CSM Blog

As a documentary filmmaker you may be starting out with a script, but not yet with the story. This was the case for veteran Dutch filmmaker John Appel for whom "Wrong Time Wrong Place" just premiered at opening night for the 25th annual (silver anniversary) International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Read more...

Documentary filmmakers have increasing access to new tools for remixing and web documentary thanks to open source webmakers. At the 2012 Mozilla Festival, Brett Gaylor, director of the 2008 documentary "RiP: A Remix Manifesto," took center stage to announce the official launch of Popcorn Maker 1.0. Read more...

User-centric journalism creates new challenges for journalists, about accountability, fairness and accuracy. But it also offers public media, as we noted in our white paper Public Media 2.0, great opportunities. Now, Chicago public radio station WBEZ’s CEO Torey Malatia issues a challenge to all creators of public media, and disentangles engagement from advocacy.  (It was triggered by his decision to yank a show he found tilting toward advocacy.) Read more...

What kinds of information help us connect to each other on the most important issues of our day? Not polls, says Center co-director Matt Nisbet in his latest blog post. In fact, they’re hurting, not helping. It’s polling addiction that is keeping important issues like climate change off media’s radar—until, say, a hurricane takes out New Jersey. Read more...