Program finalized for National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, July 7; hotel deadline extended one week

The program for the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, July 7 in Lexington, Ky., and online, includes some of the latest research on rural journalism; and the experiences of some successful rural publishers and start-ups, both digital and print; philanthropy for rural jouranalism; efforts to change state policies to help local news; and university programs to fill gaps in local news coverage.

The summit will be a hybrid event, but most presenters will appear in person. Registration is free, and required; register here. The summit will be held at the Campbell House Curio Hotel, 10 minutes from the Lexington airport. A block of rooms at $139 per night has been extended to Friday, June 30.

The summit is sponsored by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog) at the University of Kentucky. Here's a closer look at the program:

The state of rural newspapers and the rise of ghost newspapers: Zachary Metzger, Northwestern University, will report on the latest data in the Medill School's continuing State of Local News study.

Rural publishers’ and readers’ views of alternate-revenue models: Nick Mathews, University of Missouri, will report on a study he did with Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas and Pat Ferrucci of the University of Colorado, which included an ongoing intervention with rural papers.

What it's like to be the subject in an alternate-revenue research experiment: Joey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures, partner in the interventional research, will give his perspective on the study.

What rural publishers think about the future: Ross McDuffie, chief portfolio officer of the National Trust for Local News, will report on a survey of rural publishers that is now in the field.

Finding alternative-revenue success at a twice-weekly: David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot in Southern Pines, N.C., will explain how his newspaper has broadened its revenue base.

Finding alternative-revenue success at a small daily: Jack Rooney, The Keene Sentinel, Keene, N.H., will do likewise, following up on the Sentinel's presentation at last year's summit.

Reviving Gannett ghosts: Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media, owner of many former Gannett Co. papers, discusses the difficulty of reviving rural newspapers that lost most of their circulation and revenue under ownership of the nation's largest chain.

Rural journalism as a community builder: Bonita Robertson-Hardy, co-executive director, of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, will discuss how accurate narratives, including high-quality journalism, help build trust and advance equitable rural prosperity.

Philanthropy for local news: Duc Luu, a jouralism officer at the Knight Foundation, moderates a panel with Richard Young of CivicLex, a local digital startup that focuses on local government and civil society; and Lillian Ruiz of Ci-X Strategies, which helps develop thriving public squares that communicate harmony, resilience and cohesion.

Broader rural news: Tim Marema, editor of The Daily Yonder, and Alana Rocha, editor of the Institite for Nonprofit News’s Rural News Network, will discuss how their online platforms bring a focus to broader rural issues and topics by exploring local examples.

Solutions journalism: Mary Steurer, government reporter for the Casper Star-Tribune, will discuss will for solutions-journalism reporting projects and beats in rural news deserts that have few existing resources. as well as ideas on how solutions journalism can be used to build trust in rural communities. Also participating: Melissa Cassutt, rural media manager of the Solutions Journalism Network.

Turning readers into correspondents and reporters: Lindsey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures will discuss "Earn Your Press Pass," a program that she developed and is being used by state newspaper associations to help newspapers members fill gaps in local reporting.

Digital start-ups going against chain-owned small dailies: The experiences of Lynne Campbell of the Community News Brief in Macomb, Ill.; Jennifer P. Brown of the Hoptown Chronicle in Hopkinsville, Ky.; Debra Tobin of the Logan-Hocking Times in Logan, Ohio; and Nicole DeCriscio Bowe, who is just starting The Owen News in Spencer, Ind.

Seeking state policies to help local journalism: Anna Brugmann, director of policy at the Rebuild Local News Coalition, will discuss how it has turned its attention to state governments, and report on some legislative successes, including a tax break in Washington state and California House passage of a bill that would require tech platforms to give publishers money to hire journalists.

Retreating to Facebook: What do you do when you publish one of the best small weeklies in America but have reached a turnign point in life and have to give up printing your newspaper? Laurie Ezzell Brown of The Canadian Record in Texas and Ryan Craig of the Todd County Standard in Kentucky talked about how they still report on Facebook, and Craig reports on his growing audience. 

