Mapping Community Media: Participatory Cartography as Digital Inclusion Measure

This proposal introduces a theoretical and methodological approach to study the ways in which community media centers in the U.S. have introduced digital mapping and open source tools to promote digital inclusion, media literacy, and civic engagement in geographic communities.

My study extends Dodge's (2005) concept of "map as process" by examining how volunteer producers at Cambridge Community Television, a community media and technology center serving Cambridge, Massachusetts, use Google Maps and Drupal, an open source content management system, to help their audiences gain access to local information, hear marginalized voices, experience local culture, and engage in civic debate. Through this process, residents gain critical literacy and job-training skills increasingly needed to meaningfully and effectively navigate today's digital environments. I conclude with recommendations for future studies that use social network analysis to uncover the relationships between and among those who participate in digital mapping projects supported by community media organizations.