Fall 2008

$7,500 Small Grants, 5th Round and $7,500 Research Bounties

• A Strategy, Acquisition, and Revenue Model of Evangelical Radio Networks (Research Bounty)

  A study of the business models and public service committments of the Christian broadcasting companies that dominate low-power FM licensing

  Proposing Organization: Prometheus Radio Project
  Primary Investigators: Colleen Connolly-Ahern and Amit Schejter, Penn State University

• Assessing the Commons: Social Metrics for the New Media Landscape

  Developing new metrics for understanding the impact of Creative Commons and other open licensing models

  Primary Investigator: Giorgos Cheliotis, National University of Singapore
  Partnering Organization: Creative Commons (CC) 




• Community Connect: A Forum for Civic Participation

  Exploring virtual platforms for community-based academic-activist knowledge sharing

  Primary Investigators: Lana Rakow and Diana Nastasia, University of North Dakota
  Partnering Organization: Center for Community Engagement  




• Mapping Media Advocacy in South Asia 

  A research and training agenda for strengthening the media advocacy sector

  Primary Investigator: Vibodh Parthasarathi, Centre for Culture, Media & Governance (CCMG), Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 
  Partnering Organization: Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) 




• New Network Neutrality: Toward a Stronger Account of Internet Freedom (Research Bounty)

  An analysis of quality of service (QoS) policies of major wired and wireless network providers, mapped against available traffic data

  Proposing Organization: Open Technology Initiative (OTI) of the New America Foundation
  Primary Investigators: Andrew M. Odlyzko, University of Minnesota; Sascha Meinrath and Victor Pickard, NAF; and Michael Weisman, Media Access Project




• Prison Phone Service Provider Contracts, Kickbacks and Fiscal Impact on Prisoners’ Families

  Research on telecom policy and phone service for the 2.3 million prisoners in the US

  Primary Investigator: Steven Jackson, University of Michigan
  Partnering Organization: Prison Legal News (PLN) 




• Revitalizing a Media Reform Movement in Canada

  Deregulation and market fundamentalism in media have produced many of the same problems in Canada as in the US -- without, as yet, a comparable reinvigoration of public-interest reform movements. What would an effective Canadian media reform movement look like? How can it be built?

  Primary Investigator: Robert A. Hackett, Simon Fraser University
  Partnering Organizations: World Association for Christian Communication (WACC); OpenMedia.ca

Summer 2008

$30,000 Large Grants, 2nd Round

• Assessing Change: A Study of Latino Media Advocacy Efforts

  An assessment of the successes and failures of Latino advocacy in transforming mainstream media practices, from the 1960s to the present

  Primary Investigator: Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Columbia University
  Partnering Organization: National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)




• Building a Democratic Regulatory Framework for Community Radios in Thailand

  An effort to collaboratively develop a regulatory model and code of practices that will help strengthen community broadcasting in Thailand

  Primary Investigator: Pirongrong Ramasoota, Chulalongkorn University
  Partnering Organizations: Thai Media Policy Advocacy Center (Thai-MPAC); Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR); Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA); the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania




• Digital Inclusion: Working Both Sides of the Equation

  Bridging the gap between youth media groups and media policy reform campaigns

  Primary Investigator: Dorothy Kidd, University of San Francisco
  Partnering Organization: Media Alliance




• From the Digital Divide to Digital Excellence: Global Best Practices for Community Wireless Networks

  A comparative analysis and search for best practices in international community wireless projects

  Primary Investigators: Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation; Laura Forlano, Columbia University
  Partnering Organization: New America Foundation




• Hate Speech in the Media

  Reinventing a lapsed government role in tracking and addressing hate speech

  Primary Investigators: Chon A. Noriega and Francisco Javier Iribarren (University of California-Los Angeles)
  Partnering Organization: National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)




• Mobile Voices: Participatory Action Research for Mobile Community Among Immigrants in Los Angeles

  Researching and designing a platform for low-wage immigrants to publish stories about their lives and communities, directly from their mobile phones

  Primary Investigators: François Bar and Sasha Costanza-Chock, University of Southern California; Raúl Añorve, IDEPSCA; Amanda Garcés, IDEPSCA
  Partnering Organization: Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA)




• Sustainability and New Funding Models for Feminist Media

  An analysis of the financial, structural, and production characteristics of the estimated 200+ feminist media organizations in the United States, leading to a set of recommendations for the sustainability of the sector

  Primary Investigators: Lisa McLaughlin, Miami University; Susan Feiner, University of Southern Maine
  Partnering Organizations: Chica Luna Productions; Making Contact/National Radio Project

Spring 2008

$5,000 Research Bounty

• Who Gets Cable? Why We Don't Know and Why That Matters

  By the FCC's admission, data collection on this issue has failed, leaving it unable to effectively regulate the primary providers of media and internet services. This study provides an alternative benchmark based on the Chicago area.

