Mission & Vision
Public Media Network strengthens our community by helping people use the power of media as a vehicle to inspire positive social or civic change.
Community-powered media creates positive social and civic change at the individual, group, community and systemic levels. These changes include a range of outcomes from increased awareness and understanding, to attitudinal change, and increased civic participation.
Mission
We build community through media that informs, equips, and engages people to participate fully in their community.
Unlike corporate media organizations, Public Media Network builds and shares the power of media with individuals and organizations in the community.
As new modes for producing and distributing visual media emerge, and newsrooms continue to pivot to the next trend, there is a need for a cohesive network to support and connect people in our diverse communities to support positive civic change.
Vision
We envision an open and equitable media system that supports a vibrant, participatory civic culture where everyone can reach their full potential.
The stories we consume influence how we form ideas, how and why policy is created, how we see the people around us, and how we view our local communities.
Almost all the media and stories we consume today is controlled by only a handful of companies. Corporate media directly serves the interests and needs of those with power and wealth. Corporate media acts as gatekeepers to decide what stories are told and how they are told.
Community media upholds the fundamental right to freedom of expression and information. Public Media Network serves as an alternative and complementary channel of media production and distribution that facilitates active participation for all.
People equipped with media tools and access can play a vital role in our community, now more than ever. People working at the intersection of technology, media, video journalism, documentary storytelling, and civic media can create positive social and civic change and transform lives through media.
In today’s fragmented digital communication ecosystem, Public Media Network provides digital media skills and ethical journalistic training to a variety of age and minority groups. Through Public Media Network, people find physical as well as virtual spaces for information exchange, participation, and collective action.
Public Media Network seeks to complement other media by serving as a people-driven form of storytelling and virtual media bridge that connects people to their communities. People’s communication needs are met through training and spaces for self-representation. Volunteers have the opportunity to discuss topics of civic concern, tell the stories and report on issues that matter to them and to the people they live and work with in their neighborhoods.
Rather than rather than relying on media gatekeepers , your neighbors using media to inspire and inform others.
Freedom of expression and access to information are increasingly threatened by the concentration of ownership in the media field and by the spread of disinformation. Community-powered media is the alternative to combat this threat. Through creativity, debate, and learning, community media enables social gain and a supports a vibrant and sustainable local community.
You can help
Your support equips neighborhood journalists, documentary filmmakers, and producers with the tools and resources to provide a viewer with news, stories, and entertainment happening in the community they love.
Your donation today helps amplify local voices and local stories so that people in the Greater Kalamazoo area can come together as a community.
Build local media that informs, equips and engages people to tell local stories about the community you love.
Our Partner Communities
Our partner communities include: City of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Township, Oshtemo Township, Comstock Township, City of Parchment, and City of Galesburg.
Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency
Public Media Network has earned a 2024 Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid.
