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News from the Future of Public Media
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UCLA Does the Right Thing by Fair Use
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Mar 3, 2010
UCLA, which in January yanked down videos being streamed for classroom use as a result of bullying by a trade association has rediscovered that educators have fair use rights. Now, UCLA professors can post videos again within their passworded class sites online. In a UCLA press release, Christine Borgman, chair of the Information Technology Planning Board and UCLA Presidential Professor of Information Studies, said, “The UCLA faculty and administration quickly reached consensus on both the need to restore these essential instructional services and to assert our rights to use intellectual property within the bounds of existing copyright laws.” While UCLA pointed… more
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Stupid Takedown Tricks
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Mar 3, 2010
Remix videos, mashups, memorials, fan videos and other works that build in copyrighted material sometimes get taken down from YouTube and other video sites, because automatic bot programs identify copyrighted material. And then stupidity ensues. All the audio in Larry Lessig’s February speech to the Open Video Alliance was recently taken down because Warner Music Group identified some copyrighted material in clips of remixes that he used, to demonstrate the vitality of emergent participatory culture. (You can still watch it on Blip TV, though.) Journalists and the Electronic Frontier Foundation cried foul, and Lessig will contest it. And it will go… more
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Loni Ding, Social Documentarian
Posted by Barbara Abrash on Feb 26, 2010
Loni Ding — documentary filmmaker, university teacher, and media activist – died on Saturday, February 20, 2010 in Berkeley, California. She exemplified the best in the way social documentarians can expand the public sphere. She did this by working to create public institutions to showcase underrepresented voices in American life, and by creating work that not only raised awareness but encouraged meaningful discussion and debate. Her film work had immediate and long-lasting impact, including influencing Congressional action on redress for Japanese-American internment during World War II. A tireless advocate for social issue documentary, she played a central role in the creation… more
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Lessig, Fair Use, and Open Video Alliance
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 26, 2010
The Open Video Alliance, which pushes for more and better open-source tools to make, edit, showcase and access video, held a dramatic demonstration of the power of open source on Feb. 25. A speech by copyright guru Larry Lessig was beamed via open-source codec Ogg Theora to more than 40 venues around the world. American University was one of them; a group of the copyright-curious gathered to watch the speech, which was only occasionally garbled. Lessig spoke passionately about the vitality of remix, or read-write culture, and the need for “free/fair” copyright policies. He then urged people to work to get… more
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True Tales of Fair Use: The Most Dangerous Man in America
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 26, 2010
One of the most impressive recent social documentaries, The Most Dangerous Man in America, has been nominated for an Academy Award. It tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to release the Pentagon Papers—a story full of important parallels for today. The film is beginning its theatrical release, and we hope to bring it to campus soon. Meanwhile, there’s an excellent interview with directors Judy Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith in Filmmaker magazine this month, in which Rick references the Center’s work: “We had a very interesting experience with the fair-use issue. I don’t know how much you’re familiar with Pat Aufderheide… more
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Debating the news crisis on GRITtv
Posted by Jessica Clark on Feb 25, 2010
Noted independent reporter and commentator Laura Flanders hosts GRITtv, a daily news, arts and culture show aired on cable, satellite and online. She invited me and Tracy Van Slyke, my coauthor for Beyond the Echo Chamber, onto the show yesterday to discuss the transformation of journalism. We tackled a few interesting questions, including whether the recent layoffs in broadcast news will really matter, and why bloggers continue to focus on the Beltway despite a flood of new grassroots content. How can both legacy and independent producers move “beyond pale, male and stale,” to inform and empower underserved audiences? Check out the… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: The Material I Want to Use Has Unlicensed Footage In It
Posted by Claire Darby on Feb 23, 2010
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, I’m working on a documentary film that makes substantial use of video footage and photographs, all of which was shot by one person (the subject of my film), and all of which I have permission to use. Here’s my question: the subject of the film took his video footage and pictures and cut together music videos, and I’m very sure he didn’t license the music. I’d like to be able to use some pieces of the music videos in my film, because I feel they are critical to illustrating certain points I’d like to make… more
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Fair Use at Diversifying Participation
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 22, 2010
The Diversifying Participation conference held at the University of California, San Diego on Feb. 18-20 and headed by USC’s Henry Jenkins, marked the consolidation of a research field, digital learning. Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and showcasing many MacArthur-funded projects, the conference featured creative overlaps between educators, youth media practitioners, digital designers, gamers, nonprofit institutions and funders. The overcrowded space—this was one hot ticket—was crammed with panels, so I can’t claim to have even sampled the best, but there was a lot to learn. Our panel on fair use for digital education was alive with questions… more
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Is There a Master Metric for Evaluating Public Media?
Posted by Jessica Clark on Feb 17, 2010
This article was co-authored by Katie Donnelly. Over the past few months, we’ve been presenting MediaShift readers with a picture of a more dynamic, engaged, public media future. But how are Public Media 2.0 projects measuring their success in informing and engaging publics? Embracing Digital: A Review of Public Media Efforts Across the United States, a report by Gupta Consulting, gives us an idea of the scope of the challenge: Very few stations define success with concrete metrics. Most examples are anecdotal. (“I just have a sense.”) What they consider to be “successful” is very subjective. Those that do have an… more
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Fair Use Day on NPR
Posted by Micael Bogar on Feb 15, 2010
Currently on NPR you can listen to Weekend Edition’s report on Fair Use Day. Center’s Director Pat Aufderheide is interviewed as well as other experts such as Gigi Sohn and Johnathan McIntosh. The piece originally aired Saturday, February 13. Listen to it now! When Fair Use Isn’t Fair To some in Hollywood and the music industry, there’s a fine line between using movie and audio clips to create new works and flat-out copyright infringement. Joel Rose reports on the some of the intricacies in fair-use law. more
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Where is Your Line partners with MTV
Posted by Alison Hanold on Feb 14, 2010
Where is Your Line?, a project that will be demoed at the soon-to-be-rescheduled Making Your Media Matter conference, has partnered with MTV to have an open conversation about the recognition of abuse and sexuality among teenagers. Nancy Schwartzman, who heads up this project, wrote the following on the project’s website: Since its launch, our team has been watching MTV’s “A Thin Line,” a campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of “Digital Abuse,” and helping teens untangle normal versus unhealthy relationship dynamics. They focus on how cell phones can amplify and exacerbate abusive behaviors. Some of my favorite slogans are: It’s a thin… more
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Students for Free Culture Want Their Fair Use
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 14, 2010
The Students for a Free Culture conference, hashtag #fcx, drew participants from throughout the U.S., who negotiated filthy weather on their way to Washington, D.C. Organizer Ben Moskowitz congratulated them not only for making their way through the snow, but also for recognizing the importance of Washington, D.C. for people who care about copyright and creativity. Students for a Free Culture started out in 2003 when a couple of Swarthmore students hacked into Diebold company emails showing how shaky and riggable electronic voting machines were. The organization now has dozens of chapters all over the country and internationally, and it focuses… more
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Join us Monday night on Twitter for the first Public Media Chat!
