Program News
Up one levelGrantee Feature: 'Migrant Voices' for Social Change
Sasha Costanza-Chock (USC) and Amanda Garcés (IDEPSCA) share lessons from ‘Migrant Voices', a participatory research project with IDEPSCA and the Garment Worker Center to develop new strategies for broad-based communication among low-wage immigrants in Los Angeles. Their current work, also funded by the SSRC, explores a new platform for mobile-based storytelling.
APCNews Features SSRC Grantee Report
The Association for Progressive Communications highlights the recent work of SSRC Small Grant recipient Abi Jagun, who investigated the unique case of Mauritius as part of APC's large-scale research project on SAT-3/WASC implementation in Africa.
Research Bounty Claimed: Who Gets Cable?
'Who Gets Cable? Why We Don't Know and Why That Matters', has received an SSRC Research Bounty of $5,000 to fund collaboration between Media Access Project and researchers Scott Sanders (Chicago Media Action) and Greg Rose.
Barry Wellman and Arvind Singhal Win New SSRC/ICA Prizes
July 6, 2008 - The Social Science Research Council is pleased to announce the winners of two new prizes in media and communications research, sponsored in partnership with the International Communications Association:
SSRC Announces Seven New Media & Communications Collaborative Grants
June 16th -- The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is pleased to announce seven new recipients of $30,000 Large Grants for academic-advocacy collaboration in media and communications. The funded projects address a range of exciting research needs, from advocacy strategies for Latinos to engage with media institutions, to action research developing a code of practices for Thai community radio, to initiatives that build collaborations between advocates and activists working to democratize the digital communications platform, etc.
Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade -- Meinrath and Others Talk with the NYTimes
SSRC grant recipient Sascha Meinrath (Director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation) is featured in an article by the NYTimes on struggling municiple wi-fi networks in major cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Miami, and San Franscisco. How can cities adopt viable plans that live up to the hype?
Grantee Profile: NYTimes and CityPaper feature Media Mobilizing Project
Todd Wolfson and Media Mobilizing Project, recipients of a $30,000 SSRC Large Grant in October 2007, were recently featured in the New York Times Technology section and on the front cover of the Philadelphia CityPaper for their ongoing work with community journalists in Philadelphia, where residents are voicing issues of violence, gentrification, and the digital divide.
NK Grantee Post-Workshop Info!
The Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere co-hosted a two-day gathering (23-24 February 2008) of grantees, program partners, scholars and advocates to facilitate discussion on strategies to improve and increase research-advocacy collaborations on media and communications issues. Materials from the workshop can be found here.
New SSRC/IDRC Book: ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks
A new SSRC/IDRC-sponsored volume brings together scholars, practitioners, former regulators and policy makers to address the problem of expanding information and communication technology (ICT) connectivity in emerging Asia.
Sacramento Bee Covers Local TV News Monitoring Project
Supported by a Collaborative Grant to Common Cause, Sacramento Media Group, and Kimberly Nadler (CSU-Sacramento)
Call for Papers: NCMR 2008 pre-Conference
The SSRC, the Free Press, and the IIP at Penn State University invite graduate students and faculty to submit papers for the National Conference on Media Reform Academic pre-Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN on June 5, 2008. Papers should focus on issues of media ownership, sustaining independent media, digital technology challenges, and access to dominant media. Deadline for abstracts is January 25, 2008.
Fourth Round Collaborative Grants Announced
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is pleased to announce the four newest recipients of $7,500 grants for academic-advocacy collaboration in the media and communications field.
"Media Minutes" Radio Program focuses on SSRC-funded research on Children's Media
The "Media Minutes" syndicated radio program this week includes an interview with Christy Glaubke of Children Now talking the the report “Big Media, Little Kids 2.” This report summarizes a research study that found that media consolidation has a detrimental effect on the provision of educational television. Funded by a grant from the Necessary Knowledge Program.
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Emergency Grant Winner Announced
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) announces the first recipient of a $30,000 Emergency Grant for academic-advocacy collaboration in the media and communications field.
Grantee Profile: Study Suggests that Concentrated Station Ownership Is Detrimental to Children’s Educational TV
The children’s advocacy group Children Now worked with researcher Katharine Heintz-Knowles, PhD to examine how ownership patterns of television stations affect the amount of children’s educational programming they broadcast. In contrast to industry claims, the study found that more concentrated ownership of TV stations did not lead to more educational TV. In fact there is evidence that diversely held television markets provide more hours of educational programming. The study concludes that concentration of television station ownership in a market does not improve a station’s public service to the children in that market. Instead, this analysis suggests such concentration of ownership has a clear, negative impact on programming for children.
SSRC Announces Grants Totaling $180,000 for Six Media and Communications Projects
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is pleased to announce six recipients of $30,000 'collaborative grants' in media and communications, on subjects ranging from Payola in the music industry to telecommunications rights in Brazil. The six projects bring together academic researchers with practitioners, advocates, and activists on issues central to creating a richer and more democratic public sphere. The grantees were chosen from a pool of 112 applicants.
Grantee Profile: What’s Meant by Digital Inclusion? An Interrogation of Municipal Broadband Policy in San Francisco
Stanford Ph.D Candidate Seeta Peña Gangadharan and activist group Media Alliance examine San Francisco's efforts to develop a "digital inclusion" strategy in the context of its highly-publicized municipal wi-fi build out planning. This research may be particularly useful for communities and groups involved in discussions with their own municipal governments about how to develop inclusive and effective access to the internet. Groups are especially encouraged to download the “Digital Inclusion Advocacy Toolkit” prepared by Media Alliance as part of this research study.
Project Profile: Understanding Barriers to Entry for Minority and Female Broadcasters
Recent studies have shown that minorities and women are very underrepresented in the population of radio and television station owners. Researchers Catherine Sandoval and Allen Hammond, IV at Santa Clara University School of Law and David Honig, Director of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council, have developed and tested two surveys to help understand the experiences and perspectives of minority and female broadcasters, particularly with regard to public policies that affect their entry into the market.
Grantee Profile: Study Explores Radio as a Mobilization Tool in Latino Communities
San Francisco State University researcher Graciela Orozco examined how 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 that took place last year. Orozco’s work lends evidence to the continuing importance of broadcast radio for community discourse, outreach and organizing.