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The Rural-Urban Gap in Community Newspaper Editors' Use of
Information Technologies
Douglas Blanks Hindman
Department of Communication
North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 5075
Fargo, ND 58105-5075
[log in to unmask]
(701) 231-7300
Stan Ernst
Department of Agriculture Communication
North Dakota State University
Mavis Richardson
Department of Communication
North Dakota State University
Paper submitted for presentation at the August, 1998, meeting of the
Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Baltimore, MD.
Running head: The Rural-Urban Gap The Rural-Urban Gap in Community
Newspaper Editors'
Use of Information Technologies
Abstract
This paper is an exploration of community newspaper editors' use of two
types of
information technologies that are a) compatible with, and b) incompatible with
the routine
production of the newspaper. Findings were that indicators of social status
were closely
associated with editor's use of incompatible technologies. Nationally, gaps
between rural and
urban communities with on-line newspapers appear to be widening. The
Rural-Urban Gap in Community Newspaper Editors' Use of
Information Technologies
Information technologies are often discussed in terms of their potential to
either widen
or narrow gaps in knowledge and power between higher and lower status segments
of society
(Ettema, 1984; Katzman, 1974; Rogers, 1986; Scherer, 1989). Similarly,
information
technologies are often discussed in terms of the potential to either exacerbate
or eliminate
geographic inequities between urban and distant rural communities (Gillespie &
Robins, 1989;
Hudson & Parker, 1990). The existence of inequities in the availability and use
of
information technologies is particularly important in a society in which
knowledge is
increasingly tied to profits and power (Bell, 1976; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien,
1970).
This is an exploratory study of the social context in which editors use
different types
of information technologies. Of primary interest is the use of information
technologies by
editors of newspapers in homogenous rural communities, and by editors in more
pluralistic,
urban communities. Editor's use of two main types of technologies were also
explored:
technologies used in the routine production of the newspaper, and technology
used to
transform the newspaper into an on-line version. The two types of technology
explored in
this study correspond with what Rogers (1983) defined as compatible and
incompatible
innovations. Compatibility is defined as the degree to which an innovation is
perceived as
consistent with the values, experiences, and needs of adopters (p. 223).
Information technology use by journalists
Recent studies of the use of information technologies by journalists show
widespread
adoption and increasing levels of use. In a September, 1997, mail survey of
magazine and
newspaper editors and broadcast news managers, 93% of respondents said they or
their staffs
use on-line services at least occasionally. Almost half the respondents say
they or their staff
go on-line every day, and 55% of respondents say their publication, or portions
of it, are on-line (Ross & Middleberg, 1997). Niekamp (1997) showed that
television web sites with links
within news stories tended to receive greater use than other types of
interactive content.
Redmond (1996) examined 1500 television and radio web sites showed that radio
and TV
stations were providing very limited community service information on their web
sites beyond
self-promotion. In contrast, Grubman and Greer (1997) showed that the 89% of
the sample
of newspaper web pages included local news, but only 15.7% of the newspapers
adopted their
writing style to fit the medium by including linked boxes or non-traditional
storytelling.
In one of the few studies that examine the social context of technology
use, Grubman
and Greer (1997) found that larger newspapers' on-line products had more
extensive content
than those of smaller newspapers. Larger newspapers' on-line products had news
available on
the first screen, included national news, provided links to news wires, updated
news more
frequently, used more non-traditional news writing styles, used multimedia in
news stories,
provided e-mail addresses, offered on-line discussion forums, allowed searching
of classified
advertising, and had more comprehensive news archives.
The present study is an exploration of the social context of community
editor use of
different types of information technologies. Specifically, editor use of
information
technologies would be expected to be related to the social characteristics of
the community,
the newspaper, and the editor.
Information technologies and rural communities
Compared to urban communities, residents of rural communities are
disadvantaged in
both economic terms, and in terms of access to information1. Economic
disadvantages
include lower income levels, greater economic specialization making the
community subject
to boom-bust cycles, lower levels of educational attainment, and lower levels of
spending on
education (Hudson & Parker, 1990; U.S. Congress Office of Technology
Assessment, 1991).
