News media roundup: How to reach audiences that mistrust the news; media literacy podcast; a fact-checker's toolkit

Six cues used to make snap judgements about whether to trust a news source (Trust in News Project graphic)

Here's some recent news about media literacy, misinformation, and disinformation:

It's possible to reach people who mistrust the news, but you can't just relying on good reporting and writing, according to a recent Trust In News Project study by the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford. Great headlines, graphics, photos, and more are essential too. The study also categorizes six cues audiences use to make snap judgements about which sources to trust (see graphic above). Here's a write-up about the study from Poynter and here's the study itself.

A fact-checker for Snopes discusses how she tells real news from fake and shares the toolkit she and colleagues use. Read more here.

Last year, Illinois became the first state to require all high school students to be taught media literacy skills. NPR podcast "In Case You Missed It" takes a deep dive into why media literacy is an essential skill today, as well as what people need to know who didn't learn about it in school. Listen to it here.

Here's a reminder to consider your source's motives and fact-check outrageous "trends" before reporting: Facebook parent company Meta hired GOP consulting firm Targeted Victory to help turn the public against social-media rival TikTok and draw attention away from Meta's privacy and antitrust issues. The nationwide media and lobbying campaign "includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor," Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell report for The Washington Post. Internal emails obtained by the Post show that the firm wanted to portray "the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society." Facebook has already been under fire for engineering its algorithm to push users toward false and inflammatory news.

Quick hits: Rural hospital guide updated; we keep sorting ourselves into places we find more politically sympathetic

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Rural Health Information Hub has an updated resource guide on rural hospitals. Read it here.

Most small towns in Vermont are limiting big spending this year, partly because they voting by mail-in ballots rather than at their traditional town meetings. Read more here.

Hemp-farm neighbors in Navajo country complain about smell, lights, and water use. Read more here.

The Big Sort continues: Red political districts are getting redder and blue districts are getting bluer; part of that trend comes from people moving to places that align more closely with their political views. Read more here.

Immigrants and refugees are a growing part of small communities across the U.S. Read more here.

Agri-Pulse will host a webinar on March 2 to discuss how data is driving innovation in crop insurance and conservation. Read more here.

A recent podcast discusses young Americans' renewed interest in agriculture in a post-pandemic world. Listen to it here.

Pandemic roundup: Free N95 masks and at-home tests coming soon; rural hospitals overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients; rural kids have a harder time accessing vaccines

Here's a roundup of recent news stories about the pandemic and vaccination efforts:

Rural hospitals are struggling under influx of Covid-19 patients, and say they're having a hard time transferring critical patients to larger hospitals since those are also full. Read more here and here.

Labor and delivery services are already difficult to access for many rural Texans, but many hospitals are considering cutting those services because of staff shortages and exploding Covid-19 case counts. Read more here.

The White House will begin distributing 400 million free N95 masks starting next week. Read more here.

The U.S. Postal Service is taking orders for at-home coronavirus test kits. Each household can order up to four free rapid tests, which will be shipped for free in late January. Delivery will be prioritized to zip codes with high Covid infection and death rates. Read more here.

Rural kids can have a hard time accessing coronavirus vaccinations. Read more here.

Officials are struggling to regulate pop-up coronavirus testing sites, and warn patients to beware of fraudsters. Read more here.

A new podcast from the News Literacy Project discusses the politicization of the pandemic. Listen to it here.

Don't just rely on rapid tests to gather safely. Read more here.

Though the Omicron variant is milder, it's still a huge threat to immunocompromised people. Read more here.

A rural Alabama pharmacy became a frontline in the fight against Covid-19. Read more here.

Quick hits: Carhartt faces boycott over vaccine mandate; lead ammo hurts bald eagles' comeback

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Popular rural brand Carhartt is facing a boycott after the CEO mandated that staff be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Read more here.

The pandemic has been especially devastating to migrant farmworkers. A new state program in North Carolina is trying to improve their broadband access so they can better access vaccines and other community support measures. Read more here.

Rural Californians confront growing risks from extreme weather. Read more here.

