The Volunteer Newspaper: A Communication Solution for Small Rural Communities? [electronic resource] : A Case Study / Eric A. Abbott.
Despite their important role in the community, there have been a number of economic cycles and population shifts which have resulted in rural communities losing their weekly newspapers. An exploratory case study examined a small Iowa community of 450 persons which launched a volunteer newspaper near...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1988.
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| Summary: | Despite their important role in the community, there have been a number of economic cycles and population shifts which have resulted in rural communities losing their weekly newspapers. An exploratory case study examined a small Iowa community of 450 persons which launched a volunteer newspaper nearly 10 years ago. The experiences of this community are seen as a possible model for other small communities which desire a newspaper, but are too small to support a commercial weekly newspaper. The study was divided into two main parts. The first part, using a series of interviews with persons instrumental in creating and operating the volunteer newspaper, was aimed at explaining how the newspaper came into existence and how it had survived its first decade. The second part consisted of a mail survey of all 427 subscribers to the volunteer newspaper. Results indicated that the newspaper has high readership in terms of both time and types of items. Although it has its highest readership among the elderly, most of whom have lived in the community for many years, its overall level of readership is also high--at least comparable to that of commercial weekly newspapers and urban neighborhood newspapers as shown in previous studies. These results suggest that a volunteer newspaper may be a viable model for meeting the communication needs of persons living in communities too small for a commercial newspaper. (Seven tables of data are included, and 17 references are appended.) (MS) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED298516. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (71st, Portland, OR, July 2-5, 1988). |
| Physical Description: | 34 p. |