|
RESOURCES: Public Media
What are public media and what can they do that other media can't? There have been many answers to that question, and people are wrestling with it now. Here are some current approaches, with some historic examples as well.
Articles
What is Public about Public Media?
By Pat Aufderheide and Noëlle McAfee
A brief article on the how public media serves a democracy.
The Kojo Nnamdi Show - PBS ombudsman Michael Getler and NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin
On February 16th, before convening at the Center, Dvorkin and Getler spoke with NPR's Kojo Nnamdi on the responsibilties of public media.
Public Television Affinity Group Coalition
Headed by working Jim Pagliarini, check out this knowledge base on new trends in media usage and how media makers and distributors are meeting the challenge.
Public Broadcasting in the USA
By Willard D. Rowland, Jr, PhD
Rowland, president of Colorado Public Television KBDI TV, shares a history of public broadcasting in the US from the Encyclopedia of Communication and Information, 2002.
Fear, Loathing and and the Promise of Public Insight Journalism
By Michael Skolar
A journalist wonders whether the mainstream news media will adapt fast enough to their changing relationship with the public to survive.
In the “Global Village”, Where is “The Public Square”?
Read David Liroff's comments from the first of the Center's Public Media Roundtable discussions. Liroff serves as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Boston's WGBH. You may also visit WGBH for a downloadable recording>>
What makes pubcasting ‘public’ is engagement
By Pat Aufderheide and Noëlle McAfee
Published in Current, Sept. 2005, this article explores the difference between engaging communities as a public versus as consumers.
Insights for the Future of Public Media
A report by Noëlle McAfee from the 2005 Global Voices Summit.
Global Voices Summit Notes by Marty Lucas
Read a report by New York-based filmmaker and media activist, Martin Lucas, on why the blogosphere matters. See also Many to Many, Lucas' video report.
Keynote Address from the We Media Conference, Oct. 2005
Delivered by Al Gore
Organized by The Media Center, this day-long conference brought together leading thinkers and organizers into a series of discussions on participatory media.
E.B. White from the New Yorker on non-commercial television
This 1966 letter to the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television illustrates that the discussion on the future of non-commercial broadcasting is on-going.
NPR's Bill Siemering "National Public Radio Purposes"
In 1970, one of the founders and first program directors of NPR put together this mission statement that went on to define the network's first daily program, All Things Considered.
Public Television Now and Later
Editor Horace Newcomb from The Encyclopedia of Television, November 5, 2001.
Keepers of the Public Domain in Electronic Media: Keep It Up!
Keynote address by Pat Aufderheide at the annual convention of Alliance for Community Media, the member organization of cable access stations nationwide on July 10, 1999, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Top
Reports
Public Accountability in Public Media
By Mylene Moreno
Participants at a recent Center convening addressed recent studies that confirm—even as some parties inside the Beltway have criticized public media for a supposed liberal bias—that the public values and supports public media. For a list of participants, click here.
Making Your Documentary Matter
Barbara Abrash reports from the 2006 workshops on the latest in public engagement strategies for social issue media makers.
Digital Media and the Public Sphere
Barbara Abrash reports on a January convening held at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. New citizen media are, in some bold experiments, creating strong and vibrant public spaces, the very kind of public spaces that traditional public media has long sought to foster and nurture. At the same time, some public broadcasters are experimenting creatively with more open and participatory environments.
Local Public Media Engagements
Noëlle McAfee reports from an October 2005 meeting held at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio were participants outlined a strategy for future research on ways in which local publics and local media might best work together to engage citizens in the civic life of their community. This research is related to the larger question of how those individuals and organizations in public media (and any media with a public mission) best understand their own practices and relationship to the public.
In the Battle for Reality: US Documentaries for Social Change
What difference can a documentary make? This fact-filled report by Center co-director Pat Aufderheide, with many case studies of successful strategic use of social documentaries, answers that question.
Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers
A Joint Project of the Center for Social Media and Independent Television Service
Digital technology is transforming filmmaking. And policymakers are scrambling to catch up with the changes. See chapter Supporting Public Culture.