A new Slate podcast discusses how JD Vance's political aspirations typify a new strain of conservatism. Listen to it here.

Lead ammo hampers the bald eagle's rebound in the Northeast U.S. Read more here.

Quick hits: Drought reveals 'lost national park' along Colorado River; podcast explores coal in Appalachia

Eric Balken, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, walks through a Colorado River canyon that was filled by Lake Powell until a few years ago, when drought began lowering lake levels. (NPR photo by Claire Harbage)

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A recent Inside Appalachia podcast explores coal's economic and health impacts on Appalachian coal communities. The hosts will also discuss the industry's past and future with regards to labor and climate change, and will talk to Indigenous communities about the future of coal. Listen to it here.

Hunters killed 20 wolves that wandered out of Yellowstone National Park in recent months, the most killed by hunting in one season since wolves were reintroduced to the area more than 25 years ago. The kills mean a "significant setback for the species' long-term viability and for wolf research," park officials said. Read more here.

The megadrought in the West has shrunk Lake Powell so much that it's revealing America's "lost national park," Glen Canyon. Read more here.

Podcast from agricultural lender explores how rural electric cooperatives can equitably develop clean energy

A recent Cobank podcast explored how rural electric cooperatives can best transition to renewable energy sources in an equitable way. Featured guests included Keith Taylor, a Cooperative Extension assistant economic development specialist from the University of California, Davis, and Gabriel Chan, and assistant professor of science, technology and environmental policy at at the University of Minnesota.

They discussed how rural communities could overcome the pricetag problems that come with transition and how co-ops could work with their communities and federal, state and local governments to facilitate the transition.  Listen to the podcast here.

Utilities nationwide are shifting toward renewable energy, but it's happening more slowly in rural areas served by electric cooperatives. Rural co-ops are much more reliant on coal than the average electric providers, partly because it's more difficult to afford the switch and sometimes because member-customers are sometimes more invested in coal as part of the local economy.

Several rural winners are among the Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association

The Radio Television Digital News Association announced on Tuesday its annual Edward R. Murrow Awards. Here are some rural winners and winners who addressed subjects with rural resonance:

West Virginia Public Broadcasting won the award for video by Small Market Radio stations for a story on struggling apple farmers: Despite Increasing Demand, Some W.Va. Apple Farmers Struggle.

WVPB also received the News Documentary award for Grandfamilies of the Opioid Crisis.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX in Emeryville, Calif., received the Podcast award in the Network Radio category for American Rehab, about a drug rehabilitation company that forced patients to work full-time at chicken plants, factories and more—for free.

100 Days in Appalachia received the Hard News award in the Small Digital News Organization category for Framing Domestic Extremism in Appalachia and Beyond.

Vermont Public Radio in Colchester, Vt., received the Feature Reporting award in the Small Market Radio category for Our Moms Have To Talk': Pocket Dial Connects Grieving Moms.

VPR also won for Podcast for Brave Little State.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution won in the Investigative Reporting category for Large Digital News Organizations for The Imperfect Alibi: The forgotten suspect, the DNA and the church murders that haunted a detective, about a murder in rural Georgia.

Winners will be honored at the Murrow Awards Gala on Oct. 27 in New York.

Quick hits: Neighborly listening, getting water to Navajo Nation, fracking effects study, and more

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

"We're rural Democrats and we're trying to listen to our Trumpy neighbors." Read more here.

A Navajo man has launched a program to deliver water to drought-stricken areas of the Navajo Nation. Read more here.

In their new podcast "Sepia Tones," Drs. William Turner and Ted Olson explore Black Appalachian music. Read more here.

An Aug. 11 webinar will educate on black-lung disease, grassroots efforts to address the problem, and ideas for influencing lawmakers on taking action. The webinar is presented by the left-leaning Appalachian Voices. Read more here.

A study correlates the hydraulic-fracturing boom with a rise in rural crime. Read more here.

Podcasts explore how federal rural policy could improve

A new podcast series explores rural policy and how it can be changed for the better. The series is produced by Rural Matters with underwriting and editorial leadership from the Brookings Institution.

