April 2, 2008Newsletter

April brings us great guests and new networking opportunities. On April 3, independent filmmaker DeeDee Halleck will lead a free lecture on participatory video for social change. We're also very excited to welcome D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee for a special roundtable discussion on ethnic media in D.C.'s culturally diverse school system. I'll be making a visit to Israel early this month for DocAviv, and later I'll be at HotDocs in Montreal. Look for me if you're attending, and catch up on our blog! We're gearing up for the 2008 Beyond Broadcast Conference on June 17 - register now for the special earlybird rate! See below for more details on all of these items and more. See you soon!

Register Now! - Beyond Broadcast 2008
WHEN: June 17
Read all about it below, in "The Future of Public Media" section, and visit the conference website for more information and registration.
Register now to take advantage of the earlybird rate!

The Center welcomes Spring 2008 Visiting Filmmaker DeeDee Halleck - Participatory Video for Social Change.
Mark your calendar - this month, legendary media activist DeeDee Halleck will join us for a FREE discussion:
April 3
5:30 - 8:00 pm, Room 303A, 3rd fl., Mary Graydon Center, American University.
RSVP:bowman@am erican.edu
Visit our website for info on the event, directions and parking!

Ethnic Media + Public Education = Public Media
How can ethnic media makers work with public schools to better prepare tomorrow's citizens? The Center welcomes D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and other educational leaders from Maryland and Virginia to discuss "Public Education in a Changing Region," in a breakfast press briefing and roundtable discussion for metro- area ethnic media. Co-sponsored by SOC, New America Media and CSM.
WHEN: Wed., April 30, from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Butler Board Room 6th fl. Butler Pavilion, American University
MORE INFO: centerforsocialmedia.org/events/ethnicmedia/985
RSVP: Alex Moe (amoe@ newamericamedia.org) or Angie Chuang chuang@ameri can.edu)
Visit our website for the agenda, info on parking & directions.

Film Screening: Testimony - The Maria Guardado Story
When:: April 23, 5:30 pm
Where:: Wechsler Theater, 3rd Fl., Mary Graydon Center, AU campus
FREE
The Center welcomes filmmaker Randy Vasquez and Maria Guardado, whose story of political asylum and civil war is told through the film.
Discussion with Ms. Guardado and Mr. Vasquez to follow screening. Visit our website for more information.

Catch up on our past events - Alliance for Justice, Stefani Sese and Liz Miller
Did you miss the visits of Alliance for Justice leaders, digital storyteller Stefani Sese or environmental activist filmmaker Liz Miller? Check out our blog reports on their presentation and discussions.

Save the Date - Beyond Broadcast 2008 on June 17, Washington, D.C.!
The theme of this year's Beyond Broadcast--an annual destination for makers, scholars and policy experts exploring public media for a digital, participatory era--is Mapping Public Media. How do mapping and visualization tools reveal shifts in the public media landscape? Panels, presentations and demos map the emerging landscape. Join us!

Who will be there?

• Cutting-edge creators of digital media for public knowledge and action: participatory mapmakers, citizen journalists, DIY videographers and global bloggers
• Public media leaders from PRX, The National Minority Consortia, ITVS, P.O.V., PBS, NPR, and more
• Media scholars from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, MIT's Center for Future Civic Media, and Annenberg West

Visit the conference website for updates and more info.Register now for the earlybird rate!

At SXSW, Digital Change at the Podium
How are digital tools transforming the production of media? Anyone concerned with the future of public media needs ways and places to assess the rate and nature of change. South by Southwest (SXSW, aka South By), the combined tech-film-music festival in Austin in March, is one such place. Independent filmmakers and distributors flooded to panels discussing how the digital tools and social networking have changed both production and distribution. Read more>>

New Center Mapping Public Media Initiative Charts the Cutting-Edge
How can mediamakers, researchers and funders recognize and understand public media in a participatory, digital era? The goal of the Center for Social Media's Mapping Public Media initiative-funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation-is to reveal the resources and connections that sustain this active, productive, but rarely visible world devoted to helping audiences recognize themselves as publics and act from that knowledge.

