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The Alliance for Community Media is committed to assuring everyone's access to electronic media. The Alliance accomplishes this by creating public education, advancing a positive legislative and regulatory environment, building coalitions, and supporting local organizing. A nonprofit, national membership organization founded in 1976, the Alliance represents the interests of over 1,000 public, educational and governmental ("PEG") access organizations (generally known as "public access") and public access internet centers throughout the United States. It also represents the interests of an estimated 1.5 million individuals, through their local religious, community, charitable and other groups, who utilize PEG access television centers and Internet providers to speak to their memberships and their larger communities.

AMARC is an international non-governmental organization serving the community radio movement. Its goal is to support and contribute to the development of community and participatory radio along the principals of solidarity and international cooperation. All continents are represented on AMARC's Board of Directors.

The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice Project is a nonpartisan initiative to strengthen public interest efforts in shaping the emerging National Information Infrastructure (NII) in the United States. It is Benton's conviction that the vigorous participation of the nonprofit sector in policy debates and demonstration projects will help realize the public interest potential of the NII. The Benton divides its work into two areas: policy and practice.

The Center for Media Literacy is dedicated to a new vision of literacy for the 21st century: the ability to communicate competently in all media forms, print and electronic, as well as to access, understand, analyze and evaluate the powerful images, words and sounds that make up our contemporary mass media culture. The Center believes that the skills of media literacy are essential to our health as individuals and as members of a democratic society. The Center's mission is to bring media literacy education to every child, every school and every home in North America.

The Chiapas Media Project began in a small hut in an Indian village in Chiapas, Mexico. Video artists from the United States sat down with indigenous leaders and, through a two hour discussion over coffee and warm tortillas, the project was born. During the meeting, the community described in poignant terms their disgust with the presentation of their lives to the outside world. Anthropologists, reporters and government officials paid numerous visits to the community, then told the world their own version of the truth. The Indians often didn't recognize their own community in these versions, yet people from outside often made decisions about them based on this faulty and misleading information. Since then, U.S. and Mexican activists have been collaborating with training and video equipment so that Indian communities can produce their own videos.

The Communication Initiative: seeks to provide a forum for your ideas, stories and actions and to connect you to information that will be of use in your work. The issues, and trends we bring forward and the work of others we profile do not necessarily reflect the position or perspective of The Communication Initiative or its partners. Instead they are examples and samples of the many voices and actions that make the field of communication for social change dynamic and hopefully add to all of our learning and understanding.

Communication for Social Change (CSC): This is the homepage of the research centre Communication for Social Change (CSC) which is based at the Catholic University of Brussels (K.U. Brussel). Only general information is available.

The Community Media Action Group of Syracuse (CMAG): is a collective devoted to aiding and promoting the production and dissemination of independent, grassroots media in the Central New York area. Its mission is to challenge the mainstream and status quo by seeking and sharing information on a free basis. The Media Action Group helps individuals and organizations create and propagate dynamic media, including print, radio, video and electronic.

Damn (Direct Action Media Network) is a multi-media news service that covers direct actions that progressive organizations and individuals take to attain a peaceful, open and enlightened society. DAMN places its coverage of social justice actions into both historical and contemporary context so that any audience will find the events and issues covered accessible. The group operates as a non-hierarchical democratic institution to ensure that its operations reflect and augment the values of the projects and actions it reports. DAMN accepts as an affiliate any media outlet, social justice organization, or individual reporter who agrees to provide or disburse news for the service.

The Development, Culture and Communication (DECCO) Network: is a research and information network aimed at promoting (a) liaison between organizations, researchers, academics, development and communication practitioners and others who work within the DECCO field, (b) the dissemination of information and (c) databases relevant to DECCO. The DECCO Network will focus on Southern Africa, but will be linked internationally and involve as many regional and international organizations as possible.

Devmedia Links! Participatory and Community Media for Development and Democracy: Devmedia began as an Internet listserve in 1994 to help with the exchange of information on "Media for Development and Democracy." Now, with Devmedia Links! it has a web site component. List members and Devmedia Links! users generally include people interested in participatory and community uses of media: radio, video TV, and the Internet.

Devmedia: Media for Development and Democracy: Here you will find information on the mailing list DEVMEDIA and how to subscribe to it. List members are participatory radio, video and TV practitioners working for the democratization of communication.

Downtown Community Television Center: Founded in 1972, Downtown Community Television Center believes that expanding public access to the electronic media arts invigorates our democracy. For the past twenty-five years the Center has pursued its grass-roots mission to teach people, particularly members of low-income and minority communities, to produce insightful and artistic television. "From humble beginnings -- our first educational projects operated from the back of a dilapidated mail truck -- we have gradually established a community-based foothold within an art form dominated by large corporations. In our landmark firehouse home in New York City in Chinatown, individuals who could not otherwise afford a media arts education, much less the sophisticated equipment needed to produce television, gain access to at-cost classes as well as the most advanced cameras and editing systems available."