Bringing students into communities to report local news: Richard Watts of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont moderates a panel with Alan Miller of Denison University in central Ohio and Christopher Drew of Louisiana State University.

Maintaining and growing print circulation: Patrick Schless of the Lewis County Press's Community Journalism Project says, "Strengthening community newspapers starts with print first; it is what the staff believe in, what the current subscribers know, and what the small-town advertisers understand." He's working with 70 rural papers to strengthen print product while building a bridge to a hybrid future.

Where do we go from here? Concluding roundtable, moderated by Benjy Hamm, incoming director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

The day will conclude with a cash-bar reception and optional dinner, which carries a $50 fee. The rest of the day is free of charge, thanks to the Institute and its parent units: the UK School of Journalism and Media and the College of Communication and Information.

CherryRoad Media CEO Jeremy Gulban added to program of rural journalism summit; hotel deadline is next Friday

Speakers are still being added to the program of the third National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be held July 7 in Lexington, Ky., and online. Registration is required, but is free, here.

The latest addition is Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media, which started in 2020 but already owns almost 80 newspapers, most of them bought from Gannett Co., which "had really run them into the ground," so much that it's proving hard to build circulation and reveue, he told us this week. Gulban said he will talk about experiments he is starting next week in some of his markets.

Gulban will join a wide range of news-industry professionals, academic researchers and instructors, journalism funders, and community developers who realize that communities need local journalism. The program includes:

• A discussion of journalism innovation and alternative revenue, by Jack Rooney, managing editor for audience development of The Keene Sentinel, a small daily in New Hampshire, and David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot, a twice-weekly in Southern Pines, N.C.;
• The latest figures on news deserts and ghost newspapers, with a rural angle, from Zachary Metzger, a researcher at the Medill School at Northwestern University;
• Presentation of research about community engagement and an experiment in new business models for local journalism by Nick Mathews of the University of Missouri;
• A publisher's perspective on that ongoing experiment in engagement and new business models, from Joey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures in Hillsboro, Kan.;
• A discussion of how to use citizens as news correspondents, including Lynne Campbell of the Community News Brief in Macomb, Ill., and Lindsey Young of KPV, developer of the training program "Earn Your Press Pass;"
• A discussion of philanthropy for rural journalism, led by Duc Luu, journalism officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation;
• The latest on advocacy of government policies at the state level to help sustain local journalism, from Anna Brugmann of the Rebuild Local News Coalition;
• A presentation on community building and engagement from the Community Strategies Group of The Aspen Institute;
• Debra Tobin, owner and editor of the Logan-Hocking Times in southeast Ohio, which has a business model that may be unique: an online startup that added a free weekly print edition to serve residents of rural Hocking County who aren't online.
• What it's like to stop printing a newspaper and move it to Facebook, from two award-winning rural publishers who felt they had to do that: Laurie Brown of The Canadian Record in Texas and Ryan Craig of the Todd County Standard in Kentucky;
• A discussion of how university journalism programs can fill gaps in local news coverage, led by Richard Watts of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont, with Alan Miller of Denison University in Ohio and Chris Drew of Louisiana State University;
• A presentation from Melissa Cassutt of the Solutions Journalism Network and one of its partners, Casper Star-Tribune government reporter Mary Steurer; 
• Reports on rural start-ups, including Jennifer P. Brown of the Hoptown Chronicle in Hopkinsville, Ky., and Nicole DeCriscio Bowe, who has local foundation support for her start-up in Spencer, Ind.;
• A discussion of broader rural news coverage, from The Daily Yonder and Alana Rocha of the Institute for Nonprofit News's Rural News Network;
• A concluding roundtable led by Benjy Hamm, incoming director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, sponsor of the Summit (and publisher of The Rural Blog).

The institute's research question for this year's Summit is the same as last year's, "How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports democracy?" We expect more answers!