The initiative's analysis contrasts two research methods-case studies by CSM fellows and Web network mapping by the Amsterdam-based Govcom.org Foundation-to examine three innovative public media projects. The findings suggest both distinct characteristics shared by public media, and multiple arenas for future research. Read more at centerforsocialmedia.org/mpm.

For more news on cutting-edge maps for public media, visit our blog.

Innovation in Focus: ITVS Fatworld Project
This month, the Center focuses on Fatworld, an innovative video game that explores the relationships between obesity, nutrition and socioeconomics in the United States. The project, a collaboration betwen ITVS Interactive and PBS's Emmy-award-winning weekly series, Independent Lens, demonstrates increasing opportunities to reach out to youth through online games and other digital media. Like the Center, ITVS is part of the Ford Foundation Future of Public Media Initiative, a group of nonprofit organizations with a common goal to push forward into the future of public media. Read more>>

Center Sundance Coverage in the Press
Read Center Director Pat Aufderheide's review of the hottest social issue documentaries at Sundance-- originally published by In These Times and widely picked up by other outlets including Alternet You can read it on the In These Times website.

UFVA Fair Use & Free Speech Contest - $500 for best fair use!
The Center is collaborating with UFVA on a contest for the best short documentaries employing fair use, made by higher education students and faculty. Click here for more information and to download a submission form. The deadline is May 1, 2008.

Legal Victories for Fair Use
This month, two U.S. judges upheld the importance of fair use, refusing to let cases go to trial in fact because the fair-use argument was so strong. In one, a filmmaker claimed fair use for quoting scenes from a training video made by the martial arts expert his film focused on. In another--more ironic-- victory, the anti-plagiarism service Turnitin successfully claimed fair use against frustrated high school students who are forced to use its service.

Fair Use in Tel-Aviv!
Fair Use is going international; Israeli copyright law just adopted US-style fair use. Pat Aufderheide will travel to Israel to moderate a panel on copyright and fair use at DocAviv on April 4 (10 am, Tel Aviv Cinemateque library). The event builds on the past success of the Center's Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in the U.S.

Fair Use at HotDocs - Book Signing & Panel Discussion
The Canadian doc film festival HotDocs is also featuring international activity on fair use and "fair dealing" (a set of exemptions that also allows quoting from copyrighted material). Canadian filmmaker Brett Gaylor, Italian documentarian and activist Marco Visalberhi, and Pat Aufderheide will debate what counts as fair in quoting other people's work (April 21, 1 pm, Innis Town Hall). Aufderheide will also have a book signing of her new book, Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction (April 21st, 3 pm, Rogers Industry Centre, Victoria College)!

Fair Use FAQ Featured Question of the Month - Non-Profits and Music Usage
Want your questions on Fair Use answered? Someone else may have already asked. Check out the new Fair Use FAQ, where our most frequently asked questions find answers. This month's featured question: non-profits and music usage.

Don't miss the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform - Minneapolis, June 6-8th!
The NCMR is now in its fourth year, and the 2008 conference promises to be the biggest and best one yet, bringing together thousands of activists, students, scholars, policymakers, journalists, celebrities, elected officials, artists and citizens from across the country and around the world.

Special guests at the 2008 NCMR will include legendary journalists Bill Moyers of PBS and Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS News; Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com; Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, co-hosts of Democracy Now!; Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine - and many more!

Register online today at www.freepress.net/conference or call us at 877- 888-1533.

American University School of Communications Visions Awards 2008 - Friday, May 2
AU student work that best showcases the mission to make media that matters will be shown and win awards!
WHERE: Wechsler Theater
Reception at 7:30; Ceremony beginning at 8 pm
Open to all SOC Students: the submission deadline is April 18 for screenplays and April 25 for all other work.
More info: http://soc.american.edu/content.cfm? id=690