Engaged Journalism in Rural Communities

ABSTRACT

With a growing interest in audience engagement and membership models in local journalism, engagement has been positioned as the one-stone that may address the two-birds of building trust and financial sustainability. However, little is known about how these practices play out in rural areas. This case study explores the efforts of one rural hyperlocal outlet as it attempts to adapt community traditions as engagement interventions—reimagining “society columns” as community contributors, and “liars tables” as listening circles. Using a communication infrastructure theory framework, it draws from 18 interviews with journalists, participating residents, and community stakeholders to examine how these efforts have and have not affected the local storytelling network and activated existing communication assets.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication infrastructure theory
• engagement
• local journalism
• participatory journalism
• rural journalism
• trust

Acknowledgements

This project would not be possible without the input and wisdom of my collaborator on this project, Sam Ford (media consultant, Tow Fellow), and the openness of the Ohio County Monitor, its editors Dustin and Lee Bratcher, and all the project’s research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 http://www.nnaweb.org/public-policy?articleCategory=public-notice.

2 For an example of how the debate over public notices plays out in one state: https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2017/03/your-right-to-know-keep-public-notices-in-print/.

3 For more explanation of the society column tradition: https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/facebook-society-columns-community.php.

4 http://articles.latimes.com/1985-09-10/news/mn-3160_1_hometown-news.

5 See discussion of liars tables: https://artisanaleconomiesproject.org/2017/05/18/project-entry-7-the-true-service-of-a-convenience-store/.

6 See for example the work of Chicago’s City Bureau project which includes a citizen’s documenter’s project in addition to training community-based journalists: https://www.citybureau.org.

7 American Community Survey: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ohiocountykentucky/PST045217.

8 https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/kentucky/.

9 Other outlets have since collaborated on another follow-up project (https://americanassembly.org/events/bowling-green-civic-assembly) and have tentative plans to collaborate with the OC Monitor in future.

10 Names of community contributors and liars table participants have been changed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.