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Public Media 2.0 Field Report: New Muslim Cool: Engaging Stakeholders in the Filmmaking Process

Society for Cinema and Media Studies’ Statement of Fair Use for Media Studies Publishing

Members of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies—film and media studies professors—defined how fair use applies to their research practices. This document concerns fair use in quotation for illustration or proof of argument or to stimulate discussion, whether in text, multimedia, or as media bundled with text. More information is available at the SCMS website

Society for Cinema and Media Studies Statement on Fair Use for Teaching Film and Media Educators

Members of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies—film and media studies professors—defined how fair use applies to their teaching practices. This document concerns fair use in classroom situations, in broadcast, repurposing within new works, and in online distance education. More information is available at the SCMS website

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Impact Outside of the Box: Assessing How Digital Video Can Engage and Influence Publics

Pull Focus: Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis

Pull Focus: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor

Pull Focus: Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare

This document is a code of best practices designed to help those preparing OpenCourseWare (OCW) to interpret and apply fair use under United States copyright law.

Pull Focus: Laura Waters Hinson

Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism In and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting

In this report, researchers at American University’s Center for Social Media identify a set of best practices in digital new media journalism intended to guide planning and initiatives in this area specifically for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and more broadly for the Public Service Media community in the US. We offer an overview of the current journalism and public broadcasting environments, derived from a scan of recent reports and interviews with relevant experts, along with a set of identified best practices, bolstered with analysis of specific examples that could be replicated by public media producers.

Teaching about Copyright and Fair Use for Media LIteracy Education

Media Education Lab
The Media Education Lab at Temple University has created a whole set of Curriculum Materials for teaching and understanding copyright and fair use. The materials include lesson plans, songs, case studies, and videos. If you’re interested in learning more about Fair Use in Media Literacy Education, make sure to check out these excellent materials!

Fair Use Language for Course Syllabi[PDF]

In your syllabus, you often have some information on copyright. Here is some language to include in that section, specifically on fair use. This language has been reviewed by lawyers, including law professor Peter Jaszi of American University’s Washington College of Law and Michael Donaldson of Donaldson and Hart law firm, and it has been approved by the University Film and Video Association for use by its members.

Copyright Backgrounder[PDF]

By Michael Donaldson, Esq.
This concise background document describes what copyright is and what can be copyrighted, as well as what material is in the public domain and what is fair useable. Michael Donaldson is an attorney in Los Angeles, many of whose clients are leading documentary filmmakers. His book, Clearance and Copyright (Silman-James Press, October 2003), from which much of this information has been drawn, is widely regarded as a basic text for documentary filmmakers. Donaldson also contributed his expertise to the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.

Fair Use Scenarios[PDF]

Here are four scenarios, or hypothetical situations, that a documentary filmmaker might find him or herself facing. The four scenarios are each linked to one of the Statement’s categories. These can be used for classroom discussion, and to inspire you to write other scenarios. The goal of these scenarios is to allow discussion about what the fair and responsible thing to do would be, not to find out “the right answer.” These scenarios thus allow students to consider what they think makes sense, in light of the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practice to see what professional filmmakers established as principles and limitations.

Making Your Media Matter 2010

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 making their media matter.

What I Learned at Public Media Camp: Diversity and the Elusive Public Media 2.0 Butterfly

Christian Ugbode

It takes a while for over two-hundred people to introduce themselves individually. As names and affiliations are called out on a floating microphone at NPR and PBS’ Public Media Camp/”unconference” October 17th in Washington DC, I ponder why I am in this room. Probably because I never wanted to be Quentin Tarantino in film school. Or Martin Scorcese like every third NYU student. I gravitated to public media by chance but have loved every step of my evolution via the National Black Programming Consortium, and nowadays public media’s untapped potential keeps me restless.

Collaboration in Action: Strategies for Developing and Distributing Multiplatform Documentaries

jesikah maria ross and Catherine Stifter
Our 2½-year multi-media project, Saving The Sierra: Voices of Conservation in Action, is now over. The digital files are all tucked into a nice big hard drive and we’ve recycled all but the most important papers. But before we head off our next adventure in independent, social issue media making, we’d like to share a few lessons learned along the way that any producer could use in planning a national multiplatform documentary special.

Made In LA Field Report

This is the fourth in a series of "field reports" that the Center for Social Media is producing as part of the Future of Public Media project, funded by the Ford Foundation. The field reports examine innovative media projects for public knowledge and action, with a particular interest in exploring how publics form around such projects.

This examination of Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s film project, Made in L.A., written by Center for Social Media research fellow Kafi Kareem, looks at the terms of production for a film project that is self-funded and driven by the need to connect with its users.

Made in L.A. documents the struggle for rights of immigrant textile workers who were suffering under sweatshop conditions in Los Angeles. Carracedo and Bahar began an expensive and extensive project without a real grasp of how it would evolve. They survived, and ultimately thrived, due to a relentless search for connection with their users. This project uncovered techniques that others can adopt pre-preemptively, as a way to involve potential supporters from the start in projects that speak to clear constituencies.

Social Issue Documentary:  The Evolution of Public Engagement

Barbara Abrash

Documentary films are serving as the core for innovative spaces and practices that mark a new kind of public media – accessible, participatory and inclusive. This article examines the campaigns surrounding three films: Not in Our Town, Lioness, and State of Fear to uncover how emerging strategies for online and offline engagement are laying the groundwork for “public media 2.0.”

Making Your Media Matter 2009

The Center for Social Media invited established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders, and students to our 5th annual Making Your Media Matter conference. This was a perfect opportunity to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters. Read more here.

Field Report: “Why Democracy?”

Greg Fitzpatrick

This is the third in a series of “field reports” that the Center for Social Media is producing as part of the Future of Public Media project, funded by the Ford Foundation. The field reports examine innovative media projects for public knowledge and action, with a particular interest in exploring how publics form around such projects.

Center for Social Media Research Fellow Greg Fitzpatrick’s examination of “Why Democracy”—an ambitious multi-platform, multi-country public broadcasting project—demonstrates the opportunities and challenges for public media born in a broadcasting environment to engage publics across global and digital divides.

Beyond Broadcast ‘08 Keynote: Larry Irving[PDF]

Larry Irving, President, Irving Information Group
Widely credited with coining the term “the digital divide,” telecommunications consultant Larry Irving formerly served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information under the Clinton administration. In his remarks at the June 17, 2008 Beyond Broadcast conference, he urged public broadcasters and their allies to craft a clear policy agenda for the next administration that reflects both technological and demographic shifts. He suggested that “new media” has now become simply “media,” and that public media makers will need to adjust quickly while maintaining a commitment to serving a diverse array of Americans through high-quality noncommercial productions. Read more in the transcript of his remarks.

Mapping the Money in Public Media[PDF]

Diane Mermigas, Editor at Large, MediaPost
Public media’s opportunities exceed its challenges. Digital interactivity is tailor-made for public media projects that incorporate grassroots creativity, deep-dive examinations of complex issues, and connections to civic activism. Participatory tools and platforms give public media makers the means to secure their own financial futures, and to compete with large commercial outlets. This briefing, commissioned in conjunction with the Beyond Broadcast conference, examines models for monetizing digital, interactive public meda.

Field Report: OneWorld’s Virtual Bali

Kate Schuler, Research Fellow, Center for Social Media
This is the second in a series of "field reports" that the Center for Social Media is producing as part of the Future of Public Media project, funded by the Ford Foundation. The field reports examine innovative media projects for public knowledge and action, with a particular interest in exploring how publics form around such projects.