Introduction : the need to reimagine rural / Gregory M. Fulkerson & Alexander R. Thomas -- Popular media representations of rural -- Representations of rural in popular North American television / Gregory M. Fulkerson & Brian M. Lowe -- Portrayals of rural people and places in reality television programming : how popular american cable series misrepresent rural realities / Karl A. Jicha -- Inbred horror revisited : the fear of the rural in twenty-first century backwoods horror films / Karen Hayden -- Reconsidering the rural in the end : rural representations in post-apocalyptic settings / Brian M. Lowe -- The sources of rural meaning and knowledge construction -- Urbanormativity in news coverage of rural life / Pilar Erin McKay -- Cow college and critical rural knowledge / Barbara Ching -- Common core, stem, and rural schools : views from students and states / Leanne M. Avery & John W. Sipple -- Conclusion: reimagining rural / Gregory M. Fulkerson & Alexander R. Thomas.