Empowering Media That Matters

The Center for
Media & Social Impact

The Center for Media & Social Impact at American University is an innovation incubator and research center that creates, studies, and showcases media for social impact.


More about CMSI

Beyond The Hashtags examines the ##Blacklivesmatter movement’s uses of online media in 2014-2015.

The Center's latest report examines risks and resources for filmmakers challenging the status quo. 

Visual arts community launches Code of Best Practices in Fair Use!

Public TV remains leading source of diverse programming.

“Stand Up Planet” Impact Evaluation Demonstrates Power of Comedy for Change

Media That Matters

Whatever Happened to Interactive Docs? A Report from Tribeca Film Festival

The TFI Interactive Day has been a highlight of Tribeca Film Festival’s innovaction curriculum. This year, the focus shifted from interactive documentaries to virtual reality, multimedia installations and create-a-thons. 

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VR Everywhere! At Tribeca FilmFest, Headsets Galore

VR was everywhere at the Tribeca FilmFest, where the standouts were animation productions, not video. Expect more, not necessarily better, as headsets spread. 

 

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“Fair Use Makes Documentaries Possible:” News from Tribeca Film Festival 2016

At the Tribeca Film Festival, many documentaries actively employed fair use—another marker of the fact that fair use has become a basic feature of industry practice.

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How-tos on Making Media Matter, from the Games and Media Summit

At the Tribeca Film Fest-based Games and Media Summit, new research revealed common weaknesses in achieving social impact with

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