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Up one levelWhose Media? Our Media! SPIN Toolkit Available for Download
Whose Media? Our Media! -- A toolkit to help media activists develop and successfully execute their own communications campaigns from the ground up.
Broadband Access Data Mischief
Highlighting the Benton Foundation's response to the just-released NTIA study declaring success for President Bush's universal broadband initiative. The study's reliance on FCC data that the FCC admits cannot provide an accurate picture of broadband adoption makes it worth flagging in the context our proposals to modernize and reform the FCC's data collection practices.
"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.
European Parliament Issues Study on State of Community Media in European Union
The Directorate General Internal Policies of the Union of the European Parliament has published a report that investigates the state of Community Media in the European Union and examines the factors that influence their development.
"Case For Broadband in America Now!" Report Released
The Center for Creative Voices in Media released on October 10 a new report on the state of broadband internet access in the United States. The report details the impacts of the broadband access on economic growth, journalism, public safety, health care and democratic debate.
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.
APC Launches New Book on the WSIS and Civil Society
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has announced a new book, commissioned by the APC and written by David Souter, that examines how developing country delegations and civil society fared at the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
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.
Grantee 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.
New study finds "poor mostly missing" from network news
The group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting has just released a report entitled "The Poor Will Always Be With Us... Just Not on the Nightly News" which examines how news shows on the three main broadcast networks in the Unites States treat issues of poverty.
ICA Grassroots Organizers Panels available as e-book
The presentations from the grassroots discussion panels at the 2007 ICA Conference are now available in an e-book entitled "Alternatives on Media Content, Journalism and Regulation." Edited by Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Benjamin De Cleen and Nico Carpentier. You can download the complete book or access the individual chapters on the website.
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.
Grantee 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.
Consumer groups call FCC-commissioned media ownership research biased
The Consumer's Federation of America, Consumers Union and Free Press have issued a report entitled "Biased Questions Yield Biased Answers: How the FCC Loaded the Dice in Setting its Media Ownership Reseach Agenda" that critiques the methods and findings of the FCC-commissioned studies on media ownership that were recently released.
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.
New report on the social impacts of community radio
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, AMARC published on its website the report “Community Radio Social Impact Assessment: Removing barriers, Increasing Effectiveness”.
New paper by Phil Napoli / Michelle Seaton on commercial data access in media policy
Dr Phil Napoli and Ms. Michelle Seaton published a new paper on access to data issues in media policymaking for the March 2007 issue of the Federal Communications Law Journal.
Data Consortium Releases Paper "Toward a Federal Data Agenda for Communications Policymaking"
The SSRC-sponsored Data Consortium for Media and Communications Policy has prepared a paper entitled "Toward a Federal Data Agenda for Communications Policymaking." The paper outlines some of the key challenges surrounding data collection, access and analysis for media and communications policy in the United States, and makes a number of recommendations for how to address some of the most salient problems in this area. Prepared by Dr. Phil Napoli of the McGannon Center and Joe Karaganis of the SSRC, the paper is the product of several months of consultations and discussions with a wide range of media policy researchers, advocates and policy-makers.