The Summit will be held at The Campbell House Curio hotel on US 68 in Lexington, the same highway that took attendees to the second Summit last June, but this time much closer to Blue Grass Airport. A limited block of rooms is available at $139 per night, through next Friday, June 23. For registration and hotel information, click here.

Advancing Democracy Fellowship applications due Feb. 14

Are you a journalist who wants to shift from conflict-focused coverage to stories that reflect the needs of people in your community and offer solutions to problems? You're invited to apply for the Advancing Democracy Fellowship through Feb. 14.

This joint initiative from Hearken, the Solutions Journalism Network and Trusting News is designed to "equip newsroom-based journalists to transform their coverage of democracy through solutions-focused reporting that builds trust and avoids polarization," SJN says.

This is the second year of the fellowship. SJN and Hearken say, "We are inviting 20 U.S.-based newsroom teams of at least one reporter and one editor to join this adventure. This fellowship is for U.S.-based newsrooms only and preference will be given to newsrooms in the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin), as well as those in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. We anticipate newsrooms from outside of these states will also be chosen. Newsrooms serving and led by historically excluded communities are strongly encouraged to apply."

SJN says, "The program includes a modest stipend, along with training and resources that support innovative news coverage focused on promising responses to our democracy’s challenges in ways that build civic engagement, equity and healthy discourse."

You can apply here. To ask questions, contact Jaisal Noor at jaisal@solutionsjournalism.org.

SJN says it is "leading a global shift in journalism, focused on what the news misses most often: how people are trying to solve problems and what we can learn from their successes or failures. Since its founding in 2013, more than 600 news organizations and over 27,000 journalists worldwide have engaged with SJN’s in-person workshops, online resources, collaboratives, fellowships and cohorts.

"Hearken helps organizations embed stakeholder listening into their growth and operations to build more resilient companies and communities. Hearken has shown that listening leads to stronger relationships, deeper engagement and better decisions, and enables individuals to make an outsize positive impact in the world. In 2020, Hearken worked in collaboration with more than two dozen civic organizations (including SJN) to stand up and deliver Election SOS, which supported journalists in responding to critical election information needs.

"Trusting News learns how people decide what news to trust and turns that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. Its staff trains and empowers journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. In a continual cycle of research, learning and sharing with the industry, Trusting News explores how to incorporate trust-building into journalism’s standards and practices."

News-media roundup: Oregon paper closes; broadcasters worry about police radio encryption; others should too

UPDATE, Jan. 31: Newspapers from other Oregon towns are now in "an old-fashioned newspaper war" to serve Jackson County, reports Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times.

Jackson County is on the California border. (Google map)

The Medford Mail-Tribune, which went digital-only last fall, announced Wednesday that Friday would be its last day of publication. "The Mail Tribune’s closure will result in a dramatic loss of news coverage for the biggest population center in southern Oregon. Jackson County, where Medford is the county seat, is home to nearly 224,000," The Oregonian reports. "Travis Moore, publisher of the Daily Courier, a newspaper serving Grants Pass and the surrounding area, said Wednesday that his company would move to hire some Mail Tribune journalists and expand its coverage in nearby Jackson County."

UPDATE, Jan. 17: Medford's KDRV updates its audience on the Courier's plans.

"Police departments across the country are encrypting their radio scanner communications with an increased and frightening urgency," the Radio Television Digital News Association tells its members. "Though encryption is not a new issue, it is rapidly accelerating . . . These encryption policies look different from department to department — with some opting for a delayed release of information, others decrypting for media personnel, and many choosing to encrypt communications entirely. Was there a moment where your lack of access to radio communications led to a loss of real-time information sharing? Has your newsroom been impacted by scanner encryption? Why is it important to keep this resource available to the public, including journalists? Help us build our case by sharing your newsroom’s experience with encryption. Read more about police encryption and RTDNA's approach here."

