Join NCM Hub’s Local Community Media Coalition!
November 22, 2021FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Newburyport, MA November 18th, 2021— The Greater Newburyport Community Media Hub (NCM Hub), parent organization of PortMedia and WJOP-LP 96.3 FM Joppa Radio, is publicly announcing the formation of a coalition of local organizations and community members in support of Public Access Community Media. The mission of this coalition is to establish both community and government support for Public Access Community Media and is designed to educate the Newburyport community about the barriers that Public Access Community Media faces. By highlighting the value of Public Access Media, this coalition seeks to build a vision of the future where Public Access Community Media remains a sustainable resource to the community.
Public Access Community Media Centers keep their communities informed regarding governmental, social and educational matters that directly affect their communities. Since 1981, Newburyport’s public access media center has filmed and distributed City Council meetings in order to ensure the community’s access to information, civil discourse and government transparency. Along with school committee meetings, electoral forums, Yankee Homecoming programming and other community events, these recordings provide a way for the community to stay educated, entertained and connected via local radio and TV productions, thus becoming a public media archive. Furthermore, in a vastly changing technology-driven world, NCM Hub provides access to connect through contemporary media platforms such as YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram, etc.
Across the country, Public Access Community Media centers have proven to play a central role in distributing vital information to their residents pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, preceding the first stay-at-home order in Massachusetts, NCM Hub in tandem with Mayor Donna D. Holaday produced the broadcast titled “City Response to COVID-19”, on March 19th, 2020. Collectively there are over 50 informative installments in the series that continue to educate and advise residents throughout the ongoing pandemic.
Even as a valuable asset, Public Access Community Media is increasingly underfunded. The bulk of funding for these Media Centers is provided by media corporations for their local cable PEG (Public, Education, Government) channel programming. As people cut their cable subscriptions for streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, etc, media centers like NCM Hub are seeing their budgets decrease steadily each year. Community media’s fate is largely in the hands of these media corporations and because of this, community media is in grave danger across the country. The need to adapt to these challenges of a changing media landscape is imperative for the survival of community media.
As a part of this coalition, the organization will share multimedia content and resources about NCM Hub’s mission to allow members to “learn, create, share and engage”. For city officials and school committee members, NCM Hub has hosted and will continue to host Open House events for tours of the studio. To learn more about NCM Hub or to schedule a tour for yourself, please call the station at (978) 961-0350. Further, to read and sign NCM Hub’s Coalition Letter, visit http://ncmhub.org/coalition/.
Contact:
Jessica Harrington
Community Engagement Coordinator
The Greater Newburyport Community Media Hub