Americans overwhelmingly rely on local television news for information about the world around them. But more and more, local news managers are finding their budgets and personnel stretched thin in order to keep up with the fast-paced change in technology. Local news reporters, for the most part, don't have the time necessary to create in-depth coverage of complex issues, even though local TV is exactly the place where that coverage is needed.

The Center for Rural Strategies produced, as part of the Rural Desk News Initiative, video news pieces about issues that face today's rural Americans. The videos were distributed for free to local television stations across the country, so that they could provide their viewers with compelling, accurate, and balanced information about rural issues. They were produced and aired in the fall of 2003. Download the stories (about 4 MB each):

• Rural voters will have a big say in the presidential election
• Standardized testing in rural Vermont school districts
• School consolidation
• Wind power as a source of extra income to struggling Minnesota farmers
• Alternatives to tobacco farming in Kentucky
• Broadband internet access helping rural Texans bring in industry
• Health care delivery concerns from a rural perspective
• Community health workers in Arizona
• Arts as a response to community concerns in Kentucky

Contact Shawn Poynter at 606-632-3244 for more information.