Isolation must have a lot to do with it. A subsistence farmer and his family had little need for schools or stores or visits to town. Basic needs in such a community could be addressed by a miller, a blacksmith, a justice of the peace and an itinerant minister of the gospel. They really didn't care what was going on in the outside world.

On the other hand, cotton linked farmers to market towns and a market economy. Being interested in prices, they needed to read the news for the latest. Events affecting the market and cotton culture (and other cash crops) would be interesting. Men and women saw each other in town, in the stores, at church and other community activities. Many of these market towns could be found along rivers, so people living nearby were in regular contact with the outside world.

The influence of print media in this time on a moderately literate public cannot be underestimated. Let me suggest the work of Edward L. Ayres, who makes this point in a recent publication. If Dr. Ayres answered this question, he would first need to know more about the different regions into which Arkansas can be divided and studied --

http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1999-07/ayers.html