PR for journalism: “Even if the media industry takes urgent steps like diversifying newsrooms and empowering local media, the populist media bashing won’t go away. Ignoring it is not a sustainable way forward,” Cambridge University Ph.D. student Ayala Panievsky writes for Nieman Lab. “Journalists must start campainging for journalism. . . . promote and explain journalism as a flawed-yet-necessary social institution. As media-savvy journalists should know, vague arguments about 'saving democracy' or 'checks and balances' won’t do; they’re too abstract and carry little sentimental resonance for many.”

Seek solutions: "It is not enough for stories to expose problems to societal problems; they should explore how people tackle those problems," Lauren Kessler writes for Nieman Storyboard, promoting the concept of solutions journalism, as defined by the Solutions Journalism Project: “rigorous, evidence-based reporting on the responses to social problems,” the mission of which is “to transform journalism so that all people have access to news that helps them envision and build a more equitable world.” Or, as the late Molly Ivins said, “Listen to the people who are talking about how to fix what’s wrong, not the ones who just work people into a snit over the problems. Listen to the people who have ideas about how to fix things, not the ones who just blame others.”

Constructive Institute table, adapted by The Rural Blog, shows forms of journalism and their differences.

New business models for newspapers are emerging in non-metropolitan and small metro areas, Northwestern reports

New business models for newspapers are emerging in "improbable" places, Tim Franklin writes in the latest installment of The State of Local News 2022 report from Northwestern University.

Richland County (Wikipedia map, adapted)

Franklin's first object example is Richland County, Ohio, center of the Mansfield metropolitan area but "a mostly rural enclave." Some may question that use of "rural," but its characteristics are similar to most rural places in the U.S.: "The median household income and the percentage of adults with college degrees are well below the national average. Richland also lags the rest of the country in broadband internet penetration."

Nevertheless, the county has "one of the more successful local, for-profit digital news startups of the past decade," Franklin reports. "The Richland Source is defying the odds of its demographic deficits and has found a profitable journalistic niche in a community of 125,000 residents that is also home to two local dailies and a weekly newspaper. The Source’s financial elixir is a committed local ownership, a highly diversified revenue stream, a clearly defined editorial mission focused on solutions journalism, a cost structure unburdened by legacy print and award-winning journalism."

He adds later, "Other examples include The Pilot, a hundred-year-old twice-weekly newspaper in central North Carolina that serves a community of similar size to Richland County, and the Shawnee Mission Post, in the suburbs of Kansas City. The common characteristics of all three are local owners who are invested in both the news outlets and the markets where they are located. They have developed business models that stress diversified revenues sources, a laser-like focus on readers’ needs and behaviors, high-touch engagement with the community and trustworthy journalism."

The owner of the Richland Source says 27 percent of its revenue comes from marketing services for "brands throughout the U.S.," and philanthropy (three national funders are cited) provides 21%. Advertising accounts for 35% and 1,100 reader memberships 17%. "On its news side, the Source is differentiating itself by practicing solutions journalism, a rigorous form of reporting that explores both community problems and potential answers. The Source also has adopted tools in which readers can easily submit questions and story ideas," Franklin writes. "As a result, the Source’s website says, stories on the home page are typically about "progress, entertaining events, and the accomplishments of people, organizations and businesses in our area'."

This newspaper produces just
26% of its company's revenue.

Pilot Publisher David Woronoff "is demonstrating how legacy newspapers in mid-sized communities can also transform themselves," Franklin writes. Woronoff "created and acquired a statewide business magazine and four lifestyle magazines – of which three are in the largest cities in the state – that now make up the majority of his company’s revenue. Buying and operating the local independent bookstore provides both new revenue and a way to directly engage with residents in his community. He also established a full-service, in-house marketing agency, and even published phone directories. Now, The Pilot news organization represents just 26 percent of his company’s total revenue." Moore County's population is 100,000.

These and other examples "illustrate how the local news ecosystem in the U.S. has entered a phase of robust experimentation," writes Franklin, senior associate dean of the Medill School of Journalism and director of its Local News Initiative. "At the same time, however, the unabated loss of local newspapers in the U.S. is a shrill-sounding alarm about the urgency to reinvent the local news business model. Indeed, the continuing secular declines in print, combined with high inflation and weakening consumer demand, could further accelerate the loss of local news in the U.S. in coming months."

