About the Program

This is the first research grantmaking program for which our unique field of vision--the intersection of civil rights with media/telecom policy--has been a priority. It has been a lifesaver for us.

-- David Honig, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council

-- Larry Gross, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

The name--Necessary Knowledge--says it all. With this program, SSRC has tapped into the issue which affects all other issues: the connection between media structure, civic engagement and public policy.

-- Matthew Cardinale, Georgia State University and Atlanta Progressive News; Anita Beaty, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless

Ten years ago, we were completely alone in this area. The recognition and support of the SSRC program have made our work much more effective.

-- Catherine Sandoval, Santa Clara University School of Law -- former Collaborative Grant recipient and current NKDPS Committee Member

The Collaborative Grants are small but they are like Grameen’s microloans--very high impact--as no one else is supporting this work.

-- Federico Subervi, Texas State University

-- JoAnn Fuller, Sacramento Media Group, California Common Cause

SSRC is doing a laudable job in confronting the issue of academic relevance. There is a huge market for this kind of education in the academy, which is only barely being scratched.

-- Peggy Reeves Sanday, Professor, University of Pennsylvania

I believe that the structural/professional impediments to academic involvement in applied/action oriented work are fewer that just a decade or two ago. So, the challenge is rather one of cultural change, building mechanisms providing incentives for collaboration, etc., as SSRC seems to be doing.

-- Tom Jacobson, Temple University

About the 2008 Necessary Knowledge Grantee Workshop

The grantee workshop definitely illustrated how collaborations can enhance the work that we all do, regardless if we're on the academic or practitioner side. I was very impressed with how the program brings together a highly interdisciplinary, multicultural, global group working on media and communications issues.

-- Graciela L. Orozco, San Francisco State University

Sascha Meinrath, Mark Lloyd and Kristin Thomson at the 2008 Workshop (photos: SSRC)

Throughout the years, I have attended diverse academic and policy forums but never found a space like this workshop. Diversity of participants and projects made this workshop unique and energizing. We should think on ways to build more continuity to the conversations initiated here. The mediaresearchhub website is a space for that, but I’m talking about working groups, gatherings in other upcoming, setting up other institutional networks that leverage support from our respective institutions/organizations to host seminars, panels, discussions, collaborative/inter-institutional research, etc. The experience of the NK program is supposed to eventually lead to all that.

-- Martha Fuentes-Bautista, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

We feel a strong underlying sense of support from the SSRC. This comes, in part, from the steady and friendly email communication we received from the SSRC during the course of this grant; the conference in Philadelphia where we were introduced to, and spent time with, SSRC staff and the other SSRC grantees; and the mid-term reporting requirement...

The conference in Philadelphia in February was particularly helpful for the development of our project as it helped us stay on track with our timeline and pushed us to reflect on and evaluate our project at a point where we might not have done so without such a meeting. Seeing our project set against the background of other SSRC-funded projects was additionally beneficial, as it helped us to contextualize our work within larger fields of study and within local, national, and international social justice and media policy movements.

-- Amy Bach, University of Pennsylvania; Rachel Kulick, Brandeis University / Youth Channel All-City

The Necessary Knowledge Program is creating spaces no one else is that I know of. I was so impressed with the people in attendance and the projects they're working on. Thank you for the opportunity to meet and network with everyone. I think a great network/community is growing around this.

-- Amy Johnson, Philly Media Watch

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About the Grants Process

Thank you very much for the detailed and thoughtful feedback; it is really appreciated. This is the first time we are submitting to the SSRC Large Grants program and I believe that after receiving this feedback we understand a bit better how we could have improved our proposal.

-- Giorgos Cheliotis, National University of Singapore

-- Gene Kimmelman, Consumers Union

This grant enables us to explore a specific string of our wider initiatives in media advocacy. The grant application procedure was straightforward, and since the proposal was template-driven, it helped arranging our thoughts in a concise manner. Given the catalytic objectives of SSRC's NK programme, we look forward to interacting with its other grantees involved with both the cusp of media research policy in South Asia and pedagogical initiatives in media advocacy elsewhere.

-- Vibodh Parthasarathi, CCMG - DEF /  New Delhi

SSRC grantmaking created a space to engage progressive scholars, policy experts and community advocates through evaluations of strong research proposals and through public conversations on collaborative and participatory research. In these spaces, scholars and underserved communities were brought together to synthesize our theories on media democracy and media justice--to unveil new theories of wisdom and theories of conscience.

-- Hye-Jung Park, Media Justice Fund, Funding Exchange -- former NKDPS Grants Committee Member