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Future of Public Media

What Does It Mean to be a Member of a Public Media Station? And What Could It Mean?

How could alternative membership models change, enhance and strengthen both our relationship with public media and public media itself?

This is a speech Melody Kramer gave at Weapons of Mass Creation in Cleveland, OH on August 16, 2014. Kramer orignally shared it on Medium.com on August 17, 2014.

Today, I’m going to talk about what it means to be a member of something….and what could it mean…which actually grew out of me learning how to code. Read more...

New AIR Webinar Highlights the “Crowd” in “Crowdfunding”

AIR Presents: A Media Maker's Guide to KickstarterCrowdfunding has enabled countless independent media projects that may otherwise have been shelved, but it doesn't guarantee success. Like any fundraising initiative, a successful crowdfunding campaign requires careful thought and planning. "AIR Presents: A Media Maker's Guide to Kickstarter” is a new 45-minute webinar that helps media makers through the process. Read more...

Better Distribution by Giving It Away?

Piracy CrusadeA scholar on piracy gave his book away, and boosted his sales.

The great “intellectual piracy” debate is generally conducted without data, but a recent example provides an intriguing case study. Communication scholar Aram Sinnreich writes about piracy and copyright. His latest book, The Piracy Crusade, argues that the music business’ fight against downloaders has been bad for business and for creative expression.Read more...

Will spectrum auctions disappear public TV?

In an important op-ed in public TV’s industry bible, Current, longtime public TV advocate (and spectrum guru) John Schwartz highlights a grim reality: the FCC’s recent Report and Order on spectrum auctions could jeopardize the future of public TV.

The problem: Public TV stations, like all other TV stations, can put their spectrum up for auction, and do what they like with the proceeds. Read more...

Internet Archive Launches New Public Media Initiative

Internet ArchiveThis electoral season, Philadelphians have a new public-media tool to analyze media in politics, thanks to an Internet Archive experiment. And if it works well, the project will expand.

In preparation for several competitive congressional races this Fall, Internet Archive is working to record all of the city’s political news stories and campaign ads. Nieman Journalism Lab reports that “a mere 24 hours after broadcast, it will be possible to rewatch TV content online. In addition, the Archive will crawl content from across the web — news blogs, campaign websites and more.” Read more...