  Proposing Organization: Media Access Project
  Primary Investigators: Harold Feld, Media Access Project; Greg Rose, Greg Rose & Associates; Scott Sanders, Chicago Media Action

Winter 2007

• A Qualitative Survey of Minority Radio and Television Ownership and Media Consolidation

  Follow up to the 2006 'Small Grant' survey on barriers to entry for minority owners

  Primary Investigators: Catherine Sandoval and Allen S. Hammond, IV, Santa Clara University School of Law
  Partnering Organization: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC)

   




• Mapping Federal Radio Spectrum Holdings (Research Bounty)
  

  An examination of federal spectrum holdings that might be made available for direct public use on an interruptible, non-discriminatory basis--an alternative to the prevalent auction model

  Proposing Organization: Media Access Project
  Primary Investigator: Michael Calabrese, New America Foundation




• Rural Telecommunications Access -- Montana Media Partnership

  An investigation of the factors shaping the availability of telephone service, cellular and wireless service, and high-speed Internet service in rural/remote communities, and how access affects civic participation

  Primary Investigator: Richard Wolff, Montana State University 
  Partnering Organization: Montana Common Cause




• Toward a Taxonomy for Public Interest Communications Infrastructure
  

  The project will develop a standard data framework that will facilitate the coordinated collection of data on local communications infrastructure initiatives, and ultimately meaningful comparisons of their strategies and outcomes.

  Primary Investigator: Alison Powell, Concordia University
  Partnering Organization: Acorn Active Media Foundation; Ethos Group

Fall 2007

• Alternative Media and Democratic Praxis: A Study of the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia

  A study of the MMP's model of activism and community engagement in its campaign to hold Philadelphia and its municipal wireless provider (Earthlink) accountable for promises to citizens

  Primary Investigators: Peter Funke and Todd Wolfson, University of Pennsylvania; (Researcher Dan Berger, University of Pennsylvania)
  Partnering Organization: Media Mobilizing Project

   




• Assessing the Impact of the Spitzer Payola Investigation

  An analysis of the impact of the Spitzer consent decrees against pay-for-play on radio programming

  Primary Investigator: Kristin Thomson, Future of Music Coaltion; Gabriel Rossman, University of California - Los Angeles
  Partnering Organization: Future of Music Coalition




• Local TV News Content and Media Ownership (Emergency Grant)

  Research on the impact of shrinking station ownership on local news coverage

  Primary investigator: Danilo Yanich, University of Delaware
  Partnering Organization: Consumer Federation of America




• Measuring Noncommercial Radio’s Impact in Rural Communities

  Developing new audience measurement instruments that can better serve rural radio communities

  Primary Investigator: Graciela Orozco, San Francisco State University
  Partnering Organizations: National Federation of Community Broadcasters; WMMT-FM Community Radio, Whitesburg, KY




• Net Neutrality: The Convergence of Telecommunications and Consumers Rights in Brazil

  As Internet use in Brazil increases, IDEC examines the need for, and viability of, explicit net neutrality provisions in Brazilian law.

  Primary Investigators: Pedro Paranaguá, Getulio Vargas Foundation; Estela Waksberg Guerrini and Diogo Moisés Rodrigues, IDEC
  Partnering Organization: Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC)




• New Media and Empowerment of Communities of Color in the U.S. Urban Heartland

  Documenting the digital divide in the city of Louisville, especially in underserved minority communities

  Primary Investigators: Catherine Fosl and Jennifer Gregg, University of Louisville
  Partnering Organization: Kentucky Jobs with Justice

   




• Youth Channel All-City: Building a Municipal Infrastructure for Media Education, Production, and Distribution
  

  Designing a content and production model for the next generation of youth-produced community access television

  Primary Investigators: Amy Bach, University of Pennsylvania; Rachel Kulick, Brandeis University
  Partnering Organization: Manhattan Neighborhood Network Youth Channel

Spring 2007

• Assessing Public Access TV in a Changing Media Landscape

  An analysis of the changing regulatory environment for Public Access Community Television (PACT) in Texas

  Primary Investigator: Martha Fuentes-Bautista, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  Partnering Organization: Public Access Community Television - Austin, TX




• Citizen Journalism: The Case for Including Homeless People

  An exploration of the information needs and information production of the homeless in Atlanta, GA

  Primary Investigator: Matthew Cardinale, Georgia State University
  Partnering Organization: Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless




• Monitoring Local News Coverage's Ability to Meet the Public's Informational Needs

