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Making Your Media Matter 2008 Rapporteur’s Report

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Resource Library

Future of Public Media

With a grant from the Ford Foundation, we have created the Future of Public Media project with the aim of exploring the future of public media in a digital era. The project conducts and publishes research on new directions in public media, convenes leaders throughout the field, and showcases innovative and productive work in public media.

Copyright & Fair Use in Documentary Film

Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. It is a crucial feature of copyright law and what keeps copyright from being censorship. You can invoke fair use when the value to the public of what you are saying outweighs the cost to the private owner of the copyright.

Beyond Broadcast

Fair Use Teaching Tools

Here is a collection of fair use teaching tools that will help you and your students understand how to apply fair use in documentary film, and how to use the Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use effectively. We welcome your contribution of teaching approaches and materials that can benefit both film students and law students.

Audience Engagement

Making a difference with media means finding an interested audience. Community and audience engagement has become a critical creative practice. You may be interested in examples of successful outreach projects or articles on why outreach is important. Below you'll find links to case studies on projects big and small, with a wide variety of objectives. You will also find links to organizations that can help you design an outreach plan and strategic use of your project.

Funding Social Media

Social documentaries are funded by individuals with creative strategies including partnering, and by organizations and foundations that know the power of media. They also depend on public resources including public television and arts and humanities council funds. Below you can find some approaches to the struggle to fund social documentary and links to get you started.

Social Media Distribution

Social docs are distributed not only on theaters and broadcast and cable TV, but also on the Internet and on public-access channels such as those on direct broadcast satellite and on local cable TV.

Making Your Media Matter

Making Your Media Matter is a conference for established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students looking to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters.

Policy Issues

Media policies create the architecture within which social media can happen. Media concentration, copyright law, fair use policies, Internet policies, digital rights management and other hot policy issues are discussed in resources here.

Video & Audio Downloads

This collection of video and audio downloads provides examples of how filmmakers and other media arts organizations put concepts and principles such as fair use, copyright law and participatory media into practice.

Featured Artists

Read about the work of distinguished artists who are leaders in the field of documentary filmmaking. Past visiting filmmakers have included environmental filmmakers and social documentarians, and have provided insight on filmmaking, funding, distribution and strategy.

Teaching Materials

Tips and syllabi for teaching with and about social documentaries.