A survey studying sources of local news in counties along the state’s Interstate 35 corridor is being distributed by a journalism class at the University of Oklahoma.
The survey asks about what mediums, platforms and outlets Oklahomans interact most often with to stay informed about news in their communities.
The survey area consists of the 11 Oklahoma counties along I-35: Kay, Noble, Payne, Logan, Oklahoma, Cleveland, McClain, Garvin, Murray, Carter and Love counties.
So far, the class has received more than 600 responses and hopes to receive responses from over 30,000 households in the survey area.
Inspired by the Colorado News Mapping Project, the class hopes the survey responses will help inform a solution to dying community news, especially in rural areas and “news deserts,” communities without any local news media.
Junior journalism major Gracie Steinbrinck, whose group handles research and engagement with Logan County, wrote in various posts to Logan County Facebook groups that the class hopes to learn more about how people in these communities stay informed.
“We’ve put together a short survey to find out which news sources you trust and use the most,” Steinbrinck’s post read. “If you have a few minutes, we’d really appreciate your input — it would mean a lot to us as students!”
••• The community news survey is accessible via a Google Form by following this link: bit.ly/4lcDXUH.
