Welcome to the Media Giraffe Project

The Media Giraffe Project (MGP) mission is to foster participatory democracy and community. We do so by discovering and celebrating above-the-crowd individuals making innovative, sustainable use of media. They use fresh, effective tools and approaches that empower and inform citizens.
 

Czech hyperlocal experiment with coffee, community consulting said to be shuttered

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 08:43.
in

PPF-futuroom-building-sign

AUDIO: Community Media and The Future of News

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 15:36.
in

As the decline of newspapers is felt throughout the country, could community media & technology centers be the new model for local news? Could Citizen Journalism be an opportunity for community media centers like PEGs to earn income, create trained citizen reporters, build partnerships, and serve up local content?

DC progressive think-tank strategist warns PEG-access TV operators of “uber” radio spectrum policy battles

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 21:18.
in

Posted by Bill Densmore

PITTSBURGH, Penn. -- Cable public-access station operators were given a strong dose of media policy on Thursday at their annual convention as a Washington, D.C. think-tank leader urged them to join an "urber" political battle playing out among telecommunications companies, regulators and public advocates.

Citizen journalism and cable community-access: What's the fit?

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 06:13.
in

Thousands of public-access, government and educational television services in cities and towns around the United States telecast on cable systems. Typically the receive the majority of their funding via the franchise contracts municipalities negotiate with cable companies like Time Warner, Comcast, Cablevision and the like. How are these "PEG Access" operations adapting the the new broadband environment, where video is increasingly viewed and created by consumers on Internet devices, including mobile phones and tablets?

Governors, educators include "media" in voluntary U.S. core-curriculum standards; but do they go far enough?

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 10:40.
in

By Bill Densmore

"Media literacy" concepts are generally part of a major effort to push adoption of voluntary "Common Core State Standards" for English and literacy in history, social, studies, science and technical subjects, an initial line-by-line comparison of drafts shows. But do the standards go far enough?

On the Internet, is it OK to have anonymous pamphleteers?

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 23:10.
in

Here's a good example of direct-to-consumer political messaging that is
potentially untrustworthy because it is unsourced.  It raises the question: Is it OK for political speech to be anonymous? 

Putting feet on the street for American journalism -- is it time for Report for America, or News AmeriCorps?

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Sun, 02/28/2010 - 16:32.
in

Thousands of U.S. journalists have been laid off or have left mainstream media outlets over the last several years.  How do we put feet back on the street in the service of civic journalism? 

Reynolds Journalism fellow seeks information about local online news communities for profile work

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 15:43.
in

Michele McLellan, a 2009-2010 fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, has posted an extensive list of U.S. local online news community websites and is looking for additional examples. 

"We want to learn from them and see if RJI can help them flourish," says McLellan.  

In Scranton, Pa., a laid-off journalist tracks local online news communities; is it time for ASNCF?

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 12:18.
in

When Jessica Durkin was laid off as a reporter from the Scranton, Pa., she lost no time taking on a new passion. A regional director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, she is now tracking the emerging news ecology from her website http://inothernews.us.

REPORT: Reimagining News and Community in the Pacific Northwest -- 250 commit to ecosystem collaboration, "happiness" index

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 11:28.
in

Commitments develop a collaborative news ecosystem for the Pacific Northwest and a "happiness index" to measure the performance of U.S.

Murdoch, Huffington among speakers at two-day FTC workshop on journalism crisis: "From Town Crier to Bloggers"

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 00:00.
in

UPDATE: Coverage of this event at the Reynolds Journalism Institute wiki site.

The Federal Trade Commission linked to filed comments and announced the two-day schedule of panels and speakers for its Dec. 1-2 workshop in Washington, D.C., entitled:  "From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive in the Internet Age?" Among speakers: Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington.

Starting a "LONC" get's easier -- as resources emerge for legal, software help

Submitted by mediag on Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:03.
in

During Journalism That Matters gatherings organized with the help of the Media Giraffe Project, entrepreneurs starting local online news communities (LONCs) often cite three fears in getting started:

RUNNING NOTES: "How to Make Money on News" at Shorenstein Center

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 12:04.
in

I took running notes of the discussion yesterday at the Harvard-Shorenstein event, "How to Make Money with News." You can read them
here: http://www.newshare.com/wiki/index.php/Shorenstein-newspay

Also, there's a Twitter stream here:
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23newsmoney  and here:
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23Shorenstein

Seattle LONC "Crosscut" goes nonprofit

Submitted by Sara Majka on Fri, 10/23/2009 - 12:02.
in

Crosscut, the Seattle-based local online news community (LONC), has moved from for-profit to nonprofit. Announcing the news on their website, publisher David Brewster said that after years of trying to build a for-profit model, they now believed the best model for the future would be nonprofit:

VIDEO: Harvard Prof. Michael Sandel on why news reading is critical to citizenship -- not consumer-ship

Submitted by Bill Densmore on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 10:28.
in

Why is journalism important?  Listen to Michael Sandel, Professor of Government at Harvard University:

http://www.songofacitizen.com/songofacitizen.com/1.html

Says Sandel in this five-minute video: "The newspaper is perhaps the most important instrument of civic education, because that is the way citizens learn what's at stake."

more