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All Publications: Future of Public Media
Beyond Broadcast 2008 Rapporteur’s Report
by Kate Schuler and Jessica Clark
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.
Frequently Asked Questions: Public Media[PDF]
Pat Aufderheide & Jessica Clark
In this moment of shifting technologies and emerging platforms, how can we identify public media? Here at the Center for Social Media, we define them as any media expressions or platforms that promote public knowledge and action—that is, the formation of publics that can act together to address common problems.
Recut, Reframe, Recycle[PDF]
Online videos frequently quote copyrighted material without permission, in ways that could be entirely legal through fair use. But these works are threatened by anti-piracy measures that do not distinguish adequately between legal and illegal uses.
The View from the Top: P.O.V. Leaders on the Struggle to Create Truly Public Media[PDF]
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking PBS documentary series P.O.V., the Center for Social Media interviewed several of those who have led the project through its last two decades on the goals, challenges, and the vision for one of television’s most productive sites for imagining and innovating the future of public media.
Public Radio’s Social Media Experiments: Risk, Opportunity, Challenge[PDF]
This report analyzes the results of a survey of public radio stations and highlights the successes
and challenges of integrating new social media tools into the mission of public radio.
Filmanthropy Rapporteur’s Report Now Online![PDF]
Kate Schuler, AU School of Communication
On June 16, 2007, more than 70 filmmakers, nonprofit communication managers and public engagement practitioners and strategists met during SILVERDOCS to discuss partnerships on social action, advocacy and public information campaigns. Read on!
New Deal 1.5[PDF]
The New Deal Version 1.5: Monetizing and Mission is the Center’s annual report on the nuts and bolts of digital distribution deal- making. Curious about who’s making these deals? Average percentages for independent filmmakers? Average license periods? All of this and more in this highly-anticipated new publication.
Public Media in the Arab World: Exploring the Gap between Reality and Ideals[PDF]
by Marwan Kraidy, Director, Arab Media and Public Life (AMPLE) project, with assistance from Courtney Radsch
The Center for Social Media collaborated with the Arab Media and Public Life (AMPLE) project at American University for a year-long conference series on public media in the Arab world and focused on changes in the media environment, the role of the state, and what “public media” means in the Arab world. The Center’s latest report highlights the proceedings of the project.
Big Dreams, Small Screens: Online Video for Public Knowledge and Action[PDF]
Learn how popular commercial online digital video platforms, such as YouTube, GoogleVideo and MySpace, are being used to create, exchange, and comment upon information for public knowledge and action—and what their limitations are!
Documentaries on a Mission: How Nonprofits Are Making Movies for Public Engagement[PDF]
Read about how the Sierra Club, The American Civil Liberties Union and local environmental groups use documentaries for high-impact and action
21st Century News: Challenges and Opportunities for Public-Minded Media in the New-Media Age[PDF]
By Jane Hall
This fall, a remarkable group of key decision-makers and innovators in news and information came together at American University in Washington, D.C. Read how leaders in the field are working to ensure the future of serious, credible news and information and public-minded media in the 21st Century media and journalism landscape.
Nurturing Tomorrow’s Doc Storytellers[PDF]
Leaders of documentary teaching and training programs across the U.S. came together in September to share their stories.
Center Releases New Publication on Digital Distribution in Television: The New Deal[PDF]
Read the Center for Social Media’s new Report, entitled The New Deal: How Digital Platforms Change Negotiations between Public Media and Independent Producers. The report, which is being released at the 2006 SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, reveals current business practices around new digital distribution in television.
Repurposing and Rights: A Non-Profit Summit[PDF]
A Report by Patricia Aufderheide
The Center hosted on May 22 at American University a convening, “Repurposing and Rights: A Non-Profit Summit,” composed of public broadcasters, librarians, archivists, scholars, lawyers and new media experts.
Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture Rapporteur Report 2006[PDF]
Barbara Abrash
Read the 2006 Rapporteur Report from Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture, an event co-organized by the Center on the future of public media in an open digital environment.
Free Culture, Phase 2[PDF]
By Kathryn Montgomery
Kathryn Montgomery, professor in the School of Communication and director of the youth media and democracy project at the Center, last May brought together an eclectic brain trust of 50 young “digital leaders” under 30 years of age who want to create democratic access to art, expression, and governance in a digital age.
Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers[PDF]
Funded by the Ford Foundation
Digital technology is transforming filmmaking. And policymakers are scrambling to catch up with the changes. What policies are good for independent filmmakers? What are the hot issues, and what are the positions that best support the creativity and diversity that independent filmmakers represent? Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers answers those questions with to-the-point answers.
In the Battle for Reality: Social Documentaries in the U.S.[PDF]
By Pat Aufderheide
What difference can a documentary make? This fact-filled report by Center co-director Pat Aufderheide, with many case studies of successful strategic use of social documentaries, answers that question. Funded by the Ford Foundation.
Public Media Frequently Asked Questions[PDF]
The Center’s new “Frequently Asked Questions: Public Media” publication, by Center Director Pat Aufderheide and Research Director Jessica Clark, helps to clarify exactly what public media is, how it’s used, and why it’s so important to a democratic society.