Appalachian Social Cohesion: Interviewing, Engagement and Participant Observation in Rural Appalachian Media Markets

Appalachia is a region in the eastern United States which stretches from northern Mississippi to New York and into Canada. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, it includes 13 states and more than 206,000 square miles (Appalachian Regional Commission, no date). In Appalachian Studies, the concept of radical resourcefulness is both descriptive and prescriptive: it reflects the radically impoverished resources the people of Appalachia need work with and yet prescribes a form of resourcefulness that allows people to create something from nothing (Carey 2020). Prior research reflects that when radical resourcefulness can be employed, individuals can weather seemingly insurmountable conditions and work in a pro-social manner (Perreault & Richards, 2022; Richards & Perreault, 2021). When scholars research communities in which they are based, they are granted insights which outsiders might not have, but at the same time they must use grounded thought and reflexivity to address research bias. This chapter additionally provides insight in working with smaller, historically impoverished and marginalized populations and rethinking research saturation through multi-step research designs. This knowledge is useful to both journalists and communications professionals who regularly interact with or pitch to Appalachian journalists and news organizations.