Posted by Jessica Clark on Feb 13, 2010
On Monday night, I’m cohosting the first of what we hope will become a weekly chat about public media 2.0. Karen Everhart of Current explains: Public media advocates are experimenting with a new kind of forum: holding a live simultaneous chat using Twitter, the microblogging social network. The first chat is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 15, 2010, at 8 p.m. Eastern. To prepare, organizers are soliciting ideas for discussion via Twitter. Interested people can tweet their suggestions using the hashtag #pubmedia (and read others’ ideas by searching for #pubmedia). To participate, follow @pubmedia for regular updates and to join the Feb.… more
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Beyond the Echo Chamber book party rescheduled to tomorrow night
Posted by Jessica Clark on Feb 10, 2010
In DC and sick of sitting around your house watching the snow blow? Join us on Thursday night, 6:30 at Busboys and Poets (14th and V) for the launch of Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media! Hope to see you there. more
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Making Your Media Matter rescheduling and refund information
Posted by Alison Hanold on Feb 10, 2010
We apologize for the inconvenience that canceling the Making Your Media Matter conference might have caused some attendees, but given the current weather conditions in the area, we are assured this decision was for the best. We have not yet decided on a rescheduled date for the conference, but it will likely be later this spring. All registrations will be honored for the rescheduled date. If you are unable to come to the new date when it is announced, we will begin processing refunds on registration. We will be back in touch soon with more details regarding the rescheduled conference. more
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Making Your Media Matter is postponed.
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 9, 2010
Making Your Media Matter is postponed. It was a tough decision, and we thought until today that we could still hold the event. But the combination of more snow, American University closings (and the possibility of more), airport closings (and the possibility of more), and transportation chaos all around the DC area convinced us that postponement would be the wiser choice. We don’t think even a wonderful event is worth taking crazy risks to get here. And we really don’t want you coming here to find out that we can’t open the doors! I’m really sorry about inconveniencing you. I’m also… more
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Making Media Work Webcast Today
Posted by Micael Bogar on Feb 9, 2010
Due to the inclement weather, New America Foundation is closed today and they are not able to host in-person attendees. The previously scheduled conference, “Making Media Work” will not be held. This event, however, is proceeding as scheduled in a webcast-only format. You can tune in on this page at 12:15 ET / 9:15 PT today. Please join in the conversation via Twitter — use the hashtags of #beyondecho and #mpinaf. The economics of media have been turned upside down in recent years, and many organizations are still struggling to make sense of the new landscape. Authors Jessica Clark and Tracy… more
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How do you measure media’s influence in a networked ecosystem?
Posted by Jessica Clark on Feb 6, 2010
Influence is one of the “elements of impact” that we’re exploring in this series of blog posts leading up to the Making Your Media Matter conference. How can we best evaluate the role of public media projects in shaping users’ understanding of an issue, moving users to action (whether that’s seeking further information, voting, or political organizing), or affecting policymaking? These are by no means new questions. Throughout the 20th century, scholars, journalists and political commentators offered up various and often competing theories about the influence of mass media. Studies of related fields of communication—advertising and PR, propaganda, campaigning, entertainment—shed light… more
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RealScreen and Cold Realities
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Feb 4, 2010
RealScreen Summit, February 1-3, the annual coming together of documentary cable programmers and hopeful producers, is also an annual cold shower in the realities of making television today. At a panel on product placement in reality programming, one speaker said with not a trace of irony (and remarkable clarity), “Our audiences come to us to escape from reality. That’s the first thing we have to satisfy.” A keynote speaker celebrated the fact that changing technologies make it ever more possible for content producers to tailor their content to the needs of advertisers. The overarching theme seemed to be, Embrace the advertiser.… more
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Voice for the Voiceless, a Table Talk Lunch Series at Kay
Posted by Micael Bogar on Feb 1, 2010
On Thursday January 28th, American University’s Kay Spiritual Life Center’ sponsored a panel, Tweets & Blogs: Social Media as a Voice for the Voiceless. (CSM cosponsored.) The speakers included:. Emily Jacobi is the Co-Founder and Director of Digital Democracy, a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering civic engagement through digital technologies. David Johnson is a Professor of Journalism at American University and teaches courses in digital journalism, interactive storytelling and convergence media. Matt Wood is the Associate Director of the Media Access Project, non-profit law firm and advocacy organization. Emily Jacobi from Digital Democracy began the talk with a Powerpoint… more
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Crying Shame at UCLA: Fair Use, Videos and Higher Ed
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 30, 2010
The University of California at Los Angeles has decided to forbid teachers from posting videos (or, apparently, pieces of them) to their electronic teaching platforms, after an educational media association complained about the practice. It is just a crying shame that UCLA has capitulated to the association’s demands, without considering the effect either on pedagogical practice in its own institution or on the wider world of higher education. (Read about it at Inside Higher Ed here.) The original provisions of Sec. 110 of the Copyright Act, special educational exemptions, were never designed for the digital era, and the amendments to it… more
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True Tales of Fair Use: Katy Chevigny
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 28, 2010
Going into the fifth year after the publishing of Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, filmmakers are beginning to be each other’s teachers. On a recent trip to New York, I had the pleasure of dining with Katy Chevigny, executive director of Arts Engine. Along with making splendid films, Arts Engine runs the Media That Matters film festival. Katy Chevigny is a “born again” fair user, she says. She also teaches about fair use, both at the IFP Rough Cut Lab and with Arts Engine’s Media That Matters filmmakers. She tells a compare-and-contrast story that’s worth sharing. “When I… more
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Media Makers, Have Your Say!—FCC Call for Comments and the Free Press Community Media Survey
Posted by Jessica Clark on Jan 27, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission has issued an unprecedented call for comments on the future of media, and the information needs of communities in a digital age. If you’re concerned about this topic, don’t miss this chance to weigh in on the debate about how policy can shape our media ecosystem. You don’t need to be a lawyer or a lobbyist to contribute; as the call for comments notes: The future of media is a topic of great consequence to all Americans, so this discussion should not be the purview of only communications companies and their Washington representatives. All Americans rely on… more
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Center for Social Media Featured on Miro Guide
Posted by Claire Darby on Jan 27, 2010
Great news! The Center for Social Media’s blip.tv channel, where we host all of the videos from our events (like the Human Rights Film Series and last year’s Making Your Media Matter) is being featured on the Miro Channel Guide here. Check out the promo for our upcoming Making Your Media Matter Conference, and sign up for the RSS feed of our videos, so you can always see the latest that’s happening at the Center! more
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Public Participation as Public Media: Digital Participation and the National Broadband Plan
Posted by Chris Ali on Jan 27, 2010
We’re pleased to present this guest post from Christopher Ali, doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Ali holds an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University in Montreal and his research interests include local and community media, broadcasting, and telecommunication policy in Canada and the United States. The Center for Social Media defines “public media” as platforms and projects that convene publics around shared issues. In this post, I’d like to take that notion one step further, to include that of public participation in policy making through digital platforms. Take for instance the National… more
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Voices of Terezin: Art as a Strategy for Survival
Posted by Micael Bogar on Jan 27, 2010
The Center has partnered up with organizations and schools all over campus in an effort to remember survivors of a prison camp from World War II in a city northwest of Prague called Terezin. The camp, during the course of the war held about 100,000 people, a large number of which were artists and musicians. We’ll be featuring the film Fighter as part of the program but not until April 7th. In the meantime, check out some of the other amazing events leading up to a play March 19-21 at the Katzen Arts Center. For more information please visit: http://www.american.edu/cla/terezinNot… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: I’m using clips from a TV show to make a music video
Posted by Claire Darby on Jan 27, 2010
Hello, QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, I have a question that seems to have been touched on, but I’m not sure about my situation and if/where it falls within the Code. I have recently decided to create a music video to a favorite childhood television show. The visuals for the music video are various clips from the show, which is currently the subject of Youtube removals. I also used some music from Youtube that is not, to my knowledge, being removed. My question: Is taking clips from a tv series and stringing them into a short music video changing its… more
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Fair Use at the Sundance Film Festival
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 26, 2010
The Sundance Film Festival isn’t just a showcase for movies, but also a place to meet people and exchange information. At the Filmmakers’ Lodge, the festival annually provides space to nonprofits supporting independents at their Outreach Table. Here’s Center fellow Mike Shubbuck’s report from the (cold) front at the 2010 fest: “On Jan. 24 I had the pleasure of introducing some of the Center for Social Media’s reports to filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival’s Outreach Table. Although it was a Sunday morning, quite a few people stopped by to learn more about topics that the Center covers, such as fair… more
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Vote for Pat as a GameChanger at WeMedia! (Feb. 3 deadline!)
