Students at the University of Georgia spent the past few months assembling a 19-story package on health in six rural counties near the school’s Athens, Ga., campus. The package, done by students from Pat Thomas’ health and medical reporting class and Mark E. Johnson’s documentary photography course, makes extensive use of video and multimedia slide shows.
The stories focus on particular areas of interest in each county and help tell stories ranging from the challenges of starting a family in economically disadvantaged rural areas to the influence of gangs on the lives of folks living in those areas. In other counties, the reporters covered the prison system, the struggles of aging residents and the senior centers that serve them, and emergency services and rural medicine.
The stories show the breadth of reporting possible within the health care beat and paint a picture of rural health using varied approaches to storytelling.
