A University of Alabama professor has won a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to assist the Foundation in its media policy and technology efforts.

Dr. Sandra Braman, UA’s Reese Phifer Professor in Telecommunication and Film, will use the grant in defining the field of media policy and technology and in developing a research agenda and a method for analysis in the field.

The philanthropic organization lists its goals as strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. According to its web site, the Ford Foundation distributes more than $600 million annually to organizations around the world, primarily through grants and loans. The Foundation awards grants in the areas of asset building and community development; education, media, arts, and culture; and peace and social justice.

Braman joined the UA faculty in 1997 and has been doing research on the effects of the use of new information technologies and their policy implications since the early 1980s. Her work has been widely published in the fields of communication, economics, information science, political science, policy studies, and the arts.