News

News from DMA - June 27, 2012

News from Davis Media Access

Contents

  • Valuing an idea, lest it disappear
  • From the Mailbag
  • Cool Davis 2012 - Workshop on Community Choice Energy
  • Shout outs & love
  • Car/boat donations benefit KDRT

Valuing an idea, lest it disappear

"KDRT doesn't happen without community support. It can't. It's that simple."

 I'm mentoring a public relations intern this summer. Dan Dedoshka is a University of Oregon student who has committed his time to learning whatever I can teach him about writing press releases, branding, social media engagement, and more. While thumbing through one of his textbooks on PR yesterday, I commented that most of what he's being taught in school is likely geared at promoting products, versus ideas, and that sometimes in the non-profit world, what we're "selling" is just that--an idea, a philosophy, a credo, if you will.

News from Davis Media Access - August 2011

News from Davis Media Access - August 2011

DMA is the community media center for Davis and surrounding areas. DMA operates DCTV public access channel 15 and Educational Access Channel 17 (in partnership with the Davis Joint Unified School District), and low-power community radio station KDRT 95.7 FM. info@davismedia.org or (530) 757-2419 for more info. DMA is located at 1623 Fifth Street in Davis.

Contents

News From Davis Media Access - June 2011

News from Davis Media Access - June 2011

DMA is the community media center for Davis and surrounding areas. DMA operates DCTV public access channel 15 and Educational Access Channel 17 (in partnership with the Davis Joint Unified School District), and low-power community radio station KDRT 95.7 FM. info@davismedia.org or (530) 757-2419 for more info. DMA is located at 1623 Fifth Street in Davis.

What, exactly, is the future of media?

 

This column was originally published in The Davis Enterprise on May 27, 2010.

I’ve written about media policy for nearly 15 years and can say I sometimes feel jaded. But put the words “state-run” in front of the word media, and I’ll admit surprise.

To provide some context, let me first recap the past few months. Media conglomerate Comcast proposed to merge with other media conglomerate NBC.  Partially in response, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been holding a series of public meetings to solicit public comment on its media ownership rules, as well as the impact of technological changes on journalism.

The FCC is tasked with being the public watchdog on such issues, and with evaluating media ownership rules to promote competition and diversity in local media markets. Though the proposed Comcast-NBC merger has been a nexus for criticism, there’s been a slow, steady erosion of media diversity in this country for decades. With each consolidation, jobs are lost, along with local perspectives.  What happens to democracy when local stories go uncovered or are limited in their perspective? This sort of question keeps me awake at night.

DCTV Programming Now Online

This column published May 2, 2010 in The Davis Enterprise, http://davisenterprise.net. Hometown media are rare, and Davis has many. I think that says a lot about our community. I've written about community media and media policy for The Enterprise since Feb. 1996 and thank them for an enduring partnership and years of coverage.

By Autumn Labbé-Renault

There are thousands of hours of social-interest content being produced each day at community media centers across the country, but this content has been disproportionately absent from new media platforms such as YouTube. Challenged by dwindling funding, detrimental legislation and constantly changing technology, these typically small non-profit centers have had difficulty adapting to the significant workflow required to upload and manage large quantities of video online.

Media demographics have shifted significantly over the years. People still watch TV (consider Comcast, AT&T and Dish Network all vying for their market share), but a growing audience asks our staff at Davis Media Access (DMA) ‘’Why can’t you put this content online?”   Until now, the tools available to us required encoding and uploading to outside video file sharing hosts and consumed large amounts of staff time. We’ve been uploading some content, but we’ve been limited. 

All that is now changing. I’m proud to announce DMA has completed Phase 1 of our participation in the Open Media Project with the launch of a new video-sharing website for Davis Community Television (DCTV).

PEG Access Media left out of FCC discussions

The FCC is now holding hearings re: "Workshop on Public and Other Noncommercial Media in the Digital Era." Public access media is not included in this discussion! This is a great time to get these words: PEG -- Public Access TV -- Community TV -- Community Radio -- Community Media in front of the panelists and the FCC.... Be sure to mention the Alliance for Community Media and the work the ACM has done for decades to help create local media and educate people on how to do this. Mention DMA as a great example of community media in action!

DMA assists Davis Schools Foundation with video contest

Davis Schools Foundation "School Matters!" Video Contest for DJUSD Students:
http://davismedia.org/content/school-matters-video-contest

What is it?
An opportunity for Davis students, grades K through 12, to spotlight
their creativity by producing 90-second (or shorter) Public Service
Announcement videos. Working in groups of up to four, students can
either work under the guidance of staff members from Davis Media Access
at one of two workshops, or can produce the videos on their own. Entries
must be submitted to Davis Media Access by May 7, 2010.