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SSRC Announces Grants Totaling $180,000 for Six Media and Communications Projects

by rik panganiban last modified 2008-03-05 13:27

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 consumers' rights around telecommunications 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 program received 112 letters of inquiry in this round, and requested full proposals from 54 applicants.


The six projects are:

  • Youth Channel All-City: Building a Municipal Infrastructure for Media Education, Production, and Distribution
    Principal Investigators: Amy Bach and Rachel Kulick
    Partner: Manhattan Neighborhood Network Youth Channel
  • New Media and Empowerment of Communities of Color in the U.S. Urban Heartland
    Principal Investigators: Catherine Fosl and Jennifer Gregg
    Partner: Kentucky Jobs with Justice
  • Alternative Media and Democratic Praxis: A Study of the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia
    Principal Investigators: Peter Funke and Todd Wolfson; Dan Berger (Researcher)
    Partner: Media Mobilizing Project
  • The Convergence of Telecommunications and Consumers Rights in Brazil
    Principal Investigators: Luiz Fernando and Marrey Moncau
    Partner: Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense)
  • Measuring Noncommercial Radio’s Impact in Rural Communities
    Principal Investigator: Graciela Orozco
    Partner: National Federation of Community Broadcasters
  • Assessing the Impact of the Spitzer Payola Investigation
    Principal Investigator: Gabriel Rossman
    Partner: Future of Music Coalition

The Collaborative Grants project is part of the SSRC Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere program, which is supported by funding from the Ford Foundation. Now in its second year, the program seeks to foster a culture of collaboration between academic and advocacy communities, both in the United States and abroad, on issues of media policy, media reform and media justice.

The Collaborative Grants project awards small grants of up to $7,500 and large grants of up to $30,000 via an open competitive selection process. Grant selection is conducted by an external review committee, with representation from academic and advocacy communities. The next competition for small grants takes place this fall, with proposals due by October 15. For more information on the Small Grants Project, go to: http://mediaresearchhub.ssrc.org/grants/small-grants-project.

Example Proposals

You may find it helpful to reference the following Large Grants applications that have successfully received funding.

The Selection Committee

Collaborative grants are awarded competitively, through a mix of external peer review and an independent selection committee of researchers, advocates, and activists.

Current members:

Past members:

SSRC Collaborative Grants Book

The SSRC Collaborative Grants in Media and Communications have funded 29 projects since 2006 and currently offers 4 bounty awards.  Click here for a guide to this body of work (614 KB PDF).

Three Ways to Play!

Small Grants

Competitive grants of up to $7,500 for short-term advocacy and activist focused research.  Small Grants are awarded 2-3 times per year, and are open to collaborations between academic researchers and advocates or activists.  New proposals should be submitted online using the button on this page.   More information...


Research Bounties

Bounties combine a project brokerage with a prize system.   Project ideas are submitted by advocates, activists, or other research users.  Some of these are awarded prize or 'bounty' money.  Researchers can apply to conduct the research and collect the bounties.  All submitted bounty proposals will be published on the site.  Projects can be submitted or responded to at any time.   More information...


Large Grants

Competitively awarded $30,000 grants for research-advocacy collaborations.  One competition per year.  More info...