The New Rural Economy Project

1. Researchers: David Bruce Ivan Emke Doug Ramsey Bill Reimer Derek Wilkinson Anna Woodrow Students: Jennifer Butler Colene Chisholm Nancy Delury Katrina Ellis Lori Gould Lindsay Lyghtle Tara Madigan Alison Moss Paula Romanow Andrea Sharkey & Many others! The New Rural Economy Project Insights from the Communications Theme October 27, 2006

2. Presentation Outline • Background and Context for Communication • oil, web, glue • Some Evidence • From a number of data sources • Summary and Conclusions • Communications Capacity and Policy

3. Which capacities need to be built? • Does rural Canada need to: • better use existing tools and/or learn new ones? • find and share information about the New Economy within the community?

4. Communication is: • A multi-faceted aspect of community life, • Glue to bind people together. • Oil to lubricate social and economic relations. • Web to mark lines of influence and interaction.

5. Communication(s) • Builds community collectively, • Produces/maintains culture and identity, • Provides necessary information for full participation of community members, • Provides a ‘voice’ to otherwise excluded groups, via local tools.

6. Evidence • Communication Tools (inventory) • Traditional media (Key Informant Survey) • Newspapers and Newsletters (content analysis, Rural News Editors survey, Lot 16 - case study) • Radio (Twillingate survey, Mackenzie case study) • New forms of media • Internet (Chat rooms)

7. Traditional Communication • Market • Bureaucratic • Associative • Communal

8. Traditional Media Remains Important • Variety of Important Forms: • Newspapers, Radio, Television, Bulletin boards, Gathering spaces, Word of mouth. • New communication tools enhance and augment existing tools.

9. Twillingate Survey Where do you find out about something going on in the community? 85% get their information from (local) television or word of mouth

10. Twillingate Survey How do you communicate local concerns to municipal officials?

11. Rural Newspaper Editors Survey (Emke, 2002 and 2006) Percent who agree/disagree that: sometimes community newspapers have to champion particular development strategies (and dismiss others) to help the community to develop appropriately

12. Rural Newspaper Editors Survey (Emke, 2002 and 2006) Community newspapers should consider the possible effects on the region in deciding whether to cover certain stories

13. Content Analysis - Rural Newspapers • How has the Local Newspaper covered issues in the new economy over the past 20 years? • Frequent and continuing coverage of: • local heritage • concern about natural resources and the environment (water, parks) • changes in industry

14. Content Analysis - Rural Newspapers • No detailed discussion of globalization • No detailed discussion of external markets • 1996-2004, shows a decline in local and political facts and analysis, and an increase in human-interest news

15. Impact of a Community Newsletter

16. Twillingate Radio Survey • What was the most important issue covered in the radio broadcast? • Community Radio makes use of associative and/or communal relations

17. How to use community radio?

18. Reclaiming Community Radio • Mackenzie BC • Responding to the loss of a key communication tool • Mackenzie Area Radio Society created (non-profit). Allows the community to talk to and with itself, critical web and glue

19. New Forms of Communication

20. Learning Facilitated By technology Constrained by: • social capacity, • hardware, • speed of access, • time constraints and busy schedules, • relative importance of learning and motivation, • Imagination.

21. Learning Facilitated By technology Implications: • Invest in training and capacity development (youth?) • Expand technology training opportunities

22. Summary Communicative Capacity

23. The capacity to communicate in the NRE? • Existing networks/tools constrain choices • Media tools not necessarily used effectively or for intended purposes • Local champions are key (CAP Coordinator, Newsletter Creator, Newspaper Editor)

24. Capacity to use tools? • Some communities have learned to use community radio, newspapers, and/or newsletters • Strategic local approaches to using the Internet and Broadband are emerging and evolving

25. Capacity to use content? • Some editors champion new rural economy issues • Content of most communication is local • Importance of building, maintaining and addressing social networks outside the community

26. Capacities to Build • Find and share information about the NRE and its impacts on the community, • Use information for planning and decision-making • Improve use of the Internet and Broadband • (Re) discover the power of traditional media (radio, TV, newspaper) with the right content

27. Policy Suggestions • Increase support for traditional forms of community media • Increase support behind newer forms of media • Provide support to connect different forms of communicating • Develop policies to resist ‘Oligarchy’ ownership pattern in Canadian media

28. Conclusion • Traditional Media remains the principle form of rural communication. • Rural residents can increase their communicative capacity by expanding and connecting local tools. • Policy needs to address the importance of old and new forms of communication(s).