January 6, 2009Newsletter

We're rolling up our sleeves to make the fifth annual Making Your Media Matter Conference on February 12-13, the best ever. Check the details here. Meanwhile, catch a glimpse of international public television, at Best of INPUT. And do take a look at our recent publication on public television, in partnership with Harvard's Berkman Center on Internet and Society. See you soon!

My best to you,
Pat Aufderheide 

How can media makers connect their ethical and aesthetic values with their financial needs?

The Center for Social Media invites established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders, and students to our 5th annual Making Your Media Matter conference. This is a perfect opportunity to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters. Please see our Evolving Documentary section below for a review of the panelists!

Where: American University's Katzen Arts Center
4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20016

Click here to register. Registration is $100, $50 for students. Please note that a student ID will be required upon check-in.

Keynote speakers include: Gordon Quinn and George Stoney. Keep watching our website for updated information on the conference and registration.

Be sure to join our network for Making Your Media Matter, and begin making contacts with other attendees today!

Best of Input Screenings 2009

What does public television look like in South Africa, in France, in Germany? Check out the line up for the 2009 Best of Input screenings, held in Washington DC from January 27 to February 1, 2009.

INPUT, the International Public Television Screening Conference, annually brings together international programmers and independent television producers for public television since 1978. The Center for Social Media and allies, led by the Goethe Institut, selects some of the most interesting programs from that conference.  

Vidding, Fan Fiction, Girl Talk and the Internet: Gender and Copyright Conference 

The 6th Annual Symposium on "IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections", cosponsored by the Center for Social Media, is looking for papers on female subcultures and their relationship to intellectual property and copyright regimes --especially if it is about fan works and culture. Some possible topics: fan arts, including fan fiction, arts, music, film, crafts, and videos; and fan communities: including clubs, forums, lists, Websites, wikis, discussion groups, rec sites, and other creative, celebratory, or analytical communities. Read on to find out how to apply.

Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking Release

On February 3rd at the Real Screen Summit in Washington DC, in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Filmmaking we will be releasing our Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking, a guide for filmmakers who are interested in staying green throughout the filmmaking process. Stay tuned for more details!

Public Television and the Future of News: Media Re:public

Center Director Pat Aufderheide and Future of Public Media Project Director Jessica Clark contributed to the Berkman Center's new report on the future of journalism, Media Re:public. Their paper highlights the challenges of the digital transition for a highly decentralized service.  The paper has been circulating within public broadcasting. "Thank you for a document that will be a huge help to everyone who wants to understand the situation." PBS Vice President John Boland wrote.

A host of other experts also contributed to this work, which was coordinated by Pershepone Miel, who also wrote the lead paper.  And check out Media Re:public's one minute trailer made by American University alumnus Dan Jones!

Public Media in the Obama Administration

What should the Obama administration do to promote public media 2.0? One good idea, which the presidential transition team already appears to take seriously, is to vastly increase the broadband capacity of the country. Other good ideas surfaced in the transition team's discussions, including some that we at the Center have passed on to the team. Read on to find more ways the Obama Administration can act on January 21st!

What Should Obama's Chief Technology Officer Do?

In Politico, Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej of the Personal Democracy Forum offer a series of suggestions for Obama's forthcoming Chief Technology Officer. On the one hand, these suggestions sound pretty good--a stable social networking platform dedicated to civic action that isn't supported only by Google ads and fickle venture capitalists, or littered with crotch shots of starlets. On the other hand, it sounds pretty scary. What if the problem that citizens need to tackle together is political corruption? Read more here>>>.

