Next Wednesday, Feb. 20, is the deadline for applying for New Voices. Here’s what it’s all about:

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism invites U.S. nonprofit groups and education organizations to apply for funding to launch participatory news ventures and to share best practices and lessons learned from their efforts through the J-NewVoices.org Web site.

Eligible to receive New Voices funding are 501(c)3 organizations and education institutions, including civic groups, community organizations, public broadcasters, schools, colleges and universities – and individuals working under the sponsorship of a nonprofit fiscal agent.

Check out the guidelines here.

Community – Who would have thought we would ever live in a world where the word community was difficult to define? I believe that in this globalized society, community means connection. At The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World, an international nonprofit organization and independent journalism initiative, we strive to produce news content on subjects that connect people everywhere, even people who live worlds apart. We approach news from the standpoint of a worldwide community. . .

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The evolution of new media has intrinsically redefined this nation’s concepts of community. Growing up in the small towns of Ohio, communities for me were always close and clearly defined. Friends, families, churches and schools were connected through location, similar perspectives and shared goals. Communities today extend beyond local definitions and proximity. Technology empowers people from diverse locations and different cultures to explore and collaborate on new solutions together. People are connected now in ways that many of us hadn’t even anticipated. Every day, you can call, email, text, put up video, download video, always a new opportunity – for some a joy, for others a strain to keep up. For me, working with people to embrace, understand and utilize this new definition of community to their benefit has become a primary goal. Opportunities are here, but unless they are made fully accessible to extended audiences, only a small group will reflect the next step in defining community.

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“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.”
       – Frederick Buechner
 

Belonging to a community in a connected age affords us additional options to develop ourselves and to affect others. We can actively participate in a wider range of groups than ever before, spanning all types of interests. They may have geographically dispersed memberships, yet we can participate in them irrespective of time zones and distances. New communications and digital media services have profoundly transformed how we meet and interact with others and in turn, how we spend our time and fulfill ourselves.

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The boundaries that divide most communities are usually based on race, language, religion or socio-economic differences. At the U.S. – Mexico borderline where I live, the separation between people is physical and political – government policies that create walls and other barriers to the free exchange of travel, business, education, ideas and personal relationships. Unfortunately, traditional news media (newspapers, broadcast television, magazines, newsletters) have reinforced the separation of my community of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, twin border cities of about 2 million residents that meet at the banks of the Rio Grande.

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In May 2006, Salem Communications, a conservative talk-radio company, purchased Townhall.com and on July 4, 2006, launched a new web presence that combines the grassroots mediums of talk radio and the Internet.
 

How do you merge an existing online community with a national fan base of radio listeners? How do you grow the community and ensure that a platform exists for different voices to be heard?

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