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Senior Public Media Officials Meet to Create New Public Media Corps

Posted by Amy Garmer on Nov 13, 2009 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Geek Corps, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband

The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) will bring together leading programming executives, producers and developers in San Francisco on November 16-17 for a ”Convening of Partners” to create a Public Media Corps. The PMC is similar to the Knight Commission’s recommendation for creating a “Geek Corps” to engage young people in developing the digital information and communication capacities of local communities. (For those of you who found the name ”Geek Corps” too pejorative, the Public Media Corps has a nicer ring to it.) The PMC is designed to drive adoption of broadband in persistently underserved communities. Participating institutions include Arizona Public Media, the City of Oakland, Denver Open Media, Frontline West/Berkley, ITVS, KQED, Native American Public Telecommunications, New America Media, One Economy Corporation, Public Broadbasting Atlanta, WGBH Boston, WTTW Chicago and Zero Divide.

PMC aims to impact 3 million Americans in 15 media markets over a 2 year period. The targeted populations include five communities of color — African-American, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American — and seniors. Two hundred PMC fellows trained in community engagement strategies will evangelize about the life-enhancing benefits of broadband technologies and promote digital literacy and broadband connectivity via a growing universe of public media.

The potential is high to leverage relatively modest investments and resources for results that scale. Read more about at http://publicmediacorps.org/.

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