Transmission Project

Colin Rhinesmith recently published an article on PBS’s Mediashift: “How Public Access TV Evolved into Community Media Centers”. Three of the five examples given are initiatives supported by our Digital Arts Service Corps: Grand Rapids Community Media Center, Access Humboldt, and the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC):

Around the country, community media centers are launching exciting new collaborations with local organizations, neighborhood activists, schools, and media outlets to create online, hyperlocal citizen journalism sites. These projects are re-imagining how Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access TV stations – which are funded through regional negotiations with companies like Comcast – can serve their communities’ information needs in the digital age.

These innovators are using digital and cable access technology to generate civic awareness and create diverse local media – a function that’s increasingly crucial as traditional journalism institutions face their greatest challenges to sustainability.

These centers provide much more than public access to cable television, having fully embraced computer-based production and broadband technology to augment their media training programs. As a result, innovative experiments in community news production are replacing the tired old “Wayne’s World” stereotype of public access. This article spotlights five examples of how PEG access organizations are using funds tied to cable television as the bearing wall to support experiments in inclusive community news production.