http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/ The Center for Social Media showcases and analyzes strategies to use media as creative tools for public knowledge and action. It focuses on social documentaries for civil society and democracy, and on the public media environment that supports them. The Center is part of the School of Communication at American University. en-us socialmedia@american.edu Copyright 2009 2009-07-02T16:46:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/new_organizing_institutes_new_media_training/ 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 hoping to increase the impact of their productions. A few highlights: Marc Laitin from the AFL-CIO said, "Don't forget… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-07-02T16:46:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/new_organizing_institutes_new_media_training/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/blogging_from_the_pdf_2009_twitter_as_a_promising_tool_to_increase_social_a/ At this year’s Personal Democracy Forum more than 1,000 opinion makers, political practitioners, technologists and journalists gathered together for the sixth time to discuss how technology is changing politics. Having witnessed how Barack Obama found innovative ways to leverage modern media tools to advance the campaign, the PDF is now focused on identifying how much the Internet and technology tools are changing the environment. Two panels I attended specifically looked at how the micro-blogging portal Twitter allows a wide public to actively engage in campaigns and advocacy work. Crowd-sourced projects, Twitter-based community organizing and fundraising are three promising methods to motivate a large public and actively bring people on board of a project. Twitter has many advantages over other social… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-07-01T12:44:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/blogging_from_the_pdf_2009_twitter_as_a_promising_tool_to_increase_social_a/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_question_of_the_month_free_legal_advice_for_fair_use/ QUESTION: Dear Center for Social Media, We are looking for an expert in fair use that can watch our documentary and let us know if we can use some of the news archival and other historical footage that we have included. As you well know, financial resources are always tight when making a film; therefore, I will truly appreciate if you know of anyone that can donate these services to us. All the best, Daniel ANSWER: Dear Daniel, We were co-facilitators of the various Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use that are on our website, and we strongly encourage you to use these as a guide to your decision making. It will be more reliable than the advice of… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-30T17:55:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_question_of_the_month_free_legal_advice_for_fair_use/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/reporting_live_from_the_personal_democracy_forum/ I'm live-tweeting today and tomorrow at the Personal Democracy Forum conference, a gathering of nearly 1000 technologists, politicos and government transparency geeks dedicated to examining how technology is changing politics. Follow me on twitter @beyondbroadcast. Here at PDF (aka #pdf09) we're releasing a draft of our next field report, which I co-authored with CSM Research Fellow Nina Keim, examining the Twitter Vote Report and Inaguration '09 projects. We'll be checking in with a few more of the project organizers here to see how they're now working with tweets produced during the Iran election, and will post a finalized version of the field report within the next week. If you'd like a copy, drop me a note: jclark[AT]american.edu. News from the Future of Public Media 2009-06-29T17:46:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/reporting_live_from_the_personal_democracy_forum/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/lioness_making_an_impact_on_legislation/ Lioness shows how a documentary positioned at the centerpiece of a strategic outreach campaign can put an issue on the public agenda and have a direct impact on public policy. The National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2010 was approved by the House Armed Services Committee this week. Included in its recommendations is a section titled . “Recognizing Service Women Who Have Participated as ‘‘Lionesses’’ During Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (see p. 315-316). This insert into the bill (H.R. 2647), which should be approved by the House this week, is the direct result of the March 31 screening and events surrounding the documentary film, Lioness, on Capitol Hill, which was supported by key members of Congress. According… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-26T15:04:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/lioness_making_an_impact_on_legislation/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/future_of_public_media_session_silverdocs_watch_now/ Below is the video of the Future of Public Media session from Silverdocs. Please watch, share, and comment! (The clips play in sequential order - when you reach the end of clip one, clip two will automatically start.) A fun-filled, role-playing simulation that asks a cast of experts to step out of 2009 and project themselves into the public media of the future: It's 2016, and the new titans are Ticketmaster, Google, Amazon and Hulu. Do you know where your public media went? We threw futurists, investors, business folk and public media programmers and makers together to invent a future in which Web media rules. Grounded in the CSM report, PUBLIC MEDIA 2.0. MODERATOR - Joaquín Alvarado, svp for Diversity… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-25T15:16:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/future_of_public_media_session_silverdocs_watch_now/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/firefox_advancing_citizen_media_making/ Firefox has just announced its release candidate of Firefox 3.5 for testing. Its new video features are impressive. With technology evolving at such a rapid speed, filmmaking continues to become more and more accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a flip camera. By the way, we just bought our very own HD flip camera yesterday for $200 but when we did a bit of pricing research we found ones for as cheap as $129. The video below is of Firefox's director Mike Beltzner explaining the new video Firefox 3.5 features. Watch out mainstream media, here come the citizens. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-25T14:29:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/firefox_advancing_citizen_media_making/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/silverdocs_roundup/ One key phrase popped up in all of the Silverdocs branding material this year: "Open Mindedness Suggested." Based on the subjects of the films and the innovations represented in the conference, it seems that open mindedness was not only suggested, but the key ingredient of the entire festival. I spent Tuesday in the Good Pitch session of the conference. Good Pitch, which was presented by Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, was aimed at directors and producers with film projects that tackle important global and national issues. The filmmakers pitched their projects, all in various stages of production and distribution, to a group of experts from NGOs, charities, foundations, advertising agencies, public and commercial media… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-23T12:20:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/silverdocs_roundup/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/favorite_films_of_silverdocs/ Silverdocs showcased some exciting examples of media for public knowledge and action (and hats off to Sky Sitney for awesome programming). Yoav Shamir's Defamation raised the unmentionable question: is anti-Semitism sometimes used as a way to avoid hard questions about Israeli politics and foreign policy? The screening I attended drew heated—no, overheated—reactions from pro-Zionist and pro-Palestinian speakers. Afterward, Shamir was beseiged by people who wanted to bring the film into their temples, synagogues, and theaters, to open up a long-stifled discussion. Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's No Impact Man is an environmental film with a sense of humor (!). They follow around environmental evangelist Colin Beavan, his reluctant wife Michelle and their cheerful toddler as the family tries to live… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-23T12:14:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/favorite_films_of_silverdocs/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/getting_legal_at_silverdocs/ The SILVERDOCS conference now has a thriving strand of panels directed at teachers who use audio-visual material in the classroom and who work with kids who make video. One of their biggest headaches is understanding their rights under copyright. Can students upload their videos to YouTube? Are they permitted to clip out material from commercial (and encrypted) DVDs? Can teachers post clips onto their electronic teaching platforms? Peter Jaszi and I had a lot of fun at the panel, “The Legal 411 on Film and Media in the Classroom.” We loved hearing Devin Cheema of Discovery Channels say that she wants everyone to exercise their fair use rights. She wants to see Discovery programs used fairly in the classroom and… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-22T19:04:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/getting_legal_at_silverdocs/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/how_green_is_green_panel_at_silverdocs/ On June 18 I sat on a panel discussing green filmmaking with co-directors of No Impact Man, Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein. The panel was led by Amy King, a longtime Silverdocs associate. We started with a clip from No Impact Man, a great film about Colin Beavan and his wife, Michele, who was in the audience. The film traces the year-long effort on the family’s part to create no carbon, or at least keep it to a bare minimum. While an “eco” film it really is all about a family and its dynamics as it seeks change in lifestyle. Laura and Justin spoke about how Colin demanded that the filmmakers pay attention to carbon production and together they came… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-22T15:02:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/how_green_is_green_panel_at_silverdocs/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/our_stories_dc_at_silverdocs/ I just returned from Silverdocs where Brittney Barbour, one of the filmmakers from my youth media project, Our Stories DC, was asked to screen her film and participate in a panel discussion. The panel was made up of five other youth, some of who traveled to the festival from as far as Mozambique. They demonstrated a diversity of experience that has not historically been a part of public media. Youth media production tends to be used as an educational device in urban nonprofits (with the exception of Appalshop and similar groups). As a result, youth of color are commonly the creators of youth media but rarely transition to careers in media production. However, this trend may be changing. These panelists… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-22T13:36:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/our_stories_dc_at_silverdocs/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/csm_in_good_company/ The School of Communications and Center for Social Media were recently the subjects of Mark Glaser’s Mediashift blog. The post explored how American University’s School of Communications is evolving into an epicenter for the education of new journalists and media makers. Glaser’s piece includes video interviews with the Center’s director, Pat Aufderheide, as well as SOC Dean Larry Kirkman, Jan Schaffer from J-Lab, Charles Lewis from the Investigative Reporting Workshop and Amy Eisman, the head of writing classes at SOC. Glaser’s conclusion: a socially conscious and active student body and the Washington, DC location make SOC and its affiliated centers and institutions a great, forward-thinking hub for innovative journalism. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-19T18:41:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/csm_in_good_company/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/seattle_youth_confront_media_consolidation_through_doc_filmmaking/ Reel Grrls, a Seattle based production company, just released a new short doc titled A Generation of Consolidation. The film can be viewed online in its entirety at www.generationofconsolidation.org. A Generation of Consolidation was created by high school students who are working to stop further consolidation of media corporations. It won awards at the Seattle Independent Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival. These student filmmakers have harnessed the power of documentary film to make their voices heard. While they fight to keep multiple channels of mainstream media alive, they in turn create informative engaging media themselves. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-19T14:01:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/seattle_youth_confront_media_consolidation_through_doc_filmmaking/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/bb2009/ At the 2009 Beyond Broadcast conference, hosted by USC Annenberg in early June, attendees from more than a dozen countries worked together to build scenarios predicting the evolution of public service media in regions buffeted by social, political and economic transitions. This week, however, the future long predicted by Beyond Broadcast organizers arrived a bit earlier than planned, as social media tools became the main source of news on Iran's contested elections. Twitter has become so crucial as a conduit for citizen media makers to communicate the breaking story that the U.S. State Department reportedly asked the site to postpone scheduled maintenance in order to allow messages to continue to stream in. The microblogging service has become a key platform… News from the Future of Public Media 2009-06-18T13:15:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/bb2009/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/barbara_abrash_at_bavc_producers_institute/ I was in San Francisco last week, participating in a Round Table at Bay Area Video Coalition Producer's Institute. The panel included Elspeth Revere from the MacArthur Foundation, Cara Mertes from the Sundance Documentary Institute, Sam Gregory from WITNESS and Ellen Schneider from ActiveVoice. The Producer’s Institute is a 10-day residential workshop, focused on storytelling for social change, that brings together documentary filmmakers and technologists to work together on digital applications that propel social issue documentaries into multi-platform interactive projects. This year’s projects included work by first-time filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapily. The duo’s documentary, The Way We Get By follows a group of seniors in Bangor, Maine who welcome servicemen and women returning from the Middle East. Also… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-15T17:05:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/barbara_abrash_at_bavc_producers_institute/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/future_of_investigative_reporting_has_arrived/ What happens to the crucial public media role of watchdogging the powerful as newspapers die? Nonprofits have poured funding into hard-hitting investigative reporting, through The Center for Investigative Reporting, The Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica and now the brand-new Investigative Reporting Workshop (part of American University's School of Communication). Now, the Associated Press--the nation's news lifeline--has agreed to carry these organizations' work. There couldn't be a more powerful stamp of approval for nonprofit news. Read AP's press release here. Also, interesting to note J-Lab's new report New Media Makers--A Toolkit for innovators in Community Media and Grant Making will give you more details on these four organizations' funding streams and current projects. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-15T16:28:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/future_of_investigative_reporting_has_arrived/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/csm_at_the_bavc_producers_institute_2009/ I had the great pleasure last week to attend the presentation session for the 2009 Bay Area Video Coalition Producer's Institute. According to their website, the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies is a "ten-day residency for eight creative teams (independent producers or public broadcasters) with a shared goal of developing and prototyping a multi-platform project inspired by, or based on a significant documentary project. The intention of the Institute is to develop socially relevant media projects for emerging digital platforms." The presentation session involved participants of the Institute sharing the projects they developed over the previous two weeks to complement and contribute to pre-existing doc films. Two of the filmmakers Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet had just recently produced… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-12T18:19:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/csm_at_the_bavc_producers_institute_2009/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_prenups_released_today/ Documentary films and related multimedia are increasingly influential in the shaping of public discourse around social issues. (After An Inconvenient Truth, who wouldn't want a big film to galvanize thought leaders' and public participation?) The old professional silos are giving way to promising, sometimes tricky, new partnerships: Funders are recognizing the value of communications in general—and documentary film in particular—for advancing their portfolios. Policy shapers and advocates are using media to put human faces on public policy. Filmmakers want to tell stories that have an impact in the public square. Each sector brings its own skills, needs, concerns and assets. Much collaboration is underway as some traditional "firewalls" melt. But why do some funder/maker