Public Media Showcase

How can public media develop in regions where governments are hostile to press freedoms? A look at emerging projects in the South Caucasus—a region of independent former Soviet countries linked both geographically and historically—offers some clues.

We have created a list of five notable public media projects: Institute for Reporter’s Freedom and Safety, Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives, Internews, the South Caucasus blogosphere and lastly everyone’s favorite Facebook.Read more...

After reporting on the surge in crowdsourced poll monitoring efforts, I decided to track the development of the Twitter Vote Report Project more closely in a piece in The American Prospect. The project, which invites voters to "tweet" about their voting experiences, has come together with remarkable speed. It's also notable that public broadcasters have been key partners in building out the project.Read more...

As this year's election has heated up, so has attention to how related issues affect particular publics. Nowhere has this been more true than at Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT), where they have teamed up with National Native News (NNN) to offer special incentives to journalists to cover election issues in Indian Country.Read more...

Last night's tense exchange between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama marked the end of an extraordinary cycle of debates. The sheer number, combined with the unusual amount of public interest, forced organizers to innovate new forms and provide more openings for interaction.Read more...

As the November 4th presidential election date nears, candidates on both sides have made a call for "change" their rallying cry. With gas prices going through the roof, the economy in turmoil and no end in sight for the war in Iraq, Americans and others from all over the world are clear that change is necessary, but less clear on how it will happen. Read more...