Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 176 Document Number: C30262
Notes:
7 pages., "If more of our news is going to be produced by non-traditional sources - like NGOs who have an interest in promoting their own agenda - how can news consumers sort through their sources and figure out who to believe?"
See related dissertation: "Reading, reform and rural change: the Midwestern farm press, 1895-1920", This article argues that historians should not take agricultural newspapers as is and assume they expressed the farmer's point of view. Farm newspapers often reflected urban reform ideas, such as those involving rural school consolidation, rural churches and family farms. "Farm newspapers are better seen not as expressing the ideas of farmers, but providing a forum for reformers and farmers to debate proposed changes to country life." Research involved four midwestern farm newspapers between 1895 and 1920: Iowa Homestead; Wallaces' Farmer; Prairie Farmer; and Missouri Ruralist.
