According to the Rural Blog…

Rural areas typically only served by a weekly newspaper are seeing an increase in Facebook pages that offer up-to-the-minute local media alerts, Able Allen reports for Mountain Xpress in Asheville. In the past year in rural Western North Carolina, “almost a dozen local alert pages (some with affiliated websites) have cropped up in various rural counties in the region, and some are already attracting followers in numbers comparable to the established print outlets’ circulation figures.”

The local shift reflects a national trend, with a Pew Research Center study saying 30 percent of adults say they get their news from Facebook, Allen writes. The difference in rural areas is that the news is localized, mostly concerning traffic, weather, Amber alerts, arrest reports and information about public events and meetings.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter even an online blog) seems like a natural fit to keep rural areas in the know between editions of a weekly newspaper. It’s something worth considering if your community doesn’t have an online news channel. It’s free, which is almost a necessity. (I am on the board of an online newspaper in the Twin Cities. I know newspapers can be tough to sustain.) It just relies on people reporting the story.

There may be some decision making there. Do you allow anyone to post news? Or do you continue with the newspaper model and find an editor to post or at least approve/disapprove citizen input. I suspect the answer will be different for different communities.