Topic: Resources Online: Seven Ways to Get Smart on Your Lunch Hour
There are many terrific resources online that relate in one way or another to framing policy issues in the media. This diverse set of websites allows you to read the newest academic research on framing, hear how journalists think about reporting on community issues, explore different ways to tell community stories, access media archives, and learn what issues the media is reporting and in what ways. Better yet, most of these websites can be tackled in a normal lunch hour, with more in-depth reading book-marked for another day. We think Kids Count staff will find this a good way to keep thinking about the frames we've got on children's issues, the frames we need, and how to get from one to the other by working with the media. Happy surfing!
#1: Center for Communications and Community (CCC) at the University of California, Los Angeles:
CCC, founded and directed by FrameWorks collaborator Frank Gilliam, Ph.D., is a service, research, and training institution working at the intersection of communications, race, and community transformation. For children's advocates, a highlight of CCC's web site is a communications toolkit for community-based organizations with both a text component and a video component. The toolkit, to which FrameWorks contributed, includes essays, applications and presentations by prominent social science scholars, journalists, and media advocates. The toolkit is designed to empower community organizations to influence the production of media images of their neighborhoods.
Other helpful features on this site include definitions of key communications terms, a complete bibliography, downloadable versions of research papers, and links to other resources on communications, race, and community issues.
#2: Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG):
Although BMSG's web site is not fully operational yet, it is likely to be a very valuable resource for children's advocates upon its completion. Currently available for download are two documents, one of which, "Silent Revolution: How the U.S. Newspapers Portray Child Care" is of particular relevance to KIDS COUNT projects.
#3: http://www.goodnewsgooddeeds.org
The Good News/Good Deeds project is based in the Puget Sound area of Washington State and was started to help citizens get sufficient information about grassroots community-building and citizen problem-solving from their local news media. The web site features the report, "Telling Stories: building Community by Improving Communications" and can be read online or ordered via the web site. "Telling Stories" features detailed research findings and commentary for the community sector, news media, and new media. It focuses on how stories, and the way we tell them, affect communities and how problems are solved within the community. This report would be particularly useful to KIDS COUNT projects with advocacy training programs for grassroots activists.
#4: Pew Center for Civic Journalism:
The Pew Center, a project of Pew Charitable Trusts, is an incubator for civic journalism experiments that enable news organizations to create and refine better ways of reporting the news to re-engage people in public life. Civic journalism tends to be more attentive to conscious framing of news, and to take greater responsibility for media's impact on civic values and perceptions. The Center seeks to stimulate citizen involvement in community issues, and through its web site, provides tools and resources to both journalists and citizen activists. Highlights of the web site include:
- Editions of the Civic Catalyst Newsletter dating back to 1995, which feature conversations with journalists about new ways to advance good journalism.
- Dozens of publications on civic journalism, which are available online and by order.
- Speeches and articles by journalists from across the country.
- Research on current trends in civic journalism.
- Information about Pew Center projects and awards.
The Pew Center's web site can become an important resource as KIDS COUNT projects continue to enhance their relationship with the media and hone their skills as media advocates. This collection of good journalism can prove useful as you consider other ways to tell a story that will engage media coverage.
The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. The collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including Nightline since 1989. For those organizations interested in accessing news coverage on various children's issues - for use in advocacy trainings, presentations, research, and more - the TV News Archive provides one-stop shopping for network evening news programs.
#6: Center for Media and Public Affairs:
The Center for Media and Public Affairs is a frequent FrameWorks collaborator in content analysis of social issues. A nonpartisan research and educational organization, CMOA conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media. CMPA election studies have played a major role in the ongoing debate over improving the election process. Their analysis and tabulation of late night political jokes provides a lighter look at major news makers. CMPA also examines media coverage of science and economic news. CMPA's bimonthly newsletter, Media Monitor, is one of the best sources of information on what's happening in the media. KIDS COUNTers may find this a good and efficient way to monitor the media's habits, even though the focus is not specifically on children's issues.
#7: Andy Goodman and Free Range Thinking:
There are few boring moments online at Andy Goodman's sight where back issues of his monthly newsletter, Free-range Thinking, never cease to amuse and inform. Taking a decidedly progressive orientation, Goodman explores lessons we can learn from bad companies, the theory of social norms marketing, and dozens of specific communications campaigns that did and didn't deliver. What we like about Andy's site is its strong research orientation; it's hard to come away without a new book to read or a new idea to consider. And, while we don't always agree with his conclusions, Andy's practical news-you-can-use style is unfailingly thought-provoking. KIDS COUNTers will find reviews of many child-focused campaigns and a regular stream of useful pointers and contacts.
So, log on, browse, and learn a little over lunch!
FrameWorks Institute
September 2002