Rural residents have less access to diverse sources of information relevant to
local concerns
than urban residents. In a study of community-related differences in exposure
to information
about cardiovascular disease, it was shown that residents of suburbs had greater
exposure to a
diversity of sources than residents of regional or small cities (Finnegan,
Viswanath, Kahn, &
Hannan, 1993). Nationally, metropolitan daily newspapers no longer provide home
delivery
in most rural communities, further diminishing the availability of
locally-relevant information
(Donohue, Tichenor, and Olien 1986).
Rural communities are also disadvantaged in terms of development of
information
technology infrastructure. The lack of communication infrastructure is the
result of the
greater return on investment associated with placing information technologies in
urban areas
(Dillman, Beck, & Allen, 1989, pp. 24-25). However, communities that build the
necessary
infrastructure to make information technologies more widely available in the
community often
experience mixed results. Widespread development of information technologies in
rural
communities may also allow metropolitan businesses to gain better access to
rural markets.
New technologies do not simply reduce spatial inequalities; they also allow
highly centralized,
transnational corporations access to the local market (Gillespie & Robins,
1989). Similarly,
Camacho, Weinstock, and O'Gorman (1997) argued that simply providing access to
under
served communities does not necessarily lead to widespread use, particularly
when the
information available does not appear to be relevant to low income, and minority
groups.
Information technologies are similar to a long list of innovations in
transportation and
communication that both de-centralize and re-centralize communities, but that
ultimately
result in rural communities being absorbed into metropolitan dominance (Carey,
1989).
Ultimately, the community implications of adoption of information technologies
are clear only
for those communities that don't adopt: those that don't adopt may be left
behind (Wolford
& Hollifield, 1997).
Information technologies in the social context
Rural and urban areas are expected to show different patterns of use of
information
technologies. Other social contexts would also be expected to be relevant.
Universally
available technologies such as mass media have been shown to contribute to
widening gaps in
knowledge among citizens with different levels of socioeconomic status
(Tichenor, Donohue,
and Olien, 1970; McLeod and Perse, 1994; Viswanath and Finnegan, 1996).
Information technologies are also expected to contribute to widening gaps
between
society's information rich and information poor (Katzman, 1974). Gaps are
expected to
develop because information technologies are often designed for higher status
groups, and
because the high cost of early adoption favors groups with more resources
(Ettema, 1984;
Abbott, 1989).
As an innovation such as personal computers becomes more widely diffused in
the
social system, the gap between early and late adopters can be expected to close
(Ettema,
1984). Personal computers have declined in cost in recent years. In 1998,
personal
computers are expected to sell for $600, further deepening the penetration of
the innovation
among U.S. households. Eventually, 60% of U.S. households are expected to have
personal
computers. In a December, 1997, survey for Business Week, 41% of respondents
said they
used computers at home (Hammonds, 1998).
Early adopters of all types of innovations are typically younger,
wealthier, and more
educated than later adopters (Rogers, 1983). The same characteristics are
associated with
early adoption of information technologies. Reese, Shoemaker, & Danielson
(1986) showed
that older respondents held more negative and pessimistic views about
information
technologies. Abbott (1989) showed that the diffusion of teletext/videotext
systems followed
a typical pattern with early adopters having higher incomes and being younger
than
nonadopters. Scherer (1989) showed that early adopters of videocassette
recorders were
younger and more educated. Further, higher status groups tended to use the
videocassette
recorders to strengthen their control over the information environment.
Information poor
groups tended to use VCR's as entertainment substitutes for TV news, news
magazines, and
nonfiction books (Scherer, 1989, p. 101-102). Lin (1996) showed that income
was
associated with whether an individual was an owner of a personal computer, and
non-adopters
(non owners) of personal computers had lower incomes than adopters.
A group of studies has questioned the value of social categories such as
socioeconomic status in explaining use of information technologies. Ettema
(1984) showed
that adopters of an agricultural teletext system were younger, more educated and
had higher
incomes, but the best predictors of use of the technology were innovativeness
and the ability
to see the importance of the information offered by the system (p. 394).
Similarly, Jeffres and Atkin (1996) expected that demographics would play a
less
significant role in predicting use of electronic mail and a 500 channel cable
system. Instead,
the authors argued that attitudes play an important role in determining use of
the interactive
technologies which characterize the new media environment (Jeffres and Atkin,
1996, p. 328).
Another study showing that social factors did not explain use of
information
technologies analyzed rural and nonrural respondent use of 18 information
technologies
including personal computers, telephone credit cards, and toll free 800 numbers.