relationships thrive, while others have decidedly… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-08T16:00:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_prenups_released_today/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/media_that_matters_festival/ I had the great pleasure to attend the premiere of the ninth annual Media that Matters festival, presented by Arts Engine. The festival is comprised of 12 short films with a social justice focus. The films were various in their formats – some documentary, some narrative, some PSA, and even one “docu-music video.” One particular favorite of mine was the narrative film Immersion” which told the story of a young Mexican boy in a US school. The boy is very skilled at math, but does not have a solid understanding of the language used in the math problems in his class. He has a strong desire to pass the state required test, but his request for a translated test exposes… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-05T16:32:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/media_that_matters_festival/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/j_labs_new_report_new_media_makers/ Congratulations to our suite partner and close ally J-Lab on the release of a new report New Media Makers --A Toolkit for Innovators in Community Media and Grant Making. The report reviews the growing trend of philanthropic organizations increasingly funding media projects. Please read the press release below and check out the report itself here. New Media Makers Increasingly Getting Grants for News Jun. 01, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. — At least 180 community, family and other foundations have contributed nearly $128 million in grants to news and information initiatives in the United States since 2005, according to a report released today by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. This funding went to support at least 115 news projects in 17… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-03T19:55:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/j_labs_new_report_new_media_makers/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/whos_plagiarizing_now/ Copyright protectionists decry copying as theft and plagiarism--and let's just acknowledge here that sometimes it is. (Copying a work and re-using it for its original market purpose and not paying the owner what he or she is selling or renting it for is wrong.) The well-funded efforts of copyright owners' organizations to promote this message, though, has thoroughly confused many people about their fair use rights. In many situations, including making new work and analyzing or critiquing existing work, people in the U.S. have ample rights to use copyrighted material without permission or payment.So there's a certain pleasure—what the Germans call schadenfreude —in discovering that a major Canadian research organization plagiarized an American lobbying group's report. The Conference Board of… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-03T13:14:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/whos_plagiarizing_now/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_fair_use/ Have you seen Electronic Frontier Foundation Board Chairman Brad Templeton's remix of the popular meme "the bunker scene" from the 2004 film Downfall? In this version, Hitler is trying to stop people from making remixes by invoking the DMCA. (Meta enough for you?) EFF's article When Fair Use Is Fairly Difficult describes what technical contortions Templeton had to go through to use his fair use rights. For more clarity on what your fair use rights are, click here. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-02T13:01:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_fair_use/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_question_of_the_month_citing_your_sources/ QUESTION Dear CSM: Is it required to cite your sources when claiming fair use in an online video context? Thanks for your help, Jon ANSWER Dear Jon: Citing your sources when they are knowable, whether it's in the body of the work or in credits, is always a nice idea, and it's polite. It also shows that you recognize and acknowledge that the work you used is not your own. This fact further reinforces a fair use claim if you are ever challenged, and therefore providing attribution is commonly suggested. It's an easy way to reinforce your fair use claim. In some cases, though, sources may not be known, or work may be produced (as many YouTube videos are) by… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-06-01T13:00:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_question_of_the_month_citing_your_sources/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/documentary_games_at_g4c_2009/ The presence of interactivity in documentary has increased tremendously with the evolution of online community building and promotion, but has interactive media evolved to the point where a documentary can be a game? This was explored today at the Games for Change conference with a panel focusing on documentary games. Panel description: As game theory and the practice of making games become recognized as valued pedagogical and cultural processes across a broad spectrum of disciplines, we see forthcoming a movement specific to a new genre — documentary gaming — which will position game systems within a framework that questions the practice, ethics, and identity of games. Can documentary best practices help us negotiate the socio-political and cultural significance of a… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-30T14:29:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/documentary_games_at_g4c_2009/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/make_media_matter_panel_at_the_newseum/ Yesterday, CSM staffers attended the IFC Make Media Matter panel discussion at the Newseum in D.C. Gideon Yago, host of the television show IFC Media Project with Gideon Yago, moderated the event. One of the event’s sponsors — the National Association for Media Literacy Education — partnered with the Center to create our Code of Best Practices in Media Literacy Education. The panel discussion was