Reclaim the Media and other Seattle community organizations are spelling out a vision for an affordable, public-owned Internet designed by Seattle for Seattle, built to address poverty, the digital divide, environmental sustainability, the need for civic engagement, education, and many other concerns. The group is calling on the city to commit to building a public-owned, citywide fiber broadband network by 2015, ending Seattle's digital divide and leading the nation into a new era of high-speed broadband.
"Seattle has received national praise for being America's most wired city, but there is nothing approaching equality of access for low-income residents, immigrants, and many others," said Jonathan Lawson, Executive Director of Reclaim the Media. "Low-income households and people of color are about 30 percent less likely than higher income or white folks to have an Internet connection at home in Seattle. The digital divide is still here. It impacts the daily lives of thousands of people, and keeps our communities and our culture from being all they can be."
On Thursday, June 11th, organizers of Reclaim the Media's Seattle DTV Assistance center partnered with the Seattle YWCA to distribute about 100 donated digital TV converter boxes to YWCA residents who were unable to apply for the government’s $40 coupon program through regular channels.
While apartment dwellers are nominally eligible for the coupons, the YWCA residents ran into trouble when the government's coupon distribution system failed to recognize the YWCA address as a residence.
Reclaim the Media has AmeriCorps CTC VISTA opening
UPDATE: Applications now closed. Reclaim the Media has an exciting opportunity for a qualified candidate to help coordinate our Digital Media Literacy project, producing an innovative digital expansion curriculum to be used by community technology centers and media educators in Seattle and nationwide. As part of your year of national service, you'll work with a leading media justice organization to expand and enrich digital access, and help ensure that low-income, immigrant, youth and other underserved communities have full command of current digital media opportunities for civic engagement, creating online content, building social networks, and interacting with community institutions and government.
Listen Up! Northwest is a collaboratively produced radio magazine featuring stories of communities in action throughout the Northwest. Each broadcast highlights the work of skilled community radio producers and artists from our region, including Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
In Listen Up! Northwest program 46, we look at the separation of church and state with a discussion between an atheist, a Christian pastor, and a practicing Muslim. (Callie Shanafelt, KBCS Bellevue/Seattle).
Today the Washington State Legislature approved broadband legislation which will help bring new high-speed internet access to residents, businesses, educational institutions, public health and safety services, local governments and community organizations in underserved parts of Washington State. The bill, HB1701 (pdf) was originally sponsored by Reps. Zack Hudgins and Bob Hasegawa, and will depend on federal stimulus funding for much of its impact. Background here and a summary of the bill below.
On April 17, community groups and DTV Assistance Center providers in Seattle called upon retailers to take the "Socially Responsible Retailer" pledge, by agreeing to offer a $40 "no-cost box" option for local DTV consumers. Only Fred Meyer stores have taken the pledge - Company officials committed that Seattle-area Fred Meyer stores will offer $40 boxes as a special promotion, on at least one occasion before the June 12 transition.
On Friday April 17th, local community organizations gathered at Seattle Housing Authority's Center Park facility calling for a Socially Responsible DTV Transition; helping community members apply for DTV converter box coupons, answering questions about the upcoming transition, and calling upon local retailers to provide a “no-cost box” option for local consumers. City Councilmembers Richard Conlin and Bruce Harrell provided an update on their January letter to local retailers, asking for a no-cost box. To date, few local retailers have answered the community's call for affordable box options.
Today, Reclaim the Media and twenty-seven other public interest and media democracy organizations submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service, the primary two Federal agency offices charged with distributing $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funds.
The comments made recommendations on definitions of "underserved" and "unserved" areas, the role of state and local governments and commmunity organizations in broadband deployment, and other topics.
Washington's state legislature is getting closer to passing legislation which could help dramatically expand high-speed broadband Internet in underserved rural and urban areas. While details are still being worked out, the legislation (see 1701 and 5916) would allow the state's Department of Information Technology to help increase broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas across the state, to map existing broadband coverage to homes, businesses, and state agencies, and to create new programs for promoting Internet adoption and digital literacy. The primary anticipated funding source - and the new legislation's raison d'etre -- is $7.2 billion in broadband funds included in the recent federal stimulus package.
The award-winning short documentary A Generation of Consolidation, created by Seattle Reel Grrls teen filmmakers Sami Muilenburg and Brooke Noel, explores the impact of media consolidation on news content and its effects on youth&emdash;both as viewers and media makers. The film highlights youth testimony from the 2007 Seattle FCC hearing on Media Ownership, and features the voices of Reclaim the Media, author Anne Elizabeth Moore, UW Professor Lance Bennett, and young people taking stock of their role in a shifting media landscape.
Now Muilenberg has teamed up with designer Jessica Spiegel to create GenerationOfConsolidation.org, a website created by youth and for youth, aimed at using the film as a jumping-off point into broader discussions of media justice.
On Thursday, June 11th, organizers of Reclaim the Media's Seattle DTV Assistance center partnered with the Seattle YWCA to distribute about 100 donated digital TV converter boxes to YWCA residents who were unable to apply for the government’s $40 coupon program through regular channels. 
Reclaim the Media has AmeriCorps CTC VISTA opening
On Friday April 17th, local community organizations gathered at Seattle Housing Authority's Center Park facility calling for a