A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky.
Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.
State-level bans like Mississippi's can restrict access to the lab-grown dairy industry. (Photo by A. Chaudhary, Unsplash)
Mississippi is the first state to ban lab-grown dairy after passing a bill effective July 1, reports Karen Bohnert for Dairy Herd Management. Lab-grown dairy is "produced through precision fermentation or cell-culturing techniques" and often referred to as "fake milk," Bohnert explains. The bill, HB 1153, requires strict labeling requirements and updated authority to state inspectors to prevent the manufacture, sale and distribution of cell-cultured dairy throughout the state, Bohnert reports.
Lawyers for Reporters, created by the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, is a free resource for American local and public-interest journalism organizations needing legal services, reports Tandy Lau for E&P Magazine. There's a five-person in-house legal team based in New York offering assistance, and they partner with outside counsel for extra support in farther areas. Managing Attorney Kay Murray told E&P they "really guide [journalists] to ensure that they've got the backup to get it right, that they are confident about getting it right [and] that their understanding with their sources is something that everybody is on the same page about." They hope to soon provide more support for investigative reporting and coverage of immigration issues as well. "If I was trying to quantify the value of [Lawyers for Reporter's assistance], it would add up to easily tens of thousands of dollars if not well into the six figures," Warwick Sabin, CEO and president of Deep South Today, told E&P.
A new study found a long-term shift in cancer death trends, with rural areas facing higher cancer death rates than urban areas in recent years, reports Dennis Thompson for U.S. News & World Report. Previously, between 1969 and 1971, “large cities had the highest overall cancer death rates, followed by small- to medium-sized cities.” However, rural areas had the highest rates in 2021 to 2023, and large cities had the lowest rates. Specifically, lung cancer deaths among rural men were 26% lower than city dwellers in 1969 to 1971, but 55% higher in 2021 to 2023. Researchers said the shift and continuously widening gap is “likely driven by limited access to health care, lower cancer screening rates, higher poverty, more smoking and other lifestyle and environmental factors” in rural communities.
In a new social experiment by Matter Neuroscience, two old payphones set up at a nursing home in Nevada and near Boston University allow "zoomers" and "boomers" to call each other from 3,000 miles apart, reports Scottie Andrew for CNN. Designed to help people feel less lonely, this pilot project will last at least a month, according to Matter Neuroscience. "Friendship could come in all ages. Wisdom can come in all forms, and we just want people to get out of their comfort zone and have a conversation," Matter Neuroscience social strategist Calla Kessler said.
GM announced it will be adding a day of factory production to it heavy-duty truck line.
General Motors is increasing its heavy-duty truck production, as consumer demand remains strong despite rising gas and diesel prices, reports Christopher Otts for The Wall Street Journal. GM's Flint Assembly plant in Michigan will operate six days a week now, rather than five, producing more heavy-duty versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, Otts reports. Workers will be "mandated into overtime hours to cover the additional day of production," explains Otts. As gas prices have risen by about one-third since the beginning of the Iran war, GM's stock has declined about 10% so far this year, and forecasters predict new-vehicle sales to fall 6.5% in the first quarter.
Report for America, the national service program that places early-career and experienced journalists and photographers in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities, is accepting applications for new corps members.
The application deadline is Feb. 16, with references due by Feb. 23. The upcoming program start date is July 13. Apply here.
If you are passionate about service-minded journalism, you might be a good fit for one of RFA's 70 journalism positions open in newsrooms of all types, including digital startups, daily and weekly newspapers, and radio and TV stations. An interactive database of their openings, newsrooms and reporting beats is found here.
Report for America is a two-year program, with an optional third year. Their members are part of a national movement to strengthen communities and democracy through truthful, fair local journalism.
Answers to commonly asked questions can be found by reading FAQs. Contact the Report for America recruitment team at recruitment@reportforamerica.org.
Some younger journalists worry that rural newsrooms might be too conservative for them. (Adobe Stock photo)
Gen Z journalists may be steered away from rural newsrooms due to a lack of knowledge in jobs available, as well as concerns of salary, politics, social life and career advancement potential, according to a new study involving students in the United States and Canada.
To examine why students in their late teens to early 20s are not attracted to working in rural areas, journalism professor Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas and instructor Tyler Nagel of Southern Alberta Institute of Technology surveyed 183 of their local mass communication students to ask how they felt about the possibility of reporting in rural communities, writes Tandy Lau for E&P Magazine.
Shared below is a Q&A on why some students who were surveyed find reporting in rural areas to be unappealing and what newsrooms may be able to do to attract younger journalists.
Q: Why aren’t more journalist students aware of available jobs in rural areas? A: Some journalism schools are only teaching their students about journalism at a national level and not providing the context of journalism at a rural level. Eighty percent of Kansas respondents said they had not been taught about rural journalism in their classes at all, so they didn’t know what jobs there are available.
Q: Why are students concerned about salary? A: While rural newsrooms often have a lower cost of living, students still have financial concerns. The Kansas respondents said they face student debt while the Canadian respondents face a current housing crisis.
Q: Why might students be concerned about politics? A: Kansas students, particularly those with diverse backgrounds, responded they fear not being welcomed in rural communities due to polarizing politics and rural areas leaning red.
