Media That Matters

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...

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...

by Pat Aufderheide

What’s the best way for filmmakers to take advantage of new online environments for public knowledge and action? 6’s study for the Center for Social Media, Big Dreams Small Screens, provides one set of learning lessons. Read more...

Public broadcasting has been a protected media zone that provides some higher-quality opportunities for people to learn about each other and their problems, and to share a common cultural experience of consuming the same media. But public broadcasting is still a stand-in for public communication, because it is a mass medium. The broadcasters speak to the many, who then talk to each other.

Can digital media change this? Can new technologies bring media made by, with and for the public? Read more...

PANEL: Station Social Media Experiments

Blogs, podcasts and wikis are just some of the tools that are taking radio beyond commercial and noncommercial broadcast into what Jake Shapiro calls an emerging "third zone": social media. Read more...