January 30, 2009Newsletter
Greetings!
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Greetings!
We can't wait to see you at Making Your Media Matter! And if you can't make it in person, be sure to visit our website for the podcasts and reports that will soon follow.
If you're in Washington, D.C. for RealScreen, look for us on Feb. 3; I'll be helping AU Prof. Larry Engel launch the Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking. If you miss that, check out the Code online on our site! And mid-February at www.futureofpublicmedia.net, check out the release of our white paper on Public Media 2.0--the result of four years of research, convenings and conferences. We've seen the future, and you're a part of it. My best to you, Pat Aufderheide |
Upcoming Events
UPCOMING EVENTS 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. Regular registration is $100 and for students, $50. 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! Public Media 2.0 White Paper Release FEBRUARY 17th
On February 17th at www.futureofpublicmedia.net, the Center for Social Media is proud to release its white paper, "Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics." Co-authored by Future of Public Media Project Director Jessica Clark and Center for Social Media Director Pat Aufderheide, this white paper lays out an expanded vision for Public Media 2.0 that places engaged publics at its core, showcasing innovative experiments and revealing related trends, stakeholders and policies. Public media 2.0 may look and function differently than broadcast forms of public media, but it will share the same goals as the projects that preceded it: educating, informing and mobilizing its users.
Public Media 2.0 Conference Tour
In February, Clark will begin a series of online and offline conversations related to the white paper. At the Public Media conference in Atlanta, she'll address opportunities and challenges for public broadcasters looking to adapt to the participatory, networked media environment. At the We Media conference in Miami, she's organized a panel titled "Crafting Policy for Public Media 2.0." Stay tuned for reports on these gatherings and details about more upcoming events.
Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking Release FEBRUARY 3rd
 On February 3rd we will be releasing our Code of Best Practices in Sustainable Filmmaking at www.sustainablefilmmaking.org and at the RealScreen Summit in Washington DC. The code --crafted in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Filmmaking, and the Filmmakers for Conservation-- is a guide that helps filmmakers assess the carbon footprints of their productions and find ways to reduce, neutralize, and offset them. Read the press release here>>>
We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee Screening February 4th
 Please join us for a sneak preview screening and discussion of Wounded Knee, an official selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and part of the upcoming mini-series We Shall Remain from PBS's American Experience at 6:00pm in Wechsler Theater on February 4th. More details here>> |
The Future of Public Media
| THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC MEDIA
New Paper: The Evolution of Public Engagement via Documentary
Our research fellow Barbara Abrash has written a new article titled:"Social Issue Documentary: The Evolution of Public Engagement." This article reveals the strategies and resources that spelled success for filmmakers eager to bring their stories and issues to broad audiences, to spark conversation across boundaries of difference, mobilize communities around issues, and influence public policies. Read the article here>>>
 On January 20th, NPR teamed up with American University's School of Communication and CBS to bring you a cutting-edge social media tool that uses Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, iPhone and Google Phones, and text messaging: Inauguration Report 09. Learn more about how this project engaged the public around this historic event. Read more here>>>The First Blog on Whitehouse.gov: What Can We Learn?  WhiteHouse.gov is promising to prioritize three principles: communication, transparency and participation. The last is most interesting: all non-emergency legislation was posted to the website for five days so that the public could comment before the President signed it. Read more here>>>
The recent violence in Gaza has spurred yet another evolutionary surge of public media 2.0 responses. While mainstream media interpretations of the current crisis seem so one-sided, online independent and citizen news sources continue to grow in popularity and offer a myriad of fresh perspectives, many of which are emerging through social media. Here we offer five notable media responses to the Gaza crisis that show the robust and inclusive role that the evolving media play in getting out the whole story. Read more here>>> |
Copyright and Fair Use
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Fair Use Showcased at RealScreen
 The RealScreen Summit, the most significant business gathering of professionals who make and program factual television shows, is showcasing the fair use movement this year. Entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson and Center director Pat Aufderheide are teaming up to present on the dramatic changes in industry practice, as filmmakers and the people who help their work to the screen assert their fair use rights under the law. As legal scholar Peter Jaszi frequently notes, "Fair use is like a muscle. If you use it, it gets bigger, and if you don't, it can atrophy." RealScreen's showcase further demonstrates expanding industry use of this "muscle."
