About the Rural News Network

The Rural News Network at the University of Montana's School of Journalism is a project that works with communities in the state to create their own citizen journalism-based news Web sites.

Made possible through funding from the J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, RNN gives towns that have either lost their newspaper or never had one their own Web sites and the expertise to use them, creating a sustainable model for community news.

At the start of building the news Web sites, RNN brings journalism professionals and students to the community. The journalists' duty is to train citizens to take charge of their own communication via the Web.

So far, RNN has helped the town of Dutton in northcentral Montana start and maintain its own site, the Dutton Country Courier. CrowNews.Net is RNN's second site.