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.
"Journalism in the Hands of the Neighborhood"
By Noam Cohen
Published: March 10, 2008
“‘Poor communities are not involved in issues of digital divide,’ Mr. Wolfson said, because they are only passive receivers of what appears on the Internet. ‘If I’m somebody who is learning how to make videos, I’ve got a computer, and I am low-income person and I can’t get on the Internet, that is going to stir me up.'"
Click here for the full article via the New York Times.
--
"The Revolution Will Be Digitized: The Media Mobilizing Project works to bring grassroots organization into the 21st century"
By Doron Taussig
Published: March 11, 2008
"And everything MMP touches, it seems, becomes more significant — not because its campaigns always work, but because, in the realm of progressive activism, where so many try to emulate the strategies of successes past, MMP is looking forward, trying to think of ways to make grassroots organizing a viable modern-day practice."
Click here for the full article via citypaper.net and for video clips of MMP's work with the Taxi Workers Alliance, Philadelphia Student Union, and more.
--
MMP was awarded a Large Collaborative Grant from the Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere (NKDPS) program at the Social Science Research Council for a proposal to develop a "Media Reform through Media Empowerment Toolkit/Curriculum." Principal Investigators on this project are Peter Funke and Todd Wolfson, with Dan Berger as an additional researcher. This year-long study of an innovative threefold model (media production, digital inclusion, and civic engagement) is scheduled to be completed in December 2008.
NKDPS Large Grants provide up to $30,000 in support for academic-advocacy research collaborations designed to change media/telecommunications infrastructure, practices, or policies. NKDPS has awarded $180,000 to date for large grants proposals. Six more Large Grants winners will be announced this summer, June 2008.