Oglethorpe County
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Rural Georgia Struggles with Health Care Accessibility
You are having a health emergency. You call 911. The nearest hospital is an hour away. You are diagnosed with cancer, but it took you months to find out because you don’t have transportation to see the one primary care physician in your county. You finally get an appointment…
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What’s on the Market: 3 Homes with History
Students in a journalism seminar on home and garden reporting learned about real estate prices prices, architectural styles and features by producing a roundup story with listings. The stories are written in the vein as the New York Times’ “On the Market” series and Country Living’s “Nest” feature in its magazine.…
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Meeting Families Where They Are: Athens Area Diaper Bank Gets Distribution Van
Erin Campbell remembers feeling angry, sad and frustrated a decade ago after reading a statistic in a magazine: one in three families struggled with diaper need. Campbell, just a few weeks postpartum herself, was in a financially stable situation, but the thought of other new mothers having to clean and…
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Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter Asks Community to Help with Overcrowding
Barking can be heard from every corner of the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter. For Charlie, the barking was in celebration of reuniting with his family. “We got Charlie chipped today,” Shannon Everett said, who reclaimed Charlie as his owner. “We are very grateful to Madison County animal shelter for what…
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Election 2022 in Photos: Democrats Work To Expand in Oglethorpe County
Students in the Advanced Photojournalism course were charged with showing the story of campaign workers during the 2022 midterm election cycle. Working with canvassers, organizers and volunteers, they researched who makes campaigns and elections happen, then spent time in the field with them. Click to experience the visual storytelling.
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More Than Books: Libraries Are Community Centers
The automatic sliding doors open with a whoosh. Books are neatly stacked on the hold shelves, waiting for readers to come and retrieve them. The stairs take you up to rows upon rows of books of all different sizes, some skinny, some wide, some heavy tomes. Bright lights illuminate…
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Front Porch Bookstore Captures History, Conquers Obstacles
The Front Porch Bookstore in Winterville, Georgia, has both a rich history and a unique strategy for surviving the pandemic. This walk-through interactive allows the audience to place themselves within the setting for a much richer storytelling and impactful experience. Click the arrow on the front door to begin.…
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Facebook Local News Groups Work To Inform, Engage Residents
In the early morning hours of March 19, a gunman killed 23-year-old RaceTrac employee Elijah Wood. As rush hour began, posts on the Oconee 411 Facebook group page asked about the police activity at the RaceTrac station on Macon Highway. Later, using information from county officials, local news groups from…
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Georgia House Approves Funding for Internet Construction in Rural Counties
The Georgia House of Representatives approved a midyear budget that would grant rural areas, like Oglethorpe County, funding for increased internet construction. The funding includes $20 million that will be distributed to rural counties all across Georgia in an effort to resolve an issue that has become even more…
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Print Journalism’s Fading Echo: Impact of News Desertification in Northeast Georgia
In Lexington, Georgia, less than 20 miles from Athens, there’s a small, white building tucked behind a gravel parking lot surrounded by overgrown grass. Untrimmed bushes obscure a rusty metal sign that reads “The Oglethorpe Echo.” Framed on a wall of the entryway is a newspaper clipping: a profile on…