Access to news in rural communities is dwindling, as newspaper staffs shrink and publications shutter.
The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University says more than half of U.S. counties have no or limited access to local news. 228 more counties are at risk of becoming "news deserts."
“We need journalism, we need to be credibly informed and we need to be engaged in what’s going on,” said Clinton Soper, a High School English and Language Arts teacher at Roanoke-Benson. “Journalism is a way to do that.”
For years, the students at Roanoke-Benson have had their journalistic writing published in the local newspaper, the Woodford County Journal. Soper says it’s a practice that predates his time teaching at the school.
“Just something about having the traditional newspaper, seeing the writing and seeing the student’s name in the bylines there, it’s really meaningful to them,” he said. “And I always tell my students to be proud if they see their writing published.”
Two students in Soper's dual credit English class were recently published in the Journal, covering community issues.
Senior August Matthews wrote a report on the need for volunteer emergency personnel, a local perspective on a national issue. Her work included interviewing, research and analysis.
“When I was interviewing the ambulance chief, she gave me some information on when the ambulance was first founded so I could get some background information, to compare it to today’s numbers,” Matthews said.
Senior Mary Goett covered a praise night and fundraising event at her family's church. The congregation recently learned their church could close.
“Obviously, I’m not an impartial opinion, like, my opinion is very deep in this topic because it’s my church that is being closed,” Goett said. “It was tough to say like ‘how mean do I want to be? How real do I want to be in this article?’ Yeah, it was tough to balance that.”
Both students have a personal connection to their topic. But they're also practicing concepts like writing in a journalistic voice and managing their own biases.
Clinton Soper says it's important for students to have opportunities to cover issues that have an impact beyond the walls of their high school.
“Because they are, as cliche as it sounds, they are the future, they are the ones that are going to inherit these communities of ours,” he said. “They are going to be in the positions of responsibility and it’s important for them to be able to use their voices as active, involved members of the community.”
Some area institutions are helping students sculpt reporting skills even earlier. Holly Rocke is a Humanities teacher at Peoria Academy. Every Wednesday after school, she and fifteen middle school age students dissect a copy of the Journal Star together.
“Then, teaching them how to conduct interviews, how to make sure they’re citing sources, how to look at a question of something that’s going on and then look at it a little deeper,” Rocke said. “So it’s not just listing the facts, it’s also then starting to find the story underneath those facts.”
After learning the basics, Rocke says students move onto the next step: getting published. Since last year, Peoria Academy students have published opinion pieces in the monthly Community Word newspaper.
Students have opined on topics like crime and legislation. Their most recent piece, published November 6th, argued for the merits of bipartisanship.
Rocke says she does minimal editing, even as students handle these broad topics.
“I’ll give them feedback, but really it is the ownership of the students that have to go through and figure out what is the story they want to tell and how do they want to tell it,” she said. “It’s really fun to watch them work together to put together something that’s high quality.”
It's getting harder to find high quality news in some places. Roanoke Senior August Matthews says social media can be a resource. Classmate Mary Goett says her family doesn't get a newspaper anymore.
“We’re moving away from newspapers, which is unfortunate because there’s a certain kind of journalism that can only be given to the public through newspapers,” Goett said. “But a lot of information is spread through word of mouth.”
Goett and Matthews both say they enjoyed the challenge of writing a journalistic report.
Though the news landscape is evolving, maybe they, or other students like them, will be a resource for their communities and create the journalism of the future.
