Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission released a landmark report on community information needs that was the most comprehensive national look at media policy in a generation.

Today, in an effort to ensure that the important public policy recommendations in the report become fully realized, Knight Foundation announced several new projects to highlight ways public policy improvements can in turn improve local news and information flows.

In one of the new efforts, Steven Waldman, the report’s author, will become a visiting senior media policy scholar at Columbia University. There, Waldman will study emerging media issues and advocate for the report’s recommendations to help build pressure for action.

The foundation also will fund a series of events and research papers hosted by universities to encourage debate and feedback around the report’s major recommendations. Another project announced is a convening of the National Association of State Public Affairs Networks at the Newseum to develop a plan to create “state C-Spans” in all 50 states.

On the importance of the new grants Eric Newton, senior advisor to the President of Knight Foundation, says:

“We want to help those who think this high-quality FCC study and its important public policy recommendations should stay alive in the public sphere and, ultimately, happen.”

Earlier this year, we blogged about how Knight Commission’s bi-partisan study on community information needs was the inspiration for the Federal Communications Commission report.

Previously, Knight announced that a new task force, headed by the Council on Foundations, will examine how tax law may be stunting both philanthropic participation in and the overall growth of nonprofit media. Another effort will help develop reliable metrics on media philanthropy, so that people can know what’s funded in their communities and foundations can better evaluate the field. The metrics will be developed in partnership with GuideStar, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, Ford Foundation and the Foundation Center.

The new projects were announced at Arizona State University, where the Federal Communications Commission is hearing testimony on its report.

A full version of the Federal Communications Commission report will be available in book form from Carolina Academic Press in early November.