RuralStrategies's blog

The Center for Rural Strategies has joined organizations and individuals from around the country asking the Federal Communications Commission to make increased diversity in broadcast and broadband media a higher priority.

In a letter to the FCC, the organizations stated:

Center for Rural Strategies' resident photographer Shawn Poynter has been working with the Central Appalachian Network to produce multimedia profile pieces about their seven member organizations. Shawn photographed, recorded audio, and wrote stories about the impact these organizations are having in their communities. One of CAN's area of emphasis is increasing the availability and reach of thriving local food systems.

Government can play a role in encouraging private donations to support community development work in rural areas.
 
Gerry Roll, executive director of the Community Foundation of Hazard and Perry County Inc., made this case in an op/ed in the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald Leader on January 28, 2010.
 
For more on Rural Strategies’ efforts to encourage new approaches to rural philanthropy, visit our philanthropy page.

The promise of broadband to decrease the economic and social gap between rural and metropolitan areas is going unfulfilled, said Tim Marema, vice president of the Center for Rural Strategies, in a presentation at a Federal Communications Commissioner workshop.

The Rural Broadband Policy Group has filed a series of comments with the Federal Communications Commission on changing federal policy to better serve rural America.

The policy group is composed of organizations working on media and communication in and for rural communities. It includes the Access Humboldt, Appalshop, California Center for Rural Policy, Center for Rural Strategies, Main Street Project, Media Literacy Project, Mountain Area Information Network, and Media Action Grassroots Network.

According to a new report from the Daily Yonder (Rural Strategies' online news journal), the level of poverty in rural America has increased at a rate five times that of the poverty increase in metropolitan areas in the past five years.
 

ABC's 20/20 program on vulnerable children and families in Appalachia on Feb. 13, 2008, sparked praise, criticism and debate among journalists and residents of Appalachia.

The program followed ABC's Diane Sawyer on a trip to eastern Kentucky as she reported on poverty, drug abuse, and a dental condition called "Mountain Dew Mouth."

The Los Angeles Times reports that some small towns had a shortage of candidates for local office in the November 2009 election.

"State officials and political scientists say finding candidates has always been a problem for small towns and rural communities, but the recession has made it particularly tough this year," reports P.J. Huffstutter.

Is small-town America more virtuous than the rest of the country? Jack Donaghy, the manipulative network vice president on the TV show "30 Rock," thinks so.

In the episode "Stone Mountain" (aired originally October 29, 2009), Jack (played by Alec Baldwin) sets off to middle America to find a new comedian for his late-night comedy show. His rationale is that he'll find someone "more American" (and hence more popular) if he looks beyond big cities.

Broadband access was on the agenda at the Midwest Rural Assembly on August 11-12, 2009, in Sioux City, South Dakota. One break out session was "Broadband and Rural Communities: Creating a Healthy Digital Ecology and a Community Vision for Federal Funding."

Edyael Casaperalta, Rural Strategies' broadband policy organizer, served as a panelist for that session. Other Rural Strategies staff who attended the regional assembly were Whitney Kimball Coe and Shawn Poynter.