one event in a multi-faceted media literacy campaign. The panel was comprised of a well-known, but hardly diverse group of journalists: George Stephanopoulos, Greta Van Susteren, John King, Juan Williams, Marcus Brauchli, Norman Ornstein and Tucker Carlson. The panelists debated the impact of traditional versus new forms of media as well as the future of… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-29T15:28:01-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/make_media_matter_panel_at_the_newseum/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/update_on_code_of_best_practices_in_sustainable_filmmaking/ As key author on the Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking, Larry Engel will be spending the summer promoting the Code at upcoming festivals and conferences this summer and fall. Andrew Buchanan, his co-author of the Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking, will “attend” where possible via Skype. Leading off is a session on Friday, June 12th in Savannah, Georgia at the Blue Ocean Film Festival. The following week he will be at Silverdocs in Washington, DC on June 18th. Two more sessions will be held at the UFVA annual conference in New Orleans in August and at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival (JHWFF) in September. Larry and Andrew also worked closely with Lisa Samford, the executive… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-28T18:50:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/update_on_code_of_best_practices_in_sustainable_filmmaking/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_and_academic_freedom_here_come_the_communications_scholars/ At the annual meeting of the International Communication Association a group of us formed a committee to create a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Communication Scholarship. Chris Boulton, a grad student at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, kicked it off with a story of not being permitted to file his M.A. thesis until he took out all copyrighted material. The problem was that the copyrighted material—pictures of children’s fashion advertisements—were the thesis’s core data. Other scholars in the room pointed to other practices that needed clarification. Could professors studying advertisements share their collected research materials with other scholars? Could they include excerpts from popular songs in electronically published journal articles? Members of the ICA will receive a survey prepared… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-26T17:09:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/fair_use_and_academic_freedom_here_come_the_communications_scholars/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/regulating_media_20/ At the Quello Center’s annual symposium on communications and media policy “Rethinking Media Policy in the Age of New Media,” a number of us spoke about regulating in the public interest. I argued, like many (including Free Press in its great new publication Changing Media), for a robust universal broadband policy. I also argued, as is explained in Public Media 2.0, for taxpayer funding for public media beyond broadcasting. One of the most intriguing presentations, for me, was from Arizona State University’s Matthew Hindman. He addressed the question of how we measure “concentration of ownership” in a web environment, giving us a sample from his new book, The Myth of Digital Democracy . He analyzed web traffic as an indicator,… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-26T17:05:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/regulating_media_20/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/internews_media_leadership_awards/ As members of the Host Committee, we're proud to invite you to the 2009 Internews Media Leadership Awards. On Tuesday June 2nd from 5:30-7:00pm Internews will honor media makers that work to empower local media around the world. For more details please visit their website here. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-20T15:43:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/internews_media_leadership_awards/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/announcing_the_release_of_our_new_video_remix_culture_fair_use_is_your_frie/ Last summer the release of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video nearly crashed our servers with people downloading the document. Based on this demand, we created Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend is a collaboration with the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property—a program of AU’s Washington College of Law—along with Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project. The video was funded by Google. The video was directed by our graduate fellow, Claire Darby, and features interviews with Dr. Mitzuko Ito, research director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute and Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project. “This video lets people know about the code, an essential… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-18T14:39:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/announcing_the_release_of_our_new_video_remix_culture_fair_use_is_your_frie/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/national_ethnic_media_expo_and_awards/ As media partners for this event, we encourage everyone who's going to be in Atlanta to come. To register visit expo.newamericamedia.org News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-18T14:22:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/national_ethnic_media_expo_and_awards/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/free_press_plugging_more_and_better_public_media/ Last Thursday’s Free Press Summit provided a shiny showcase for the media reform organization. Its organizers showed that it can pull a crowd of policy-wonks, bring in their luminaries (including the acting head of the Federal Communications Commission and two former heads), and get Ray Suarez to postpone his Newshour activities long enough to ask sharp questions of the once and future powerful. Moreover, Free Press debuted a thick tome of policy suggestions