[WSIS CS-Plenary] My new gig: the Media Research Hub

[mclauglm at po.muohio.edu]

Congratulations, Rick! The SSRC seems a good place with which to be 
associated, given the leadership of persons such as Craig Calhoun and 
Joe Karaganis, along with consulting boards composed of the likes of 
Saskia Sassen and Jodi Dean regarding public sphere issues. I know 
Joe, who should be a great colleague, and, of course, Calhoun is an 
amazing scholar.

This is a question for whenever you have time to mull it over and 
perhaps look into it, a question which I've raised with SSRC before, 
the answer to which might benefit persons on this listserv:

>I wonder if you can confirm what is meant by "media" in this 
>initiative? Does it extend to ICT policy? To provide some 
>background, over the past several years, I've found that the 
>majority of contributions to public sphere theory or practice are 
>bereft of the notion that there exists a political economy of 
>transnational public space--that the public sphere has an 
>architecture, so to speak. Contemporary notions of communication as 
>either a public good or a commodity have to take into account the 
>internet market for networking software and hardware, including the 
>manufacture of internet routers and switches. Although they receive 
>far less scholarly attention than software giants such as Microsoft, 
>hardware market leaders can use their control over distribution hubs 
>to dictate proprietary technical standards, create incompatibilities 
>with other hardware and software, eliminate price competition, shape 
>content, raise the cost of internet access, and restrict users' 
>abilities to communicate freely with others via the internet. The 
>practices of internet backbone companies compromise the notion of 
>communication as a public good. As such, 'net-centric' architecture 
>does have vast implications for the quality and diversity of public 
>spheres.
>
>It's not clear to me what the SSRC intends to do in respect to this 
>project on the public sphere, but I am wondering if the inquiry 
>might be pursued by taking into account areas in addition to the 
>"usual suspects" in media--eg: the Federal Communications 
>Commission's decisions and the very important alternative of 
>community radio--both important areas but perhaps not enough to 
>address in the current atmosphere of transnational public space. 
>There is a risk of focus on 'big media' concentration and 
>conglomeration alone, and not on the basic (and complex) 
>political-economic considerations involving the ubiquitous character 
>of the internet in "developing" and "developed" nations.

As I say, I'm only addressing this because it may be a question for 
which many of us will want answers.

Again, kudos!--I think that you'll be an excellent addition to the SSRC.

Regards,

Lisa







At 3:21 PM -0500 3/24/06, Rik Panganiban wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>As colleagues of mine working in relevant fields, I wanted to give 
>you all a heads up on the new project I'm working on related to 
>media reform and democracy.
>
>The Social Science Research Council 
>(<http://www.ssrc.org>http://www.ssrc.org), a distinguished 
>non-profit that supports social science research in the public 
>interest, has hired me as the program coordinator of their 
>"Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere" program 
>(<http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media/>http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media/ 
>).
>
>My job will be to help bring together media reform advocates with 
>media researchers so they can collaborate more effectively together. 
>There is apparently a huge need for better coordination and 
>communication among activists and academics in the field of media 
>reform. Our main mechanism for facilitating this will be the launch 
>next month of an online "Media Research Hub" that will support a 
>broad community of media reform actors with various tools for 
>collaboration and information sharing.
>
>It's a rather dramatic departure from my United Nations portfolio of 
>the past 10 years or so. But I will remain engaged with 
>international public policy issues, which is wonderful. And I will 
>get to work on cutting-edge stuff like the effect of the blogosphere 
>on traditional media, broadband access to underserved areas, 
>community wifi, low power FM, and lots of other cool new media areas.
>
>The good news is that we have the funding to support various 
>activities such as sponsoring targeted research, supporting interns, 
>and organizing physical meetings to link key actors. But as a first 
>step we are going to want to make sure that we are linking to the 
>most relevant and active networks of media reform activists and 
>academics. If you have suggestions for networks and coalitions that 
>I should plug into, particularly outside of the US, that would be 
>really helpful.
>
>(Note that my new work contact details are below.)
>
>Regards and Do Stay in Touch,
>
>Rik
>
>Rik Panganiban
>Program Coordinator
>Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere
>Social Science Research Council
>810 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor
>New York NY 10019
>PH: 212.377.2700 x 644
>FX: 212.245.4232
>email: <>panganiban at ssrc.org
>Web: <http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media>http://www.ssrc.org/programs/media


-- 
Lisa McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mass Communication & Women's Studies
Editor, Feminist Media Studies
Director of Graduate Studies, M.A. Program in Mass Communication

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