“A lot of people don't think about rural America. Investigate Midwest makes people think about that.”
— Melissa Dai, former writing intern
A disparity hidden in plain sight
Last summer, our summer reporting intern Melissa Dai was combing through USDA reports when she noticed a single statistic tucked in the bottom corner of a federal fact sheet. It showed that Native American farmers had strikingly low rates of broadband access.
The number would have been easy to overlook, but it raised an important question: We often hear about the rural-urban digital divide, but why were some farmer demographics being left even further behind?
As Melissa dug deeper, she found Native American and Black farmers were the only groups with broadband access rates below the national average.
What began as a small statistic grew into a months-long investigation with extensive data analysis and interviews with more than 40 farmers, advocates, researchers and government officials across the country.
The story went on to earn regional and national journalism awards, and brought attention to a significant disparity that had largely gone unreported.
In this video, Melissa joined our current audience engagement intern, Paloma Sanchez-McGee, to discuss how the story came together, what she learned from reporting it, and why the best investigative reporting combines data with the experiences of people most affected.
Watch the full interview here.
Stories like this are possible because our newsroom invests time, resources and mentorship into ambitious reporting. Reader support helps sustain this work and train the next generation of agriculture beat journalists. Please donate today.
— Lauren Cross,
assistant editor/audience engagement manager
Investigate Midwest
