Document Actions
News
Up one levelProgram news, opportunities, and updates. To submit news to us, send it to mediahub@ssrc.org.
Community Connect: A Forum for Civic Participation
The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) at the University of North Dakota has launched its 'Community Connect' website, an online forum for community members and university faculty, students, and staff to collaborate on local projects. The site is one part in CCE's ongoing efforts to document how participants create community content and to provide a mechanism for enriched civic communication.
MEC Releases New Report: Snapshot of Foundation Support for Feminist Gender Justice Media
The Media Equity Collaborative (MEC), a practitioner-led initiative committed to movement building of the feminist gender justice media (FGJM) community, continues to build on an SSRC grant for initial efforts to map the FGJM funding sector. The newest report highlights the integral role of committed foundations and individual donors in creating sustainable support for FGJM.
Broadband Adoption and the Role of the Public Library: Issues and Solutions
The Office for Information Technology Policy of the American Libary Association (ALA) will host a panel on challenges to broadband adoption and library-led strategies at the ALA's 2010 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Panelists for the June 26th event include Mark Lloyd of the FCC, New Mexico State Librarian Susan Oberlander, and researcher Dharma Dailey.
SSRC Releases Report on Barriers to Broadband Adoption
2 March 2010, Washington, D.C. -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) unveiled the study findings of the SSRC in its report, Broadband Adoption in Low-Income Communities, at an event hosted by the American Library Association (ALA).
A Multimedia Tour of Mobile Voices
Mobile Voices is an academic-community partnership between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA) to design an open-source platform for low-wage immigrants in Los Angeles to publish stories directly from their mobile phones.
Revitalizing a Media Reform Movement in Canada
WACC Global and WACC North America team up with Simon Fraser University professor Robert Hackett and OpenMedia.ca to identify the building blocks for an emergent coalition aiming to democratize public communications in Canada. The collaboration was supported by a grant from the Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program of the SSRC.
Digital Inclusion: Working Both Sides of the Equation
Recipients of an SSRC Large Grant for collaborative action research in East Oakland, CA report on the creation of a new multi-media lab and wireless mesh network. Media Alliance and Dorothy Kidd address the ways in which effective collaborations can be formed between policy advocates and grassroots activists.
SSRC Essay Forum: Transformations of the Public Sphere
Accompanied by a mapping project called the Public Sphere Guide, a new essay forum hosted by the SSRC provides a platform for discussions around current and emerging projects on the public sphere, serving as a gateway to ongoing conversations around sub-themes of media reform, academia and public policy, religion, the privatization of risk and the public good.
Beyond Television: The Digital Transition of Public Access
Martha Fuentes-Bautista and channelAustin introduce new metrics for measuring the opportunities and demands faced by community access organizations in the transition to digital scenarios. Taking the case of channelAustin, the study highlights the diverse communities and needs served, providing action items for local decision-makers, strategic planners, and the access community at large.
New Study Confirms Cross-Ownership Leads to Less Local Content
Danilo Yanich, at the University of Delaware, examines a key FCC study on the effects of cross-ownership on local news content in television markets. Yanich finds serious problems with the 2007 study, and with the changes in ownership policies that followed. The project was supported by a grant from the SSRC and conducted in cooperation with the Consumer Federation of America and Free Press.
Future of Music Coalition Releases Study on Independent Music Airplay
April 29, 2009, Washington, D.C. -- Artist education, research and advocacy organization Future of Music Coalition (FMC) announces the release of a new report that analyzes radio playlists to determine whether the policy interventions resulting from 2003-2007 payola investigations have had any effect on the amount of independent music played on terrestrial radio. This project was supported by a Large Collaborative Grant from the SSRC.
Allied Media Conference & Media Equity Summit
Allied Media Projects invites proposals for workshops, panel discussions, film presentations, and caucuses for their 11th annual Conference, to be held July 16-19th in Detroit, MI. The AMC Conference is preceded this year by a Summit of Women's Social Justice Media Organizations organized by the Women's Media Equity Collaborative (MEC), supported by a Large Collaborative Grant from the SSRC.
SSRC Awards 13 Grants to Improve Public Knowledge on Islam and Muslim Communities
Thirteen centers on university campuses have received grants ranging from approximately $35,000 to $100,000 for projects that will help revitalize the public mission of universities by addressing topics of critical importance to ongoing national debates. The grants support journalism projects or other channels for the distribution of high-quality expert knowledge to impact policy and public discourse.
Process is Powerful: A Practical Guide for Media Activists
The Center for International Media Action (CIMA) draws on five years of alliance-building experience to produce an open source guide for practitioners working toward systemic, progressive media change. With a focus on planning and evaluation strategies, the guide draws from several case studies, including CIMA's work with the 'Necessary Knowledge' Collaborative Grants program at the SSRC.
NHMC Study of Hate Speech to be Released
January 22, 2009 – The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), one of the country’s foremost Latino media advocacy and civil rights organizations, announces an upcoming press conference, January 28th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to discuss the role of media in hate speech and hate crimes. This research is supported by a Large Collaborative Grant from the Social Science Research Council.
Call for Proposals: The VAI-SSRC 'New York Prize Fellowship in Information and Communication'
The Van Alen Institute and the Social Science Research Council welcome proposals from researchers, designers, and architects investigating the spatial conditions and implications of contemporary intellectual property regimes, in recognition of their role in reorganizing basic social understandings of public and private, licit and illicit, freedom and constraint.
"...and Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for a New Administration"
This new volume is the culmination of the the Future of American Communications (FACT) Working Group, composed of sixteen telecommunications scholars from eleven American universities.
Six Steps Toward a Stronger, More Transparent, More Accountable FCC in the Obama Era
Public policy should be made with robust, publicly-available data. Few would disagree. Yet in the last decade, federal policymaking in the communications arena has repeatedly failed to meet these two basic conditions: quality of data and access to data.
What is the Future of the Newspaper?
The Christian Science Monitor, which turned 100 this year, recently announced that it will cease daily publication next April. The newspaper will shift to a weekly print format while increasing its emphasis on its Web site. Against this backdrop, SSRC Program Officer - Minna Aslama hosts a new President's Question.
New Essays on Making Communications Research Matter
Dec. 2008 -- "Making Communications Research Matter" is an SSRC essay forum intended to advance dialogue about the relationship between research and policymaking in media and communications. Recent additions (by Kate Coyer, Marianne Franklin, Philip Napoli, and Danilo Yanich) are up for comment and discussion.