The
strongest predictors were number of telecommunications terminals in the home,
percent of
time spent on information tasks on the job, and attitudes towards computers
(LaRose &
Mettler, 1989).
One way of addressing the mixed findings regarding the relationships among
indicators of social resources and use of information technologies is to observe
use of
different types of technologies by the respondents. Some technologies are
expected to be
adopted on the basis of perceived usefulness. Other types of information
technologies provide
less certain benefits to respondents. Traditional characteristics of early
adopters might be
more associated with what Rogers (1983) described as incompatible innovations.
Findings
which show that demographics don't explain adoption and use of information
technologies
may be based on compatible innovations, defined by Rogers as innovations that
are perceived
as consistent with the existing values, past experiences and needs of potential
adopters
(Rogers, 1983, p. 223).
Research questions
To further understand the relationships among technology type and social
categories,
each of the research questions will be explored using a wide range of
information
technologies, including technologies that might be perceived as compatible, and
technologies
that might be incompatible with the routines of news production.
Previous studies have shown that individuals with higher educations are
more likely to
be early adopters and heavy users of information technologies (Ettema, 1984;
LaRose and
Mettler, 1989) and are more likely to have optimistic attitudes toward
information
technologies (Reese, Shoemaker, & Danielson, 1986). Following Tichenor,
Donohue, and
Olien (1970) education will be used as an indicator of editor's socioeconomic
status.
RQ1. Will the editors' educational levels will be positively associated
with use of both
compatible and incompatible information technologies?
Editors are also constrained by the size and complexity of the newspaper
and its
parent organization. Editors from smaller, locally-owned newspapers tend to be
more
concerned with maintaining the economic viability of the organization (Olien,
Tichenor, &
Donohue, 1988). Similarly, larger, corporate-owned newspapers would be more
likely to take
the economic risks associated with early adoption of information technologies,
particularly if
those technologies are required by the parent organization. Smaller
organizations would be
less likely to risk adopting technologies that are incompatible with the
newspaper's need to
maintain economic viability. Demers (1996) argues that newspapers with
corporate forms of
organization are more profitable because of greater economies of scale, but the
employees of
corporate newspapers are less occupied with concerns about their organization's
profits.
Editors in newspapers with corporate forms of organization have greater
autonomy, greater
role specialization, more separation from ownership, and greater commitment to
professional
values; editors with in-state ownership tend to place greater emphasis on
advertising (Demers,
1996; Donohue, Olien, & Tichenor, 1989). The second research question
identifies
organizational complexity as a factor that would be expected to affect use of
information
technologies. Organizational complexity is based on what Demers (1996) defined
as
"corporate forms of organization." A newspaper is more organizationally complex
if it is
larger and is owned by a large-scale corporation with out of state headquarters.
RQ2. Will the newspapers' level of organizational complexity will be
positively
associated with the editors' use of both compatible and incompatible
information
technologies?
This research question suggests that organizational size and complexity
continue to
provide advantages which are related to the use of information technologies.
Larger
organizations are in a better position to absorb losses resulting from early
adoption of
technologies that are not successful, and are in a better position to realize
windfall profits
from technologies that are successful (Rogers, 1983).
The final constraint confronting editors is the community itself. Social
structure
constrains or enables individuals and organizations in systematic ways that
result in
observable patterns of social behavior. Media organizations in one structural
environment
perform differently than organizations in another structural environment.
Community
structural pluralism is defined as the "degree of differentiation in the social
system along
institutional and specialized interest group lines, in a way that determines the
potential
sources of organized social power" (Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1980, p. 16).
This
indicator goes beyond population-based definitions of "rural" and "urban" under
the
assumption that population alone does not fully describe a community.
Communities with
small populations can be quite diverse, as in the case of small communities that
are
dominated by a major university. Community structural pluralism is expected to
affect editor
use of information technologies because of the limitations posed by the lack of
telecommunications infrastructure in smaller communities, and because the type
of
information available through information technologies may not seem to be
relevant to
community residents (Dillman, Beck, & Allen, 1989).
RQ3. Will editors from small, homogenous, rural communities be less likely
to use
both compatible and incompatible information technologies than editors from
more
pluralistic communities ?
