New Tools

At the 2009 Beyond Broadcast conference, hosted by USC Annenberg in early June, attendees from more than a dozen countries worked together to build scenarios predicting the evolution of public service media in regions buffeted by social, political and economic transitions. This week, however, the future long predicted by Beyond Broadcast organizers arrived a bit earlier than planned, as social media tools became the main source of news on Iran's contested elections.Read more...

I was in San Francisco last week, participating in a Round Table at Bay Area Video Coalition Producer's Institute. The panel included Elspeth Revere from the MacArthur Foundation, Cara Mertes from the Sundance Documentary Institute, Sam Gregory from WITNESS and Ellen Schneider from ActiveVoice.Read more...

I had the great pleasure last week to attend the presentation session for the 2009 Bay Area Video Coalition Producer's Institute. According to their website, the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies is a "ten-day residency for eight creative teams (independent producers or public broadcasters) with a shared goal of developing and prototyping a multi-platform project inspired by, or based on a significant documentary project. Read more...

It is no surprise at this stage that Obama's use of social media was a major force behind his landslide victory. PR Firm Edelman's most recent white paper Social Pulpit: Barack Obama's Social Media Toolkit outlines the areas in which Obama's team excelled in using this powerful tool to engage publics.Read more...