policy
NAMAC at Arts Advocacy Day 2012
NAMAC's Executive Director, Jack Walsh, and Policy Strategist, Belinda Rawlins, came together from their respective west and east coast offices to attend Arts Advocacy Day 2012 in Washington, DC.
How Education Can Save Us from the Digital Divide
When I think about the importance of media and arts education, there is nothing more important than access; access to quality media and arts education for all individuals regardless of age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, etc. If you use media in any way, you should have access to some form of media literacy education. And, even if you don’t love art or aspire to become the next Andy Warhol, you should have access to some form of arts education.
NAMAC Policy News Roundup
Each month, NAMAC will look back at the last few weeks for a quick overview of some of the stories we've been watching. We hope you'll find them interesting, too.
September started off with a bang as the Department of Justice moved to block the AT&T / T-Mobile merger.
The 2011 National Rural Assembly
NAMAC Blogger Traci Morris reports on her trip to the 2011 Gathering of the National Rural Assembly.
House Rejects Amendment to Further Cut NEA
From Americans for the Arts:
The Walberg amendment to H.R. 2584, the House Interior Appropriations bill that would have cut an additional $10.6 million from the National Endowment for the Arts failed 240-181 earlier today. All 185 Democrats present voted against the amendment and 55 Republicans joined them.
Data Caps Could Cut Artists off from the Cloud
The case of André Vrignaud highlights the serious issues that artists, photographers and musicians might face as both data caps and cloud computing become increasingly common—and contradictory.
Read More.
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association
NAMAC's Policy Strategist Belinda Rawlins reports on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association.
NAMAC's Policy Work This Year
Across the arts and public media arena, we began this year on the defensive. As of this writing (3/31/11), the newly elected members of the House put forward bills to slash NEA funding by $43 million in the current fiscal year. Additionally, they eliminated the Arts in Education programs from the Department of Education and zeroed-out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that provides funding for the Independent Television Service and the six members of the National Minority Consortia, as well as public television and radio support.
Native Nations Day at the FCC
Following up on last month’s blog, which provided a short overview of Native American Telecom Issues, is this review of a historic event held on March 3, 2011, at the Federal Communications Commission, Native Nations Day. This open commission meeting was an example of the FCC’s expanding commitment to Indian Country, which started with the establishment of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy (ONAP), last summer. The entire staffs of ONAP, multiple FCC offices and all FCC Commissioners were in attendance. Even more exciting to see, was the room filled to capacity with Native folks, Tribal organizations, and Tribal Leaders.
Interview with Sasha Costanza-Chock
In these first two months of 2011, we have witnessed an extraordinary sequence of events demonstrating the transformative possibilities of social media when employed in the area of social change. While it is crucial that we not erase the specific contexts of activist engagement or the diverse organizing elements involved in particular political movements and protests, it is also clear that the tools of social media have played a vital role in an ongoing series of upheavals in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Closer to home, I was intrigued by ongoing references to connections between events in Cairo and the labor protests in Madison, which circulated though a variety of social media from Flickr to Facebook to Twitter. The continued linkage of these two very different political events, albeit tenuous or indeed maladroit, illustrates both the power of the new media forms as well as the global reach of the conversation around questions of democracy and social justice.
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