The Media Justice Fund supported organizations working to address media policy, infrastructure, or accountability in a way that ensures the rights of all people and communities to have their information and communication needs met. The Media Justice Fund was grounded in the belief that social and economic justice will not be realized without the equitable redistribution and control of media and communication technologies.

The Media Justice Fund was an initiative of the Funding Exchange (FEX) and was supported by the Ford Foundation. The Media Justice Fund made grants from 2007 to 2009.

Media Justice Fund Grantees

2009

$40,500 in grants

G-Town Radio is an internet-based radio station serving the Germantown community. The all-volunteer organization has worked to fill a void left by the disappearance of several local papers. In the process, they have created a community dialogue that has engaged residents, students, and activists.

Philadelphia Public Access Corporation is a community media center that makes training in media technologies available to Philadelphians in order to redistribute power within the media communication system.

Philadelphia Public School Notebook is a quarterly newspaper that along with online and community outreach programs seeks to promote public involvement in the Philadelphia public school system and to contribute to a grassroots movement for educational reform in the city.

Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) organizes school-based and citywide campaigns for educational equity. PSU has consistently found that access to corporate media outlets and appropriate coverage of its campaigns to be far from adequate. Student members are working to create meaningful and relevant media content and outlets.

Termite TV is a video collective that works with artists and communities to develop multimedia projects that address timely social and cultural issues. The collective strives to build media infrastructure in communities lacking media access through programs such as a fully equipped traveling “Video Van.”

2008

$27,000 in grants

Kensington Welfare Rights Union is a poor people’s organization dedicated to organizing welfare recipients, homeless families, the working poor and all people concerned with economic justice toward a movement to end poverty. An integral portion of the KWRU media campaign is their website, which is used to overcome mainstream media marginalization and address a worldwide audience on economic human rights.

Media Mobilizing Project is a collaborative of organizers facilitating grassroots media production and other communications to advance socio-economic justice through the empowerment of disenfranchised communities.

OpEdNews.com is a community blog for Bucks County. The vision of OpEdNews is to enable and empower communities down to the neighborhood level to have their own news and opinion pages in order for anyone to participate in the media.

2007

$36,000 in grants

Black Lily Film and Music Festival aims to address the mainstream media infrastructure by providing an alternative platform for women within the male-dominated industries and to provide opportunities for education in film and music production

Media Tank’s Media Monitoring Project provides education and training for local residents to better understand our current media system and the role that news institutions play in framing the discussion of important issues in the city.

Philadelphia Community Access Coalition is a network of individuals and organizations working to establish a public access community television station in Philadelphia where all citizens can have access to equipment and training to create and air television programs. The coalition has worked for the past nine years to hold the city accountable for 1983 legislation which promised public access.

Philadelphia Independent Media Center‘s Media Mobilizing Project is a multimedia campaign to document everyday poverty in Philadelphia and to use media to build solidarity across different movements for economic justice. The MMP is currently focused on campaigns involving hotel worker rights, anti-gentrification, and immigrant justice.

Prometheus Radio Project has worked since 1998 to establish low-power FM radio service by mobilizing communities to put pressure on the FCC. Prometheus is currently working with Scribe Video Center to host a “barnraising” conference that will create a radio station in a single weekend and teach technical skills to West Philadelphia community members for the ongoing management of the station.

Scribe Video Center seeks to explore, develop, and advance the use of video and other media as an artistic tool for progressive social change. Scribe is launching a new one-watt community radio station that will serve people who live and work in West Philadelphia and will be managed by a community programming board of West Philadelphia community organizations.