If gaps are occurring between groups with different levels of resources,
then the
differences would be expected to become greater over time. In the original
formulation of the
knowledge gap hypothesis, Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien (1970) argued that
"... segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to
acquire this
information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the
gap in
knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease..."
Applying this hypothesis to the current study, the gap between newspapers
in more
and less pluralistic communities would be expected to widen over time,
particularly in regard
to incompatible technologies.
RQ4. Will newspapers from more pluralistic communities adopt information
technologies at a faster rate than newspapers from less pluralistic
communities?
Methods
Two main data sets were used for this analysis: a statewide data set and a
national
data set. The statewide data set was used for research questions 1, 2, and 3,
and the national
data set was used for research question 4.
The statewide data set represents data from a mail survey of a sample of
newspaper
editors from 74 communities in a Midwestern state. The communities represented
a wide
range of structural characteristics within a relatively rural, agriculturally
oriented, and
ethnically homogenous state, and does not constitute a random sample. The
survey was
conducted between June 4 and August 4, 1997, and the response rate was 89%. The
survey
was conducted in cooperation with the state newspaper association, and included
a number of
items related to the editor's adoption and use of information technologies,
including:
computers used in laying out the pages of the newspaper, use of database
software programs,
use of electronic news sources, use of on-line services, type of computer
connection used, use
of e-mail, and whether the newspaper has a presence on the world wide web.
The national data set used for this analysis was newspapers from a sample
of 461 U.S.
counties. Twenty-four states were chosen first to represent the four main
sections of the
country. Within each state, a systematic sample of counties was drawn. The
home county of
the major metropolitan newspaper was added if it had not already been chosen
with the above
method. A list of all daily and all weekly newspapers in the county was
prepared and used
for research questions regarding the relationship between community structural
pluralism and
use of information technology.
Independent variables: Statewide data set
The main independent variables used in exploring the research questions
involving the
statewide data set were editor's education level, the newspaper's organizational
complexity,
and the community's structural pluralism. Educational level was determined by
asking editors
"What is your highest level of education" and providing seven categories between
"high
school graduate" and "doctorate, professional degree, or equivalent".
Additional questions
about editor's individual characteristics were measured, but were not included
in this analysis.
The additional items included editor age, gender, years in the newspaper
business, and
primary duties at the newspaper.
Newspaper organizational complexity was indicated by a summated index
comprising
standardized measures of the editor's report of the newspaper's circulation, the
sum of the
number of other media the editor said was held by the owners of the newspaper
(including
other in-state newspapers, other out-of state newspapers, in-state radio
stations, etc.) and a
three level measure of ownership type. Ownership type was determined by asking
editors:
"Which of the below best describes your newspaper's ownership? independently
owned, not
part of a newspaper group, part of newspaper group with headquarters in state,
or part of
newspaper group with headquarters out of state (Donohue, Olien & Tichenor,
1989). The
reliability of the organizational complexity index was .68.
Community structural pluralism in the statewide data set included
standardized
measures of city population, county population, percent of the county work force
not involved
in agricultural, forestry or fisheries occupations, and number of county
residents with a
bachelor's degree. All data were from the 1990 U.S. Census. Multiple measures
are used to
indicate the level of community structural pluralism. Community and county
population,
when combined with average per-capita income, are measures which can indicate
the potential
of the region to support a greater degree of division of labor and more complex
organizations,
which can be expected to lead to an increase in formalization of social
interaction. The work
force measure is an indicator of the degree to which the community has
diversified the local
economy beyond a basic dependence on agriculture. The education measure, when
combined
with the other measures, is expected to indicate the potential for development
of social power
among diverse groups within the community. The reliability of the index was
.89.
Dependent variables: Statewide data set
The dependent variables for research questions one through three were use
of
information technologies. Two main types of technology were explored:
technologies used
in the routine production of the newspaper, and a measure of whether or not the
newspaper
had a presence on the World Wide Web. In Rogers (1983) terms, production
technologies
can be conceptualized as being compatible with the values, experiences and needs
of editors,
and producing an on-line version of the newspaper can be conceptualized as being
less
compatible with the editor's daily routines. Producing an on-line version of
the newspaper
requires the editor perform additional tasks beyond the daily routine such as
preparing HTML
versions of the text and graphics and updating the content more frequently.