Dyke TV: is a half-hour bi-weekly television program produced by lesbians, for lesbians. "Dyke TV mixes news, political commentary, the arts, health, sports, and much more to present lesbian lives-in all our variety-with intelligence and humor." Since its debut in Manhattan on June 8, 1993, Dyke TV now airs in 66 cities across the United States.For each weekly show, Dyke TV uses a magazine format-a varied collection of short segments on different topics.

Foro Internacional: Comunicación y Ciudadanía: On the International Forum on Communication and Citizenship, held in San Salvador, El salvador, 9-11 September 1998.

Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc: was founded in 1988 by former employees of Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, seeking more independence, opportunity and Inuit control over Inuktitut television. Isuma's mission is to create skilled jobs and sustainable economic development for Inuit in Igloolik and Nunavut by producing independent professional media products from an Inuit point of view. Its programs are designed to preserve, enhance and represent Inuit culture to Inuit and non-Inuit audiences worldwide, with the highest artistic qualities of production and entertainment in Inuit language and style. By doing this Isuma hopes to advance Inuit objectives in several areas at the same time: culture, language, contemporary art, economic development and politics, to enable Inuit to gain more control over their land and future, and over the ways Inuit are represented in worldwide media.

Independent Media Institute (IMI): is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism, and to improving the public's access to independent information sources. IMI believe that democracy is enhanced, and public debate broadened, as more voices are heard and points of view made available.

IFEX Action Alert Service: This is the site of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX). IFEX operates as a Clearing House and receives and provides information on freedom of expression to groups and individuals around the world.

International Media Forum: is a democratic forum of networks and federations that work towards ending economic exploitation and political domination, through the undermining of empires and the creation of alternative social structures that support diversity, egalitarianism and autonomy.

Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester:excellent list of web resources on Development.

The Institute for Alternative Journalism: The Institute advocates for diversity of independent voices in the media and helps facilitate collaborations and campaigns to foster media democracy.

The Los Angeles Alternative Media Network (LAAMN): is a network of journalists in print, radio, video, TV, film, as well as Internet publishers, photographers, musicians, artists, and media watch activists who have come together to develop a strong presence for the independent, alternative media in Los Angeles. Through cross-collaboration, LAAMN intends to reach a wide audience with a progressive message and report on the developing social, political, and cultural movements of the time, providing a 'voice for the voiceless' throughout the Southland.

MacBride Roundtable: This is the site of the MacBride roundtable and provides information on itself and related activities.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN): is responsible for administering the public access cable television services in Manhattan. MNN holds workshops in television production for Manhattan residents; offers special group workshops in television production for non-profit community organizations based in Manhattan; provides access to television production equipment to produce public access programs, and gives Revolving Fund Grants to assist non-profit Manhattan community based organizations in providing training and support to community video producers, as well as individual production grants for community programming.

MED-TV: is an innovative satellite channel, broadcasting to Kurdish communities all over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It is the only international television station to offer a complete schedule of Kurdish-language programming, to a potential audience of 35 million Kurds across the globe, and aims to assist in the development of the cultural identity of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish language, celebrating the rich cultural diversities within.

Media Alliance: is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing independent media - video, film, audio, radio, and computers - in New York State by expanding resources, support, and audiences for the media arts.

The Media Channel: provides news, analysis, information, discourse and resources about the media worldwide. It will carry media stories and features from a wide array of newspapers. magazines and web site. It will aggregate content from NGO's, not-for-profit groups, professional associations, academic journals, and media monitors, with contributions from critics, researchers, educators, journalists, columnists, scholars, activists, citizens and media consumers.

The National Lawyers' Guild Committee on Democratic Communication

New York Free Media Alliance: is a regional coalition working to increase democracy and public space in local and national media. Its mission is to free the local mass media from domination by commercial, government and elite interests who censor or distort information vital to the communities. It seeks to encourage and nurture the development of mass and alternative media that give access to, are accountable to, and accurately reflect all of the people in our communities. It works to form links with other local media networks, in this country and around the world, in the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

One World Media Center: accomplishes its mission by offering training in TV production, by providing direct access to TV production equipment, by serving as an educational and vocational resource, and by facilitating distribution of community productions locally, nationally and internationally. One World Media Center is also a leader in exploring the convergence of video, computers, multimedia, and the Internet, and is planning to provide digital video cameras and digital editing suites to community members.

The Open Channel/The Global Village CAT: supports Public Access Television in Sweden. It also includes international links related to the local and global movement for the Freedom of Speech.

Organización Católica Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Comunicación (OCLCC): it's mission is to contribute to a more fair and just society and toward this goal the organization develops networks among organizations working toward the democratization of communication in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as educational radios, community radios, women's organizations, and grassroots organizations. Links to media organizations in different Latin American countries.

