Picture of Sustainable South Bronx FabLab Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of being among an energetic group of educators, tech developers, activists, and researchers representing 17 new digital media and learning projects funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the HASTAC consortium. I’m extremely proud of Global Kid’s own winning project — RezEd — a…
Category: Media Reform
Last day at the SSRC: from media reform to the metaverse
Today is my last day at the Social Science Research Council. It has been an honor working for the past year and a half for such an august and important institution, which for more than 80 years has facilitated social science engagement with all manner of important public policy issues — from social security to…
Live online discussion tonight with FCC Commissioners Adelstein and Copps
Josh Stearns of media reform group Free Press sends along word of a live web event this evening with Federal Communications Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps: A front-page New York Times story revealed that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is secretly rushing to unleash a new wave of media consolidation. Now you can now fight…
Play “Whack-a-Murdoch” and smack down big media!
The media reform group Free Press has put out a fun "Whack-a-Murdoch" game to dramatize how substantial Rupert Murdoch’s media market properties are in the United States, and to make a larger point about the dangers of media being owned by a small number of giant corporations. A nice example of the use of digital…
“This Film Is Not Yet Rated” asks is sex more dangerous than violence?
Interesting appropriate for the "Violent Media Fast" this week, I watched the documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" last night. An entertaining diatribe by one filmmaker against the Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system, it makes a convincing argument that the system is unfair, non-transparent, prudish and possibly even harmful to children…
Conference at Univ. of London on Indian Media and Social Change October 13
Just got the info about this fascinating conference on "Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change" happening on October 13 at the University of London. Co-sponsored by the awesomely-named "Sacred Media Cow" postgrad student collective and the Center for Film and Media Studies at UoL, it sounds like a great event for people interested…
Free Press is looking for an Events Manager for the next Natl Conference for Media Reform
The awesome media reform group Free Press is looking for an events manager to help them organize the next National Conference for Media Reform, scheduled for June 2008 in Minneapolis. I was at the 2007 NCMR which was an inspired gathering of thousands and thousands of people fighting for more democratic, participatory media. This is…
ISP ad from the non-Net Neutral future
Cool internet researcher dude Jeremy Husinger sent around a link to this brilliant fake ad for what our internet access rates might look like in a world without Net Neutrality public policy. The most effective illustration of what is at stake I’ve seen yet. Taken from Reddit.com. NOTE: No licensing or authorship information was available…
Free Press Action Network seeks media activist bloggers
The media reform group Free Press announces the launch of a new "Action Network" community blog service. They invite bloggers and citizen journalists to join them in chronicling how people in their communities are working toward more democratic, just media. Registered users can post to their own blog, comment on other posts, rate, and share…
FAIR releasing report on dismal state of poverty news coverage
"Stop Evicting Katrina Survivors!" Originally uploaded by The Voice of Eye Tomorrow, the group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is releasing a new study entitled "Poverty of Coverage" which analyzes major television network coverage of poverty over the last 3 years. Among the findings: A low amount of coverage of poverty issues…