However, The Bridge, now in the hands of former sheep farmer and diesel mechanic Lloyd Polkinghorne, has not only continued to print throughout the COVID-19 crisis but has expanded its circulation, and in early June this year posted its first online edition. Newspapers are crucial for communities and benefit from reporting on youth and community development initiatives. And I dont think that KPBS does it any differently, the Voice or the U-T or NBC, that we do strive for perfection. Grant Barrett, Voice of San Diego. I actually agree with Barbara that Im not sure our populous is well informed and well educated on important issues when they go to the ballot box. Its quite disappointing that weve been locked up in such draconian fashion when weve had no COVID-19 cases here. Many news organizations, like newspapers, TV and radio stations, are in a frenzy to reinvent themselves to keep up with these changes. The creation of new bridge crossings could connect the world's rural and underserved communities in developing countries with services they need. Tom, lets start with you. Greg Dawson, lets go back to the whole accuracy and speed thing. When you support your local newspaper, you are also supporting your community. For them, school days leave indelible memories, supported by clippings of their feats from the local newspaper if there is one. Talk to us about that partnership a little and why thats important. And I think, you know, were getting better as a journalism, you know, institution than we were before when we were running every which direction. The responsibility that we have, I mean, weve reorganized our newsroom to commit seven people to, in one way or another, working on investigative stories, so its something that, you know, we take very seriously and we need to build that capability which I think was damaged by cutbacks over time. those engaged in rural community development outreach. COVID-19 brought these disparities to the surface within most rural communities in the United States, highlighting the limited access to health care specialists and subspecialists. And the work that each of our content producers develops, will be able to be distributed to the way people are using media. NELSON: Yeah, theres a chance to reinvent for everybody, isnt there? Thank you. There was no such thing as a death panel. And its those things that are kind of, you know, for us breaking news, spot news, you know, thats bread and butter, DAWSON: of what we do. With specific reference to rural development programmes, the rural community newspaper plays essential role in increasing the awareness of rural dwellers and convincing them to adopt recommended ideas, technologies, practices and strategies. Well, we know whats going to happen. Each country has developed its own definition of the concept 'rural area'. And so people get the impression that a lot of this stuff thats getting thrown out there is true and nobody calls them. And one of the things that Im concerned about is that there is these bloggings that are out there and these sites and these news sources that are not checking their facts, theyre not checking what theyre saying, theyre biased in their own way. Go ahead. Please what are the types of rural community newspaper?? Were very good at it. Sadly, Albert and Lenny have passed into memory, as many country newspapers had around Australia even before this pandemic hit. With people able to get their news anytime, anywhere, how important is it for you to focus on delivering local news? BARRETT: Oh, yeah, Im part of the cabal, is it? What do you tell listeners or viewers or readers if they want to alert you? The learning curve was steep and lesson No.1 was that it was more than just media folk who contributed to The Bridge, and the publication offered its community more than just local news. Without the paper, they are left unsung," Omdahl writes. Yeah, I just wanted to say one thing that really bothers me is that supposedly were supposed to get both sides. Our year-on-year growth is up for every metric that you might possibly look at, user involvement, readership, donations from foundations, donations from individuals, commenting, following us on the social media. BARRY: It was how do you get a point across to the news media when local government has failed in their duty? Even at present 80 percent of the population in India is rural. Are we missing a big picture with all of this focus on local news? LIGHT: Yeah, I mean, all of our writers have their e-mails right at the bottom of the stories. So that way, all the work our people are producing is going to be on all of the different platforms, reaching what I would say is the traditionalists or the mature audience, KARLO: on television, the baby boomers on radio, and my children on the digital cell phones. You know, youre looking at, in the print side, an industry thats been very hierarchical, conservative, slow-moving, controlled and, you know, those qualities do not lend themselves to todays environment. Im Dean Nelson sitting in for Maureen Cavanaugh. Towns without newspapers still have young people competing in a full array of sports and extracurricular activities. There. That, in a nutshell, is the true Power of the Press. And we have that kind of talent on staff, and I believe that all the organizations here probably have that kind of talent. Now putting it in perspective, you know, probably not well enough but thats not, you know, necessarily our expertise either in predicting what thats going to do down the road. And I talk to people in the community and they watch a program like the PBS Newshour on our air at seven oclock, KARLO: at night or our show, television show, San Diego Week, and they say, you know, it was refreshing to actually have a chance to get an in-depth discussion of the important issue. DAWSON: now thats her full time beat. The rural people are in close contact with nature as most of their daily activities revolve around the natural environment. I think thats a pretty safe bet. You can reach a larger audience base through the online rural community newspaper. And I think that people want a lot of choices. So theres a lot of practices involved there that people are very married to that arent necessarily essential to the work of journalism. 1.2. So we take that data, we generate stories about salaries, about budgets, about discrepancies, about graft and fraud and that sort of thing, about a mortgage swindle. The nonprofit model is I mean its trying to get some legs here as far as providing news and information. Become a newsletter subscriber to stay up-to-date on the latest Giving Compass news. 3. Credit:Ian Kenins. In the absence of community newspaper like the "community concord" purely devoted to the coverage of rural activities, this research work is tasked to ascertain whether the amount and quality or rural news carried by urban mass media especially newspapers are sufficient and capable enough to bring the much desirable development in the rural . DAWSON: but theyre made, I think, in an honest way and not just in a rush. The rural public library is gaining enormous importance in rural communities. Were working to restore it. Now, it may not be as robust in terms of the circulation but I think people want choices and thats what were in, were in the business of providing the content in the way people want to use it. The community newspaper is not some monolithic entity; its editor is not some ivory towered big shot. He or she is also a neighbor. //-->