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A project of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
Please join us for a webinar on the newly-released “Community Information Toolkit” 2 to 3:30 p.m. EDT April 14 The toolkit helps leaders like you harness the power of information to advance their goals for a better community. It offers a simple, easy-to-use set of tools to help take stock of your community’s news and information resources, and take action to improve them.
The keys to a more open and transparent democracy include increased broadband access and a steady flow of government data into online communities, according to two white papers released by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.
Barbara Cochran, author of Rethinking Public Media, a white paper that proposes strategies for implementing the Knight Commission’s recommendation on public media, has gone on MSNBC to discuss the justification for public funding of public media. Cochran sat down with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and told her that funding public media is “an investment in information [...]
At the 2011 Media Learning Seminar, an annual gathering hosted by the Knight Foundation, hundreds of community foundation leaders and journalism and technology experts previewed the beta version of the Community Information Toolkit, a set of tools and steps designed to help communities take stock of their news and information flow and take actionable steps [...]
Alex Howard, Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Radar, provided a good wrap-up of last week’s Roundtable on implementing the recommendations for government transparency and creating community hubs.
New recommendations for improving local open government and creating online hubs
By Alex Howard · February 25, 2011
Today, the Aspen Institute hosted a roundtable on government transparency [...]
Promoting greater civic engagement and investing in the capacity of citizens to engage with civic information and one another to solve public problems are among the recommendations made by the Knight Commission. Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication, a new policy paper by Peter Levine, calls on community and elected [...]
On February 25th the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released the fourth and fifth in a series of white papers aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The papers—“Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More [...]
New Policy Papers Call For Adoption of Strategies to Expand Government Transparency and Create Online Hubs
Washington, D.C.—Today the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released two policy papers that call on community and elected leaders to adopt sensible strategies to expand government transparency, make public records [...]
The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by Laura Walker of New York Public Radio and Jaclyn Sallee of Kohanic Broadcast Corp., published in the Washington Post February 4, 2011.
Why Congress shouldn’t desert public media
By Laura R. Walker and Jaclyn Sallee
Federal funding for public media has once again become a target in [...]
In his article, “Pubcasters on the ropes“ (Variety, January 22, 2011), Ted Johnson summarizes several of the strategies for public media reform presented by Barbara Cochran in her white paper, Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive. The paper addresses ways to implement the Knight Commission’s Recommendation 2 on public media.
Pubcasters on the ropes
Stations fend off funding hook
By [...]
America is suffering from a recession in civic engagement – we’re not voting, we’re not volunteering, we’re not active in our communities – and the solution is to instill civic values in our schoolchildren. That is the consensus of a report, the Pennsylvania Civic Health Index, released Wednesday at the National Constitution Center.
In less than four weeks, NJN, the public radio and television network owned by New Jersey, will run out of state money to operate. Without a last-minute intervention, its outlets will go off the air on Dec. 31, and NJN’s 130 employees have already received layoff notices.
To mark the release of Barbara Cochran’s new white paper, Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive, and discuss its implications, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are hosting a high-level roundtable discussion featuring leaders and critics of public media and policy-makers on [...]
Dozens of digital and media literacy programs are taking hold in communities across the nation and around the world. The following portraits of success illustrate the many creative initiatives that bring together diverse stakeholders to deliver on the promise of digital citizenship for all. If you have a story of success that should be included [...]
Tossing money at technology in K-12 schools is hardly the answer to promoting students’ media and digital literacy. So says a new report from the Aspen Institute, “Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action,” written by Renee Hobbs, a professor at Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater.
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