Anthony Pipa and Natalie Geismar of the Center for Sustainable Development write: "Through conversations with influential thinkers, practitioners, and policymakers, the series provides a road map for the Biden-Harris administration to reimagine federal policy so that it meets the diverse realities of today’s rural people and places: investing in their leadership and institutions, building on their assets and innovation, and providing their communities an on-ramp for sustained prosperity.

In the first episode, "Reimagining Rural Policy," Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa and Janet Topolsky, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group, draw from Brookings' "Reimagining Rural Policy" report to provide an overview of federal rural policy, which they describe as fragmented and incoherent, and suggest reforms policymakers should consider.

Episode 2, "Federal Policy to Meet the Diversity of Today's Rural America and Tribal Nations," features rural-development experts discussing how policy can be sensitive to diverse rural and tribal communities. Participants are Gbenga Ajilore, a senior advisor in the Agriculture Department's Rural Development section; Kennedy O'Dell, a senior research and policy associate at the Economic Innovation Group; and Erik Stegman, executive director of Native Americans in Philanthropy.

Episode 3, "Capacity Building as Key to Successful Rural Development," explores how the federal government can jump-start equitable rural prosperity by investing in workforce development and encouraging regional collaboration, as well as how it can better leverage development programs through pandemic relief funding. Speakers are Cheryal Hills, executive director of Region 5 Development Commission in Minnesota, and Rob Riley, president of the Northern Forest Center in New England.

Free webinar at 1 p.m. ET Thursday, June 3, will show how rural employers can strengthen local vaccination rates

A National Rural Business Summit webinar on Thursday, June 3, will discuss how major rural employers and small businesses can engage with employees and residents to play a meaningful role in increasing the rural coronavirus vaccination rate. Strategies include sharing fact-based information, sharing personal vaccination stories, and supporting community vaccination efforts.

The free webinar will begin at 1 p.m. ET and is presented by the Rural Assembly in partnership with the Health Action Alliance, The Daily Yonder, the National Rural Health Association, The Rural America Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations. Click here to register.

In related news, a new episode of the Rural Assembly's Everywhere Radio show is all about how to overcome vaccine hesitancy in rural America. Host Whitney Kimball Coe, director of the Rural Assembly, talks with Jeff Eastman, CEO of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit that provides free health care to those in need. Listen to the episode here.

Quick hits: New books explore Dolly Parton's music; new podcast series examines the 1980s farm crisis

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Decades of corporate-friendly farm policies wrecked rural America, writes a retired Wisconsin dairy farmer. Read more here.

Prisons and jails continue to be a major vector for coronavirus transmission. Read more here.

Two new books explore Dolly Parton's music. Read more here.

The agricultural downturn in recent years was seen as the most challenging stretch for the farm economy in decades. Agricultural Economic Insights has launched a new podcast series, "Escaping 1980," that examines the 1980s farm crisis that brought a wave of bankruptcies and reshaped the industry. Listen to the first episodes here.

Though rural areas disproportionately voted for President Trump, most of his voters came from cities and suburbs; rural areas only have about 20% of the nation's population). Read more here.

A new book chronicles a rural Alabama woman's battle to access basic sanitation services, revealing the scope of the problem for many rural residents and the factors that feed the crisis. Read more here.

Podcast explores cracks in the health-care system; first episode discusses closure of rural Kansas hospital

Where It Hurts, a new podcast that kicks off today, explores the growing cracks in America's health-care system that often leave people vulnerable. The first season, "No Mercy," chronicles how Fort Scott, Kansas, a community of about 8,000 on the Missouri border, lost its only hospital, and what happened to the the townspeople after Mercy Hospital Fort Scott closed its doors. 

The podcast is a collaboration between Kaiser Health News and St. Louis Public Radio. "No Mercy" is hosted by KHN's Sarah Jane Tribble, who spent more than a year and a half reporting on the fallout from Fort Scott's hospital closure.

You can find the podcast here, or anywhere else podcasts are available.