The Rural Cohort is designed to help rural-serving media (from any medium) incorporate solutions journalism into regular practice. Participating newsrooms receive professional development from the Solutions Journalism Network and support from each other. Over the course of seven months, news teams learn the basics of solutions journalism, and how to find meaningful solutions journalism stories in county board meetings, press releases, and the beat coverage they're already doing. The cohort supports newsrooms in learning how to evaluate story ideas, spot solutions opportunities and effectively execute on solutions stories while meeting tight deadlines.
Resources for rural-serving media
- How to do solutions stories in days, not weeks, tips on how to incorporate solutions journalism into regular beat reporting
- Anatomy of one (short) solutions story, an examination of how a story idea from a board meeting agenda turned into a solutions story for a weekly newspaper
To learn more, reach out to Rural Media Manager Melissa Cassutt.