Posted by Alison Hanold on Jan 26, 2010
The Center’s Pat Aufderheide was nominated as a GameChanger by members of the WeMedia community. If enough people vote for her, Pat could be chosen to give a keynote at the WeMedia annual conference, where cutting-edge strategies in collaborative and participatory media are featured. It was Pat’s work on fair use that attracted attention in the WeMedia community. Fair use, which creates a “floating” public domain composed of copyrighted work, is a critical tool for a vibrant participatory culture. It’s also a critical part of the movement to loosen restrictive copyright, or what Cory Doctorow calls “copyfighting.” Please vote for Pat… more
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Fair Use in the Military
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 25, 2010
On January 22, communications experts from the Department of Defense got together in northern Virginia, to share their challenges with incorporating social media. It was an honor to make a presentation on fair use. This was a knowledgeable, engaged, and (as is typical of the military) nicely diverse crowd. I learned a lot too. It’s not as easy as you might think to bring Twitter and Facebook to the Army, as the creators of my.army.mil and of the site for JIEDDO (Joint IED Defeat Organization) explained. Government sites can’t have advertising on them, and need customized applications; generals may not really… more
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Fair Use at Educause Learning Initiative
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 25, 2010
At Educause’s Learning Initiative conference, the tech experts at universities around the country get together to compare notes on how best to use technology to help learning. At this year’s meeting on Jan. 19 in Austin, TX, members discussed with me how university copyright policies get in their way. They need fair use to be able to help faculty and students make videos for class; to help faculty understand what they can and can’t put on their websites; to help librarians move productively to a digital environment. Too often they face general counsels who don’t know the law, faculty who deal… more
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Check out this interview with Precious producer Lisa Cortes!
Posted by Claire Darby on Jan 25, 2010
As we gear up for next month’s Making Your Media Matter Conference on February 11 & 12 (if you haven’t yet registered, you still can here), we’re looking forward to hearing what Lisa Cortes, producer of Precious, is going to have to say on our Fiction for Change panel. Since its debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Precious has been making waves for its gripping portrayal of 16 year-old Precious, an obese, illiterate and pregnant teenager who is struggling to change the direction of her life. As SVP of Production for Lee Daniels Entertainment, Lisa Cortes is responsible for finding… more
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Assessing How Media Spurs Engagement: Responses to the Haiti Crisis
Posted by Jessica Clark on Jan 23, 2010
How can media best be used in response to a sudden and devastating crisis? The outpouring of coverage, aid and volunteer labor that followed the catastrophic January 12 earthquake in Haiti reveals the myriad of strategies that producers of both old and new media are using to inform and mobilize publics around this disaster. Celebrities appeal for dollars—and users jam circuits in rush to respond TV hosts, entertainment and political celebrities, and high profile journalists have all been offering up air and face time to convince viewers to contribute aid. This is traditional fundraising in a broadcast mode—capitalizing on mass appeal… more
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Assessing Inclusion as a Central Element of Public Media 2.0
Posted by Jessica Clark on Jan 15, 2010
On February 11-12 the Center will be holding its annual Making Your Media Matter conference, and this year’s theme is “Real Stories, Real Impact.” Leading up to the conference, and over the course of the spring Research Fellow Katie Donnelly and I will be examining methods for assessing various elements that contribute to high-impact public media projects. At their best, such public media 2.0 projects reach millions of diverse users. They rely on the media makers to provide trusted, relevant content and tools that engage them to effectively tackle and solve contested problems, and to influence public debates through personal or… more
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World’s Fair Use Day
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jan 13, 2010
The Washington, D.C. public interest organization Public Knowledge hosted World’s Fair Use Day on January 12, providing a much-needed focus on fair use as a key asset of copyright policy. For too long, chic chat on copyright has focused on the (all too real) creative stranglehold of “long and strong” copyright ownership, without featuring part of the solution: the highly flexible and adaptable doctrine of fair use. This lively day demonstrated that fair use has become a central part of copyright reform, and that a large part of that reform is within the grasp of anyone who wants to educate themselves… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: It’s Fair Use in my film, but what about on the film website?
Posted by Claire Darby on Jan 4, 2010
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, I’m working on a documentary about the history of American journalism—particularly the points in history when journalists were able to use their profession to uncover the truth, or “speak truth to power,” like Watergate. We’ve interviewed a number of journalists for the film, but we’re also making substantial use of newsreel footage and archival photographs. I’ve read the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, and it’s been really helpful. I feel like I have a good understanding of where I can claim fair use in the film, but I still have a… more
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In 2010, the Future of Public Media Project shifts gears from analysis to action
Posted by Jessica Clark on Dec 26, 2009
After many months of deliberation about “What is public media?” pieces have started to fall into place. Public broadcasting leaders, innovators both within and outside of the sector, nonprofit and educational leaders, funders, and policymakers are all shifting into a new gear—and they’re looking to the reports and tools that CSM has created for guidance about how best to transform to serve publics in an open, participatory media ecosystem. Interest in public media 2.0 outside of the usual circles is also growing. I spent the last few months of 2009 describing related possibilities and complications to a range of audiences. At… more
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Why Does Public Media 2.0 Matter?
