As journalists, we work to find the truth and reveal conditions through documentation, but we’re often unintentionally guilty of reinforcing stereotypes. The reasons are far from simple. They range from our internal biases (of which we may not even be aware) to limited newsroom budgets that prevent long-term reportage and the decimation of local news coverage. The gaps are real, and our understanding suffers as a result.
It’s refreshing, then, when projects and initiatives rise to bridge gaps of insight.
One initiative is the Instagram account called EverydayRuralAmerica. (@everydayruralamerica). Its creator, Nicole Craine, 30, is based in Atlanta.
“In 2017, I launched the EverydayRuralAmerica account in light of the 2016 presidential election,” Craine said. “While spending time with my family in Alabama and traveling around the Southeast, I could see the lack of local coverage was unmistakable. News outlets seemed to be overlooking the working-class demographic and rural areas along with much of the Southeastern region.”
“I shared a post on my Instagram account and social media, asking if anyone had any work in and around rural areas to use the hashtag or to send me their work,” said Craine.
Craine is a freelance journalist who attended Savannah College of Art and Design. Originally focused on fine art, she turned to photojournalism in college when she set out to explore the roots of her family living in southern Alabama. The resulting body of work was called Kin Folk.
“I initially started documenting my great-grandmother who lived in Selma, Alabama,” Craine said. “She was living on a property with five generations under one roof.” Kin Folk reflected on personal history and relationships within her family. Craine stayed with family members while working on the project. “When I came back up with this work in college, the response from my professors was positive.”
Kin Folk became her thesis project, and eventually she attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2014. There she became, like many others, more exposed to the industry at large.
Craine says that the EverydayRuralAmerica project aims to cover different communities across the United States in and around rural areas. “The goal is to expand viewers’ perceptions of these communities,” Craine said. As the Instagram account gained traction, people started using the #everydayruralamerica hashtag.
At over 5,400 followers (as of Oct. 2019), it also serves as a database and educational resource.
As an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, I can attest to its positive contributions to other “Everyday Projects” that add to the conversation of representation. It also offers classroom examples when talking about gaps of coverage, which can perpetuate media stereotypes.
“It’s important that students see and understand media -- to see what’s real and fake, to see their communities represented and have their voices heard,” Craine said, in relation to the rise of the term “fake news.”
She adds that students are also engaging with media in different ways – social media and the internet – than previous generations did. “I feel like the media industry hasn’t fully kept up to speed with the newer technology and younger demographic. It’s important that we empower young people in those communities to have their own voice and see it reflected in media.”
But it’s not limited to education.
The project has several components, according to Craine. It includes visibility for photographers in rural communities as well as serving as a resource for editors. This project can help broaden an editor’s base of photographers and create a better understanding of rural life through the lenses of photographers most familiar with those areas. It also allows for a robust representation within the communities themselves, which can help demystify stereotypes and diminish the notion of parachute journalism.
“The last several years I feel like I’ve been pushing an uphill battle trying to get national outlets to pay attention to rural issues, whereas now I’m more interested in trying to create a system that would serve as a democratization of work,” Craine said.
I love that term, the democratization of work. I asked Craine what she meant.
“To have it more interactive with communities that are being covered, having their voice included,” Craine said.
Especially, she adds, when it comes to different political perspectives. Projects like this can help bring visibility to people in rural communities.
With closures and extreme downsizing of many local newsrooms, it’s important to circle back to the idea of a gap, or void, in coverage. Craine wants to address this by showing through photographs that rural, non-metropolitan areas are not merely working class, Republican and white. Rather, some of the most diverse communities in the country are in the West and Southeast.
"In unraveling stereotypes surrounding rural and non-metropolitan communities, it's important to remember that the population is not entirely made up of white, working-class families. There are also communities of color, native communities, black communities and immigrant communities that are neglected when media turns a blind eye to entire areas or regions,” Craine said. “Unfortunately the lack of resources, education and media coverage has, over time, resulted in some of the economic, environmental and civil rights issues we still see today."
“That's why honing in on these areas at a time when local news is struggling is key to the survival of this democracy,” she said. “If we are truly fit to see ourselves as an industry that promotes free and fair coverage, then we cannot fail to recognize the expansive racial, cultural and socio-economic spectrum that exists in America."
For rising to these challenges and by shedding light on the nuance of the every day, Craine (and the contributing photographers) deserve applause. The resulting project is not only educational but also serves as a window into the diversity of Americans’ lives. It’s through this that we can have a better understanding of what we all have in common. This commonality, in the end, is a way for all of us, media included, to challenge stereotypes of one another. ■
Ross Taylor is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He’s on the board of directors for NPPA and is also the chair of the quarterly multimedia. Website: rosstaylor.net.
