Articles

Public media's opportunities exceed its challenges. Digital interactivity is tailor-made for public media projects that incorporate grassroots creativity, deep-dive examinations of complex issues, and connections to civic activism. Participatory tools and platforms give public media makers the means to secure their own financial futures, and to compete with large commercial outlets. This briefing, commissioned in conjunction with the Beyond Broadcast conference, examines models for monetizing digital, interactive public meda.

Download:

Mermigas_Mapping_the_Money.pdf

The Center's new "Frequently Asked Questions: Public Media" publication, by Center Director Pat Aufderheide and Research Director Jessica Clark, helps to clarify exactly what public media is, how it's used, and why it's so important to a democratic society.

Download:

Public_Media_FAQ.pdf

Public Broadcasting and Public Affairs:
Opportunities and Challenges for Public Broadcasting’s Role in Provisioning the Public with News and Public Affairs

In this paper, commissioned as part of the Berkman Center's Media Re:Public project, CSM's Pat Aufderheide and Jessica Clark describe the complex system of U.S. public broadcasting, the many exciting experiments that are underway and the barriers to creating a truly public media.

Download:

public_broadcasting_and_public_affairs_mr.pdf

This analysis by Center for Social Media Research Director Jessica Clark contrasts the findings revealed by CSM case studies to Govcom.org's maps of the same media projects, below.

Questions

Whose voices, which globe? Is there a particular geography of voice? Are the global voices (known as bridge blogs) substantively bridging familiar global boundaries or redrawing them?

What is the substance of the global voices conversations? Are there particular subject matters that are discussed globally or regionally?

Who are the publics for global voices? Do the commentators on global voices postings form a distinctive geography?

Download:

Global_voices_maps.pdf