Donations and grants are playing a major role in sustaining local journalism in New Hampshire, its newspapers report

Lauren McKown, vice president of development for The GroundTruth
Project, home of Report for America, keynoted the event. (YouTube)

Philanthropy is playing a leading role in sustaining journalism in the Granite State, it was made clear this month at the New Hampshire News Philanthropy Summit at Saint Anselm College.

"Many news organizations are forging partnerships with community donors in order to sustain local journalism into the future and underwrite in-depth coverage of important issues facing our communities and the state," reports Roberta Baker of the Concord Monitor, which pays two its five reporters through donations. Her publisher, Steve Leone, vice president of Newspapers of New England, said at the summit, “I believe developing new ways to fund journalism will be key to ensuring its sustainability.”

Funding from grants and donors has enabled the Granite State News Collaborative, a collection of freelancers about 20 news outlets, to produce about 650 in-depth, investigative, solutions-focused stories since March 2020, said its director, Melanie Plenda. “Media outlets across the state that used to compete with each other for ads and eyeballs are now actually co-reporting and sharing articles with each other for distribution, all so that our communities have more of what they need.”

News outlets are getting grants with the help of The Loeb School, a Manchester-based non-profit dedicated to preserving freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Examples include the Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab at the Keene Sentinel and “The Sunshine Project” and “Voices” at the Laconia Daily Sun. “A lot of us have built (grant funding) into our business model,” said Mike Cote, managing editor for news and business at the Manchester Union Leader, which has six reporters. “The hardest part is keeping the momentum going. A lot of people don’t realize how small our newsrooms have become.”

Terrence Williams

Sentinel CEO Terrence Williams said it’s important to have reporting address community needs and find funders with “unity of purpose.” Sentinel listening sessions identified problems with health-care access, costs and depth of care, sparking creation of the Health Lab and defining its coverage, he said. "The Sentinel recently hired a statehouse reporter through crowd funding," Baker reports. "Two more philanthropy-supported reporters are starting at the end of May." Williams will be among the speakers at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be telecast on You Tube June 3 and 4.

Journalists and funders said the pandemic and the divisive political climate boosted demand for trustworthy coverage, Baker reports from the May 12 event, which can be viewed here on YouTube.

Quick hits: Church sues town over new limits on days for feeding hungry; new resources on rural hunger for journalists

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 church in rural Oregon is suing the town over a new local ordinance restricting how many times a week the church can give free meals to the needy. Read more here.

The Rural Health Information Hub has updated its resource guide for journalists for rural hunger and access to healthy food. Read more here.

The chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court says she'd like to see more programs encouraging lawyers to live and practice in rural Iowa. Student loan debt is an impediment to that, she noted. Read more here.

Mayfield, Ky., faces long-term psychological damage from the recent tornado. Read more here.

Rural adults are more likely to be pessimistic about cancer and feel overwhelmed by information about cancer prevention, a new study shows. Read more here.

News consumers, bummed and burned, tune out; get them back with journalism that offers solutions to problems

With so much depressing news these days, it's little surprise that many people avoid the news altogether. "Almost a third of people surveyed worldwide for the Reuters Digital News Report said they 'often or sometimes' avoid the news," Christine Schmidt reports for Harvard University's Nieman Lab. "The leading cause for Americans avoiding news in 2017 was 'It can have a negative effect on my mood' (57%) and 'I can’t rely on news to be true' (35%). Basically, we are bumming — and burning — people out."

Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton recently shared quotes from Americans on why they avoid news and said it's clear that, when journalists write about big problems, they should also present potential solutions. 

