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Trainee journalist wins grant to study Amish media

Summer - a time for journalism students to grab all important work placements and hopefully set themselves apart from the crowd.

So, when Jessica Best, who has recently completed Cardiff University's postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism, was asked to submit an original idea for a travel journalism scholarship, she did just that, proposing a trip to Sugarcreek, Ohio, to report on the Amish media scene.

Journalism.co.uk caught up with Best before she left to find out more about her plans:

What are the details of the placement?
I'm going to a small town called Sugarcreek, Ohio, to spend two weeks working with the Amish newspaper, The Budget. The paper was established in 1890 and since then has produced a weekly paper for the Amish and Mennonite communities across the United States.

It prints both a local and national edition, covering topics such as sports, church, school and agricultural news, and is written with the help of scribes in each community.

In 2006 the paper went live online, with a limited version of the local edition updated each week. I'm particularly interested in going to look at how this works and why it made the decision to go online, given that Amish communities traditionally shun modern technology.
 
How did the project come about?
The trip has been made possible thanks to a £1,000 travel journalism scholarship from the Welsh Livery Guild. We were asked to come up with our own ideas for an international journalism project, which was then pitched to the Guild who selected the winner. As part of the arrangement, I have to write a 1,000 article for the Guild on the experience.
 
I had been interested in the Amish following a previous trip to Illinois, and when I found out they had a newspaper - especially one they had recently put online - I thought it would be fascinating to go and see how it works in the 21st century.
 
What do you hope to get from it?
I'm looking to draw comparisons between my experiences of working in a modern newsroom and a paper serving a very different kind of community. As mentioned, I'm particularly interested in looking at the online element - how they balance modern pressures on the newspaper industry with a readership which is generally opposed to the online shift. I want to ask if there's more they wish they could do.

But mostly I'm hoping to see a newspaper catering and tailoring material for its readership it the purest sense - I hope to find out what their news values are, and whether stories we might view as important are sacrificed in favour of them.
 
I will also be spending time with Amish communities and families to see how they interact with their own, and other, media. I'm looking to discovering whether they would like something more and how they feel about the internet issue.

Finally, it's Independence Day on the first Saturday of my stay, so I will be really interested to see if and how the Amish celebrate it, and possibly look at the issue of their national identity.
 
Do you have any expectations of what Amish media will be like?
I have no idea what to expect. From the research I've done, the paper appears to be almost hyperlocal and very focused on the community's specific needs. I have been organising the trip through the publisher Keith Rathburn and hope through him, and other members of staff, to get a real idea of what it's like to work for The Budget.

Jessica will be reporting back for Journalism.co.uk on her return. You can also follow her experiences on her blog.

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training | us | cardiff university | jessica best | amish media | the budget |

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