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

Video from Future of Music Coalition's "Policy Day 2009"

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Just two weeks after the start of the new administration, the Future of Music Coalition presented their annual Policy Day on February 11, 2009, bringing focus to the core issues emerging in the ...

$7.2 Billion Plan to Wire Rural America Holds Promise, Pitfalls

[Source: ChicagoTribune.com, By Rebecca Cole - February 22, 2009]

Celine Dion is Stalking You: Local Community Radio Act Advances

By Timothy Karr, Free Press and SaveTheInternet.com - February 26, 2009

It’s Not About Ugly Betty: The DTV Transition and Why It Matters

[Source: Center for Media Justice, By Brandon Lacy Campos - February 17, 2009]

Decline in newspapers renews idea of nonprofit models

[Source: AP, By John Christoffersen - March 2, 2009]  As sharp revenue reductions put the future of many U.S. newspapers in doubt, one idea gaining attention is the conversion of newspapers into ...

Broadband Connection Highs and Lows Across Rural America

[Source: The Daily Yonder, By Tim Murphy and Bill Bishop]

New Acting FCC Chair Copps Pushes for Better Communication, Says Every Citizen is Stakeholder

[Source: Broadcasting & Cable; By John Eggerton -  Jan. 26, 2009] Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps told staffers Monday that things were going to have to change so that the commission, ...

Switch to Digital TV Wins a Delay to June 12, 2009

Source: New York Times; By Brian Stelter - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Less than two weeks before the expected end of analog broadcasting, television owners received a reprieve on Wednesday. It ...

Ground-breaking Study Released on Hate Speech in Talk Radio, FCC Action Urged

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), one of the foremost Latino media advocacy and civil rights organizations in the United States, has released a new ...