community building

NAMAC releases 2011 Regional Report: Media Arts Organizations in the Evolving Digital Landscape

In 2010 and 2011, NAMAC set out to better understand the challenges, opportunities and emerging strategies for independent media arts organizations in the digital era. Through four regional gatherings, a total of 64 media arts leaders in Boston, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Texas shared their experiences. Following the gatherings, NAMAC commissioned a series of eight case studies to learn more. This Report from the Field synthesizes key findings from all four convenings and incorporates rich illustrations gleaned from the case studies.

One-Question Q&A: Vanessa Graber, Prometheus Radio Project

Author: 
Rachel Allen

"If community radio geeks could have a holiday, it would certainly be celebrated with a barnraising."

A Preview of NAMAC’s 2009 Conference

Over a year ago, when NAMAC chose Boston as the location for its 2009 biennial conference and chose “commonwealth” as its theme, nobody involved knew how important this convening would become.

Meet Morgan Sully: An Interview with NAMAC's New Online Community Manager

Author: 
Helen De Michiel
This past July, Morgan Sully arrived at NAMAC headquarters to serve as our Community Technology Center VISTA online community manager. Not only is Morgan remodeling and rebuilding our venerable NAMAC website, but he is creating a number of interactive, web-based pathways for NAMAC members to network.

The NAMAC Member Listserv: Speculations, Dreams & Analysis

Author: 
Daniel Dewey Schott
Almost one year ago (in 1998), I wrote an article for MAIN called "I Need Help" which imagined a future where NAMAC members could access their peers through the member listserv. My theories were based on issues of isolation that I think media arts administrators feel on a daily basis - feelings that are assuaged when we come together, face to face, at NAMAC s biennial conferences. How can individuals who are in the same field - yet separated by geographical constraints - thrive and build necessary relationships (without having to wait two years for the next conference)?

Alyce Myatt of the MacArthur Foundation Talks with NAMAC

Author: 
Helen DeMichiel
In between finishing the new 1998 "Support for Media Centers" Funding Guidelines and leaving for New York to attend the Independent Feature Project Market, Alyce Myatt, the newly appointed Program Officer for Media at The John D. and Catherine T.

Videazimut: An International Coalition for Media Democracy

Author: 
Hye-Jung Park

While most people in the United States were celebrating the 4th of July last year, some of us gathered for three exhilarating days on the other side of the Americas to discuss and organize for global democratic communication.

Videazimut, an international coalition of community and public media activists, convened its fifth seminar and first general assembly of its membership at the Instituto Cajamar, near Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Information Technology: The Masses' Media

Author: 
Marlina Gonzalez
For someone who has been attending NAMAC conferences since the '80s, as an organizational member and as a board member, each year always brought out the variations of the important themes of activism, democracy, access, multiculturalism. But one factor was so different this year: how digital technology has permeated street culture.

VALUE

Author: 
Kathy High
Picturing a radical future - again! Of course, I know we are in for four more years of eroded rights. Of course, I can anticipate the continued war with Iraq, the capitalist schemes that further only a meager percentage of the population, and battles where church and state are conflated. Of course, the things that I value are devalued: education, history, diversity, culture. We live in a state based on lies and deceit, built on fear and consumption.

Bigger Footprints: Building Shared Vision around Mutual Goals

Author: 
Tom Borrup
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 10, 2004 - A U.S. Army specialist suspected of snapping some of the now-notorious photos of Americans abusing Iraqi prisoners will be the first soldier to face a public court-martial in the scandal, the U.S.-led coalition announced Sunday. - Knight Ridder News Service

Few will deny that the battleground on which the world s public and private drama plays out daily is the media. Owning or managing the content of media outlets is the goal (you might even say obsession) of global corporations and national governments.