The Media Research Hub is a resource for researchers, advocates, and
practitioners working for a more democratic and participatory public
sphere. The Hub offers various collaborative tools including a rich resource database, collaborative grants, news, events and opportunities related to media research.
The Media Research Hub is part of the SSRC's Necessary Knowledge for
a Democratic Public Sphere program, which works to ensure that debates
about media and communications technologies are shaped by high-quality
research and a rich understanding of the public interest.
The program focuses on building a stronger culture of collaboration
between scholars, advocates, practitioners, and policymakers in the
field. Public policy and participatory democracy are improved when
the producers and users of research are better connected, and have
better access to data.
The program operates primarily through collaborative grant
competitions, workshops, working groups, and initiatives designed to
expand access to data and other resources in the field. Three of its
principal activities are represented on the Research Hub:
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
The program is run in partnership with the Center for International Media Action (CIMA) and the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center at Fordham University. It is supported by a grant from the Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom program of the Ford Foundation.