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for Media Engagement analyzed how solutions journalism can best do this. They recommend including five specific elements in such articles:

• Problem: The causes and symptoms of the issue
• Solution: The replicable ideas tied to solving the problem
• Implementation: The how-to details of putting the solution into action
• Results: The progress, data-based or anecdotal, that has been made in working toward a solution
• Insights: The teachable, big-picture lessons that can be learned beyond one particular solution or situation

Paper in New Hampshire is applying conflict-mediation skills to increasingly irate submissions of opinion-page content

Sperling's Best Places map

The increasing animosity of opinion content submissions has prompted the Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, N.H., pop. 16,581, to make some innovative changes over the past year in an attempt to increase local civility and bridge political divides.

The paper began considering the issue seriously after a well-known local candidate submitted a letter denying that the Holocaust had happened. The paper's founder, Ed Engler, had established a tradition of printing almost every letter to the editor he received as a means of elevating local discourse. After much discussion, the paper's leadership decided to print the letter, triggering widespread outrage. "It was painful evidence that Engler’s commitment to publishing as many letters as possible was no longer advancing a healthy dialogue among readers, if it ever had," Digital Editor Julie Hart writes for the American Press Institute.

About the same time, the paper won a grant from the nonprofit Endowment for Health to explore how civil discourse affected community health. It allowed the Sun to hire a new "solutions journalism" reporter who would write only about the critical issues facing the community as well as how other communities (or groups within the community) were addressing the issues, Hart reports. 

The Solutions Journalism Network trained the paper in practices such as "looping," an active-listening technique in which one person restates—without opinion—what they heard from their conversational partner, Hart reports. Editors at the paper realized looping could help with their opinion-page problem after two regular letter writers, who hold opposing political views, had lunch one day and heard each other out, Hart reports. They co-wrote a letter to the editor sharing what they discovered when they focused on listening instead of trying to change the other's mind.

Managing Editor Roger Carroll and others at the paper were "encouraged by the civility we’d seen when the writers came out from behind their names on a page and had a discussion face-to-face," Hart reports. The editorial staff and SJN staff decided to co-host a virtual roundtable discussion in May with frequent letters to the editor writers, instructing participants in the looping technique to help them listen while withholding judgment. "The group told us they learned a lot, and saw how these tactics could aid them in communicating more constructively in their contributed content," Hart writes.

The Daily Sun is still tinkering with its opinion page. It recently decided to stop printing all political cartoons and are using the space for local commentary. "We continued to re-evaluate our opinion pages, establishing guidelines around length, topic and frequency of contributions that are meant to focus the content on issues of public interest instead of personal attacks on other writers," Hart writes. "We published a policy that encouraged contributors to write in the third person, rather than take personal potshots in the second person, as too often happened."

The paper still believes printing letters serves a valuable function for the community, especially with the changes they've made. At the very least, the staff hopes hope to provide an opportunity for people to read constructively stated viewpoints from people who disagree with them, Hart writes.

"For other small papers considering changing the format of their opinion pages, consider ways to model constructive dialogue between groups in your community," Hart writes. "Maybe that means changing your editorial submission guidelines, offering training in looping, or dedicating your opinion section to local issues and reducing national political content."

Community engagement project enlists 42 Ohio newsrooms

At a Your Voice Ohio event (Jefferson Center photo)

Some 42 newsrooms across Ohio are participating in a community engagement project called Your Voice Ohio that was conceived during the 2016 election season. The Jefferson Center, a nonprofit that tries to help citizens become more informed and participate in democracy, held three events with eight news-media partners. "Reporters met with citizens in northeast Ohio to find out the ways in which people wanted the election and the candidates to be covered and how they expected news organizations to provide them with information," Mădălina Ciobanu reports for Journalism.co.uk.

After the election, Jefferson Center Program Director Andrew Rockaway told Ciobanu that Ohio news organizations saw the events and realized they needed to listen more to voters and find out why they felt the way they felt.

