Public Media Showcase

With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office -- and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates.

Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use "the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens."Read more...

I'm excited to announce that from starting this today, Public Media 2.0 Showcase posts will be featured on MediaShift once per month. In honor of election day, this week's post features 10 exciting government transparency projects that help users serve as watchdogs:Read more...

Innovative public media projects were in abundance at Public Media Camp 2009 last weekend, a public media “un-conference” co-hosted by NPR, PBS and the Center for Social Media, in conjunction with iStrategyLabs. Over 250 public media stakeholders gathered here at American University to share their thoughts about public media and strategize about its future. This week’s Showcase features a brief overview of just a few examples of the many exciting projects we encountered at PubCamp. Read more...

Now in its fourth year, the News21 project has learned something about innovation in journalism.Read more...

In some cases where the government doesn’t keep track of data, citizen groups have stepped in to report and disseminate information. For example, The Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental awareness and activist organization, serves as public media 2.0 by publishing a host of reports, databases and interactive tools. The nonprofit organization’s mission, according to their website, is “to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.”Read more...