  A community media monitoring and analysis project focused on English and Spanish language news programming in Sacramento before the February 2008 California presidential primary

  Primary Investigator: Kimberly Nalder, California State University - Sacramento
  Partnering Organizations: Sacramento Media Group; California Common Cause




• The Public FM Project: Supporting Non-Profit FM Radio Licensing

  A crash effort in mapping frequencies and preparing non-profit groups for the 2007 non-commercial radio station licensing window

  Primary Investigators: Todd Urick, Common Frequency; Andy Jones, University of California - Davis
  Partnering Organization: Common Frequency

Winter 2006

• A Development-based Critique of Telecentre Deployment in India

  An analysis of the Telecentre model and policy framework for expanding access to the internet rural Indian communities

  Primary Investigator: Rahul De', Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
  Partnering Organization: IT for Change




• Building Community Communication Infrastructure: A Case Study of the Tribal Digital Village

  Documenting and analyzing basic telecommunications service gaps and community wireless solutions in Native American communities in rural Southern California

  Primary Investigator: Christian Sandvig, University of Illinois
  Partnering Organization: Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association




• The Case for "Open Access" in Africa: Mauritius Case Study

  An analysis of the emerging competitive landscape in telecom services in Mauritius following the end of the SAFE undersea cable monopoly on Internet connectivity

  Primary Investigators: Abiodun Jagun, University of Strathclyde; Russell Southwood, Balancing Act
  Partnering Organization: Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

   




• Local Issues, Local Voices: A Media Education and Monitoring Project

  A project to develop a template for community news monitoring, with a test case in Philadelphia

  Primary Investigator: Jan Fernback, Temple University
  Partnering Organization: Media Tank




• Migrant Voices: Communication for Social Change with Garment Workers and Day Laborers in Los Angeles

  Participatory research on the technical, organizational, and policy requirements for a hybrid radio/net/telephony project by and for immigrant workers

  Primary Investigator: Sasha Costanza-Chock, University of Southern California
  Partnering Organizations: Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA); Garment Worker Center




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Fall 2006

$7,500 Small Grants, 1st Round

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• Assessing the Diversity of Latino-Oriented News Media in Local Settings

  An assessment of source diversity, content diversity and exposure diversity in the Latino-oriented broadcast media, focusing on Central Texas

  Primary Investigator: Federico Subervi, Texas State University
  Partnering Organizations: National Hispanic Media Coaltion; Latinos and Media Project (LAMP)

   




• Big Media, Little Kids 2: The Impact of Concentrated Station Ownership on Children's Educational TV

A study of how the formation of duopolies and triopolies in media markets may affect the quantity and quality of programs broadcast for the child audience

Primary Investigator: Katharine Heintz, University of Southern Maine
Partnering Organization: Children Now

 




• The Impact of Media Concentration on Local TV News Coverage

  A study of the impact of duopoly ownership in local markets on local TV news

  Primary Investigator: Danilo Yanich, University of Delaware
  Partnering Organization: Consumer Federation of America

   




• Radio as a Mobilization Tool in Latino Communities

  Latinos in California utilized Radio Bilingue, a local Spanish-language radio station, to inform, encourage, and organize political action on the issue of immigrants' rights as part of the national May 1st mobilization protests.

  Primary Investigator: Graciela Orozco, San Francisco State University
  Partnering Organization: Radio Bilingüe




• Understanding Barriers to Entry for Minority and Female Broadcasters

A survey-based study on the experiences and perspectives of minority and female broadcasters, focusing on public policies that affect their entry into the market

Primary Investigators: Catherine Sandoval and Allen S. Hammond, IV, Santa Clara University School of Law
Partnering Organization: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC)

 




• What's Meant By Digital Inclusion? An Interrogation of Municipal Broadband Policy in San Francisco

A study of San Francisco's efforts to develop a "digital inclusion" strategy for its municipal wi-fi build out

Primary Investigator: Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Stanford University

Partnering Organization: Media Alliance

Spring/Summer 2006

Other Research

• Information Asymmetries, Commercial Data Access and Usage in the Policymaking Process

  An analysis of the role of data, research, and evidence in FCC policymaking

  Primary Investigators: Philip Napoli and Michelle Seaton, Fordham University
  Partnering Organization: Consumer Federation of America




• Localism, the Ethnic Minority News Audience, and Community Participation

Survey and interview research on media consumption among minority populations in Washington, DC

Primary Investigators: Carolyn Byerly and Jamila A. Cupid, Howard University; Kehbuma Langmia, Bowie State University




• Radio Programming Variety and the Local Ownership Cap

A study of the impact of concentration in radio station ownership on programming

Primary Investigator: Peter DiCola, University of Michigan
Partnering Organization: Future of Music Coalition