Future of Public Media

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. Click here to download the full report.

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. Click here to download the full report.

How much access should members of the public have to the data and media projects that their tax dollars fund? How about corporations looking to make a buck from government-financed data? Does information really "want to be free," as Stewart Brand famously pronounced more than two decades ago, and if so, who’s going to pay for its production?Read more...

How much access should members of the public have to the data and media projects that their tax dollars fund? How about corporations looking to make a buck from government-financed data? Does information really "want to be free," as Stewart Brand famously pronounced more than two decades ago, and if so, who's going to pay for its production? Read more...

New sites for public media—far outside the realm of public broadcasting—are burgeoning. Now here comes the Iraq Veterans Memorial, which showcases videos made by the family, friends and comrades of fallen soldiers in the Iraq war. This non-partisan site honors the fallen in a way that takes advantage of participatory media technologies, and the site is a platform from which we as members of the public can begin and continued informed discussions about the meaning and cost of U.S. geopolitical strategies. What an excellent example of public media made by and for the public. Read more...