Posted by Micael Bogar on Dec 17, 2009
Don’t miss this recent short by Nonso Christian Ugbode of the National Black Programming Consortium on why public media 2.0 matters: Why Does Public Media 2.0 Matter? from Nonso Christian Ugbode on Vimeo. We are excited to partner up with NBPC in their upcoming Public Media Corps project. Over at Current, Ugbode explores the potential of this project further, asking: Is public media — often slow to innovate or take risks — capable of creating this new media town square on your TV, on your computer, on your phone? Do public media have a chance of reaching as many Americans as… more
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Missed Mary Lampson and Taking Root?
Posted by Claire Darby on Dec 10, 2009
As part of the Center’s Human Rights Film Series, documentary film editor Mary Lampson was on campus on October 15th to screen one of her latest projects,Taking Root, and to present a filmmaking master class to students on working as an editor in documentary film. It was great to have her on campus, and a wonderful learning experience for all. If you couldn’t make it to the screening and the class, you can still watch clips from them here. Also, keep an eye out for our Pull Focus interview with Mary, where we will discuss her editing process for Taking Root… more
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New Report on Copyright and Doc FIlmmaking in South Africa
Posted by Micael Bogar on Dec 10, 2009
The International Copyright Balance and Documentary Film Project of American University, is releasing a groundbreaking report and film on the experiences of South African documentary filmmakers with copyright clearance obligations. The report and film, sponsored by the Ford Foundation, are being simultaneously released at a film screening and workshops with filmmakers December 10-12, 2009, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and on the web at wcl.american.edu/pijip/go/internationalfilm. The report finds that in South Africa as in other countries, documentary filmmakers need to quote other material-including music, still images, news footage or even images from commercial films-in order to tell their stories. Such material is… more
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Universities ‘On Fire’ in Europe—Using social media to mobilize for action
Posted by Micael Bogar on Dec 2, 2009
Students in Austria have sparked a new, European-wide movement using social networking tools, as Global Voices Online reports; it’s a fascinating example of participatory, grassroots public media in action. Faced with underfunded university systems across Europe, students have used social networking tools to find each other, brainstorm approaches, and mobilize for action, through the movement they call unibrent (university on fire.) Launched in October 2009, within a month the movement spread to Germany, Switzerland, Albania, Serbia, France, Italy, Croatia and the Netherlands. Students are using a traditional non violent method of sit-ins but are incorporating various social media tools to organize… more
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On MediaShift today: new policy directions for public media 2.0
Posted by Jessica Clark on Dec 1, 2009
Check out my piece over at the MediaShift site, reflecting on how attendees at this week’s FTC hearing on the future of journalism should broaden their thinking to include public media 2.0. It’s been a busy season for prognosticators who examine the intersection of public policy and media. Today will be particularly hectic for them, as journalists, bloggers, public broadcasters and policy wonks pack into a session at the Federal Trade Commission to ponder, yet again, “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?”…..Of course, any increase in taxpayer dollars for public broadcasting might be earmarked to support even more reporters. But… more
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Making Your Media Matter Registration Open!
Posted by Micael Bogar on Dec 1, 2009
Sign up here for Making Your Media Matter, Real Stories, Real Impact February 11-12th at American University See below for a short promotional trailer and the abbreviated schedule. Our keynote speakers this year are Paco De Onis and Pamela Yates. Thursday, February 11 5pm-8pm Registration Introduction and Welcome by Pat Aufderheide and Dean Larry Kirkman Keynote: Pamela Yates and Paco De Onis, Strategic Design Reception Friday, February 12 9am-5pm Registration, Coffee/bagels, and Demos Welcome Connecting the dots - Developing synergies to build your conversation Lunch Ethics Workshop Spotlight on new tools and outreach strategies Fiction for change - how mainstream media… more
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IDFA, Ivens, Oranges and More
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Nov 30, 2009
If you want to take the pulse of documentaries as interventions in public life, the International Documentary Film Festival at Amsterdam (IDFA)—which just wound up on Sunday—is an excellent stop. The largest international documentary film festival in the world, it exhibits hundreds of films, takes in thousands of international visitors, attracts passionate audiences that pack theaters on a Sunday morning for impossibly obscure experiences, and hosts a vigorous market. It focuses on documentary with a social agenda, rather than the burgeoning field of “factual entertainment.” Sure, you could take a boat ride on the canals, but there will always be something… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: Clearing music
Posted by Claire Darby on Nov 25, 2009
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, I’m about to start production on a documentary regarding musicians. Is it fair use to film a musician rehearsing or playing a piece they have not composed? It will mostly be classical music and some jazz music. I assume if it is a personal composition, I will have no problem. But what if it is a piece of Mozart or Beethoven or something they have not composed? Thanks, Ivana ANSWER: People often think that music is a special category of fair use, but music is subject to the same reasoning and logic that you’ll use… more
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Public Media 2.0 and the Future of Photojournalism
Posted by Amy Hendrick on Nov 23, 2009
Magnum Photographer Christopher Anderson spoke to a packed audience of students and industry professionals as part of The Center for Social Media’s Camera as Catalyst Series. Anderson’s list of awards and recognition includes POYi Magazine Photographer of the Year, The Robert Capa Gold Medal, Kodak Young Photographer of the Year, and the Visa d’Or Daily Press Award. Since the early nineties, Anderson has photographed a wide range of subjects including Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the economic crisis in Russia, the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Haitian migration to the United States, and the war between Hezbollah and Israel. During his… more
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Fiords, Rhubarb Juice and Copyright
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Nov 19, 2009
Documentary filmmakers in Scandinavia joined scholars and lawyers to discuss the “clearance culture”—the custom of paying for all uses of copyrighted material in films— in Bergen, Norway on November 18. I got to keynote the event, which was thrilling, but even better was seeing the reach of the Center’s copyright scholarship. At a conference more than a year ago, Professor Leif Ove Larsen, a film history scholar and student of public sphere theory, learned of the research that Center director Pat Aufderheide and WCL legal scholar Peter Jaszi had done on the “clearance culture” and how to leave it. He tracked… more
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The Internet, Free Expression and Authoritarianism
Posted by Micael Bogar on Nov 19, 2009
Earlier this week at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center, I participated in a conference on issues of authoritarianism and the Internet. Headlining was Open Society scholar Evgeny Morozov followed by a panel with NPR’s Andy Carvin, Human Rights Watch’s Arvind Ganesan, World Bank’s Shanthi Kalathil, and George Washington University Professor Marc Lynch. Morozov’s presentation focused largely on authoritarian regimes’ use of the Internet to control and censor populations. He shared a multitude of examples from China, Iran, Russia, Nigeria and Burma. You can watch his PowerPoint here. The general theme of the talk was a reminder to take a step back and… more
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FCC comments by CSM fellow reveal how public media can spur broadband adoption
Posted by Jessica Clark on Nov 13, 2009
This week, Center for Social Media Fellow Ellen Goodman—a professor at Rutgers University School of Law in Camden—submitted the attached response to a request from the Federal Communications Commission for public comment on the development of a national broadband plan. Titled “Digital Public Media Networks to Advance Broadband And Enrich Connected Communities,” Goodman’s comments examine a variety of current public media projects that rely on high-speed connections to reach and engage users, and observe that universal broadband service is needed to support further innovation in this sector. What’s more, she suggests that public media should be understood as a key asset… more
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Missed Jennifer Maytorena Taylor and New Muslim Cool?
