Dear Colleagues,
This is the "pre-announcement" of the new project on media reform that I am now coordinating. Apologies for cross-posting and dupes.
- Rik Panganiban, Program Coordinator, Social Science Research Council
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‘Necessary Knowledge’ Opportunities for Advocacy Groups Working on Media Policy
We are pleased to announce the first "Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere” projects. NKDPS is designed to build connections between advocates and academics working on public interest media policy issues. The first round of projects will provide a number of different opportunities for you to connect with interns and researchers who can help you in your current campaigns and projects.
We need to know what you need. This email is a request for specific information about your potential need for student interns -- which we will then publicize to media and communications schools -- and to alert you about our upcoming Research Bounty program, which will enable advocacy groups to seek researchers and funding for critical research projects.
1) Do You Need Interns?
If you are interested in hosting and working with graduate student interns, please email us at MediaHub@ssrc.org with the following information:
· Name of organization, location, website, contact person
· Duration of available internship: start & end dates, hours/week needed, flexibility of hours, etc.
· Brief description of intern duties/projects: what will they be doing? what will they be working on?
· Any requirements as far as experience, skills, educational level? (specific computer skills? policy/research/advocacy expertise?)
· Please specify if you can provide:
o office space (or is this for a virtual/telecommute intern?)
o a computer (or do they need their own?)
o any sort of stipend (i.e. wages/compensation, transportation, meals, work-study arrangement, or any other benefits or perks)
o arrangements to receive school/class credit
Please respond to these questions as completely and briefly as you can. We will publicize all submitted intern opportunities to a wide network of media/communications departments, professors, schools and academic associations. In future rounds, this capacity will also be integrated into the online Media Research Hub launching in early Spring.
(Of course the more interesting/exciting the work is and the availability of any stipends will increase the likelihood of getting interns!)
Send your Call for Interns to MediaHub@ssrc.org by April 10 to be including in our outreach for summer interns.
2) Do You Need Research?
The Research Bounties program will enable advocacy groups to post online research requests related to current campaigns and organizing/activist initiatives. These requests will be vetted by a peer-review panel of activists and academics who will assign "bounties" or prizes of up to $8000 for the completion of selected projects. Projects and bounties will be published as open calls to the research community, producing both new knowledge and new researcher/advocacy collaborations.
In 2006, the Bounties will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on research related to the rewrite of the Telecommunications Act. We are interested in (1) projects with clear strategic applications to contemporary media and communications policy debates; (2) participatory research that builds capacity within advocacy groups and communities; and (3) projects that examine at under-researched issues, such as the racial and economic disparities associated with media policy andinfrastructure.
We will notify you in the coming months when the online application process is open. We will also provide more detail on the process and criteria. In the meantime, we are hoping to prime the pump by encouraging you to think about research projects relevant to your campaigns and projects—specifically those that would benefit from collaboration with academics and scholars. A clear sense of the time frame, data/analysis needed, potential costs and organizational contribution to the research (data, staff/volunteers, resources, etc.) will be important. With this information in hand it should be relatively easy for you to post a project for the bounty competition, as well as make your work visible to other possible academic collaborators.
If you have any questions about the Research Bounties, or any part of this program, please feel free to contact us (see below). We look forward to supporting your work for media policies that serve the public interest, community needs and social justice.
3) More About ‘Necessary Knowledge’
The full range of “Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere” projects will include:
· An ‘Internship Network’: to match graduate students with advocacy organizations.
· The ‘Research Bounty’ project: which will place cash prizes on advocate-defined research needs.
· A ‘Resource Database’: an online, community-editable database that will map the media and communications field: people, institutions, networks, research materials, and topics.
· The ‘Data Consortium’: which will work to improve access for non-profit and educational actors to commercially-produced datasets used in media policy.
All of these projects and resources will be hosted on the soon-to-be-launched ‘Media Research Hub’—http://www.mediaresearchhub.org — our online clearinghouse and community site for media, communications, and information policy.
We’ll keep you apprised of news and developments, and hope for your participation and feedback as the process gets underway. Please forward this email to anyone else in your network who might be interested.
In the meantime, all best wishes,
The NKDPS team
Joe Karaganis (Social Science Research Council)
Aliza Dichter (CIMA)
Catherine Borgman-Arboleda (CIMA)
Philip Napoli (Fordham University)
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"Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere," is a project of the not-for-profit Social Science Research Council in partnership with CIMA: Center for International Media Action and the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center atFordham University. It has been developed in collaboration with local, national and international advocates and academics and is supported by the Knowledge, Culture and Creativity program of the Ford Foundation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT: http://www.mediaresearchhub.org or EMAIL: MediaHub@ssrc.org
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST FOR FUTURE UPDATES, FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND MORE! Email your contact info to: MediaHub@ssrc.org. Please write “mailing list” in the subject line.
Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere
Social Science Research Council
810 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor
New York NY 10019
PH: 212.377.2700
FX: 212.377.2727
email: mediahub@ssrc.org
Web: www.mediaresearchhub.org