Political Campaigns and Social Media

Blogger and blog analyst Peter Daou offers a postmortem of the role of participatory media in the '08 election on the Huffington Post. Meanwhile, a slate of Web 2.0 experts over at Fast Company predict that this is the year the technology will go mainstream. "Social Media will cease to be such an 'experimental' field in marketing and will start to become part of the main core of good campaigns," says Tara Hunt, the co-founder of Citizen Agency. More users = bigger collective brain. Wonder what we'll be thinking about? Read more here>>>

Big Shifts for Public Broadcasting on the Horizon

Public Broadcasting is considering fundamental changes in public broadcasting that could power an expansion in participatory public media. Steve Behrens and Dru Sefton of Current report on these new campaigns in CPB Considers Expansive Options for Future of Public Media Funding. We explore how such investments relate to efforts to close the digital divide, making online public media available to a broad range of citizens. Read more here>>>

Innovation in Focus Round Up

In 2008 we showcased some great examples of media institutions seizing on the opportunities that digital disruption brings, looking at Link TV, PBS, PRX, ITVS, the Sundance Institute and the NBPC in our "Innovation in Focus" posts.

Read our analysis of the trends we noticed through out the year and all our "Innovation in Focus" posts here. Also we encourage you to suggest your own candidates for top innovators in public media.

Open Source and Open Government

Participatory Culture Foundation, a partner for our Making Your Media Matter conference in February is building an online infrastructure for producing and distributing public media called Miro. Miro staffers are designing open source software to help people create and translate video and to build networks. Partnering up with Mozilla and Change Congress, their most recent project is a direct call to the new administration --a petition titled, "An Open Transition" that lays out three principles to ensure an effective transition. Read more here>>>

The Revival of "Mass" Media

The Social Science Research Council has published an online forum on the role of communications studies in policymaking, Making Communications Matter, which offers some interesting takes on the shifting context for public media. As the introductory essay notes, "There is manifest need for better understanding of changes in media and communications environments and the larger public spheres they structure. These dynamics are inevitably complex, and call into play relationships between old and new technologies, social practices, institutions, markets, and regulation." Read more here>>>

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education

Since our Code of Best Practices in Fair use for Media Literacy Education launched in November, we have been honored and thrilled with the response. More than 25,000 online visitors have downloaded the document, and thousands have viewed the video on blip.tv, YouTube and our website. Educators have enthusiastically blogged about the code. District Dispatch, the American Library Association's blog says that the Code "helps dispel more of the FUD-Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt-behind fair use in the classroom."  Fairport Central School's blog calls it "A great resource for educators interested in teaching Copyright law and Fair Use to students."

A big thank you to everyone who has read and endorsed the code. If you have not had a chance to do so yourself, you can read the entire publication here>>>

UFVA Adopts Documentary Filmmaker's Fair Use Code

The University Film and Video Association, which has endorsed the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, has now placed the Statement and language appropriate for course syllabi on its website. This not only makes it even easier for teachers in film programs across higher education to incorporate fair use into their teaching. It also offers the imprimatur of the national body representing film programs.

Fair Use Question of the Month: Public Performance Rights

Every month, the Center for Social Media answers a new question concerning fair use in documentary filmmaking. This month's question deal with public performance rights in an educational environment. Read more here>>>

Making Your Media Matter Conference Schedule

We are proud to announce our schedule for the Making Your Media Matter conference. We have a great line up with keynote speakers Gordon Quinn and George Stoney, as well as a long list of professional media makers who are eager to share their experiences with us on the theme of Ethics, Money and Mission. Please review the schedule below and sign up today!

SCHEDULE
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12th
5:30 Introduction by AU's School of Communication's Dean Larry Kirkman
5:50 Mini-keynote: George Stoney on ethics in social-issue film
6:15 Keynote: Gordon Quinn and the ethics of Cinema Verite
7:30 Reception

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13TH
9:00 Registration, coffee/bagels, and demos
10:00 Welcome and Logistics
10:15 Panel: Money and Mission
An in-depth look at the issue of funding social issue media, and how to meet the demands of funders while also fulfilling the ethical needs of your mission. Featuring:

• Danny Alpert, Executive Producer of See3 and Kindling Group
  
• Julie Goldman, founder of Cactus Three Films
• Alyce Myatt, Executive Director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media
• Diana Barrett, founder of the Fledgling Fund

11:45 Announcements/Shout-outs
11:50 Birds of a Feather Lunch
Birds of a Feather lunch is a way to sign up for a theme or issue you would like to discuss before the conference, network online with people with similar interests, and meet for lunch to discuss that topic. You can sign up for your BOF group or create a new one on our networking site.