Posted by Claire Darby on Nov 11, 2009
Documentary filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor was on campus on October 22nd to screen her new film New Muslim Cool and to present a filmmaking master class on how to build narrative and character arcs when you’re working with verite footage. If you couldn’t make it to the screening and the class, you can still watch clips from them here. Also, keep an eye out for our Pull Focus interview with Jennifer, where we will discuss her process for making New Muslim Cool and how she’s been working to expand the impact of the film—it should go live in the next few… more
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A tale of two reports: Part III—Learning from progressive media experiments
Posted by Jessica Clark on Nov 6, 2009
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading through two reports on the future of journalism in order to consider new models and structures for independent journalism in the networked era: The Reconstruction of American Journalism, by Columbia Journalism Professor Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie Jr., Vice President at Large for The Washington Post The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism, by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs for The Media Consortium, a multiplatform network of 40 independent journalism organizations public… more
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New Media in the South Caucasus: Engaging publics in unstable regions
Posted by Micael Bogar on Nov 6, 2009
Had a great time yesterday giving a presentation on New Media in the South Caucasus at the Foreign Service Institute. I’ve put my presentation up on Slideshare if you want to check it out. The conversation centered on public media 2.0 principles and then branched out to look at various case studies of emerging new media projects in the South Caucasus region. In the South Caucasus, the evolution of public media 2.0 is complicated by the historic role played by state-run media. Our Public Media 2.0 white paper notes that, “What is needed for the future of high-quality content is at… more
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Ellen Goodman and Jake Shapiro on Redesigning Public Media for the 21st Century
Posted by Claire Darby on Nov 5, 2009
Check out this video of Center for Social Media Fellow Ellen Goodman, a professor at Rutgers University School of Law, who’s been working on current policy issues related to public media 2.0. She and Jake Shapiro, Executive Director of the Public Radio Exchange, discuss the role of public media in providing news and information and empowering publics to communicate and organize. Berkman… more
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A tale of two reports: Part II—Just what kind of journalism are we trying to construct here?
Posted by Jessica Clark on Oct 30, 2009
Last week, I began reading and analyzing two reports on the future of journalism: The Reconstruction of American Journalism, by Columbia Journalism Professor Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie Jr., Vice President at Large for The Washington Post The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism, by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs for The Media Consortium, a multiplatform network of 40 independent journalism organizations This week, I’m taking a closer look at the first of these reports, and related reactions. More on The Big Thaw to come. Much of the debate that The Reconstruction of American Journalism has kicked up… more
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PubCamp high on innovation, low on diversity
Posted by Jessica Clark on Oct 29, 2009
While the “unconference” format of the first national Public Media Camp was open and inclusive, a look around the room revealed many missing participants. “The question of diversity within public media is a serious weakness in the structural core of many ‘public broadcasting gone public media 2.0’ conversations I have witnessed in recent months — at conferences, webinars, and ‘unconferences’ alike,” observes Nonso Christian Ugbode, National Black Programming Consortium’s new media director. “Having the right people in the room is not the final destination,” he continues. “But it is also not simply the step we missed on the way to the… more
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Honest Truths conversation continues
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Oct 27, 2009
At the New York University Institute for the Humanities on October 23, Center director Pat Aufderheide spoke about “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work.” The luncheon group, composed of fellows of the Center including writers Janet Malcolm and Philip Lopate, briskly discussed the ethical questions raised in the report. As with other public discussions of the Center’s pathbreaking report, there was both curiosity about and astonishment at the wide array of techniques filmmakers use to portray reality. Fellows debated whether and when reenactments were appropriate, how much restructuring of a conversation was appropriate, and how viewers can… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: Using Copyrighted Material for Commenting and Illustration
Posted by Claire Darby on Oct 26, 2009
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, When comedy and commentary shows like the “Daily Show” use video clips of tv shows and news coverage to comment on the copyrighted material either directly or indirectly, is this protected under Fair Use? There are youtube content creators who use copyrighted pictures (of celebrities, magazine covers, tv shows, etc) superimposed next to a talking head to illustrate the person or topic they are commenting about. They do this much in the same way news anchors and shows like “Daily Show” do. Does this count as protected fair use? What does a content creator need… more
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Check out our interview with documentary filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson!
Posted by Claire Darby on Oct 25, 2009
On Friday, October 2, American University’s School of Communications screened the documentary film As We Forgive as part of Human Rights Month. The film, which tells the stories of two Rwandan women who come face to face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide, was directed by AU alum Laura Waters Hinson. As part of our new “Pull Focus” project, the Center for Social Media conducted an interview with the director to learn more about the film, her production process and the outreach campaign she has built around the film. Also, check out this short clip from… more
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Missed Burma VJ?
