- Home Broadband Adoption Lags Behind -- PEW Internet and American Life, 2-26-06
- Study Finds More News Media Outlets , but Less News Covered -- Kellogg Foundation ... The State of the New Media 2006, 3-14-2006
- Rural Citizens Have Less Than 4 Percent Chance to Read How Their Elected Member of Congress Votes -- My Rural America Action Fund Study, 9-1-05
Governor Sebelius frames it this way, "First and foremost, rural communities have lost their ability to constructively call their citizens to a common table to discuss their future."
Using the coffee shops as an example, she emphasizes how rural Americans have lost the skills necessary for productive and progressive communications, since many times the only information available is misinformed, discouraging or very negative.
Sebelius also points to rural America's media, saying, "The small community newspapers -- which 40 or 50 years ago served as a 'conscience of the community' -- are no longer serving that purpose and in many cases have disappeared altogether. So called 'local' TV broadcasts originate from hundreds of miles away, and supposedly 'local' radio stations are increasingly owned by nationwide conglomerates that pipe in programming from the other side of the country."
My Rural America applauds Governor Sebelius. She's gotten it right, emphasizing how for rural development to be effective, it must begin with leadership development, strategic planning and communications.
Communications!! That's this new blog's goal -- to increase communications, to offer facts about what happens in Congress and in local communities while we give rural Americans the opportunity to speak out.
We invite you to participate.
- For more detail on Governor Sebelius' testimony, please see the following: http://www.kansas.com/205/story/116887.html
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1 comment:
I, too, applaud Gov. Sebilius for her comments. The rural communities of the Central Great Plains are dying a not-so-slow death .... the very areas where wind, solar and biomass could be creating great local jobs and reinvigorating rural communities. It's time we put some money into rural development efforts that focus on building leadership capacity before they lose critical mass. In many cases, the population of these small towns has already slipped below the level where even basic services can be assured.
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