Communication Initiative / CANADA -
Partnership of development organizations.
http://www.comminit.com
Aim: To support advances in the effectiveness and scale of communication interventions for positive international development.
Approach: Provides real-time information on communication and development experiences and thinking; links communication action people; makes peer commentary on programs and strategies; promotes strategic thinking on communication and development issues and problems.

Alliance des Radio Communautaires du Canada et RFA / CANADA -
Alliance of community radio stations of Canada and Radio Francophone dâAmerique. http://www.radiorfa.com
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) / CANADA - Media freedom watch dog; the Clearing House is managed by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
http://www.ifex.org
Aim: To support and strengthen fledgling freedom of expression organizations in the developing world, Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union.
Approach: Offers information, financial and technical resources, expertise, and international support and recognition.

Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. / CANADA -
Canada's first Inuit independent production company.
http://www.isuma.ca
Aim: To preserve and enhance Inuit culture and language, and to create jobs and economic development in Igloolik and Nunavut.
Approach: Produces independent community-based media - video, audio, TV and Internet.

A-Infos Radio Project / UNITED STATES -
All-volunteer, autonomous anarchist multi-lingual press agency.
http://www.radio4all.ne
Aim: To support and expand the movement for democratic communications worldwide.
Approach: Archives news programs to be shared with anyone free of charge.

Alliance for Community Media / UNITED STATES-
Non-profit, national membership organization representing public, educational and governmental access organizations and public access internet centers throughout the United States.
http://www.alliancecm.org
Aim: To assure everyone's access to electronic media.
Approach: Creates public education, lobbies for legislative and regulatory change, builds coalitions and supports local organizing efforts.

Alternative Press Center / UNITED STATES-
A non-profit collective.
http://www.altpress.org
Aim: To provide access to, and increase public awareness of the alternative press.
Approach: Researches and maintains the Alternative Press Index, a quarterly subject index to more than 250 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines, as well as a Web site.

Association of Independent Video Producers and Filmmakers / UNITED STATES-
National trade association of independent media artists based in New York City.
http://www.aivf.org
Aim: To create new opportunities for the field; to engender a strong sense of community among independent media artists; and to promote media arts to a broader public.
Approach: Provides services, advocacy, and information to increase the creative and professional opportunities for independent video and filmmakers.

Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice Project / UNITED STATES -
Nonpartisan initiative to strengthen public interest efforts in shaping the emerging US National Information Infrastructure (NII). The foundation is private and bridges the worlds of philanthropy, public policy and community action.
http://www.benton.org
Aim: Stimulate vigorous participation of the nonprofit sector in policy debates and demonstration projects will help realize the public interest potential of the NII.
Approach: Creates and incubates innovative projects to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems

Bay-Area Video Coalition / UNITED STATES -
San Francisco-based nonprofit media arts training center and production facility.
http://www.bavc.org
Aim: To be the nation's most advanced noncommercial media access and training center; to support the creation of high quality independent media, and to develop current and future media makers.
Approach: Offers access to media, education, and technology to the underserved community such as independent producers, artists, and nonprofit organizations.

Big Noise Tactical Media / UNITED STATES -
Non-profit, all-volunteer collective of media-makers.
http://www.www.bignoisefilms.com
Aim: To use images from radical community movements to oppose capitalism.
Approach: Circulates beautiful, passionate, revolutionaryä images around the world.

Communication Initiative / CANADA -
Partnership of development organizations.
http://www.comminit.com
Aim: To support advances in the effectiveness and scale of communication interventions for positive international development.
Approach: Provides real-time information on communication and development experiences and thinking; links communication action people; makes peer commentary on programs and strategies; promotes strategic thinking on communication and development issues and problems.

Center for Public Integrity / UNITED STATES -
Nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that investigates government and ethics issues.
http://www.publicintegrity.org
Aim: A better-informed citizenry that demands a higher level of accountability from its government and elected leaders
Approach: Offers the public data and analyses from investigations into public service, government accountability and ethics-related issues.For example: http://www.openairwaves.org, a searchable database with basic information on every radio and television station in America as well as every cable television system and telephone company. You may search by company, by call sign or by area. Searchers will find basic information on some of the most important telecommunication companies, including a brief corporate profile and basic financial information. This dataset also includes all industry-sponsored trips by FCC officials between May 1995 and March 2003.