Funded by the Democracy Fund and the Knight Foundation, Your Voice Ohio aims to do exactly that, with partners in urban and rural areas. The first and only topic so far is the opioid epidemic, since newsrooms and readers are frustrated with the glut of overdose stories. "We wanted to shift that narrative a little bit to think about what information people really need, and what are some solutions or ideas that can shift this coverage so it's not just the negative impact, but also what we can actually do about it," Rockaway told Ciobanu. (In the coming months, the project will expand to another subject: the future of Ohio's economy.)

The project has held eight community conversations, each lasting about two hours and attracting 100 to 120 people. Participants break into groups of five or six, with a reporter at each table, and share what the opioid epidemic looks like in their community, what they see as the cause of the epidemic in their community, and what steps they could take to fight it.

Project coordinators research topics that come from those discussions, and plan to use platforms such as Hearken and GroundSource soon to reach out to people who are less likely to attend events but still have something to say. "The aim is to find out what best practices and solutions are being employed in other communities around the world and collect them into databases that can be used to develop a solutions-focused approach to reporting on the opioid crisis," Rockaway said.

Reporting package on rape in Okla. up for Scripps Howard award for community journalism; announcement today

Tulsa-based digital newspaper The Frontier is in the running for a Scripps Howard Award for its five-part series "Shadow Land: How rape stays hidden in Oklahoma."

The Frontier's year-long investigation uncovered "a war within a war that requires some victims to fight for their own justice while government and private agencies fight for money, personnel and proven training methods to assist victims," Mary Hargrove and Kassie McClung report. "Victims can fall prey to overworked nurses, police and prosecutors in rural counties who do not have the time, training or manpower to thoroughly investigate. And their cases die."

Oklahoma's shortcomings are reflected in most states, and so are the possible solutions, Hargrove and McClung report.

The other two finalists in the Community Journalism category are "Home Sick" by the Capital News Service of the University of Maryland and "Addicted at Birth" by the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol, Va., noted on The Rural Blog yesterday. All the award winners will be announced at 2 p.m. today.

Journalists explore ways to serve and connect with their communities in politically polarized times

Carolyn Powers of Internews listens to Lee Bratcher, who runs The Ohio County Monitor,
an online news outlet in Western Kentucky, during a workshop Friday in Bowling Green.

By Jennifer P. Brown
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

Community journalists who want to report stories that help build trust with readers and listeners, while also addressing political polarization, can find help from the non-profit organization Solutions Journalism, which offers free training to newsrooms.

"We didn't invent this. We basically put a structure around this idea," Carolyn Robinson told a few dozen participants at a workshop stemming from the "From Polarization to Public Sphere" study, a project of Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism. The researchers are Andrea Wenzel, a journalism professor at Temple University, and Sam Ford, an independent media consultant and research fellow at MIT who teaches at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, where Friday's workshop was held.

The researchers recommend Solutions Journalism as one approach to bridge the gap that result from political polarization.

Solutions Journalism puts problem-solving at the center of a story, Robinson explained. For example, a story about the difficulty freed prisoners have in re-entering public life would focus on successful programs and why they work, not just the failures of the system.

Robinson said news consumers complain they are overwhelmed with reports that focus on negative aspects of American life, and "We can't afford to have people tuning out." She said journalists who focus on solutions are "guide dogs" rather than "watchdogs."

Also presenting ideas at the workshop in were Jeremy Hay, co-founder of Spaceship Media, and Carolyn Powers of Internews.

Spaceship Media was established after the 2016 election. Its projects create space for people with opposing political views to have a sustained conversation. One example was a two-month discussion via a private Facebook group between 15 women who voted for Donald Trump and 15 who voted for Hillary Clinton.

Internews helps train journalists to understand their communities and get beyond stereotypical reporting. One effort is the Listening Post Collective, which gets newsrooms involved with their communities and spurs interaction with people whose stories help explain how a community works.

"From Polarization to Public Sphere" collected data from residents of Bowling Green and nearby Ohio County to begin studying new approaches for local journalists. Wenzel and Ford said they will use input from the workshop to make additional recommendations.

Jennifer P. Brown is former editor and opinion editor of the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville, Ky., and a member of the national advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.