for Obama’s media reform agenda. Its call for universal, accessible, competitive and middleware-free broadband with more unlicensed spectrum melds the best of recent thinking on how to get the entire nation hooked up to the Net. Then Free Press wants to save journalism, with some nonprofit models… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-18T00:32:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/free_press_plugging_more_and_better_public_media/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/arts_engines_media_that_matters_festival/ Media That Matters: MORE THAN A FESTIVAL World Premiere June 3rd! SCREEN the collection of jury-selected films. ACT now to make a change. IMPACT your community by using short films with on-the-ground activism. visit www.mediathatmattersfest.org for more details News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-15T20:07:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/arts_engines_media_that_matters_festival/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/obama_as_the_social_media_innovator/ It is no surprise at this stage that Obama's use of social media was a major force behind his landslide victory. PR Firm Edelman's most recent white paper Social Pulpit: Barack Obama's Social Media Toolkit outlines the areas in which Obama's team excelled in using this powerful tool to engage publics. The paper talks about the multitude of videos created by not only the Obama team but by the supporters as well, "The authentic user-generated video is more compelling and elicits more support than official productions because we are more trusting of information that is from people who hold similar beliefs, share the same politics or religion, or are the same age or gender as us." In our most recent… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-12T15:51:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/obama_as_the_social_media_innovator/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/highlights_from_jennie_livingstons_visit/ On April 1, acclaimed filmmaker Jennie Livingston came to American University for a screening of her groundbreaking documentary Paris is Burning. She also showed the short fiction film Who's the Top?, which has been screened at over 100 film festivals. Livingston then took the opportunity to engage in conversation and answer questions about her films and her filmmaking process; some of the highlights of that conversation can be watched below. It was an honor to have Jennie Livingston on campus, and we all very much enjoyed the opportunity to talk to her about her films. News from the Future of Public Media 2009-05-11T12:41:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/highlights_from_jennie_livingstons_visit/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_chronicle_of_philanthropys_social_good_podcast_with_jessica_clark/ The Chronicle of Philanthropy is the newspaper of the nonprofit world. It is the No. 1 news source, in print and online, for charity leaders, fund raisers, grant makers, and other people involved in the philanthropic enterprise. Listen to Jessica Clark's fifteen minute podcast on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's new podcast series Social Good with host Allison Fine on the future of public media and whether nonprofits models are the future of newspapers. News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-08T15:29:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/the_chronicle_of_philanthropys_social_good_podcast_with_jessica_clark/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/dmca_fair_use_documentary_filmmakers_and_remixers/ On day two of the Copyright Office’s hearings about exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) , documentary filmmakers and remix artists and their supporters came to Washington, D.C. to show regulators the cost of criminalizing copying of popular culture. (Read about day one where the focus was on fair use and educators here.) To recap, the issue is: The DMCA prohibits breaking of any encryption on copyrighted digital material, even when you have a legal right to the material inside—for instance, a fair use right. If you can make a strong case for the need to do so during the tri-annual hearings at the Copyright Office, though, you can get an exemption. Today, documentary filmmakers and remix supporters… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-07T20:17:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/dmca_fair_use_documentary_filmmakers_and_remixers/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/dmca_fair_use_and_educators/ The best theater in Washington, D.C. is in federal agencies and hearing rooms. That’s where ritual battles over power take place. The first day of the Copyright Office’s hearings about exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act pretty much met expectations. (Read about day two where the focus was on fair use for documentarians and remix artists, here.) The issue: The DMCA prohibits breaking of any encryption on copyrighted digital material, even when you have a legal right to the material inside—for instance, a fair use right. If you can make a strong case for the need to do so during the tri-annual hearings at the Copyright Office, though, you can get an exemption. Three years ago, thanks to film… News from the Future of Public Media, Copyright & Fair Use 2009-05-07T20:12:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/dmca_fair_use_and_educators/ http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/julia_reichert_and_steve_bognar/ In March, filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar came to American University to discuss their filmmaking and editing process for their Emmy award-winning film A Lion in the House. They discussed their shooting set-up, their approach to filming verité footage and interviews, and what they believe the role of documentarians should be. Their presentation was both helpful and inspirational, as you can see in these videos clips from their visit. News from the Future of Public Media 2009-05-07T18:55:00-05:00 http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/julia_reichert_and_steve_bognar/