The PANOS Institute International: has as a goal to promote the development of democratic forms of culture and debate, in the general perspective of sustainable and equitable development. The PANOS Institute implements several projects on media and democracy.

Paper Tiger Television: is a public access television show. PTTV is shown regularly on public access channels in Manhattan, San Francisco and elsewhere, which ensures both a prime-time audience of channel grazers and the possibility of developing a loyal viewership over time. Taking advantage of this uncensored air-time, PTTV developed its series of "readings" of mass media. A friendly name for detailed analysis, "reading" a publication or program means taking it apart, sometimes page-by-page or scene-by-scene, exploring links between its production, its audience and its sponsors. While exposing the hidden ideologies in commercial television, film, advertisements and print media, Paper Tiger also aims to disrupt the TV beliefs of its viewers.

The Participatory Communication Research Section and Network (PCR) of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR): includes more than 500 researchers in different parts of the world. The work of the Participatory Communication Research Section/Network (PCRN) is not based on any specific definition of participation. Rather, participation is a term used to refer to a number of social and planning processes occurring in many different places andin many different contexts.

The People's Communication Charter: By Prof. Dr. Cees J. Hamelink. The People's Communication Charter is an initiative of the Third World Network (Penang, Malaysia) and the Centre for Communication & Human Rights (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Basic to the initiative is the observation that across the world people face pervasive forms of censorship, distorted and misleading information, stereotyped images of gender and race, restricted access to knowledge, and insufficient channels to communicate their ideas and opinions. This Charter provides the common framework for all those who share the belief that people should be active and critical participants in their social reality and capable of governing themselves.

Platform for Cooperation on Communication and Democratisation: a group of NGOs involved in media and communication agreed on a common platform to cooperate together on issues of mutual concern. The meeting, which was organised and hosted by WACC with the MacBride Round Table, was a small, informal, gathering to explore, among a manageable group, the possibilities for and practicalities of cooperation. Groups represented were: AMARC, APC, Article 19, Catholic Media Council, PANOS London, People's Communication Charter, Communication for Social Change (KUB), International Women's Tribune Centre, MacBride Round Table, UNDA/OSIC, Vidéazimut, WACC, Worldview International, and Zebra. This web site explains their platform.

Promehteus Radio Project: is a group of microbroadcasters from New York and Philadelphia who are initiating a microradio resource center to which broadcasters can turn for technical and legal support to start a station. The group borrows its name from the Greek mythological character who disobeyed the gods in order to share use of fire with humanity. In that spirit, The Prometheus Radio Project seeks to help ordinary people claim a piece of the ether that big corporations dominate and control.

Radio Netherlands: Information from Radio Netherlands on different radio and communication related issues is available in many different languages. The site can be searched and includes Real Audio Broadcasts.

Red Intercontinental de Comunicación Alternativa (RICA): Taking the Zapatista struggle as a point of departure, a working group of the Encuentro por la Humanidad y contra el Neo-Liberalismo organized by the Zapatistas in La Realidad, Mexico, studies the possibility of an intercontinental network of alternative communication.

Street Level Youth Media: educates Chicago's inner-city youth in media arts and emerging technologies for use in self-expression, communication and social change. Street-Level's programs build self-esteem and critical thinking skills for urban youth who have been historically neglected by policy makers and mass media. Using video production, computer art and the Internet, Street-Level's young people address community issues, access advanced communication technology and gain inclusion in our information-based society.

The Society for Old and New Media (Amsterdam): is a cultural research and development center for communications technology. Central to the Society's aims is the development of technological applications for the cultural and social expression of groups and individuals. Designers, software engineers, artists and scientists work together closely within the Society for Old and New Media, and for projects, collaboration is sought with partners in the social sector, the educational field and trade and industry. The Waag building, which houses the Society, has a Media lab, a monumental conference theatre - the 17th century Theatrum Anatomicum - and a restaurant-cafe in which the Reading Table for Old and New Media is located.

Tactical Media Networks (see also http://www.tmcrew.org/ in Italy):Tactical media do not just report or describe events , nor do they claim to be objective or neutral. "We are not observers. We are participants. We do not restrict ourselves to the symbolic. Tactical Media are about *real action* which requires the responsibility to act on ones propositions and suffer the consequences or reap the benefits."

Videazimut: is an international non-governmental coalition promoting audiovisual communication for development and democracy.

Videomove: The main purpose of this web site is to deepen mutual awareness between the alternative media movement organizations and to establish better conditions for everyday solidarity on a global level. Although the media movement for democratic society has progressed since the 1980s, and although there are many web sites concerning these activities, there is no overall directory site which links information from all over the world, and Videomove is trying to fill this void.

World Association for Christian Communication (WACC): is an international voluntary, organization established by communicators who wish to give high priority to Christian values in the world's communication and development needs.