An In-Depth Look at Community Media in Greater Philadelphia
In 2020, People’s Media Fund (formerly Independence Public Media Foundation) partnered with Rosemary Clark-Parsons, PhD, to conduct a comprehensive study of the Greater Philadelphia region’s media ecosystem, mapping its strengths, gaps, and the structural challenges facing community media organizations. Below are several key findings from the research. Read the full study here.
What Stood Out?: Key Findings from the Research
The study found that community media organizations urgently need flexible operational funding and long-term investment to sustain their work. Yet many grants remain restricted to short-term projects. Additionally, grants are accompanied by burdensome reporting requirements that strain already limited staff capacity. Sustained community engagement, participants emphasized, depends on stable funding for infrastructure and staffing support.
Participants also described persistent challenges in securing external funding. Some noted that funders often do not view media and communications work as core priorities. Others shared that community media initiatives frequently fall outside traditional philanthropic funding categories or “buckets.”
Across interviews and surveys, community media leaders consistently described their organizations as deeply responsive to the needs of the communities they serve. Their priorities clustered around three interconnected areas:
- Information access
- Media representation
- Internet infrastructure
The research also highlighted inequities within the funding landscape itself. Many community media leaders reported that larger, more established institutions continue to receive the majority of philanthropic support, while emerging grassroots projects—and the marginalized communities they serve—struggle to access the resources needed to grow and thrive.
Click the link below to discover more findings in the full study.
Header image credit: PhillyCAM