Posted by Claire Darby on Oct 23, 2009
You can still check out the video of the Q & A session with Burmese monks U Agga and U Gawasita, and Michael Haack from the US Campaign for Burma! Burma VJ screened to a packed house as part of our 10th Annual Human Rights Film Series, and the audience was captivated both by the film and by our panelists’ comments about the 2007 Saffron Revolution and the ongoing situation in Burma. You can watch the video below. A special thanks to Christine Gettings of the Kay Spiritual Life Center for making this evening possible, and visit the US Campaign for… more
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Global citizen media, taking steps toward a global public media 2.0
Posted by Micael Bogar on Oct 22, 2009
written by Pat Aufderheide and Micael Bogar Several new reports from the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), part of the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, showcase strategies that can build capacity for public media 2.0. But it won’t be easy. Citizens are seizing upon social-media tools, faster than oppressive forces in their society are. While war-profiteering governments are adding social media tools to their toolkits, the large majority of innovation in social media use comes from citizens opposing injustice, inequality and government lack of transparency, says a new CIMA report. Digital Media in Conflict Prone Settings offers a realistic… more
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A tale of two reports: Shaping the future of independent journalism
Posted by Jessica Clark on Oct 21, 2009
Today, I find myself toggling between two meaty reports that have just been published on the future of journalism: The Reconstruction of American Journalism, by Columbia Journalism Professor Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie Jr., Vice President at Large for The Washington Post The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism, by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs for The Media Consortium, a multiplatform network of 40 independent journalism organizations This is a lot to digest—especially on the heels of this weekend’s engrossing Public Media Camp—so I’m going to lay out some initial observations here and come back later with specific… more
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Human Rights Film Series—Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Posted by Alison Hanold on Oct 19, 2009
This… more
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Camping with Josh Berg
Posted by Jessica Clark on Oct 17, 2009
I just ran into Josh Berg at Public Media Camp. Josh was the recipient of our Future of Public Media student research grant back in January. He has been researching online video and its role in political engagement. He has since began working with PBS Interactive, delivering PBS’s video product to stations. Below is the introduction to his research (a tease). The full version of his paper will be available in the coming weeks. Enjoy! Online Video and Political Engagement An irate Congresswoman stands before the United States House of Representatives. Striking the air, she bawls: So why should any American… more
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Social Media, Greek Style
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Oct 16, 2009
What does social media mean in a country where most people still don’t have easy access to broadband? That was the question on display at the /www.mosaiko.gr/view_article.asp?id=241”>“New Media, New Content?” conference at the University of Athens last week, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy’s cultural program Mosaiko. The conference, held the day after highly-charged elections, brought more than a hundred students to listen to Greek and U.S. speakers. Almost all of them had Facebook pages; almost none used Twitter; and most were trying to figure out what new media means for their job opportunities as communications students. For me, the most interesting… more
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Human Rights Film Series—Burma VJ screened to a full house
Posted by Alison Hanold on Oct 9, 2009
Last night we hosted a screening of Burma VJ as a part of our 10th Annual Human Rights Film Series. The house was packed and very moved by the images of the Saffron Revolution, and captivated by the comments by our special guests, U Gawasita and U Agga, two Burmese monks who were both leaders in the 2007 protests. From left to right: Translator for the evening Zaw Moe Kyaw, U Agga, Michael Haack of the US Campaign for Burma, Christine Gettings of the Kay Spiritual Life Center, and U Gawasita. Video of their panel discussion will be available on our… more
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Check this out - “Collaboration in Action: Strategies for Developing and Distributing”
Posted by Alison Hanold on Oct 9, 2009
Catherine Stifter and jesikah maria ross just finished their 2.5 year project, Saving The Sierra: Voices of Conservation in Action, and have shared a few lessons in planning a national multiplatform documentary. You can read their article here! more
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Read This Report: Knight Commission Sets a Public Media 2.0 Agenda
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Oct 2, 2009
We started out today at the Newseum, in a high-octane crowd of Washington, D.C. movers and shakers, including not only the current head of the FCC (Julius Genachowski) but a dizzying array of former FCC heads, with some Administration officials and media executives in the mix as well. We were all there to celebrate the release of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy’s report “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age”. The report calls for “new thinking and aggressive action to dramatically improve the information opportunities available to the American people, the information health… more
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CPB releases CSM report on best practices in digital journalism
Posted by Jessica Clark on Sep 29, 2009
This week, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting released a report authored by Center for Social Media researchers as part of a suite of CPB-supported research and discussions related to public media 2.0. Titled Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism In and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting, it examines the current environment for online reporting projects, and lays out eight best practices for news producers to consider: Involve: Use digital platforms to provide information, motivation, and tools for users to participate in current affairs debates and related communities. Go deeper: Integrate databases, maps, conversation tools, and video and audio extras… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: Fair Use Checklists
Posted by Claire Darby on Sep 28, 2009
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, What do you think about using a “four factors” checklist (see this one from Columbia University for an example) to determine whether or not something is fair use? Thanks, Sue ANSWER: First off, thank you for recognizing that users CAN come to rational and sound decisions about fair use. But we think there’s a better way to do it than with a checklist. The problem is that the “four factors” aren’t, in the law or judicial history, meant as a simple checklist. They were provided in the law as reasonable but not exclusive concerns, and… more
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DC’s OneWebDay: Making the Internet All Inclusive
Posted by Lauren Donia on Sep 28, 2009
This past Tuesday marked the fourth annual OneWebDay, a day intended to raise attention to issues regarding public ownership of the Internet. Washington, DC’s OneWebDay events included a panel discussion with experts in public media, as well as a keynote address by Blair Levin, executive director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC. As a participating organization of this event, we were proud to participate in the convening. Each panelist provided the audience with a “Bold Idea” for the future of the Internet. Suggestions tended to fall into two categories – 1.) The potential for the Internet to improve the… more
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Visiting Filmmaker Spotlight: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor
Posted by Matthew Gordon on Sep 28, 2009
Two-time Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor will be screening her latest film New Muslim Cool on October 22, 2009 at the Wechsler Theater at American University. The film is part of our 10th Annual Human Rights Film Series which is presented in conjunction with Washington College of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. New Muslim Cool tells the story of Hamza Perez, a Puerto Rican-American rapper, raised a Catholic, who abandoned his life as a drug dealer, moved to Pittsburgh and began a new life as a young Muslim. The film follows Hamza, a single father, as… more
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Fair Use Inspires European Filmmakers
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 28, 2009
European filmmakers have been casting an envious eye at American documentarians for some time, for their ability to employ fair use. Fair use, explained in the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, has made making quality documentary films easier and cheaper, without impairing owners’ copyright. Late last year, European filmmakers mobilized to intervene in their own political process, in the European Union, to assert their right to quote their own culture. Willemein Sanders, a Dutch scholar of documentary film, recently chronicled their efforts in the magazine of the European Documentary Network, DOX. more
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Honest Truths and NPR
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 25, 2009
NPR’s media-analysis show, “On the Media,” took interest in the Center’s latest report, Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in their Work, and is airing a segment on it at the end of the show this weekend. (Here is the link to the schedule.) Highlights, I hope: Co-host Bob Garfield was shocked to discover that documentarians don’t always honor their own ethical beliefs; I pointed out that it was their strong ethical beliefs that trouble them when they can’t honor them. He also said that journalists strive always to be true to the sense of their interviewee’s remarks, and that… more
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Fair Use and Film Publishing
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 23, 2009
So you’re a film scholar and you want to analyze Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck’s wonderful Shut Up and Sing. You want to show how the filmmakers demonstrate intimacy in their shot composition. Do you have to get permission from the distribution company in order to reproduce a frame grab in your academic journal article? You’d also like to include this example, and compare it with a similar scene from the Maysles brother’s classic film Salesman in a forthcoming text for undergraduates. What do you tell the publisher, who wants to see all your permissions? Oh and you would also like… more
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Canadian copyright reform movement referencing our fair use codes
Posted by Micael Bogar on Sep 23, 2009
As the Canadian government addresses copyright reform, the U.S. fair use movement is providing an important example. The latest evidence: Face to Face Media, a Canadian media advocacy organization, is citing the fair use codes facilitated by the Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law in the reform process. Its recent publication “Creating Copyright Legislation that Supports Media Literacy” outlines the current limitations and hindrances within the Canadian law regarding education and copyright. It praises the fair use doctrine as well as codes of best practices for doc filmmakers and media literacy, which help citizens understand their rights.… more
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Knight Batten Award Highlights
Posted by Micael Bogar on Sep 18, 2009
Center’s associate director Alison Hanold and I spent yesterday at the 2009 Knight Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism: Digitial Deliverance. Prior to the award ceremony were the much anticipated panel presentations from all the awardees. Each panel of the ceremony was given a different theme based on the term “delivery” –delivering transparency, delivering in new ways and delivering public insight, to name a few. The event was sponsored by J-Lab, our officemates and friends. The commonality between the Center’s work and J-Lab’s revolves around the future of public media and citizen journalism. While J-Lab works more on the citizen journalism… more
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A New Tool for Distribution Strategy - The Mobile Difference
Posted by Lauren Donia on Sep 18, 2009
These days, documentary filmmakers face different challenges than their counterparts of the past. Gone are the days of media for consumption; we now live in an era of media for participation.Films are now backed up with online teasers, trailers and other promotional videos; pages on social networking sites; email updates and blogs as well as various other forms of electronic promotion. One of the key things a filmmaker can do to make multi-platform distribution more effective is to concretely identify his or her intended audiences A good tool for this identification process is a recent study by the Pew Internet and… more
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“Age of Stupid” at TIFF—A New Model? Come see!
