“New Media and New Possibilities: Realizing the Promise of the Digital World”

WASHINGTON, DC – With the goal of strengthening knowledge and generating policy development activities in a critical area, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today launched a new institute to study how the media industry and emerging communications technologies affect African Americans and other people of color.

The Joint Center Media and Technology Institute will serve as a center for research on how minority Americans use media, how existing communications policies affect them and how emerging interactive forms of media can expand opportunity for them and their communities.

“New communications technologies are having an enormous and immediate impact on the way we live, the way we work, the way we learn and the way we participate in the political process,” said Ralph B. Everett, President and CEO of the Joint Center. “Particularly for many young people living in underserved communities, the stakes are enormously high. This Institute will examine these new trends and build the evidentiary record for the development of relevant policies, programs and initiatives.”

Everett added that the Joint Center Media and Technology Institute will look to close gaps and create new opportunities for access to the digital world for both young and old and explore what measures can be taken to enable the media and technology worlds to become an avenue of advancement for people of color.

“Amid this opportunity, we expect that the Joint Center’s Media and Technology Institute will be a wellspring of ideas and innovative thinking enabling lawmakers and citizens alike to leverage the new media landscape to improve and inform their lives,” said The Honorable Joyce London Alexander Ford, Chair of the Joint Center’s Board of Governors.

During today’s launch of the Institute at the National Press Club in Washington, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard joined others in highlighting the importance of the new Institute. “Economic success, educational achievement and political engagement are increasingly being shaped and defined by the way people use media and communications technologies,” said Kennard. “And so it is vitally important that those of us who want to improve the socio-economic status of people of color and expand their engagement in the political and public policy arenas must understand how media and technology can advance these goals.”

The launch of the Institute comes after an historic election which saw the winning candidate employ both traditional media and new online technologies to bolster fundraising, political outreach and voter turnout efforts – exemplifying how the use of new media technologies can reach a broad scope of individuals and motivate them to participate in the election process.

At today’s launch event, the Joint Center announced that another former FCC chairman, Michael K. Powell Senior Advisor, Providence Equity Partners, Inc., will chair the new Institute’s National Advisory Committee. “We hear encouraging things about how African Americans and Hispanic Americans are eagerly adopting the new ways of communicating that technology is making possible,” said Powell. “What’s needed now is a focal point for research and policy activity so that we can know more about these types of trends and suggest ways to leverage our knowledge into real improvements in our communities. We now have that in the Joint Center’s Media and Technology Institute.”

Among the Institute’s initial areas of focus will be improving broadband access and online activities among people of color, examining how new media technologies can improve education and health care, and exploring ways that emerging technologies can improve civic engagement and political participation.

Larry Irving, former Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will serve as senior fellow for the Joint Center Media and Technology Institute. While at NTIA, he was a principal advisor to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international telecommunications and information technology issues. In the coming months, the Joint Center will announce the selection of a new Vice President to serve as the Director of the Institute and lead a team of additional senior fellows to undertake the research initiatives. Initial funding for the Institute was provided by Verizon Communications, Comcast Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CTIA – The Wireless Association®.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is one of the nation’s premier research and public policy institutions and the only one whose workfocuses primarily on issues ofparticular concern to African Americans and other people of color. For more information about the Joint Center, please visit our Web site at http://www.jointcenter.org.

WASHINGTON, DC – National civil rights organizations including the National Urban League, National Council of La Raza, Asian American Justice Center, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the leading minority research and public policy think tank Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today unveiled a formal Report and series of recommendations from the first Broadband Opportunity Summit (the “Summit”).

At the Summit, held in February, more than 30 leaders from the civil rights, public and private sectors developed a formal set of recommendations to advance innovative solutions to the economic, educational and healthcare disparities that exist among communities of color. The report specifically addresses policy barriers that have slowed the growth of “killer applications” such as e-learning, telehealth and telecommuting that can maximize the social and economic value of broadband if adopted by all Americans.

One of the major recommendations from the Summit is the formation of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition. The Summit sponsors and other organizations plan to formally launch the Coalition within the next month. For the first time, the nation’s leading civil rights and public policy organizations will come together, with one voice, to advance broadband opportunity. The Coalition will submit a joint application for federal stimulus grant funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) to support broadband deployment, mapping, adoption and support for public computer centers.

“To date, our technological resources have been drastically underutilized, particularly by minority communities,” shares Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. “The Report and the forthcoming Broadband Opportunity Coalition will shed new light on the transformative power of broadband and digital innovation, and on the compelling need to increase the adoption and use of these technological platforms to create greater wealth and new job opportunities for minority communities and for the nation at large. We are very excited that the nation’s leading civil rights organizations are developing collective recommendations to address our nation’s technology challenges.”

Janet Murguia, President and CEO of National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, suggested that “low-income people need to be first in line when it comes to this administration’s resources around broadband adoption.”

One Economy Corporation, the nation’s leader in digital access issues for the underserved in rural and urban communities, will lead Coalition’s stimulus application to ensure that people of color receive full access to broadband services and its benefits. For nearly a decade, One Economy has worked to not only ensure availability and affordability of broadband, but to develop content that is relevant and meaningful to low-income people. One Economy has helped to bring broadband into more than 350,000 homes of low-income people, employed nearly 3,000 youth to train their community members to use technology effectively, and created public-purpose media visited by over 17 million people that brings robust healthcare, employment and educational resources to low-income users.

Rey Ramsey, President and CEO of One Economy Corporation, provided more insight into what the Coalition’s application might incorporate. “Our goal is to bring proven program models to local communities by, for example, training individuals at local Urban League chapters or LULAC tech centers so that our unique online content like the Public Internet Channel and youth technology service initiatives like Digital Connectors, which employs high school students to be digital ambassadors in their communities, will spread to more neighborhoods than we currently reach. In the end, the Coalition will move the meter so that more people of color are on line and not in line.”

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a public policy and research institution with a primary focus on issues of concern to African Americans and people of color, will be evaluating the efforts of the Coalition to ensure that underserved and unserved communities are positively impacted. To capture the diversity of Coalition members and their constituents, the Joint Center will also work in collaboration with other think tanks and experts to measure results. “We strongly believe that those who choose not to join the online world will not make it in the ‘real world,’” said Joint Center President & CEO Ralph Everett. “All students need digital access to reach their potential and digital participation in minority communities is essential.”

Click here to view the report.

As part of a historic effort to revitalize the economy, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act("ARRA" or "Recovery Act"), pumping over $700 billion of economic "stimulus" dollars into the U.S. economy.

Section I of this paper discusses disparities currently existing among different race and ethnic groups and the barriers African Americans are facing on broadband adoption. A set of policy recommendations to increase broadband adoption among minorities are illustrated in Section II with three case studies. Section II also recommends ways broadband could be used to improve healthcare, education and employment. The last section details the call for action from African American elected officials committed to helping government and industry overcome these barriers and increase sustainable broadband adoption for African Americans.

Date Published: September 2009

Between December 2009 and January 2010, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies conducted a study of 2,741 respondents, oversampling African Americans and Hispanics, to understand national minority broadband adoption trends, and examine broadband adoption and use between and within minority groups. This report addresses the experiences of minority consumers of wireline and mobile broadband services and provides insights into some of the factors affecting the decisions of minorities who have adopted broadband.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' Media and Technology Institute released their Broadband Imperatives Report at a luncheon on September 22, 2009.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' Media and Technology Institute released their Broadband Imperatives Report at a luncheon on September 22, 2009.