"Public Television Now and Later"
By Pat Aufderheide, 2002
Public television is a rare example of noncommercial media in a commercial environment, and by its very existence it tests the limits of expression in a democracy every day. In this entry for The Encyclopedia of Television, edited by Horace Newcomb, I outlined how the unique and complex institution of public television came into being and is structured, as well as how public television is facing the challenges of advanced and interactive TV, the Web, and competition for viewers.
Community Technology and Public Discourse
By Felicia M. Sullivan
Community technology expert Felicia M. Sullivan provides an in-depth analysis of community technology centers and community networks as tools for public discourse and action.
Socially Engaged Public Access TV Productions
By Paula Manley
This paper defines the field of socially engaged media in public access television and provides a framework for how social media is being used in public access TV.
"Keepers of the Public Domain in Electronic Media: Keep It Up!"
By Pat Aufderheide, 1999
Annual convention of Alliance for Community Media, the member organization of cable access stations nationwide.
Cable Access and Public Life: An Address to Access Cablecasters
By Patricia Aufderheide
Top
Links
(Note: This list is not intended to be exhaustive, only to introduce projects and institutions that illustrate the variety of public media resources available on the web.)
CSM's Making Your Documentary Matter
The Center offers an annual producers workshop examining audience engagement using media. In addition to the panels and screenings on site, a thorough collection of resources including case studies are available in Audience Engagement Resources.
Public Broadcasting Service
PBS, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a public non–profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 348 public television stations. Available to 99 percent of American homes with televisions and to an increasing number of digital multimedia households, PBS serves nearly 90 million people each week.
National Public Radio
NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of more than 25 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 800 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations.
Public Radio International
Based in Minneapolis, PRI provides over 400 hours of programming each week, content that is broadcast and streamed online by its 734 affiliates nationwide. PRI's programming is available on XM Public Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. PRI owns Public Interactive LLC, public broadcasting's leading Web services company.
Independent Television Service
ITVS programming reflects voices and visions of underrepresented communities and addresses the needs of underserved audiences, particularly minorities and children.
Sundance Documentary Fund
The Sundance Documentary Fund is dedicated to supporting U.S. and international documentary films and videos focused on current and significant issues and movements in contemporary human rights, freedom of expression, social justice, and civil liberties.
National Minority Consortia
Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Minority Consortia function as developers, producers, and distributors of radio and television programming that appeals to diverse audiences and harnesses the creative talents of minority communities.
OneWorld
OneWorld aims to be the online media gateway that most effectively informs a global audience about human rights and sustainable development.
LinkTV
Link TV broadcasts programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to become involved in the world. These programs provide a unique perspective on international news, current events, and diverse cultures, presenting issues not often covered in the U.S. media.
The Bill of Media Rights Campaign
A grassroots group responding to media consolidation has written a Citizens' Bill of Media Rights.
The Public Media Caucus
A project of the Center for Digital Democracy developing a public process for discussing the future of public media.
The National Radio Project
A nonprofit media organization that produces a weekly, syndicated public affairs radio program called, "Making Contact." Making Contact is played on over 160 NPR, Pacifica, University, and Microbroadcasting stations all over the US and abroad.
Freespeech.org
Free Speech TV, which airs on the Dish satellite TV network and on some public access cable TV channels, airs primarily social, political, cultural, and environmental documentaries acquired from independent producers,” and is beginning to produce and commission original content.
MediaRights
A community website that helps mediamakers, educators, nonprofits and activists use documentaries for action and dialogue. Enter a keyword and find a film to use and share!
Webactive
Part of the RealImpact division of RealNetworks, Inc., and provides web and streaming media services (design, development, hosting) for nonprofit and educational institutions worldwide. Its directory lists such projects as Democracy NOW!, CounterSpin and a directory of 1,250 progressive groups online.
Docuseek
DocuSeek is a search site for independent documentary, social issue, and educational videos available in the U.S. and Canada.
Indymedia.org
Where anti-globalization activists, community organizers and citizen media makers express their perspectives and respond to others.
Prometheusradio.org
Where low-power radio activists mobilize.
Local Voices Local Media
A new online publication of Sound Partners for Community Health to showcase some of the best examples of what its grantees have accomplished. They also published Funding Media for Social Change.
Top
Do you want to share an inspiring formulation of what public media at its best can be? Please let us know at socialmedia@american.edu
|
