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Beyond Broadcast
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Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics
Public broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, and network newscasts have all played a
central role in our democracy, informing citizens and guiding public conversation. But
the top-down dissemination technologies that supported them are being supplanted by
an open, many-to-many networked media environment. What platforms, standards,
and practices will replace or transform legacy public media?
This white paper lays out an expanded vision for “public media 2.0” that places engaged
publics at its core, showcasing innovative experiments from its “first two minutes,”
and revealing related trends, stakeholders, and policies. Public media 2.0 may look and
function differently, but it will share the same goals as the projects that preceded it:
educating, informing, and mobilizing its users.
Multiplatform, participatory, and digital, public media 2.0 will be an essential feature
of truly democratic public life from here on in. And it’ll be media both for and by the
public. The grassroots mobilization around the 2008 electoral campaign is just one
signal of how digital tools for making and sharing media open up new opportunities
for civic engagement.
But public media 2.0 won’t happen by accident, or for free. The same bottom-line logic
that runs media today will run tomorrow’s media as well. If we’re going to have media
for vibrant democratic culture, we have to plan for it, try it out, show people that it
matters, and build new constituencies to invest in it.
The first and crucial step is to embrace the participatory—the feature that has also been
most disruptive of current media models. We also need standards and metrics to define
truly meaningful participation in media for public life. And we need policies, initiatives,
and sustainable financial models that can turn today’s assets and experiments into
tomorrow’s tried-and-true public media.
Public media stakeholders, especially such trusted institutions as public broadcasting,
need to take leadership in creating a true public investment in public media 2.0.
Beyond Broadcast 2008 Rapporteur’s Report
The 3rd annual Beyond Broadcast Conference, titled "Mapping Public Media," was held June 17th, 2008 at American University. Roundtable discussions, demos and exhibits examined the explosion of digital, participatory maps as public media, and as tools for visualizing the radical shifts in our media terrain. This rapporteur’s report offers highlights of the day’s events, and includes audio and video of speakers and multimedia presentations.
Conference 2008, June 17
Public broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, and network newscasts have all played a
central role in our democracy, informing citizens and guiding public conversation. But
the top-down dissemination technologies that supported them are being supplanted by
an open, many-to-many networked media environment. What platforms, standards,
and practices will replace or transform legacy public media?
This white paper lays out an expanded vision for “public media 2.0” that places engaged
publics at its core, showcasing innovative experiments from its “first two minutes,”
and revealing related trends, stakeholders, and policies. Public media 2.0 may look and
function differently, but it will share the same goals as the projects that preceded it:
educating, informing, and mobilizing its users.
Multiplatform, participatory, and digital, public media 2.0 will be an essential feature
of truly democratic public life from here on in. And it’ll be media both for and by the
public. The grassroots mobilization around the 2008 electoral campaign is just one
signal of how digital tools for making and sharing media open up new opportunities
for civic engagement.
But public media 2.0 won’t happen by accident, or for free. The same bottom-line logic
that runs media today will run tomorrow’s media as well. If we’re going to have media
for vibrant democratic culture, we have to plan for it, try it out, show people that it
matters, and build new constituencies to invest in it.
The first and crucial step is to embrace the participatory—the feature that has also been
most disruptive of current media models. We also need standards and metrics to define
truly meaningful participation in media for public life. And we need policies, initiatives,
and sustainable financial models that can turn today’s assets and experiments into
tomorrow’s tried-and-true public media.
Public media stakeholders, especially such trusted institutions as public broadcasting,
need to take leadership in creating a true public investment in public media 2.0.
Related Videos
July 23 browse
Beyond Broadcast 2008: Watch it in its Entirety!
Couldn't make it to Beyond Broadcast 2008 but you still want to know what was discussed? We've uploaded all of the panelists' speeches, so you don't have to miss a thing!
July 5 browse
Video Highlights from Beyond Broadcast 2008
Watch highlights of the Beyond Broadcast: Mapping Public Media panels and keynote speech, and enjoy a series of videos that really answer the questions "what is public media?" and "what does 'mapping public media' look like?" More videos from the day, featuring the presentations of a number of our panelists, are available on our Blip channel.
August 14 watch · download
Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture (13:00)
Billed by bloggers as ‘geeks meet wonks,’ Beyond Broadcast was a public conference to explore how traditional public media face a critical and unique opportunity to embrace participatory, web-based media models, such as podcasting, video blogs and social software.