The Media Research Hub is a resource for researchers, advocates, and practitioners working for a more democratic and participatory public sphere. More info...

Lessons from the Collaborative Grants

The SSRC has funded 44 Collaborative Grants in Media and Communications since 2006. The grants provide incentives for researchers, activists, and advocates to work together to define and address critical knowledge needs--whether on policy, organizing, organizational practices, or the field itself. Our goal is to make the field 'better' at producing and bringing high-quality research to bear on these issues, in the service of building a richer, more participatory public sphere. Each of the funded projects provides an answer to this multi-sided challenge.

With current funding for the grants project at an end, and in the spirit of making the field stronger and more reflective, we can offer some tentative conclusions about the field's response to this challenge.

• Research Strategies: Inclusion, Localism, Better Data, Field Analysis.
• Research Outcomes: Policy and Organizing Impact, Academic Change
• Building a Culture of Collaboration: Who Gets Involved? What is Collaboration?
• Chronological List of the Grants
• Community Feedback

We would welcome comments and suggestions as we discuss possible renewal of the project, mediahub@ssrc.org.

What's on the Media Research Hub?

Collaborative Grants support partnerships between academic researchers and advocates. Grants are awarded through open competitions, held several times per year. No new grant rounds are currently scheduled.

The Data Consortium for Media and Communications Policy works for the principle that public policy should be made with publicly-available data—a condition mostly absent from contemporary media and communications policymaking.

The Resource Database is a community-editable field-mapping tool for linking people, institutions, research materials, networks, and projects--and the relationships between them.

Commentary: an aggregated media and technology blog on news, resources, research, and policy.

News and Events: selected news, conferences, internship offers and other opportunities in the field. To submit an item, contact mediahub@ssrc.org.

Partners and Program Links:

• The Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program
• The Social Science Research Council
• The Center for International Media Action
• The Donald McGannon Communications Research Center, Fordham University