Multi-Platform Campaign Designed to Create Savvier Consumers of Media
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2008 – IFC tv today unveiled plans for a national pro-social initiative designed to help Americans become better-informed consumers of news and media.
The IFC Media Project aims to raise awareness about the influences shaping today’s media coverage and to improve understanding of the media’s role in American society by examining media from a critical, independent perspective. The multi-platform campaign will include original programming, a high profile panel discussion, a new website and a series of town hall meetings.
The IFC Media Project will launch on November 18 in New York City with a panel discussion of leading national journalists, including Arianna Huffington, Pete Hamill, William Kristol and Christopher Buckley, who will address the media’s role in shaping the Presidential election and discuss how the public can consume media more responsibly. The panel discussion will be filmed and made available for viewing at ifc.com.
That evening, IFC tv will premiere a six-part IFC original documentary series, also named IFC Media Project. Hosted by Peabody and Emmy Award-winning news correspondent Gideon Yago (CBS News, MTV), the series will air on IFC tv at 8 PM ET on Tuesday nights, through December 23. Created and produced by Honest Engine TV, Meghan O’Hara (Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko) and Nick McKinney (The Daily Show, Morgan Spurlock’s "30 Days") the documentary series reveals the truth behind the news.
"We couldn’t be launching this pro-social initiative and series at a more important time in our nation’s history," said Evan Shapiro, president of IFC tv and Sundance Channel. "Media coverage of the election and the economy has run the gamut from credible and insightful to wholly unreliable, making it more important than ever for all of us to be able to filter news coverage with a discerning eye. IFC tv stands for independent thought, and this initiative reinforces our mission in a constructive and important way."
"This is the largest-scale pro-social initiative IFC has ever undertaken. We took great care to line up a tremendous group of partners whose credibility and expertise on the subject are unmatched, and we are looking forward to sparking a spirited public discussion of these important issues," said Jennifer Caserta, executive vice president & general manager of IFC tv.
As part of the campaign, IFC tv will also launch the IFC Media Project website, (www.ifc.com/mediaproject), where users can get more information about how to be better- informed, critical consumers of media and strengthen their media literacy skills A key feature of the site will be a media literacy quiz, developed exclusively for IFC in conjunction with the Media Education Lab at Temple University. Designed to increase awareness of how media is consumed, analyzed and interpreted, the quiz will measure perceptions and attitudes about media, with a focus on news, advertising, film, and the internet .
In addition, in conjunction with the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and the Media Education Lab at Temple University, IFC tv will launch a series of "I on the Media Town Hall Meetings." Taking place in December in Philadelphia and Boston, the first two events will bring together public officials, local television and newspaper professionals, independent filmmakers, academics and students who will discuss how media is created, edited and transmitted and reflect on how it shapes personal decision-making, public opinion and public policy.
The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program is a pioneer in the field of media literacy, having hosted the first national leadership conference on media literacy in 1992 and establishing the definition vision and framework for the growing field. The Aspen Institute brings policy makers, media professionals and others together for groundbreaking seminars to explore the future of communications and media fields.
The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) is a national membership organization formed to unite the media literacy field and lead the drive to include the teaching of media literacy in a wide range of educational settings. They represent hundreds individuals,
Students, teachers & professors, and national, academic and local nonprofit organizations and have developed the nationally recognized Core Principles of Media Literacy Education.
The Media Education Lab at Temple University works to improve media literacy education through scholarship and community service. They provide online multimedia educational resources, curriculum materials and professional development programs, and conduct scholarly research on media literacy education.
About IFC
IFC (The Independent Film Channel) is the first and only network dedicated to independent film and related programming, 24 hours a day, uncut and uncensored. Operating under the mantra ’always, uncut,’ IFC presents feature-length films, "cult classics," thought-provoking original documentaries such as At the Death House Door and This Film Is Not Yet Rated, shorts, animated series, exclusive web series, and television’s most comprehensive independent film library. The network also offers some of the most innovative and edgy original series on television, including the sketch comedy "The Whitest Kids U’ Know." Providing a voice for independent thought not found anywhere else on television, IFC broadens the audience for independent film and supports the independent film community through its exclusive live coverage of notable film events like the Independent Spirit Awards. The network’s On Demand offering, IFC Free, gives audiences the opportunity to watch premieres of all of IFC’s original series in HD before they air on the linear network. IFC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world’s most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, Sundance Channel and VOOM HD Networks. Through IFC Entertainment, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a leading distribution company for independent film; IFC Productions, a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects; and IFC Center, a three screen, state-of-the-art cinema in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales company; Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company; and 11 Penn TV, a company that manages Rainbow Media’s NYC studios and post-production facilities.