The Center for Social Media / UNITED STATES -
Part of the School of Communication at American University.
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org
Aim: To spotlight media for social justice, democracy and civil society.
Approach: Showcases and analyzes media as creative tools for public knowledge and action; organizes film festivals, panels, and public events; conduct research; publishes reports and articles geared towards independent filmmakers, activists, researchers, and media specialists.

CitizenShift - National Film Board of Canada (Montreal)
http://citizen.nfb.ca/
This social media network is a space to share media, voice opinions and explore unique content from active citizens, independent filmmakers and multimedia artists.CitizenShift is inspired by Challenge for Change - a 1960s experimental NFB initiative that involved communities in the documentary filmmaking process.Over forty years later, CitizenShift offers a participatory online platform giving users a forum to share their media, debate the issues and encourage social change.

The Chicago Coalition for Information Access / UNITED STATES -
CCIA is a non-profit organization; fiscal agent is Networking for Democracy.
http://www.cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu/ccia/ccia.html
Aim: To educate citizens and public officials about the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and its impact, and to promote appropriate public policies.
Approach: Seeks sponsors of civic networks and community computer centers; facilitate local organizing efforts; to develop and encourage legislative initiatives that advance the Coalition's aims and provide material support for these goals.

Community Technology Center (CTC) / UNITED STATES -
Community service, social action, and/or educational facility.
http://www.ctcnet.org
Aim: To provide access to free or low-cost computer-based/digital applications, hardware, networks, technology training and support programs.
Approach: Uses computers, the Internet and other information technology tools to provide a range of vital services for those who typically lack such opportunities.

Consumer Federation of America Foundation / UNITED STATES -
Research and education organization that complements the work of the Consumer Federation of America, an association of almost 300 nonprofit pro-consumer groups.
http://www.consumerfed.org
Aim: To ensure a progressive, democratic media and communications network.
Approach: Conducts and publicizes surveys on media ownership; monitors international media policy formation focusing on electronic venues; participates in FCC rule-making proceedings and encourages and equips grassroots activists to do the same.

Consumers Union / UNITED STATES-
Telecom/utilities tab. An independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers.
http://www.consumersunion.org
Aim: To promote more competition (or regulation where competition does not exist) in local, long distance, wireless telecommunications, and multichannel video (e.g., cable, satellite) markets.
Approach: Researches and reports on current issues of concern to consumers; advocates for consumers on policy issues.

Damn (Direct Action Media Network) / UNITED STATES-
A multi-media news service that covers direct actions of progressive organizations and individuals take to attain a peaceful, open and enlightened society.
http://www.tao.ca/earth/damn
Aim: To operate as a non-hierarchical democratic institution to ensure that its activities reflect and augment the values of the projects and actions it reports.
Approach: Covers social justice actions in a historical and contemporary context; produces the Worldwatch international news section for the Chicago-based progressive magazine Lip; distributes Worldwatch as a separate pullout so that other alternative publications can reprint it or use it as source material.

Deep Dish TV / UNITED STATES-
National satellite network, linking access producers and programmers, independent video makers, activists, and other supporters of a progressive television network.
http://www.deepdishtv.org
Aim: To distribute creative programming that educates and activates viewers.
Approach: Assembles material from producers around the world and transmit it to community television stations and home dish owners nationwide.

Downtown Community Television Center / UNITED STATES-
A New York-based independent nonprofit media center.
http://www.dctvny.org
Aim: To expand public access to the electronic media arts and invigorate our democracy.
Approach: Teaches people, particularly those of low-income and minority communities, to produce insightful and artistic television; offers at-cost classes and use of advanced equipment.

Dyke TV / UNITED STATES-
Half-hour bi-weekly television program produced in New York by lesbians for lesbians; airs in 66 US cities.
http://www.dyketv.org
Aim: To place media tools at the service of lesbian visibility and empowermen
Approach: Mixes news, political commentary, the arts, health, sports, etc. to present lesbian lives with intelligence and humor.

Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) / UNITED STATES -
National US media watch group.
http://www.fair.org
Aim: To invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.
Approach: Offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship, exposes neglected news stories and defends muzzled working journalists.

Free Press / UNITED STATES
http://www.mediareform.net/index.php
Aim: Founded by author and professor Robert McChesney, Free Press is a national non-profit media reform organization working to open, democratize and ignite media policy debates, strengthen the media reform network and the broader movement, increase advocacy efforts in Washington connected to grassroots outreach across the nation, and make media a bona fide issue in America through innovative grassroots and communications strategies and working with partner organizations.
Approach: To support media policy initiatives and raise awareness among citizens on the need for media reform.

Free Speech TV / UNITED STATES -
Publicly supported, independent, non-profit TV channel that is a project of Public Communicators.
http://www.freespeech.org
Aim: To empower citizens to fight injustices, revitalize democracy, and build a more compassionate world.
Approach: Seizes the power of television to expand social consciousness, and fuels the movement for progressive social, economic, and political transformation. Broadcasts independently produced documentaries dealing with social, political, cultural, and environmental issues

Independent Media Institute (IMI) / UNITED STATES -
San Francisco-based nonprofit organization with four editorial and service components: AlterNet.org, a public interest online magazine; AlterNet Syndication, a news service for the independent press; WireTap, an online magazine for socially conscious youth; and The Strategic Press Information Network (SPIN), to train grass-roots and advocacy groups in communication skills.
http://www.alternet.org
Aim: To enhance democracy and broaden public debate by airing more voices and perspectives.
Approach: Strengthens and supports independent and alternative journalism; improves public access to independent information sources.

The Los Angeles Alternative Media Network (LAAMN) / UNITED STATES -
A network of media producers and activists.
http:// www.labridge.com or email laamn(AT)labridge(DOT)com
Aim: To bolster the independent, alternative media in Los Angeles.
Approach: Uses cross-collaboration to reach a wide audience with a progressive message and report on the developing social, political, and cultural movements of the time.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) / UNITED STATES -
Body responsible for administering the public access cable television services in Manhattan.
http://www.mnn.org
Aim: To ensure the ability of Manhattan residents to exercise their First Amendment rights through the medium of cable television and to create opportunities for mutual communication, education, artistic expression and other noncommercial uses of video facilities on an open, uncensored and equitable basis.
Approach: Holds television production workshops for Manhattan residents and special group workshops for non-profit community organizations based in Manhattan; provides access to television production equipment to produce public access programs; gives training and production grants.

Media Alliance / UNITED STATES-
New York-based nonprofit membership organization.
http://www.mediaalliance.org
Aim: To advance independent media÷video, film, audio, radio, and computers in New York State.
Approach: Offers resources, support, and audiences for the media arts.

Media Channel / UNITED STATES- Nonprofit, public interest Web site dedicated to global media issues. Produced by Globalvision New Media, a project of The Global Center and OneWorld. The U.K.-based OneWorld publishes the human rights and sustainable development Web site, www.oneworld.net; The Global Center is a New York-based foundation that supports independent media.
http://www.mediachannel.org
Aim: To contribute to the vitality of political and cultural discourse via a free and diverse media that offers access to everybody.
Approach: Features criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from hundreds of organizations worldwide.

National Federation of Community Broadcasters / UNITED STATES-
National alliance of community radio broadcasters, producers and advocates.
http://www.nfcb.org
Aim: To strengthen community radio through localism, diversity and public service.
Approach: Advocates for national public policy, funding, recognition and resources on behalf of its community radio members.

Reclaim the Media
Based in Seattle, Reclaim the Media is a small nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing a more just society by transforming our media system and expanding the communications rights of ordinary people through grassroots organizing, education, networking and advocacy. We envision an authentic, just democracy characterized by media systems that inform and empower citizens, reflect our diverse cultures, and secure communications rights for everyone. We advocate for a free and diverse press, community access to communications tools and technology, and media policy that serves the public interest.

Center for Communications and Community at UCLA
http://www.c3.ucla.edu/