Seth Bodine covers agriculture and rural issues for KOSU in Oklahoma as a Report For America corps member. In December 2020, he published a story about the poor quality of water in Hobart, Oklahoma. Here’s how he discovered the story through Facebook.

Much of my time last year for engagement was in Facebook posts in rural town groups. The biggest engagement effort was for my last feature of the year about the water in the town of Hobart.

Here is the initial post: 

This resulted in several sources I used for my story. I replied to individual comments to see if they’d be willing to talk to me over the phone and eventually meet. I initially received the tip about Hobart from posting on a Cordell page, from someone who said problems with the water were also there.

Once the story was published, I posted again with highlights from my report and a link to the story. Many Hobart residents posted it. Following the story, another reporter, Steve Shaw, went to Hobart to do a story, further highlighting the issue. 

I initially got this story idea when I was posting on chicken groups to see if any of their mail order chickens arrived DOA. Someone commented: “You should look into the water in Cordell. It’s worse than Flint Michigan.”

The biggest takeaway: Social media engagement work leads to stories! In unexpected ways. 

I also posted in Cordell and received several emails about the water. Screenshots below.