One of this year's East Kentucky Leadership Award Winners represents an organization helping rural journalists define the public agenda for their communities.

Longtime reporter Al Cross will accept the media award on behalf of the Institute For Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

After more than 26 years as a reporter at the Courier-Journal, Al Cross became the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. He's a self-described 'extension agent for rural journalists.'

“It's a lot more difficult to be a good, ethical, hard-nosed journalist in a small town than it is a big city because you never know when someone's going to come in, walk right in to your office, no receptionist or security guard, and start banging on your desk about something you wrote,” Cross said.

The Institute serves as a public policy center to help rural journalists grasp the local impact of broader issues, find sources, and develop new story approaches.

“People in these rural areas need to understand how their local schools, hospitals, businesses, economies and ways of life are affected by these things that come at them from far away,” Cross said.

It's a concept Cross teaches to his journalism students at UK, and to a national audience online.

“We quickly found that when we put up the website ruraljournalism.org, and the rural blog, that people all over rural America wanted the kind of information we were putting out,” Cross said.

And Cross wanted to take things a step further by recognizing rural journalists for courage and tenacity in reporting.

So the Institute established the Tom and Pat Gish Award in 2005, named after the publishers of the Mountain Eagle and icons in community journalism. Cross thinks small-town journalists with backbone are needed now perhaps more than ever.

“The metropolitan media in this country have largely abandoned rural America,” Cross said.

“If the local media are not doing their job in keeping people informed, setting the public agenda, and moving the community forward, then the community is a lot less likely to move forward,” Cross said.

That's why the Institute prides itself on giving rural journalists the confidence to tackle the tough stuff.

The 2009 East Kentucky Leadership Award for Media goes to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, with special recognition of Al Cross.

Several individuals and organizations will be honored with East Kentucky Leadership Awards this Thursday in Hazard.

There is still time for you to register to attend the awards.

You can contact Ron Daley at 606-487-3158.