Q: How can rural newsrooms combat concerns of a lack of social life and career advancement opportunities? A: Communicating with young journalists still in school is key in opening rural opportunities for them. Modernizing job descriptions, communicating opportunities to grow into leadership roles, creating a network for young journalists to socialize, and incentivizing the possibility of taking over a rural paper are a few of the recommendations by Finneman and Nagel after conducting their study.
A team of former Wall Street Journal employees is helping “small legacy and start-up news organizations around the country whose news teams have been depleted by shrinking revenue and cutbacks,” reports Jeff Rowe in the Connecting newsletter, which is distributed to many former and current Associated Press employees, and other journalists.
According to Rowe’s report: “Dubbed Pro News Coaches (PNC), the WSJ alums currently are at work in eight small news organizations scattered around the nation. The Journal alums typically help young reporters and their editors plan stories, conceive and manage projects, and edit. Journal alums are coaching in, among other places, Olney, Texas, Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and Signal Hill, California.”
“PNC offers its initial coaching services free but intends to segue into collecting modest fees,” Rowe reports. “PNC is based in New York but has no connection with The Wall Street Journal or its parent News Corp. Most of the coaching is done via Zoom, phone calls or email . . . .”
The support comes at a time when the number of journalists in U.S. newsrooms is in sharp decline. According to the 2023 State of Local News Report by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, “Newspapers are continuing to vanish at an average rate of more than two a week. Since 2005, the country has lost almost 2,900 newspapers, including more than 130 confirmed closings or mergers over the past year. All but about 100 were weeklies, which are often the sole provider of local news in small and mid-sized communities.”
Sunshine Week begins this Sunday, March 10, with multiple ways to highlight how journalists support open government as watchdogs and First Amendment advocates. As Americans face another election cycle, it's an impactful time to remind all citizens that good reporting dynamically supports our democratic process.
Among Sunshine Week's tools, are a social media kit, logos, and timely promotions. If you are writing a news story, editorial or column about freedom of information, tips from the Society of Professional Journalists are also available.
The week's offerings include in-person and online events and activities, including a Sunshine kick-off by the Department of Justice and a panel discussion to raise awareness of Sunshine Laws sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kansas City/Jackson-Clay-Platte Counties.
Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors, now the News Leaders Association. This year's events are supported by a growing list of partners, including Brechner Freedom of Information Project, Muckrock, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association.
A screenshot from security-camera footage shows one of the vandals. (Middlesex County District Attorney/YouTube via WBUR)
After a year-long federal investigation, "Three New Hampshire men have been charged in connection with a conspiracy to harass and intimidate two New Hampshire Public Radio journalists — incidents that allegedly involved repeated threats and vandalism to their homes over a year ago," reports Roberta Baker of the New Hampshire Union Leader. "Tucker Cockerline, 32, of Salem, Michael Waselchuck, 35, of Seabrook, and Keenan Saniatan, 36, of Nashua conspired to commit stalking through interstate travel."
Anthony Brooks of Boston's WBUR reports: "The case dates back to late April 2022, when a series of vandalism attacks began on the homes of journalist Lauren Chooljian of NHPR, her parents and her editor, Dan Barrick. In one of the attacks, Chooljian arrived at her home and discovered that a brick had been thrown through a front window. An apparent warning was spray painted in big red letters on her house: 'JUST THE BEGINNING!'. . . Similar attacks were made on Barrick's home and on Chooljian's parents' home. . . . Vandals also threw bricks through their windows and spray-painted profanities on the buildings."
Before the attacks, NHPR published a story by Chooljian "on allegations of sexual misconduct by Eric Spofford, founder of an extensive network of addiction rehabilitation centers in New Hampshire," Baker reports. Brooks noted, "According to Chooljian's reporting, since 2019, the state of New Hampshire has awarded Granite Recovery Centers, which Spofford founded and later sold, more than $3 million in no-bid contracts."
Spofford has denied any connection to the vandalism, but the indictment "refers to him as 'Subject 1' and alleges that an associate of his recruited at least two of the suspects to initiate the vandalism," Brooks reports. "According to the complaint, federal investigators concluded 'there is probable cause to believe that the vandalisms were retaliatory acts intended to harass and intimidate NHPR and its employees.' The complaint does not say if Spofford is or has been a target of the investigation. . . . NHPR has released a podcast, 'The 13th Step,' about the entire Spofford saga. The threats against the journalists have drawn national attention."
"Federal investigators spent more than a year putting the case together before making the arrests. . . . They tracked the use of Google searches by the suspects to determine that the attackers allegedly hunted for the homes of the journalists and their family members," Brooks reports. "Investigators also used cell phone records of the suspects to place them near the homes that were vandalized. Jim Schachter, chief executive of NHPR, told Brooks, "Journalists doing their jobs, reporting open-mindedly in the public interest, should not have to worry about threats of violence or attacks on their homes and their families."
"Last year, Spofford sued NHPR for defamation after Chooljian's investigation of his alleged misconduct was published," Brooks notes. "Cockerline's and Waselchuck's next hearing is scheduled for June 20. . . . Saniatan remains at large."
