 Meeting news and information needs in rural communities is more important now than ever before. False or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive, is a concern. At a time when overall trust in media is steadily declining, a study from the Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation found that 60% of rural Americans believe the media respects them only a little or not at all. The fact that they're covered less only makes the problem worse. Here with us today is Dana Kester. She's an associate professor at West Virginia University, editor-in-chief for the Collaborative Media Outlet 100 Days in Appalachia, and director of the Newstart Fellowship Program. Her work focuses on technology and community media with special interests in audience building and new economic models for sustaining journalism. Thanks for being with us today. I want to start with some of the research that you look at and that is how social media is being used to target particular populations in Appalachia. Who's doing the targeting and who are the targets? Okay, well, there's a couple different things going on there. One is we very specifically are looking at white supremacist activity targeting. Our particular research is looking at youth and who are highly vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation. And there's an interesting ecosystem in rural where there may be an over-reliance on internet access devices and gaming for youth when there is a lack of extracurricular enrichment. There's geographic remoteness in rural communities. So when a kid is spending upwards of eight hours a day in a space, you can see how readily, how easily they can be manipulated in that space. But I will also speak to adults in communities where what you mentioned about rural having a lack of trust in particular in national media or what we would call elite media, that is warranted. I mean, I'm a member of these communities and I see how Appalachia or rural communities are represented. So it's not just that we're not covered. When we are covered, we're covered wrong in a way that doesn't represent a truth that we feel or know, our lived experiences. And that's partly why we did a hundred days in Appalachia, but there is a lot of work to be done to rebuild trust in not just Appalachia, but in rural America at large. And I think it's going to be a decades-long challenge. And I will say, since right after the election there was a lot of well-intentioned effort by national and international media. People were doing their rural bus tours. And, but as we're gearing up for another election and I see the coverage start to happen, not a lot has changed. So what is, that unpacks a couple of things for me. One, so you say basically that the targets are kind of in a rich environment because there is a lack of trust in the large-scale media. There's not other enrichment programs and they're stuck on their phones or wherever. And so that's actually makes them more susceptible to alternative sources of information and including racists that might be trying to target them, right? And recruit them really into the cause. Is it, A, is it working? It's a very complicated grooming process. I will say that in the research that we've done, excuse me, all right, let me say it. I will say that in the research that we've done, we are looking at upwards of 60% of youth being impacted in some of these communities. And it's really, really important to understand. It's not just a lack of enrichment programs. It is also a lack of alternative, I mean, these are not youth that are, they're not watching television. Their primary, their entire form of media entertainment is through gaming and social media, a space that is largely unreculated. It is largely absent of, just by nature of its design, absent of parental engagement or other oversight. And it's, we kind of call it raised by wolves, raised by wolves, but the wolves being AI, bots, trolls, and organized groups that are targeting those youth. It's a public mental health crisis, some of our experts have said. So then the other part that you were talking about, which was interesting to me, is also how should the idea of elite media or whomever cover these communities better? What are ways that they can, is it about building partnerships of existing media that's on the ground, instead of parachuting in, you know, how do you do it? Yes, so I think the most important thing is, I mean, part of the reason we are a collaborative media outlet is that we are trying to rally local and regional orgs to report together and to work together to do that. And we consider partners in that, these external media outlets. We're actually in the process right now of creating a document for the 2020 sort of election reporting period on how to and how not to cover Appalachia and to create and to provide a database of the very talented reporters, photographers, media makers in the region as well. They already have the Rolodex, they already have the relationships, right? And they have the crust of some of their kids are on the same softball teams, et cetera, right? And also working directly, it's not just working with journalists, it's also working with community members who help vet context because it is, and not when we say community members at that context, we don't mean officials, we don't mean mayors and community organizers. We mean, you know, like the soccer coach or the folks at the fire station or people who are in the community who understand particular issues and who can help make sure you get it right. And I know journalists fundamentally want to get it right, but there's some work that needs to be done on the part of the journalists to do that listening. Are you optimistic? I mean, some of the challenges that these rural communities are facing seem pretty steep and they've seen pretty long-term. How do we fix it? I am optimistic because the Newstart Fellowship Project is about working with viable local news outlets that are still profitable, that have trust in their community, that have a legacy, some going back many decades. And I think, I often like to say that it's not a rescue operation for local news, I actually think local news is what's gonna save us and that's where we should be putting our energy, our resources, our support because that is a system that's not broken. And I'm talking about, I'm not talking about metropolitan dailies and sort of suburban-sized news outlets, I'm talking about micro, mom-and-pop weeklies and dailies that should be sort of our frontline of building trust in rural Appalachia and America. Good notes, Anna. Dana Kester, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.