Defense Media Activity Officially Stands Up

WASHINGTON --- The Defense Media Activity gives public affairs within the Defense Department a new structure to move forward as a consolidated and integrated team, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said during the organization's activation ceremony at the Pentagon Oct. 20.>> "This is where jointness really pays off," Secretary England said. "But this is an area where jointness has real dividends, and it's hugely important that we do this.">> Born out of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's 2005 conclusions, the Defense Media Activity will unite DOD internal information programs -- the Air Force News Agency, the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service, the Army Broadcasting Service, Soldiers Radio and TV, the Soldiers Media Center, the Naval Media Center and Marine Corps internal information assets with the American Forces Information Service -- under one roof at Fort Meade, Md., in 2011. Meanwhile, the new activity will operate with its components in place at their current locations.>> American Forces Radio and Television Service, American Forces Press Service, the Pentagon Channel, Stars and Stripes and the Joint Combat Camera Center are among the offices that transferred to the new activity.>> The activity will work under the direction of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.>> "[The new structure] helps consolidate organizations to do a better job in terms of the quality [and] timeliness of a product," Secretary England said. "Now we have a consolidated organization where we can bring people from all these different functions together in one place, under one organizational structure, and my judgment is that this will be vastly superior to how we have operated in the past.