Educause Webinar for Librarians on Fair Use  Educause, the leading organization on higher education and information technology, highlighted the issue of fair use and best practices in a live webinar attended by hundreds and accessed by many more in archive form. Watch here. Legal scholar Peter Jaszi and Center director Pat Aufderheide explained to an audience largely composed of librarians the value of creating best practices codes that clarify how a particular community interprets the principles of fair use. Read more here>>> Coming Up: Fair Use Code for Open Courseware
Thanks to a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, the Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law will be working with Open Courseware Consortium to create a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Courseware. The Code is scheduled for a September release. Read more here>>>
Fair Use Question of the Month: Parody and Satire  Every month, the Center for Social Media answers a new question concerning fair use in documentary filmmaking. This month's question deals with parody and satire rights when filming public signs. Read more here>>> |
Evolving Documentary
| EVOLVING DOCUMENTARY
The Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking
 The Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking is a new guide --among the first of its kind-- to help filmmakers assess the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprints of their productions and find ways to reduce, neutralize, and offset them. The code was created collaboratively by the Filmmakers for Conservation (FFC) and two centers within American University's School of Communication: the Center for Social Media and the Center for Environmental Filmmaking. Read the entire code here beginning February 3rd>>> A Weekend At Sundance
The Center's Associate Director Alison Hanold attended the Sundance Film Festival in January, touting the Documentary Filmmaker's Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, and our upcoming Making Your Media Matter Conference. She shared a table at the lodge on Sunday with our friends at Arte East, an NYC nonprofit that supports and promotes artists from the Middle East. 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 lineup 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
11:45 Announcements/Shout-outs 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:
3:00 Networking Break 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:
5:00 Reception Keynote Speaker Spotlight  Gordon Quinn has been making social issue documentaries for over 40 years, and is a founding member of Chicago's Kartemquin Films. Gordon has many critically acclaimed films (Hoop Dreams, Stevie), and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Chicago Film Critics Award (Best Picture), Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Best Documentary) and an Academy Award Nomination. We are honored to welcome Gordon as a keynote speaker at Making Your Media Matter, where he will be sharing his thoughts on ethical practices in cinema verite filmmaking. |
Other News
| OTHER NEWS
New Media Institute's Mojoco Project
 The National Black Consortium's New Media Institute is proud to present a new project titled: MojoCo.org (mow-joe-ko).
Mojoco is a commons-based peer production web portal conceived to enable shared learning as well as the sharing of resources for a more democratic public media landscape. This will be a destination for learning about innovative next-media strategies and tools. Keep an eye out at Making Your Media Matter for their demo table on this exciting new project and check it out here! 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>>> Muslim Film Festival at American University
Project Nur is proud to announce on February 13th 8:30 pm at American University, the city-wide Washington DC Muslim Film Festival kick off with a screening of the documentary, Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age. This screening will be followed by stand up comedian Dean Obeidallah. The theme for this year's festival is "Art Under Fire" to promote awareness regarding Muslim artists' limited freedom of expression as a result of "government censorship and radical hostility". For more information please contact Patricia Ward: Pw8170a@american.edu.
ONE DC's Digital Media Storytelling  ONE DC, a non-proft that does organizing work with DC residents, is looking for students to do digital storytelling work. This volunteer position will be a great opportunity for someone who is interested in working on local issues with experienced professionals in the field. For more information please contact Maria Firmino Castillo at mfirmino@onedconline.org or visit: www.onedconline.org. The first session begins February 15th.Sundance Documentary Fund  The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program provides creative and financial support to U.S. and international documentary filmmakers working on pressing contemporary social issues.
Tell them what you see. Apply now. POSTMARK DEADLINE FEBRUARY 9, 2009 Visit sundance.org/docsource or sundance.org/documentary Email: dfp@sundance.org | Phone +1 310-360-1981 |