so this organization called the center for public integrity got a lotta press a while back when they first published a freely accessible ‘media tracker/control’ database online…i just wanted to point out that this outstanding resource is still on the site and is still worth visiting and bookmarking for now or never…this particular organization (center for public integrity) is about ‘investigative journalism in the public’s interest,’ so if you’re into this sorta stuff (that is, if you trust journalists at all these days), it’s worth keeping an eye on…even if you don’t do government related work or reporting, it’s nice sometimes just to dissect an investigation as a mental exercise, to see how they make something like this come to life…

media tracker: this is part of the ‘well connected’ section of the site, which covers major news in broadcast, cable and television…the media tracker database on the far right is quite astounding, it was used in several investigative articles according to investigative reporters and editors association (past articles in their own ‘zine)…basically, stick in a zip code and get a massive list of everything media within about 40 miles…

what i think that we ought to all pay some attention to here is the methodology, because it’s a testament to just how serious these folks are about quality: “a team of researchers and database experts compiled a 51,870-record database consisting of every radio and television station and cable television system in the United States….broadcast ownership database was created with the help of engineering tables consisting of 1.2 million entries provided by the (FCC)….Because much of the ownership information in the FCC files was out of date or incomplete, researchers verified ownership on all radio and television stations owned by the nation’s 25 largest radio and television broadcast companies…also confirmed the owners of every full-power commercial television station (about 1,360 stations) as well as every television network affiliate…Further enhancing the search, Center researchers included the 250 largest daily, regional newspapers in the nation as reported in the Editor & Publisher International Yearbook.” …cool huh?

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