given leniency, was also pawning county-owned guns for personal gain," Cross writes. "He has resigned and pleaded guilty to failing to discharge his duties."

In just two years and five months of operation, publishers Jonathan and Susan Austin won the Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism, the E.W. Scripps Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment, and the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity from the institute, based at the University of Kentucky. (Read more) The paper's Facebook page is here.

Watchdog Wire asks citizens to audit government sites, report accessibility in Sunshine Week

In honor of Sunshine Week, scheduled March 16-22, Watchdog Wire, part of the conservative Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, is encouraging Americans to get involved in open government through a process that can be used by anyone with Internet access. The organization, which has news sites in many states, wants people to audit their city, county or township websites and send a blog post to Watchdog about how user friendly and transparent the sites are to use. Watchdog will post the responses on their site, and send feedback to local government agencies on behalf of respondents.

"Can you access budgets on your county website, or find contact information for all public officials? Are meeting minutes available? Is there a database of all public spending?" Rachel Swaffer writes for Watchdog Wire. "In our opinion, It’s the 21st century – and this stuff should be online!" Swaffer said the audits are surprisingly easy to conduct, and offers step-by-step instructions on how to use the sites, and what to look for. "Let’s make some noise about the state of government websites in America," Swaffer writes. "Tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly – and we will feature your work on Watchdog Wire." (Read more)

Weekly newspaper tells amazing tale of two hugely successful expatriates who died in the same week

By Al Cross
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

Some of the best stories to be told in rural news media are those of successful expatriates, those who found success elsewhere but built it on the values, experiences and knowledge they gained growing up in small towns. All too often, their inspiring stories are condensed or even ignored in standard obituaries. But when two remarkable expats from a poor Appalachian foothills county of 10,000 people die in the same week, that's a news peg not to be missed, even if it takes a "citizen journalist" to do it.

William Russell Miller

This week's Clinton County News, in my hometown of Albany, Ky., has a 1,500-word tribute written by my brother, attorney David Cross, to William Russell Miller, who was the first African American vice president of a major rubber company, and John G. Woodrum, who became one of the best-known casino and hotel operators in Las Vegas and first ran electricity to the iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, across from his business at the end of the Strip.

John G. Woodrum (Las Vegas Sun photo)

They didn't forget their hometown. Woodrum sponsored three reunions of his high-school class; Miller tried to start a small Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Albany, and after his retirement from the company, established a small factory in the town. "That didn’t work out either, but he tried," my brother writes. "The man who wasn’t allowed to go to high school here [because of segregation] still tried to help his home town, and its people."

He concludes, "Both J.G. Woodrum and Russell Miller used their rural raising in Kentucky as an advantage, not as an escape. They learned how to deal with people, and to appreciate people, big and small, but with a love for the little people. . . . Their success stories, as well as the stories of those who have chosen to return home, should help motivate our young people to see what they too can achieve when they put their mind to it.

"J.G. Woodrum and Russell Miller both came from similar origins: large, poor families that lived at the end of their roads in rural Clinton County. Ironically, both of those roads now bear their family names of Miller Road and Woodrum Road, but those roads were not dead-ends for them. It was the beginning of their separate journeys. They both used it to help them achieve success, and to help others along the way. These are two stories of The American Dream, fulfilled and achieved, by two country boys from Clinton County who never forgot where they came from." (Read more)

Here's stuff for National Newspaper Week, Oct. 6-12

Community newspapers are the lifeline to the heart of a community, reporting about everything from local news and sports to announcements to every small thing in the community that matters most to the people who live and work there. If you grew up in a small community, there's a good chance your name, and sometimes your photo, made it onto the pages of the paper, and you cut it out for safekeeping. To celebrate the importance of newspapers, especially those that serve small communities, Oct. 6-12 is National Newspaper Week. (Cartoon by Charlie Daniel, Knoxville News-Sentinel)

Now in its 73rd year, the event observes the importance of newspapers to communities large and small, according to the National Newspaper Association. This year's theme is “Your Community, Your Newspaper, Your Life." The site has a series of editorial columns about the importance of newspapers, along with editorial cartoons, crossword puzzles, and ads, which newspapers are encouraged to run in celebration of the week. To read more or to view the materials, click here.