What is a Community Media Center?

A Community Media Center may take a variety of forms. Generally a CMC takes the form of a community-driven non-profit organization with a mission that ensures the promotion, outreach, and access of all members of the community to learning and making a variety of forms of media. Community is cultivated and educated through all of our access to making and using it.

The types of media training and production we think are important to offer a thriving community could include:

• television production
• computer training
• web design
• radio
• audio recording
• writing
• and anything else the community wants.

The beauty of the Community Media Center is that it recognizes that media in our lives is evolving and converging. It helps us to be competitive as a region in the evolving job market, as well as working toward being a cool, exciting city. We believe the Community Media Center could serve as an asset that emphasizes the amazing members of our community, and the positive stories that are happening every day.

Example: Grand Rapids Community Media Center mission statement

"The Community Media Center (CMC) is more than a cooperative of public access, nonprofit media affiliates. Headquartered on the second floor of the Grand Rapids Public Library - Westside Branch, the CMC and its affiliates - GRTV, WYCE, GrandNet and the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) - provide individuals and groups with access to the tools, training and transmission they need to join in the CMC mission: Building community through media.

The CMC is dedicated to building community through media: providing avenues for self-expression, uniting diverse points of view, promoting the principles of democracy and an informed electorate and nurturing artistic visions." -- Grand Rapids Community Media Center