The Click Heard Round the World

MacArthur & HASTAC fund 17 badass digital civic engagement and education projects

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 social networking platform and podcast for educators who use virtual worlds and MMORPGs in the classroom.  But I'm also blown away by the bleeding edge, diverse initiatives that the other winners are launching -- from an environmental ARG to a conflict resolution computer game to a news/social activism mash-up.

After the jump I discuss some of my favorites...

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 immigration to the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

For those that didn't know, for the past year and a half, I coordinated a program called "Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere," an initiative designed to support high quality academic research in support of media reform and media justice efforts. It has been a tremendous experience working with a wide range of activists, policy experts, academic researchers and grantmakers in this area. I am convinced more than ever that the future of our society depends upon more just, participatory, democratic media and communications.

 As I have written about previously, I will be starting at the virtual world development firm the Electric Sheep Company very shortly.  This is a fascinating time to be working in the metaverse / virtual world space, and I’m looking forward to the new challenges ahead. For the first time, I’ll be creating new media instead of supporting advocacy and research about the media.  I can't tell you how excited I am!

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 back alongside two of the most powerful people standing up for the public interest. FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps have agreed to join us in the Free Press Action Network for a live discussion. The Commissioners' initial posts will be available on Free Press Action Network on the morning of the discussion. You can begin the conversation with other activists now by posting your comments at www.freepress.net/action . This online interactive event is your opportunity to talk with the commissioners, connect with others and take the fight against media consolidation to the next level.

The event starts tonight at 7PM EST.  Head to www.freepress.net/action for details.

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 games to entertain and inform about important public policy issues.  And who doesn't love "Whack-a-Mole?"

"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 it ostensibly protects.

My only major critique is that it leaves out the "what now" as you watch the final credits roll.

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 in learning about the Indian media landscape and its relationship to political, economic and societal shifts. Check out these cool conference papers being presented:

• ‘The Political Economy of Going Hindi: Private News Channels and Transnational Soap Operas in the Indian Television Landscape’
• ‘Environmentalism through the media: construction of environmental attitudes among the middle classes in India.’
• ‘Slogans have no footnotes:’ collaborative mis-recognition and the weaving of queerness into India’s ‘problem of modernity’

The full conference announcement follows after the jump.  No word on registration costs or other logistics.  See the Sacred Media Cow site for details.

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 a great opportunity for an organizer interested in learning how to coordinate a massive convention of activists, policymakers, scholars and media producers.

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 at time of posting.  I'll be happy to take this down or credit the creator if she steps forward.

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 posts with their own networks.

Looks like an interesting way to connect the dots between various media reform and media justice efforts going on around the United States, including folks working on community broadband, low power FM, Net Neutrality and media ownership issues. Lots of interesting posts already up there, so media activists should keep an eye on the Action Network.

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 – only 58 stories over 3 years among the major TV network news shows. In contrast, Michael Jackson was covered by 69 stories in the same period.
• Hurricane Katrina led to an increase in media coverage of poverty, which soon tapered off after a few months.
• ABC was the worst in terms of reporting poverty the least.

Head to this link tomorrow to find the FAIR report and press release.

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UPDATE 9/7/07: The Report is up, in HTML and PDF formats!