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 17, 2009
One of the most provocative stories of TIFF, for me, was the launch of British activist filmmaker Franny Armstrong’s new film, Age of Stupid. In the film, set in the future, archivist Pete Postlethwaite looks down sadly at the way silly humans created unstoppable global warming by squandering resources without even enjoying them. Those of us who are trying to figure out changing business models for documentary have been tracking the making of this film for some time. Armstrong, who earlier made McLibel and Drowned Out, funded the film, with a $1 million-plus budget, with “crowd-funding.” (Significant funders get a share… more
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What I Learned at the Toronto International Film Festival 2009
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 16, 2009
The first weekend of TIFF, one of the biggest gathering of film wheeler-dealers in the year, was as always too full of activity; films competed with press conferences, which competed with parties and the first-ever documentary conference, hosted by documentary programmer Thom Powers. Here were some of my takeaways: You can find treasures at a festival: How to Fold a Flag, by Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein (you remember them from Gunner Palace, The Prisoner: Or, How I Conspired to Kill Tony Blair, and Bulletproof Salesman), is one of my favorite documentary films in recent memory. The story of how four… more
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Honest Truths and Hot Talk at TIFF
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 16, 2009
At the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF, the Center’s report Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work became a hot discussion topic on Sunday September 13, as New York Times critic Michael Cieply noted in his article “At Toronto Film Festival, Cautions on Documentaries”. Report co-author Mridu Chandra reported that filmmakers rejected the notion of journalistic standards, but did not have alternatives. Panelist Michael Tucker, whose How to Fold a Flag, made with Petra Epperlein, said he daily faces the question of how much to reveal of a subject’s story. Many of his stories, distilled from Iraq… more
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Offering food policymakers a taste of public media 2.0
Posted by Jessica Clark on Sep 16, 2009
Last week, I took part in an animated conversation on the closing panel of the Consumer Federation of America’s 32nd annual National Food Policy Conference, addressing the role that social media is playing in highly contested debates about food safety, children’s nutrition, agricultural subsidies and other complex topics. The conference attendees represented an active public concerned with this constellation of issues; they included a mixture of industry reps, consumer advocates and academics. Of course, the government sector was also well represented—other speakers at the event included Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Food and… more
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“A Very Happy Collaborator”: Meet George Stoney Sep. 26
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 9, 2009
On Sep. 26th at 2:30 pm, I’ll be lucky enough to talk with George Stoney at the National Gallery of Art’s main theater—incidentally the finest screening room in the city. I invite you to join me there (it’s free, by the way), and I bet you’ll think you’re lucky too. At 93 years old, filmmaker George Stoney could be a piece of our filmic heritage, and that would be enough. But he’s not putting up with that. George is still teaching (at New York University), making films (as always, with collaborators), and keeping a close eye on the issues of the… more
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A New Report—Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Sep 8, 2009
We’re proud to announce the release of our new report Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work at http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/ethics. It’s also being showcased on a panel at the Toronto International Film Festival’s first documentary conference, on Sept. 13, 2009. In the report, dozens of documentarians frankly discuss workplace challenges to ethical standards, conflicting ethical values, and most concerning, a lack of open and shared standards and practices. The report discusses challenges ranging from subject payment to re-enactment to misrepresentation of archival material. Do you face ethical challenges in the workplace? Do you think a discussion site that preserves… more
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Upcoming Ramadan Film Festival
Posted by Claire Darby on Sep 4, 2009
In observance of the month of Ramadan, American University’s Intercultural Management Institute is hosting their first annual Ramadan Film Festival. The festival is part of the 20,000 Dialogues Project—an initiative that uses films to facilitate dialogue about Muslims and Islam—and will include post-film discussions with the producers of these award-winning films, led by Daniel Tutt of Unity Productions Foundation and Luby Ismail of Connecting Cultures. The films in the festival are: Thursday, September 10th, 6pm-8pm, Butler Boardroom @ American University On a Wing and a Prayer: An American Muslim Learns to Fly Wednesday, September 16th, 6pm-8pm, Kay Spiritual Lounge @ American… more
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More Public Media 2.0
Posted by Matthew Gordon on Sep 3, 2009
What’s new in the world of Public Media 2.0? In a field that evolves with every online innovation, it’s not an easy question to answer. That’s why we created the Public Media 2.0 Showcase. The Showcase highlights innovative media projects for public knowledge and action. In recent weeks the showcase has covered everything from how GPS-enabled smart phones are helping citizens be stewards of their own communities to the possibilities of adapting open source software practices in the production of open source media projects. To keep pace with all the innovation, the Center for Social Media recruited two new research fellows,… more
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Public Media 2.0 is Everywhere
Posted by Claire Darby on Aug 28, 2009
The Center for Social Media’s Jessica Clark, director of the Future of Public Media Project, has been making the rounds this summer, promoting our report Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics and talking about the potential of social media to create a more democratic and participatory public space. Clark started with an interview with Zoe Walrond (click to listen here.) of KHSU—an NPR affiliate in Northern California—on the show “Conversations with Paul Mann.” They discussed the future of journalism and the need for new ways to support and create high-quality news in the open, participatory space. In an interview with journalists… more
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What roles do the “people formerly known as the audience” take on?
Posted by Jessica Clark on Aug 27, 2009
That’s the question I asked panelists and attendees to answer at the panel I moderated today at NAMAC’s 2009 conference, and here are some of the answers they gave: more
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Visiting Filmmaker Spotlight: Paco de Onis and Pamela Yates
Posted by Claire Darby on Aug 27, 2009
In anticipation of our upcoming Human Rights Film Series, we present a series of blog posts that feature biographies of our visiting filmmakers. Keep an eye out for more as we ramp up for our kick off event October 2nd. The Center for Social Media welcomes Producer Paco de Onis and Director Pamela Yates to American University as they screen their most recent film, The Reckoning, in the Katzen Center on Thursday, October 29 as part of the Human Rights Film Series. In this latest venture, de Onis and Yates follow International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and his team… more
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Can you help us get panels at SXSW? Your vote will count!
