The Federal Communications Commission has announced the first of a series of public hearings on media ownership, to take place October 2 in Los Angeles. This is an important opportunity for Americans to get their voices heard on the kind of media they want. From the press release, FCC chairman Kevin Martin is quoted as…
Category: Media Reform
Jump blues ditty asks “Have you had enough” of Bush (free MP3!)
Former members of the jump blues band the Squirrel Nut Zippers, now reconstituted as Maxwell/Mosher, have teamed up with Rickie Lee Jones to produce a swingin’ call to action against the current administration called "Have You Had Enough?" Down with Tyranny blogs about how it all came together. Whatever your politics, you have to admit,…
Internet Celebrities united to defend Net Neutrality
We Are the Web is a delightfully wacky site that brings together a number of "internet celebrities" united to defend the principle of Net Neutrality. Starring "the Tron Guy" (my personal favorite), the somewhat alarming Peter Pan, and trashy diva Leslie Hall of Gemsweater.com, the site features a surprisingly slick and silly music video promoting…
Pamphlets: the Blogs of the 17th Century
Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker has a neat piece on the challenge of blogging and other new media to traditional journalism called "Amateur Hour: Journalism without Journalists." One of the most interesting bits compares the rise of blogs to the growth of pamphleteering and periodicals in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Based…
FCC to review media ownership rules this Fall
The Federal Communications Commission issued yesterday (July 24) their decision on a new proposed rulemaking procedure on media ownership. A press release details some of the key issues to be considered, including: Local Television Ownership Limit Local Radio Ownership Limit Newspaper Broadcast Cross-ownership Ban Radio Television Cross-ownership Limit Dual Network Ban UHF discount on the…
Public Access pitted against You Tube in Florida
Steven Clift linked me to an article in the Gainesville Sun out of Florida on a community’s failed attempts to get a public access channel on their local TV. The paper reported that Alachua County commissioners in June joined the Gainesville City Commission in declining to create a public station. What is interesting / dangerous…
Small grants for media policy research available
My group the Social Science Research Council just announced a call for applications for a number of small grants we are offering to fund research on media policy and advocacy. The goal of the grants is to encourage collaborations between media activists and media researchers on research relevant to public policy. The first round will…
Media Justice position available at MEP
My colleague Saskia Fischer at the Media Empowerment Project recently announced that she is leaving as program manager of the MEP to move back to Europe. The MEP is currently search for a replacement. Here’s the description: Project Manager, The Media Empowerment Project of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc…
Black Eyed Peas vs. evil corporate hip-hop dwarves
Episode two of the series "Instant Def" has just been posted. As I have blogged about previously, the hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas have teamed up with the candy bar Snickers for a web-based action series in which they star as super-heroes who fight the corporate takeover of hip hop music. This episode opens…
My hometown of Pleasanton gets municipal wifi!
Just got a cool bit of news from my hometown of Pleasanton, California, a southeastern suburb of San Francisco. Insidebayarea.com is reporting that Pleasanton is setting up free public wifi nodes in the downtown area of the city. Initially the idea was explored to provide police officers internet access while patrolling downtown public areas. But…