Journalism Professor Sabbatical to Explore Rural News Coverage
Professor Pat Berg Journalism Professor on Sabbatical to Explore Rural News Coverage UW-River Falls Journalism Associate Professor Patricia Berg was awarded a Sabbatical to start a book about media coverage in rural communities. During fall semester she will produce two articles and a book proposal. For her first article she interviewed editors of small community newspapers near Postville, Iowa, where the federal government raided a kosher meatpacking plant in May 2008, rounding up undocumented workers in the largest such raid in U.S. history. The raid and its aftermath have dramatically affected the multicultural fabric of this small town. Berg's second article will compare local and national/international coverage of a massive tornado that destroyed much of Greensburg, Kansas in May 2007. The town has committed to rebuilding with sustainable, green architecture. Berg's focus in both projects is to look at the experiences of local journalists covering these stories while their communities were caught in the glare of national or international news organizations. Both articles will appear in the online journal, Grassroots Editor. In the past, Berg has written about coverage of agriculture in rural Minnesota, family dairy farms, and immigration controversies in a small town in Sweden.
Professor Pat Berg Journalism Professor on Sabbatical to Explore Rural News Coverage UW-River Falls Journalism Associate Professor Patricia Berg was awarded a Sabbatical to start a book about media coverage in rural communities. During fall semester she will produce two articles and a book proposal. For her first article she interviewed editors of small community newspapers near Postville, Iowa, where the federal government raided a kosher meatpacking plant in May 2008, rounding up undocumented workers in the largest such raid in U.S. history. The raid and its aftermath have dramatically affected the multicultural fabric of this small town. Berg's second article will compare local and national/international coverage of a massive tornado that destroyed much of Greensburg, Kansas in May 2007. The town has committed to rebuilding with sustainable, green architecture. Berg's focus in both projects is to look at the experiences of local journalists covering these stories while their communities were caught in the glare of national or international news organizations. Both articles will appear in the online journal, Grassroots Editor. In the past, Berg has written about coverage of agriculture in rural Minnesota, family dairy farms, and immigration controversies in a small town in Sweden.