The Daily Yonder is pleased to present a panel conversation with rural journalists covering Covid-19. The panel will stream online at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 7, via YouTube. Video of the presentation will be available on demand thereafter.
Our panel features national journalists whose reporting has focused on how Covid-19 affects different types of rural communities, including the Midwest, South, and Indian Country.
Ninety percent of the nation’s 1,977 rural counties have at least one case of Covid-19. Although the rural infection rate is less than half the national rate, numerous small towns and rural areas have been hit at least as hard as the worst urban areas. Ski resorts and other recreation counties were part of the early spread of the virus, and other areas with higher rates of infection include the Deep South, tribal lands, and, most recently, counties with meat-packing plants.
The conversation is co-produced by the Rural Assembly, a program of the nonprofit Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes the Daily Yonder. This is the third in a series of livestream conversations presented by the Daily Yonder and the Rural Assembly.
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Event Details
Thursday’s panel conversation will air at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the Daily Yonder’s YouTube channel. The video can also be viewed at the top of this article, and will continue to be available for viewing on demand.
Panelists include:
- Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, Washington editor of Indian Country Today, which covers Native American news nationally.
- Chris Clayton, agriculture policy editor of DTN, a data and news service focused on American agriculture.
- April Simpson, who reports on rural issues for the national news service Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts
- Moderator, Tim Marema, editor of the Daily Yonder
Questions for the panel will include: Where are the rural coronavirus hotspots and what’s happening there? How is the pandemic shining a spotlight on historic disparities and inequities in rural regions? And what are they focusing their reporting on as the pandemic moves into a new phase reopening the American economy?
Viewers can participate in the conversation and share their questions on YouTube during the premiere. Questions and comments can be posted using YouTube’s chat function, or by posting on Twitter with the hashtag #ruralconversations. The Daily Yonder and Rural Assembly teams will be in the chat responding to audience questions and comments.
You can visit the Rural Assembly’s website for additional details and to sign up to attend; registration is not required, but those who sign up will receive a reminder email when the video is about to begin.
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