NAMAC

So, what's so great about NAMAC? What makes them any different than any other media organization, other than their focus on supporting those in the media arts field? What makes their cause so special?

Broad Media Spectrum
Individuals and organizations from all media disciplines are encouraged to join NAMAC, as, according to Thoman, people from various backgrounds process media messages differently and limiting membership to certain areas of the media for a national organization that says it strives to support all media arts groups would have been detrimental to NAMAC's survival and credibility.

Member Benefits
Aside from a listing in their insanely huge directory and subscriptions to NAMAC's publications and listserv, members are able to connect with each other for media support, workshops and seminars and education/training and employment opportunities.

Media Literacy Education
Working with their members and other institutions and organizations, NAMAC strives to educate the public, specifically young people, about media literacy. As previously mentioned, they have supported public television's integration into schools, which follows the ideology of Lewis/Jhally in that it 1) integrates a contextual approach with textual analysis, 2) focuses on political economy of media (both politics and economics enter the equation when TV enters schools; think Channel One), 3) incorporates production into media (produces for a specific audience), and 4) implements media literacy into K-12 education. This also plays into Freire's theory of empowerment, in which education emphasizes on groups and cultural transformation over the individual and social adaptation.