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

INSIDE THE FCC: What You Should Know

By: Mark N. Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America The public has become used to the fact that the end of the year brings a flurry of activity in Congress these days, but a ...

New Media Policy Working Group Program Coordinator for GFEM

GFEM is pleased to announce that Jeff Perlstein has come on board as our new program coordinator for the Media Policy Working Group. He is replacing Lynn Stern who has taken a full-time position ...

Digital Communications at a Crossroads

Promoting Social Justice, Democratic Participation and Youth Civic Engagement in the Broadband EraBy: Jeff Chester, Center for Digital DemocracyKathryn Montgomery, Ph.D., American University ...

Dramatic Decline in Black-Owned Stations

On November 27, 2007, Free Press released Out of the Picture 2007, an updated analysis of the impact of consolidation on minority and female television station ownership.

What We Carry: New Media Tools Transcending Time and Space

Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase's investigation into the ways we interact with technology has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets.

IGP Releases New Paper on "Net Neutrality as Global Principle for Internet Governance"

[Source: Internet Governance Project Blog by Brenda Kuerbis] As a contribution to the 2007 UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Internet Governance Project (IGP) has released a new paper showing ...

Media Consolidation An Issue on Main street

A poll released by Media and Democracy Coalition reveals that the public sees media consolidation as a “problem.”

Bill Moyers on the FCC and Media Ownership

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Bill Moyers Journal reports on the real-world consequences of media policy through the lens of how it affects minority media ownership in America. Watch this episode by clicking here.

Challenging the Decline in Foundation and Non-Profit Public Advocacy

During the last century, foundations and non-profits led the way in public policy development through advocacy on civil rights, health care, and other fundamental community issues. But over the ...

Costs of Failure to Achieve President's Goal of Universal Broadband by 2007 are "Staggering," Says New Report

Include Hundreds of Billions of Dollars of Economic Growth and Over a Million JobsWASHINGTON, October 10, 2007: The failure to achieve President Bush's 2004 goal of universal broadband access to ...