Technologies used in the routine production of the newspaper paper were
indicated by
an index was computed which included the sum of standardized measures of:
number of electronic sources of news received by the newspaper
use of on-line services by the newspaper
type of computer connection used by the newspaper
use of e-mail by individuals within the newspaper
The reliability of the index was: .79. Editor's use of other technologies
associated
with routine production of the news were measured, but were not included in the
index
because of the widespread adoption of the technology. These technologies
included
computers used in putting the newspaper together and word processing software.
An indicator of the editor's use of an incompatible technology was
determined by
coding the editor's response to the question, "does your newspaper have a home
page on the
world wide web?" Positive responses were coded as 1, and negative responses
coded as zero.
Table 1 shows the distribution of the dependent variables within the statewide
data set.
Table 1. Use of various information technologies by editors in statewide data
set (N:74).
Indicators of information
technology use
percent
percent of newspapers receiving at
least one source of electronic news
71.6
percent of newspapers with a
modem or other type of computer
connection
62.2
percent of newspapers using at least
one on-line service
36.5
percent of newspapers with
individuals using e-mail
33.8
percent of newspapers with a
presence on the world wide web
24.3
Table 1 shows that all of the technologies that are conceptualized as being
compatible
with the routine production of the newspaper were more widely used by editors
than the
indicator of whether or not the newspaper has a presence on the world wide web.
Technologies such as electronic sources of news, on-line services, modems and
e-mail may
provide obvious cost savings for editors looking for ways to more economically
acquire
information. However, an on-line version of the newspaper may provide less
certain
benefits, while requiring a new set of skills and routines.
Independent variables: National data set
The national data set was used in testing the research question about gaps
between
communities. The independent variables were county structural pluralism and
time. County
structural pluralism was computed as the sum of standardized values of county
population and
county seat population. Chronbach's alpha was .76. The index was used to
divide the
sample into two groups representing counties with lower and higher levels of
structural
pluralism. In the national data set, the structural pluralism index did not
include indicators of
county employment or indicators of county educational levels because the
measures reduced
the index reliability. Because a dichotomous transformation of the index was
used, the
omission of the two indicators would be expected to have minimal impact on the
way
communities were grouped.
The other independent variable used in testing research question four was
time. Two
observations of the dependent variable, described below, were made. The first
observation
was in March, 1996, and the second was March, 1998. The limitation of this
measure it can
only show linear relationships, whereas there is some indication that knowledge
gaps and
diffusion curves are not linear phenomena (Moore, 1987; Rogers, 1986).
Dependent variables: National data set
The main dependent variable for the national data set was whether or not
the county
had at least one daily or weekly newspaper with a presence on the world wide
web. A listing
of daily and non-daily newspapers with web sites was searched in March of 1996
and again
in March of 1998 (American Journalism Review, 1998). Daily and non-daily
newspapers
listed as providing full service that were within one of the 461 sample counties
were
included. The obvious limitation of this methodology is that not all on-line
publications are
listed on American Journalism Review's Newslink web site. However, in order to
make the
1986 and 1988 lists comparable, only newspapers appearing on the Newslink site
were
included in the study.
Results
This study sought to explore the use of different types of technologies by
editors with
different social characteristics.
The first three research questions were tested by correlating the
independent variables
with indicators of both types of information technology. Correlations of
technology use with
editor education (RQ1); the newspaper's organizational complexity index (RQ2);
and the
community structural pluralism index (RQ3) are shown in Table 2. Although all
of the
correlations were in the expected direction, community structural pluralism was
the only
independent variable that was significantly associated with both measures of use
of
information technologies.
Table 2. Pearson's correlations of use of two types of information
technologies, editor
education level, newspaper organizational complexity, and community structural
pluralism.
compatible technology
(information technology
index)
incompatible technology
(newspaper web presence)
editor's education level
.16
.25*
organizational complexity
.17
.56***
structural pluralism
.20*
.53***
* p < .05, one tail
*** p < .001
Table 2 shows support for the idea that the structural pluralism of the
community is
positively associated with use of both types of information technologies. Thus,
the editors of
smaller, rural, less pluralistic communities use fewer information technologies
such as
electronic sources of news, on-line services, modems or other computer
connections, e-mail,
and are less likely to have an on-line version of the newspaper. The relatively
low
correlation coefficients for the information technology index indicates that the
traditional
correlates of early adoption: educational level of the editor, and the size and
complexity of
the organization; were not significant predictors of use of the technologies
which comprise the
index. This is perhaps because the index technologies (electronic sources of
news, on-line
services, modems, and e-mail) are not innovations, but are rather technologies
that have been
available for quite some time, and that are compatible with existing routines in
the production
of the newspaper. Editor decisions about using these technologies may be
function of factors
not measured in this study, such as perceived usefulness of the technology
(Ettema, 1984;
Jeffres and Atkin, 1996).
