Media Justice
Why PEG and Community Access Television is a Media Justice Fight
Preserving community media outlets like Community Access TV is an important part of our media justice movement. These centers are unique spaces where community members can come together to build, to connect, to become media literate and create stories on their own terms. Localism is one fundamental principle of PEG, tens of thousands of hours of local content are being produced by stations on a weekly basis.
Criminal Charges: Fighting for the Rights of Families to Stay Connected
In this last month, the fight to end the high costs of phone rates in the prison system got a major boost when the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) held its spring meeting and decided to address the high cost of Prison Phone Calls—specifically the FCC’s role in increasing competition for different phone companies, so not one single phone carrier has the monopoly and free reign to inflate their charges that results in low-income families paying up to $6 a minute to call their loved once who are incarcerated.
Introduction for the NCWO Women’s Media Policy Statement
This past July when the 3rd Court of Appeals remained back to the FCC its attempt to loosen ownership rules largely due to the FCC’s failure to address women’s and minority media ownership a few women’s media organizations decided it was time to become more proactive on women’s media policy. Digital Sisters, New Moon Girls, Women in Film/DC and Media Equity Collaborative galvanized around the National Coalition of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) to formulate a new women’s media policy.
Resistance is in the Airwaves: By Any Media Necessary
As I wind down my adventures at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas this week, I reflect on the fact that the most powerful and poignant moments didn’t actually take place in halls of the Convention Center. The Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), Brown Paper Tickets and Prometheus Radio Project co-hosted a Sunday brunch with a half a dozen local groups located in and around Austin who were interested in taking advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a low-power radio station thanks to the Local Community Radio Act that was passed back in December 2010.
Oxygen-Deprivation Politics
The scapegoating of Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official who was forced to resign last week, was such a perfect, surreal, and toxic example of everything that is wrong with our politics that I am daring to hope we can actually learn something from it.
NAMAC Helps Highlight the Importance of an Open Internet
On January 14, 2010, the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture was one of thirteen independent creator organizations showing support for net neutrality in an FCC notice regarding the preservation of an Open Internet. The comments submitted by the various organizations bear witness to the call for enforceable and lawful rules that can ensure equality to all creators on the Internet. In a growing digital world, NAMAC wants to make sure every artist and creator has the opportunity to reach out to their potential audiences.
Co-signers include Future of Music Coalition, the Writers Guild of America and the American Music Center to name a few.
Dear FCC: No Special Favors to Hollywood!
The only thing stopping Hollywood from releasing movies to VOD earlier is… Hollywood. They could do it if they wanted to. There’s no law stopping them, there’s not technical limitation.
They’ve imposed an artificial limitation as a lever to get what they want. If there were actual serious demand for movies on VOD sooner, I seriously doubt Hollywood would leave the money lying on the table.
Why Net Neutrality is an Arts Advocacy Issue
In the last decade, we have seen an explosion in the use of the Internet to create art, promote the arts, advocate for the arts, build community through the arts, and more. Our sector’s ability to participate in the Web 2.0 cultural shift is due in large part to our ability to access any tool hosted on the Internet with the same ease as any other Web user.
Do the tags, contact information, or descriptions in this profile need updating?
If so, send your updated info to Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz at aggie [at] namac [dot] org!
