Archive for the 'Public Access TV' Category

BTOP and PEG Access TV

Published August 25, 2011 Broadband Policy , BTOP , Community Media , Public Access TV 2 Comments

I am developing a pilot study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to examine what role Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) access television stations are playing in the NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

The purpose of the study is to understand how PEG access centers support sustainable broadband adoption through the use of public computing centers, digital and media literacy training, and other critical community services. This topic is also the focus of my dissertation.

I’ve created a Google Doc to begin compiling this list of PEG Access centers. Please feel free to add your center to the document.

If your PEG access center is involved – either directly or indirectly – in a BTOP project in your state, I hope you will consider contacting me at crhines (AT) illinois (DOT) edu. Please also consider leaving a comment below and I will look forward to following up with you.

Thank you for your time.

Broadband Media Centers as Anchor Institutions

Published August 15, 2011 Community Media , Conference , Public Access TV , Video Distribution Leave a Comment


Click here to listen.

2011 Alliance for Community Media International Conference and Exhibition
Tucson, AZ
July 27, 2011

Broadband Media Centers as Anchor Institutions

Among the Broadband Networks funded by State grants and Federal programs such as BTOP and BIP, are Community Media Centers that have partnered in some of these grant programs and position themselves as Community Anchor Institutions.

This preconference will put the spotlight on how these CMCs have positioned themselves as Libraries. What role will these CMCs play in design, construction and implementation of these networks? What new community communication  services will they be able to offer using these wireline and wireless networks? Come and learn the vision and plans of these CMCs and how they will be the prototypes and models for the future of Community Media.

Panel I: The BTOP Grant Process, the Role of CAIs and the Future of Federal Funding

Moderator:
Chuck Sherwood, TeleDimensions

Speakers:
Kathy Bisbee, Community Media Access Partnership
Tony Shawcross, Open Media Foundation

Panel II: Connected Broadband Media Centers and Their New Services

Speakers:
Jay April, Akaku Maui Community Television
Jen Gilomen, Bay Area Video Coalition
John Hauser , Access Humboldt
Craig Sinclair, Amherst Media

eChicago2011: Building Community Through Broadband Media

Published May 29, 2011 Community Media , Conference , Public Access TV Leave a Comment

The video from our session at this year’s eChicago conference is available on the eBlackCU website. The session details are below:

Building Community Through Broadband Media
eChicago 2011
UIC April 23

Computers and broadband technology present exciting opportunities and, at times, exhausting challenges for community-based media organizations in the digital age. The persistence of the digital divide has led many organizations to incorporate print, radio, and cable access television mediums with web-based offerings to serve their constituents information needs. Come learn how non-profit community media organizations in the Chicago area have embraced new technology to build community through broadband media.

Chair: Colin Rhinesmith, Information in Society Doctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Panelists:

Tiffany Bosley, Nonprofit Services Manager, Chicago Access Network Television

Adriana Gallardo, Director of Youth Media, Radio Arte

Ethan Michaeli, Executive Director, We The Peoples’ Media/The Residents’ Journal

Frances Roehm, SkokieNet Librarian and Community Liaison, Skokie Public Library

Redefining Community Media in the Digital Age

Published May 2, 2011 Community Media , Public Access TV Leave a Comment

Over the years, several important books, articles, and reports have been published on the topic of community media. A quick scan of Google Scholar search results reveals some of these studies. Many of these key works provide researchers with theories and methods to use in evaluating community media projects.

More recently, a post on the Benton Foundation’s Digital Beat Blog from last October begins by suggesting that the following are key factors for the success of community media projects:

  • Community participation and ownership
  • Leadership development
  • Partnerships and collaborations
  • Capacity building
  • Project management and expertise
The final section of the post, entitled “Measuring Success: A Way Forward” reads like a call to arms. Researchers working to address the enormous challenge of developing “a universal metric” for community media evaluation may sympathize. Here is the last section in its entirety:
The question remains as to whether it is possible to construct universal metrics that will measure the success of community media projects throughout the nation. The previously outlined “lessons learned” identify key ingredients for successful initiatives. The reality, however, is that there are distinctive goals and operations within each organization that distinguishes one project from another, making it nearly impossible to assess them using a universal metric. More recently, projects receiving funding from grant-making foundations are required to integrate evaluation tools to assess the success and impact of their individual programming. Nonetheless, evaluation of community media as a whole is a relatively new field of inquiry. It will take a concerted effort on the part of researchers to uncover any universal metrics, if they do in fact exist.
The NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has awarded over 4 billion dollars to “support the deployment of broadband infrastructure, enhance and expand public computer centers, encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service, and develop and maintain a nationwide public map of broadband service capability and availability.”  As the NTIA looks to evaluate the success of these projects, there is an opportunity for community media researchers to address the challenge stated in the Benton Foundation blog post above.
Specifically, researchers might ask: What can we know about how individuals and groups are using both traditional and emerging forms of community media to address social and economic inequality through these BTOP projects? And what might the data tell us about how individuals and groups derive meaning from their use of community media in the digital age?
I would argue that community media research finds itself at an important moment, particularly because of the unprecedented funding that has been awarded to develop national broadband infrastructure in the U.S.  The data on how BTOP grantees are using traditional and new media tools might help us to understand whether or not we need a new, perhaps expanded definition of community media in the digital age–one that looks beyond access and participation as key determinants.
(Photo above by kevindean available on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.)

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