Whether or not the newspaper produces an on-line version, however, more
closely fits
the expected patterns. Level of education, size and complexity of the
organization, and
structural pluralism of the community are all positively associated with the
newspaper's
likelihood of having a home page on the world wide web. It appears, then, that
traditional
constraints of educational level and organizational size are less likely to
affect newspaper's
use of technologies that support the normal functioning of the newspaper.
However, the
production of a home page on the world wide web may require greater change in
the way a
local newspaper conducts daily business, and thus the traditional constraints
come into play
more prominently.
The fourth research question was stated as:
Will newspapers from more pluralistic communities adopt and use information
technologies at a faster rate than newspapers from less pluralistic
communities?
Table 3 shows the gap is growing between less and more pluralistic counties
that
contain at least one newspaper with a web presence. Table 3. Counties
containing at least one local newspaper with a web presence, by structural
pluralism, and by year, in percent.
less pluralistic
counties
more pluralistic
counties
total
1996
1.3
12.6
6.9
1998
3.5
35.7
19.5
N:231
N:230
N:461
1996 chi-square = 21.1, p < .001
1998 chi-square = 73.9, p < .001
Between 1996 and 1998, an increasing percentage of all counties included
newspapers
with home pages on the world wide web. The percentage of all counties grew from
6.9
percent in 1996 to 19.5 percent in 1998. Among the less pluralistic counties,
the percentage
with web newspapers grew from 1.3 percent to 3.5 percent. Among the more
pluralistic
counties, the percentage grew from 12.6 percent to 35.7 percent. In 1996, the
gap between
less pluralistic counties and more pluralistic counties was 11.3 percentage
points. In 1998,
the gap had grown to 32.2 percentage points. Even though nearly all newspapers
may
eventually adopt the innovation, the early adoption trends seem to follow the
classic diffusion
patterns, and also seem to indicate the presence of a gap between more and less
pluralistic
counties.
Summary and discussion
The community in which the newspaper is located persists as a barrier to
the
newspaper's ability to adopt and use information technologies. Two main types
of
information technology were examined: a) technologies compatible with the
newspaper
routines, and b), a technology that is not compatible with the daily functioning
of newspapers
-- particularly newspapers that are concerned with profitability and economic
survival. Editor
use of technologies that were compatible with existing functions of the
newspaper, such as
pagination and acquisition of information from news wires, were not highly
correlated with
traditional predictors of early adoption. However, whether or not the newspaper
had an on-line version was highly correlated with all the measures of social
resources included in this
study: editor's education, the newspaper's organizational complexity, and the
community's
structural pluralism.
Producing an on-line version of the newspaper may provide less obvious
benefits to
the editor, and may be less compatible with the normal operation of a community
newspaper,
particularly among smaller newspapers in small, rural, homogenous communities.
As a result,
the gap between rural and urban communities that contain a newspaper with an
on-line
version appears to be widening.
In many communities, the local newspaper is as old as the community itself.
Local
newspapers have survived decades of community change. However, it is
increasingly difficult
for newspapers to survive in communities with declining populations,
increasingly specialized
economic bases, and dwindling retail businesses. The adoption and use of
information
technologies may be another way in which newspapers in rural communities can
continue to
operate in the face of declining local resources. For example, as residents
leave the
community, many might like to use an on-line version of the hometown paper to
keep in
touch with the community. However, if the current trend continues, newspapers
in small,
rural communities will miss out on what might become a significant source of
revenue when,
and if, on-line versions of local newspapers become profitable.
The unique aspects of digital forms of communication, while promising to
blur the
differences among all forms of communication, appear to be less likely to remove
the more
fundamental constraints facing local mass media in small rural communities.
Notes
1. Rural is defined here as those counties with fewer than 50,000 people living
in towns and
cities (Parker, Hudson, Dillman, & Roscoe, 1989).
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