6 pages., via website,Ryerson Review of Journalism., Between the hours of about 4 p.m. to midnight, Ashleigh Weeden goes dark. Not for the usual reasons, though. In Weeden’s southwestern Ontario town, the internet connection becomes—for all practical purposes—nonexistent during those hours. The PhD student at the University of Guelph lives in Ariss, Ontario, a “dispersed rural community” sandwiched between urban centres like Guelph and Kitchener. Despite paying about $250 monthly for internet access, she finds herself shut out of the internet. “…[S]ometimes [internet speed] goes one, maybe half a megabyte down,” she says. “I can’t grade, I can’t do anything, there’s no point, I might as well give up until about midnight.”
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 202 Document Number: D12077
Notes:
Online via AgriMarketing Weekly. 2 pages., Summary of findings from a poll conducted recently by the American Farm Bureau Federation. "The results of a new poll clearly demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic is having broad-ranging impacts among rural adults and farmers/farmworkers." Findings also identified main obstacles to seeking help or treatment for mental health condition, the most trusted sources for information about mental health, impressions of the importance of mental health in rural communities and the importance of reducing stigma surrounding mental health.
4 pages., Author suggests that"social forestry seeks to manage forests through local communities for their own plus national benefits, but is still falls short of the targets set. Reconciling local concerns for livelihood opportunities with the need for accountability requires intermediaries who successfully negotiate in the bureaucratic jungle of forestry as an institution."
19 pages., Online via UI e-subscription., Authors examined impacts of efforts by Report for America (RFA) to strengthen the capacity of local news and increase trust from the perspective of two communities: a neighborhood on Chicago's West Side and a rural county in eastern Kentucky. Findings illustrated "the influence of place and power dynamics on how residents navigate trustworthiness factors." They also revealed lack of feedback loops to provide coverage for communities.
Online from publication., Describes a medical telementoring and telemonitoring program, Project ECHO, created by a New Mexico gastroenterologist, Dr. Sanjeev Arora. This model features connections and interactions between specialists and physicians working in rural areas and state prisons. It is now leading training nationally and globally (with the World Health Organization) to address urgent issues like vaccine hesitancy and the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
The award-winning editorial (two pages)is attached to this document. It is available online at https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-life/beware-rural-outrage-cycle., Via online issue. 2 pages., This editorial was written by the author of the winning entry in the Editorial Opinion category, 2019 AAEA communications contest.
Online from the New Yorker., Fibre-optic cables strung above a home in Jackson County, Kentucky, one of the poorest countries in the country. High-speed broadband has been used to bring internet-based jobs to the region.
8 pages., Online via Ryerson Review of Journalism website. Published on February 19, 2020., Tara de Ryk, owner and publisher of a rural Saskatchewan weekly newspaper, decided after 21 years to retire from the newspaper business. This article describes how community interest in local news and an adventuresome spirit prompted her to conduct a give-away contest in late 2019. Interested persons were invited to write an essay (500 words maximum) about how they would be ideal owner and publisher of the Davidson Leader. The article describes the contest and winning entry, which led to change in ownership.
