Media Content

Media Issues

GFEM is an advocate to our grantmaker colleagues, encouraging them to fund innovative media arts and public interest media—through support of content, infrastructure, and policy—as a vital form of cultural expression and essential component of our democracy. Whether providing support for documentary or narrative films, or efforts to close the national or international “digital divide,” or supporting advocacy and educational organizations to keep the Internet unrestricted, or highlighting media advancements being made in developing countries, or the evolving media policies in developed nations-GFEM’s aim is to provide small and large funders alike with information to assist them in making decisions about supporting the interconnected areas of media content, infrastructure and policy.

Content

A television program or film puts a face on an issue. A radio news feature or documentary brings a tangible reality to recited facts. Video streamed on a website underscores issues presented in plain text and can move people to action. Whether the content is targeted to public or commercial media outlets, funders need a working understanding of the entire media landscape in order to be most effective in their grantmaking. View Content articles

Infrastructure

A high-speed, unfettered Internet, community-based media arts organizations, PBS, NPR, Public/Educational/Government (PEG) public access stations, or mobile phones are all a part of our media infrastructure—GFEM provides funders with information to help them in supporting media infrastructure, whether local, national, or international. View Infrastructure articles

Policy

Restrictive media policies can curtail access to the content we do have through the infrastructure we currently have in place. There are clear roles for funders to play in helping to address media policy issues and GFEM works to keep funders abreast of the constantly shifting media policy environment. View Policy articles

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Open Media Foundation Launches, Ramps Up Development of Open Source Tools

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Civic Pixel and Deproduction have officially become the Open Media Foundation (OMF) - putting the power of the media into the hands of the people in Denver as well as developing open source tools ...
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The Civil Rights Community and Net Neutrality

This open letter is co-authored by Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. [Source: SaveTheInternet.org, by Ben Scott and ...

Consumer Beware of Comcast-NBC Merger

[Source: The Digital Journalist, by Ron Steinman; November, 2009]
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Intense Review Is Expected for NBC-Comcast Merger Deal

[Source: The New York Times, By Brian Stelter; November 8, 2009] The Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, has already called the potential union of Comcast and NBC Universal “the ...
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Cisco Launches Broadband Game, Puts Everyman in Shoes of Telecom Execs

[Source: BroadbandCensus.com, by Winter Casey; November 2, 2009] 
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Yes, Journalists Deserve Subsidies Too: In Defense of Journalism Policy

[Source: The Washington Post, by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols; Friday, October 30, 2009]
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Why Net Neutrality is an Arts Advocacy Issue

[Source: Technology in the Arts, by David Dombrosky; September 22, 2009] I teach a course on “Cultural Policy and Advocacy in the U.S.” each spring for Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts ...
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The Reconstruction of American Journalism: A Report from the Columbia Journalism Review

[Source: Columbia Journalism Review, by Leonard Downie, Jr., and Michael Schudson; October 19, 2009]

Finland: Broadband Access Made Legal Right In Landmark Law

[Source: CNN, by Saeed Ahmed; October 15, 2009]Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right. Starting in July, telecommunication companies ...

Why Nobody's Neutral on Net Neutrality: Implications for Smalltown, USA

Net neutrality requires Internet providers to equalize the quality of service to all customers, big and small. But what does this debate mean to Smalltown, USA, and rural America?