Forgot your password?
New user?
Document Actions
Program News
Up one levelBarry 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.
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.
SSRC 'Collaborative Grants Book' Available
Attention collaborative grant applicants and other interested parties: A compendium of SSRC 'Collaborative Grants in Media and Communications' awarded since 2006 is now available.
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)
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.
Receive Media Hub News by Category as an RSS Feed
We have recently added categories to our news listings, which should help you find the most relevant information faster. In addition, these categories can also be fed to your favorite RSS news reader, along with our general RSS news feed.
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.
Project Profile: Media Concentration = Less Local TV News Finds "Necessary Knowledge" Research Project
Federal policymakers weighing the decision to allow media companies to own multiple TV stations now have new evidence to contend with. Dr. Danilo Yanich of the University of Delaware’s Local TV News Media Project analyzed two years of televised newscasts from five major media markets -- - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Albuquerque -- and found that media concentration does correlate with less local news coverage.
FCC Dataset on Radio Localism Now Available for Download
The SSRC Data Consortium for Media and Communications Policy is releasing an FCC-collected dataset on the link between media ownership and the provision of certain kinds of radio content, including local news and public affairs. The data is part of the Federal Communications Commission’s response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Institute for Public Representation (Georgetown University) in August 2006.
New Analysis of Federal Mechanisms for Public Access to Proprietary Data
In a memorandum entitled “On the Public’s Right to Proprietary Data” Guinevere Jobson of the American University Law Clinic addresses the important media policy question “Is there a public right to access proprietary information where the government uses public funds to purchase the information and relies on that information in its decision-making process?”
Center Releases License for Non-Commercial Use of Its Media Tracker
Today the Center for Public Integrity released a license for the non-commercial use of its "Media Tracker," a free online database at the heart of the Center’s “Well Connected” project on media and telecommunications. This new license, featured on the Center’s Website, gives the public and organizations the freedom to copy, adapt and redistribute Media Tracker data at no charge.