1:15 Raffle
1:30 Panel: Outreach and Connection
This panel will focus on the various ways that outreach and audience connection can be incorporated into social-issue media, and provide new approaches in measuring impact. Featuring:

• Andrew Mer of Snagfilms
• Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, film makers of Made in LA
• Scott Kirsner, author of CinemaTech
• Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming of theBay Area Video Coalition

3:00 Networking Break
3:30 Panel: Art, Ethics and Mission
What happens when you make a beautiful film about a dark subject? This panel will take a look at how to marry the ethics of media making with the aesthetic choices required to make powerful art. Featuring:

• Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, film makers of War Dance
• Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program
• Thomas Allen Harris, Director of Chimpanzee Productions
• Sky Sitney, Programming Director of SILVERDOCS

5:00 Reception

Keynote Speaker Spotlight
George Stoney is a pioneer in the world of documentary film, and has had a career spanning half a century.  Among his many accomplishments, he is considered to be the father of public access television.  He will use his vast experience to address the issue of ethics in social issue films, which will surely be an enlightening experience.   

We Media Game Changers Announced

< We Media has officially announced its nine game changers. Congratulations to Twitter, Innocentive, The Knight Foundation, Ushahidi,Freewheelin, Zefrank, Yugo Nakamura, David Plouffe, and Social Vibe!

From over 150 applicants, a panel of distinguished judges narrowed it down to 35 finalists and then chose the eight winners. They also gave the community a chance to decide and opened voting online for the special Community Award. Don't forget to sign up for the We Media Conference to be held in Florida from February 24th to the 26th where the winners of these awards will serve as presenters for the conference. Read more here>>>

National Black Programming Consortium's Masculinity Project

The National Black Programming Consortium has just released their Masculinity Project--a great new public media resource. The website aims to redefine our notion of masculinity combining creative and provocative media with opportunities to participate in online discussion about issues that profoundly shape and deform culture. Offering professional and non professional contributions, the project invites viewers to become part of the story. Read more here>>>

Media That Matters Documentary Film Festival Call for Entries from Arts Engine

MYMM sponsor Arts Engine is currently receiving submissions for their Media That Matters Documentary Film Festival. Submit your film now for a chance to be one of the final jury-selected twelve films and become part of our outreach and distribution efforts to create social change through film. Following a New York City Premiere, an Awards Ceremony and industry networking events in June 2009, your film will take part in the Media that Matters international, multi-platform campaign with DVD distribution, broadcasts, streaming and hundreds of screenings across the globe! Arts Engine will create accompanying discussion guides and screening materials to promote conversation and encourage educators, activists and organizations alike to take action around your film. All finalists will be awarded $1000 to assist in future filmmaking efforts.

Deadline: ALL materials must be postmarked by: January 9th, 2009

Vote on the Every Human Has Rights Media Awards

Our friends at Internews have announced a great public media project titled Every Human Has Rights Media Awards, organized on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). They have asked the public to vote on the Public Prize. Visit their Website and vote!

BAVC Opportunities For Producers And Public Broadcasters

We are proud to announce Bay Area Video Coalition's Producers' Institute. If you are are an emerging independent producer in the Bay Area who needs guidance to get your first project to public television, an international filmmaker looking to build an interactive web portal and 3D game environment to accompany your human rights documentary, an experimental video artist needing technical mentorship to build a locative museum installation with an MMS component, or a narrative filmmaker with socially-conscious project seeking an opportunity to work with community partners to develop open source curriculum for young people, please check out their application and see if its right for you.

Applications are now available online for the 2009 Producers' Institute for New Media Technologies.

Application Deadline: February 1, 2009