Posted by Lauren Donia on Aug 27, 2009
The South by Southwest film festival now crowdsources its panels, and two of CSM director Pat Aufderheide’s panel proposals have been approved for public voting. The SXSW team needs to see that panel proposals have public support. Your vote will make a difference.Pat’s panels will raise issues that not only are important for business but also raise basic questions about the future of documentary and of creative practice. Additionally, our colleague Larry Engel also has a panel - a discussion of good environmental practices for fillmakers - approved for voting. We hope you will vote for all three panels, the synopses… more
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Fair Use Question of the Month: Using Copyrighted Images on Fan Sites
Posted by Claire Darby on Aug 26, 2009
QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, I have a question and hopefully you could provide me some insight: I’m part of “fan culture,” where on the internet, countless fans create graphics using screen captures of copyrighted images. These fan sites are always non-commercial, and have been in plain view for the past 10 years, but companies scarcely have such material removed. Is this use of copyrighted images fair use or copyright infringement? Thanks, Ms. Spock ANSWER: Dear Ms. Spock, Fair use is always a case-by-case judgment, so there is no overarching rule. But the same principles that shape the Codes of… more
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Being Human Goes Green
Posted by Andrew Buchanan on Aug 25, 2009
Good news from SWScreen, the screen agency for South-West England. They adopted the Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking a couple of months back and are encouraging film and TV productions in their region to follow it. ‘Being Human’, a BBC drama production about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost who share an apartment, will now have recycling bins on set and in the offices and is working on using much less paper for scripts and call sheets. OK, it won’t make the series carbon neutral, but it’s a great first step. Let’s hope that the next series goes… more
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Fair Use at the UFVA Conference
Posted by Claire Darby on Aug 12, 2009
I just got back from the annual University Film and Video Association (UFVA) conference in New Orleans. Although the association and the conference are generally for university professors who are teaching film and video production classes, the Center for Social Media has long been active with the UFVA, as we develop resources that can help filmmakers and teachers of filmmaking. For the past few years, the Center has gone to the conference to promote its Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, and to encourage and educate professors about how they can use the Statement in their own work… more
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Public Media Camp October at AU
Posted by Lauren Donia on Aug 6, 2009
On October 17th and 18th at American University, join The Center for Social Media, National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service for our Public Media Camp. The event was created to answer the question posed by organizers – “What if we brought together all sorts of people interested in collaborating with public radio and public TV, to see what we could come up with, including digital tools, citizen journalism and other types community-centered initiatives?” The participants promise to be a diverse crowd of newsies, techies, wonks and activists. Based on the “unconference” structure, participants will organize and lead sessions themselves –… more
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Public Media 2.0 in the South Caucasus—Recent Developments Unite Youth
Posted by Micael Bogar on Aug 5, 2009
Last week, I was interviewed by Onnik Krikorian, who blogs for the South Caucasus Global Voices Online blog. We discussed the recent surge in public media 2.0 trends in the South Caucasus. Since the arrests of activist bloggers Emin Mili and Adnan Hajizade, youth from all over the South Caucasus (and the world) have organized online campaigns to show solidarity.The resistance comes at a time when the governments in all three countries in the region (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) have become increasingly authoritarian in their governance tactics. While international non-governmental organizations have been busy for nearly twenty years working to create… more
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Online Video for Non Profits Workshop in DC
Posted by Micael Bogar on Jul 31, 2009
Our friends Ryanne and Jay are holding another one of their super Videoblogging Workshops in DC. This is a chance for nonprofits to learn essential skills that will enable them to use video as a tool for advocacy. According to their website the workshop will cover the following topics: * Storytelling Methods * Content Ideas * Technical How-Tos * Basic Video Editing * How to Compress Video * How to Publish and Publicize your Content When: Saturday August 15th, 2009 10am-4pm Where:The Washington Center, 1333 16th St NW, Washington, DC [Metros: Dupont Circle or Farragut West or McPherson Sq.] Cost: $50… more
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Why Social Media Is Important to Civil Society
Posted by Micael Bogar on Jul 10, 2009
We really enjoyed Suw Charman-Anderson’s recent blog on Corante, Why Social Media Is Important to Civil Society. In it she uses our white paper Public Media 2.0:Dynamic Engaged Publics to look at how the emerging participatory media trend affects civil society. Anderson says, “Civil society associations, by using social tools, can extend the reach of their web presence and the strength of their network, and form direct relationships with the individuals in their constituency. Social tools can also provide website visitors with something immediate to do, even if it is a small action.” Anderson also discusses newly forming trust issues that… more
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Fair use and Michael Jackson
Posted by Patricia Aufderheide on Jul 9, 2009
Tipped off by copyright lawyer Michael Madison, I took a look at this brilliant little video posted on YouTube. It’s a video time travel through the origins of the Michael Jackson moonwalk, reminding us of the collaborative nature of creativity and the way in which we all—yes, even Michael Jackson—stand on the shoulders of giants. Each clip has its own copyright story, but all are great examples of transformative purpose. The maker (signed on as AbejaMariposaJr ) repurposed each one to demonstrate the historical antecedents of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, and is fully entitled to fair use. Enjoy! Want to learn more… more
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New Public Media 2.0 Field Report Release
Posted by Micael Bogar on Jul 7, 2009
As promised in our monthly newsletter, here is our Public Media 2.0 Field Report: Building Social Media Infrastructure to Engage Publics —Twitter Vote Report and Inauguration Report 09 —two projects that demonstrated the potential of microblogging formats for election monitoring before the recent upheaval in Iran brought the topic to international attention. Research fellow Nina Keim and Future of Public Media director Jessica Clark released this most recent field report at the Public Democracy Forum conference in New York last month. The report reviews the achievements of both Twitter Vote Report and Inauguration Report ‘09 as they used Twitter and other… more
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At the Personal Democracy Forum conference, We.gov meets Public Media 2.0
Posted by Jessica Clark on Jul 6, 2009
It took me the whole long weekend to recover from the rush of friends, tweets, and innovative civic playtoys at last week’s Personal Democracy Forum. As our research fellow Nina Keim noted, Twitter was definitely the belle of the ball. But there were a number of other standout tools that demonstrate the potential for what PDF organizers are calling “we.gov”. Obama’s new chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, unveiled a new version of USAspending.gov, a site that tracks federal spending, offering up revealing charts and graphs, plus an IT Dashboard that allow both agencies and members of the public to analyze federal… more
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New Organizing Institute’s New Media Training
Posted by Micael Bogar on Jul 2, 2009
Last week I attended a two-day New Media Training conference with the New Organizing Institute (NOI). The Institute aims: * To train and support a new generation of technology-enabled campaigners. * To consolidate and disseminate knowledge gained in the field of political technology and online organizing. * To conduct new research and post-campaign investigations that employ results-focused, systems thinking to make progressive campaigns and organizations more efficient. The training was focused very much on political campaigns but the discussions still proved very helpful for any advocacy organization/think tank interested in upgrading their promotional and outreach capabilities, as well as media makers… more
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