Mapping Digital Media: India

Mapping Digital Media: India is the latest Open Society Foundation report examining "global opportunities and risks created by the transition from traditional to digital media." This 154-page report is part of a series covering 60 countries; each is evaluated in terms of how digital media  affect "core democratic service that any media system should provide: news about political, economic, and social affairs." Since September of 2012, reports on Croatia, Slovenia, China, Spain, Central Africa have been published and March 2013 has produced reports on Kenya, and Bulgaria, and now India. 

For a perspective on "digital switchover" country by country from broadcast analog systems, especially as it effects democracy and freedom of expression, you'll want to check in with these reports. 

Polity's Global Media and Communication Series

Polity Press has just published (2011) three excellent overviews of media systems and policy abroad.

European media : structures, policies and identity / Stylianos Papathanassopoulos and Ralph Negrine.

Indian media : global approaches / Adrian Athique.

Arab media : globalization and emerging media industries / Noha Mellor, Muhammad Ayish, Nabil Dajani, and Khali Rinnawi.

All three books are aimed at both students without prior knowledge of the media landscape of these areas as well as more seasoned readers who want to make sure they have good perspective on the the whole picture. These books are interdisciplinary and combine facts with theoretical insight.

All three titles are available at both Annenberg Reference and Van Pelt.

Academic Research and Communications Policy

The International Journal of Communication (Volume 2, 2008) devotes a special section to Academic Research and Communications Policy. Monroe Price and Stefaan Verhulst begin the section with an Introduction followed by: The Academic and the Policy Maker, by Peng Hwa Ang; Policy Research in an Evidence-Averse Environment, by Sandra Braman; Research In Government Agency Decisions — Observations About the FCC, by Daniel L. Brenner; Academic Research and Its Limited Impact on Telecommunications Policy Making, by Rob Frieden; Comparative Media Law Research and Its Impact on Policy, by Stefaan G. Verhulst and Monroe E. Price; and The Role of Academic Research in Media Policy Making: The Case Study of Hong Kong, by Mei Ning Yan.

Introducing SSRC's Media Research Hub

It's always worthwhile keeping an eye out on what the Social Science Resource Council is up to. The New York-based research organization focuses on a wide range of public policy issues and has recently built up momentum in the area of media research and media reform largely through the efforts of their "Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Sphere" program. Seeking to insure that debates about media ownership, broadband access, digital broadcasting, community media and other crucial infrastructures of public life are shaped by high quality research and an understanding and consideration of the public interest, the Necessary Knowledge program takes a four pronged approach to connecting the academic and advocacy communities through a Collaborative Grants Program, the Data Consortium, Global Networking and Capacity Building, and the Media Research Hub.

Principal activities represented on the Research Hub are:

• The Resource Database, a community-editable tool for mapping and navigating the media and communications field


• The Data Consortium for Media and Communications Policy, which works to expand access to datasets about the media and communications environment


• The Collaborative Grants project, which includes research fellowship competitions and mechanisms for signaling research needs within the community

Most ambitious are the Data Consortium's goals which are organized around the following objectives:

• Improve educational and other non-profit access to commercially-produced datasets, especially through cooperation with commercial data providers
• Facilitate projects that address persistent data gaps in our understanding of the public sphere
• Expand researcher engagement with datasets, in part by collecting and disseminating information about the uses and terms of access of different datasets
• Advocate for the principle that public policy should be based on publicly-available data

The program is run in partnership with the Center for International Media Action (CIMA) and the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center at Fordham University.

But back to the Media Research Hub! Tool around in it, appreciate it not only for what it is but for what it can become. Get involved if you have resources to share, a profile to add, etc. The system is designed to accommodate community editing with minimal moderation. If you would like to get even more involved, feel free to write Joe Karaganis, Necessary Knowledge's Program Director, with questions or suggestions.